Pre-migration steps

If you want to reduce downtime while you migrate, you can install your XProtect VMS system on other computer hardware than your Professional VMS system.

You can do these tasks of the system configuration in advance:

  • Configure the storage and archives of the recording servers
  • Create device groups
  • Create roles

If minimum downtime is essential and you are going to migrate many cameras and other devices, Milestone recommends that you use Milestone Migration Assistant Tool.

Recording is only interrupted from when you start to migrate the XProtect Professional VMS cameras until the XProtect VMS default rules activate the recordings.

  1. Download the latest Milestone Migration Assistant Tool from the Milestone website (https://www.milestonesys.com/downloads/) and save the file on the computer running XProtect Professional VMS.

  2. Milestone recommends that you make notes of your existing XProtect Professional VMS system:

    • Users and their views in XProtect Smart Client
    • Camera names, IP addresses, storage, and so on in Management Application
    • User names and passwords for the cameras

  3. Only if you migrate on the same computer hardware, complete this step:

    • In Management Application, select Server Access and change the port number to 81 (default is 80).

      If downtime is acceptable and your server CPU load is high, you can speed up the installation time by stopping the Professional VMS services temporarily during the installation. You do this in the Services node.

      XProtect Smart Client is being updated during the migration. Depending on the number of cameras you are going to migrate, expect that your XProtect Smart Client users are not able to log into the system for about 30-60 minutes.

  4. Install XProtect VMS.

    1. Locate the installer file and your license file.
    2. Start installation and follow the steps.
    3. When the installation has completed successfully, click Close.

  5. Verify that your system can run with the Recording Server storage and archiving configuration in the XProtect VMS system or change it.

    1. In Management Client, select the recording server.
    2. Select the Storage tab and verify the configuration.

  6. Create roles with the wanted permissions and add any new users to them. Users from the XProtect Professional VMS system will be added to the roles during the migration. For more information, see Migration steps.

    When Specifying the rights of the roles, make sure the role gets access to the required cameras, including any PTZ features.

    You do it in this way:

    1. In Management Client, expand Security, right-click Roles, and then select Add Role.

    2. As a minimum, specify the following:

      • On the Device tab, provide access rights to the required cameras
      • On the PTZ tab, provide access to PTZ features

    3. Optionally:

      • On the Overall Security tab, specify the rights of this role for all current and future cameras in the system. Then you do not need to specify rights on the Device tab and PTZ tab
      • You can create a Smart Client Profile to modify the user interface in XProtect Smart Client, so it reflects their rights. Afterwards, on Roles > Info tab, you add this Smart Client Profile to one or more roles
    4. Add users or groups to roles on the Users and Groups tab.

  7. Specify device groups in the XProtect VMS system.

    You can create device groups up front or as part of the Add Hardware wizard.

    1. Expand Devices, right-click Cameras and select Add Device Group.
    2. Create groups as required for your system.