Overview

This article provides a description of the upload data management policy. A data retention policy configured with the upload action is used for specifying the final storage location of the recorded conversations. Recording Servers store the recorded conversations on their local disk temporarily while recording. After the recording is done, the files need to be moved to the designated storage location(s). 

Each policy you define can contain a different storage location (previously added as a storage target) and a set of filters to determine which conversations should be uploaded to that location. These filters are based on the metadata stored in the database for each conversation. This is a good way to have separate storage locations for conversations of different users, groups, etc.

The Upload policy supports dual archiving which allows storing the files on 2 separate storage targets. For more information, see Resilient storage and archiving.

The system supports 2 types of upload policies:

• Direct upload policies: direct upload policies are designed for uploading large amounts of data with minimal impact on the database. It uses the user-extension configuration (instead of the database) to determine which policy has to be applied for the conversation recorded on the server. It is the recommended option, especially if it is a large installation.
• Upload policies: normal upload policies are designed to upload data with complex and flexible policy filtering settings. It uses the database to determine which policy has to be applied for the conversation recorded on the server. It is not recommended for large volumes due to the increased database load.

The following table summarizes the two upload policy options:

What happens when there is a record with no matching policy?

After the recording service completes the recording process, the Storage Management Service will try to find a matching policy using database queries with the Conversation ID or the local configuration in the case of direct upload policies. If it does not find any matching policy, it will raise an alert and will immediately move the files related to the conversation to the media/nopolicy folder. Conversation-related files in the media/nopolicy folder are infinitely re-checked with a lower frequency (configurable, 10 minutes by default). The system does not give up the upload after the timeout and will continuously retry. If you receive an alert for upload failure due to no policy found, it is recommended to check the affected records and the policy filter configuration. After updating the policies, the system automatically tries to upload the files again.

Functionality in earlier versions (pre v9.6.6.6237):
After the recording service completes the recording process, the Storage Management Service tries to find a matching policy using database queries with the Conversation ID or the local configuration in the case of direct upload policies. If it does not find any matching policy, it will raise an alert and will try to find it again in the next cycle. The service tries to find a matching policy until a configurable timeout (120 hours by default). After the timeout expires, the Storage Management Service moves the files related to the call to the media/nopolicy folder, and will never try to upload it again. Files can be manually copied back to the standard media folder where the Storage Management Service will try the upload again. It will only try to upload it once since the timeout has already expired based on the call end date-time.

Enabling policy-based upload

Since upload policies are executed by the individual Recording Servers instead of the Media Repository (unlike all other policy types), you will need to enable policy-based uploading on the server level in the configuration of each Recording Server (or using the configuration template).

Step 1 - Open the Verba Web interface, go to Configuration / Servers, then select your Recording Server.

Step 2 - Click on the Change Configuration Settings tab and in the configuration tree, go to the Storage Management / Upload node.

Step 3 - Set Policy Based Uploading Enabled to Yes.

Step 4 - Save the configuration then repeat these steps for each recording server in your system. Finally, execute the changes.

Configuring a direct upload policy

To create an upload policy, follow the steps below:

Step 1 - Create a Storage target for your policy

Step 2 - Follow the generic policy creation steps described on the following page: Data management policies

Step 3 - Select Upload as the action

Step 4 - Enable the Direct Upload option

Step 5 - Select the Destination Storage Target you created from the list

Step 6 - Optionally enable related actions such as Voice Quality Check, Encryption and Signing.

Step 7 - Configure Filtering Criteria to specify which conversations should be uploaded by this policy

Configuring an upload policy

To create an upload policy, follow the steps below:

Step 1 - Create a Storage target for your policy

Step 2 - Follow the generic policy creation steps described on the following page: Data management policies

Step 3 - Select Upload as the action

Step 4 - Select the Destination Storage Target you created from the list

Step 5 - Define the Retention Period (days), Automatically Delete Conversations after the Retention Period is Over and Prefer User's Retention setting.

Step 6 - Optionally enable related actions such as Voice Quality Check, Encryption and Signing.

Step 7 - Configure Filtering Criteria to specify which conversations should be uploaded by this policy

Configuring an upload policy with dual archiving

To create an upload policy, follow the steps below:

Step 1 - Create two Storage targets for your policy

Step 2 - Follow the generic policy creation steps described on the following page: Data management policies

Step 3 - Select Upload as the action

Step 4 - Select the Enable Dual Archiving option

Step 5 - Select the Destination Storage Target for both the First and Second storage targets you created from the list. You can separately define the Retention Period (days), Automatically Delete Conversations after the Retention Period is Over and Prefer User's Retention settings for each storage target.

Step 6 - Optionally enable related actions such as Voice Quality Check, Encryption and Signing.

Step 7 - Configure Filtering Criteria to specify which conversations should be uploaded by this policy