Husky Assistant

Husky Assistant is an application that helps you configure, maintain, and see the status of your Milestone Husky system. Find the Husky Assistant shortcut on the Windows desktop.

Husky Assistant Properties

The Husky Assistant has the following features:

Navigation element Description
Overview

A list of details about the unit:

  • Model: Milestone Husky model
  • Version: Milestone Husky Assistant version
  • Image: Husky firmware version
  • Serial number: Refers to the service tag of the unit

You can change the language in which Husky Assistant appears.
Storage management

See the status of the current data RAID array.

Change the data RAID configuration.
Installed components A list of installed Milestone software components and versions.
Optimizations

A list of applied or available optimizations you can apply.
Support

Run the Milestone Diagnostics Tool to create files that are needed for the Milestone reseller when the reseller helps you troubleshoot.

Lists the information that you need to contact Milestone Support. Always contact your Milestone reseller that you have bought the unit from before contacting Milestone Support.

Find the iDRAC remote management IP address.

Will only be present when the iDRAC port is connected to a network.
Updates

Update your Husky software components.

Displays the installed versions of the Milestone Husky Services Installer and the Milestone Husky System Health Services Installer and indicates if the installed versions are up to date.

If you can update your unit, you can start the update on the unit in question. If you have multiple Husky units, you must manually start the update on each unit.

Choose your language

To select your preferred language:

  1. Open Husky Assistant.

  2. On the Overview tab, select your preferred language from the list of available languages.

    Husky Assistant chooses English by default. All language changes require a restart of Husky Assistant.

Apply optimizations

Husky Assistant can help you to optimize Windows for running XProtect software and to optimize XProtect software for running on your Husky unit. If you have installed Milestone XProtect VMS without using Husky Assistant, you need to apply the available optimizations. To check if any optimizations are available:

  1. Select the Optimizations tab.

  2. A list of the available optimizations appears.

  3. If an optimization is available, click Optimize.
  4. Accept any user account control warning and wait for the optimization to be applied.

  5. Check that the optimization is applied.

Storage management

On the Storage management tab, you can see the RAID type and status of the current data storage RAID array.

You can also change the RAID type to fit your storage needs for capacity, redundancy, and performance.

Check RAID status

To check the type and status of the data RAID configuration:

  1. Select the Storage management tab.

  2. The type and status of the current RAID array appears. The different types and statuses are:

    Type Description
    RAID 10 For best performance and most redundancy
    RAID 6 For high capacity and more redundancy
    RAID 5 For maximum capacity
    Status Description
    Good Normal working state
    Degraded The RAID is missing a hard drive, but it is still available
    Offline Too many hard drives are missing from the RAID array, so the RAID is now unavailable or offline.
    Not Configured No RAID is configured
    Unsupported A RAID configuration other than RAID 5, RAID 6, or RAID 10 is in use
    Unknown The status of the RAID array could not be detected

Choose RAID type

Your Milestone Husky IVO unit holds several hard drives. You can configure these hard drives as a data storage for Milestone XProtect based on your capacity, performance, and redundancy needs. The options are:

  • RAID 10

    Select RAID 10 for best performance and most redundancy. The storage capacity will be half the combined storage capacity of the hard drives because half the number of drives are redundant hard drives.

  • RAID 6

    Select RAID 6 for higher capacity. The storage capacity will be two hard drives fewer than the combined storage capacity of the hard drives because you have two redundant hard drives.

  • RAID 5

    Select RAID 5 for maximum capacity. The storage capacity will be one hard drive fewer than the combined storage capacity of the four hard drives because you have one redundant hard drive.

Husky IVO Product Guide can help you choose the right storage capacity or other dimensioning of the unit depending on some of these parameters:

  • Number of cameras
  • Retention time
  • Codec
  • Resolution
  • Frame rate
  • Data rate

Go to Husky IVO Product Guide and log in with your My Milestone credentials.

For more information, see Monitor and manage your system

Change RAID type

To change the RAID array type:

  1. Check if the current RAID array status is Good and click Configure.
  2. Accept any user account control warning and click Next.

  3. Select the type of RAID that you would like to configure for data storage and click Apply.

    Read the warning stating that all data will be deleted if you continue. Your XProtect system records no video during the configuration.

  4. Click Format to accept the data deletion and start the configuration of the data RAID storage.

  5. A summary window of the RAID configuration appears. Check the type and status of your current RAID array.

Support

If you have a problem and need support, contact your Milestone reseller that you bought the unit from.

Create a diagnostics file

To help your Milestone reseller get logs and details about your system, create a Milestone diagnostics .zip file that lists the system information:

  1. Select the Support tab.

  2. Click Milestone Diagnostics Tool.
  3. Accept any user account control warning. The Main Page appears.

  4. Click the Collect Defaults icon to start creating a diagnostics .zip file.

  5. When finished, the diagnostics .zip file is saved on the Windows desktop. You can now move or transfer the file to any preferred location.

  6. Close Milestone Diagnostics Tool.
  7. Provide your Milestone reseller with the diagnostics .zip file when they assist you in troubleshooting a problem.

Updates

Update your Husky software components to improve performance, increase security, obtain better stability, receive new features and update existing functionality.

If you update your Husky software components, existing functionality may change and new features may be introduced.

Updating requires the unit is connected to the internet.