Functional overview > Recorder Components

Recorder Components

Each installation regardless of Ocularis 5 model, has the following components:

Core Master

When you install the software, the first component installed is the Master Core service. This component is the heart of the recording component and manages the configuration database of the recorder system. It manages system configuration, events, reports, backups and knows about every other component in the system. With smaller systems in Ocularis Enterprise and Ultimate, there is typically just one master core service in an installation. Multiple master cores may be used in larger, more distributed environments. For Ocularis Professional, there is one master core and one Device Manager per server.

Device Manager

A Device Manager, or DM, is the component that manages the video recordings. Along with its companion service, the MDS or Media Database Service, it controls where video data is stored. Data is stored in one or more Zones. This is the 'recorder' of the installation.

Zone

A Zone is a volume where video data is stored. Device Managers may be directed to store video data to one or more zones. If multiple zones are configured, video data is load balanced across all available zones.

Core Slave

In Ocularis Enterprise or Ocularis Ultimate, an additional core is available to provide redundancy to the master core. This is known as a slave core. If a master core finds an available slave core, it will offload much of its work to the slave. Tasks like user authorization and alarm scenarios will be handled by the slave core while the master core focuses on maintaining the configuration database. In the event the master core goes down, a slave core will take over. Users already logged in will continue to be able to view video but no new logins will be allowed until the master core service is restored.

Ocularis Recorder Manager

This component is the software application used to configure the other components listed above. It may be installed on any number of workstations and it used to log in to the master core to configure settings. The Ocularis Recorder Manager software can be considered a client application.

Update Service

The Update Service works to update the recorder component software. By default, the system will check daily for updates via the Internet. If found, the updates, which are typically released about once per month, are downloaded and pushed out to each remote recorder component. The default settings may be overridden to manually check or install updates.