Avid INEWS V5.1 Administration Guide I News 5.1 NEWSv51 AG EN

User Manual: avid iNews - 5.1 - Administration Guide Free User Guide for Avid iNews Software, Manual

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Avid® iNEWS® Admin Guide

Avid® iNEWS®

Administration Guide

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Footage

Arri — Courtesy of Arri/Fauer — John Fauer, Inc.

Bell South “Anticipation” — Courtesy of Two Headed Monster — Tucker/Wayne Atlanta/GMS.

Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior.

Eco Challenge Morocco — Courtesy of Discovery Communications, Inc.

It’s Shuttletime — Courtesy of BCP & Canadian Airlines.

Nestlé Coffee Crisp — Courtesy of MacLaren McCann Canada.

Saturn “Calvin Egg” — Courtesy of Cossette Communications.

“Tigers: Tracking a Legend” — Courtesy of www.wildlifeworlds.com, Carol Amore, Executive Producer.

"The Big Swell" — Courtesy of Swell Pictures, Inc.

Windhorse — Courtesy of Paul Wagner Productions.

Arizona Images — KNTV Production — Courtesy of Granite Broadcasting, Inc.,

Editor/Producer Bryan Foote.

Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior.

Ice Island — Courtesy of Kurtis Productions, Ltd.

Tornados + Belle Isle footage — Courtesy of KWTV News 9.

WCAU Fire Story — Courtesy of NBC-10, Philadelphia, PA.

Women in Sports – Paragliding — Courtesy of Legendary Entertainment, Inc.

News material provided by WFTV Television Inc.

GOT FOOTAGE?

Editors — Filmmakers — Special Effects Artists — Game Developers — Animators — Educators — Broadcasters — Content

creators of every genre — Just finished an incredible project and want to share it with the world?

Send us your reels and we may use your footage in our show reel or demo!*

For a copy of our release and Avid’s mailing address, go to www.avid.com/footage.

*Note: Avid cannot guarantee the use of materials submitted.

Avid iNEWS v5.1 Administration Guide • 9329-65311-00 Rev B • Created 8/21/14 • This document is

distributed by Avid in online (electronic) form only, and is not available for purchase in printed form.

Contents

Using This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Symbols and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

If You Need Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

...With the Syntax of Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Avid Training Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Chapter 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Overview of iNEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

System Administrator Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 2 Connect Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Network Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Dialogs for Connect Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Building a Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Dialog Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Dialog Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Adding System Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Setting up the Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Console Connect Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Chapter 3 Database Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Establishing Security Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

User Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Checking Password Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Forcing Individual Users to Change Their Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

. . . At an iNEWS Workstation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Tracking User Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Tracking User Login Activity and Date Created . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

. . . At an iNEWS Workstation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

. . . At the Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Listing Users Currently Logged in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Recording Logins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Using Group Security to Control System Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Chapter 4 Database Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Monitoring Free Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Understanding Database Storage Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Monitoring the Free List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Understanding How the System Copies Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Tracking Database Space over Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Using the hogs Command to Obtain Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Using dbserver and dbfree to Obtain Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Increasing Database Space for Immediate Use. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Maintaining the Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Checking the Database for Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Cleaning the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Cleaning Your Database Offline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Cleaning Your Database with Online Dbvisit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Chapter 5 Avid System Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Using SNMP Monitoring on the iNEWS Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Installing and Enabling the SNMP Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Chapter 6 Backing Up the iNEWS System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Tape Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Establishing Policies for Backup Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Backing up the iNEWS Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

The dbdump Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Backing up the Entire Database to Tape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Tapeless Database Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Backing up Individual Queues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Notes on Backing up the Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Restoring Data to the iNEWS Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

The dbrestore Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Restoring a First-Level Directory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Listing Tape Contents and Backup Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Listing Contents of a Tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Listing Items Dumped on a Particular Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Listing the Date of Each Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Searching a Tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

The searchtape Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Searching a Tape for Stories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Searching a Tape by Word(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Searching a Tape by Word and Date Range. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Searching a Tape by Word and Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Searching a Tape by Word and Month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Specifying a Maximum Number of Stories to Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Checking for Free Space on a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Adding Blocks to the Free List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Restoring the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Disaster Recovery Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Disaster Recovery Dbdump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Create Minimal dbdump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Backing up Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Backing up System Site Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

The sitedump Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Chapter 7 Disconnects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Normal System Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Disconnects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Detecting a Disconnect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Types of Disconnect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Causes of Disconnects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Disconnect Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Recovery Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Chapter 8 Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

iNEWS Workstation Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

A User Cannot Log in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

A User Cannot Establish a Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

A User Cannot Access an Item . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Group Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Busy Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Wire Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Data Receiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Locked Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

How to Check Process Status (ps Command). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Power Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Network Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

netstat -i Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Output Errors (TX-ERRs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Input Errors (RX-ERRs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

iNEWS and FTS Connectivity (ftsdebug Command) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Checking Communication between iNEWS and FTS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Appendix A Command References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Programs Invoked by iNEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Commands Used by Avid Personnel Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Linux Commands Used in iNEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Console Server Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

broadcast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

configure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

connect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

ctraits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

dbclean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

dbclose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

dbdev and dbsize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

dbdump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

dbfree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

dblines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

dboriginal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

dbpurge

(Superuser conditional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

dbrestore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

dbserver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

dbsort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

dbtraits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

dbvisit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

diskclear

(Superuser only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

diskcopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

doc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

ed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

enter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

force

(Superuser only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

grpcheck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

gtraits

(Superuser only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

hogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

idiff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

list B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

list C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

list c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

list d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

list g . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

list p . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

list q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

list s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

list sq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

list u . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

logout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

makemontab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

makeshift (Super user only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

maketab

(Superuser only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

mapcheck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

msgclean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

offline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

online. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

otod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

reconnect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

remove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

rename

(Superuser only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

reorder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

restart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

searchtape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

send. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

sendlong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

shutdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

sitedump

(Superuser only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

siterestore

(Superuser only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

stop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

su. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

unbusy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

utraits

(Super user only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

version. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

wholockedit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Job List Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

at . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

blockmode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

bpoll. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

bscan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

charset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

dup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

every. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

fast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

ignore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

ignore-del . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

mailto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

move. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

passive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

poll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

publish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

put . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

quiet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

remote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

remove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

replace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

send-del . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

sendform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

sendpassword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

source. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

validate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Dialog Commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

delay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

diag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

echo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

escape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

expect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

heol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

mapin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

mapout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

pass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

pause. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

stop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

wait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Appendix B System Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

/etc/hosts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

/site/config . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

/site/system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

SYSTEM.CLIENT.WINDOWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

SYSTEM.COLORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

SYSTEM.CONFIGURE.301-ACTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

SYSTEM.GROUPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

SYSTEM.INTERPLAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

SYSTEM.LISTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

SYSTEM.MAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

SYSTEM.MOS-MAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

SYSTEM.RESOURCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

SYSTEM.WIRES.DISTRIBUTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

SYSTEM.WIRES.KEYWORDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

SYSTEM.WIRES.KEYWORDS-AP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

SYSTEM.WIRES.KEYWORDS-AP2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Appendix C Standard Dictionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Using Dictionaries to Define Messages and Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Customizing Dictionaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Changing Default Dictionary Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Restoring Dictionary Defaults. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Utility Messages Dictionary (/site/dict/messages) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

DBServer Program Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Disconnect Program Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Category and Keyword Check Program Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Keyboard Check Program Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Keyboard Check Program Messages for Macros. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Grpcheck Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Wire Program Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Mail Server Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Map Check Program Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Validation (Action) Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Seek Server Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Last Login Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Print Server Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

dbtraits Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Save Error (Workstation) Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Queues Dictionary (/site/dict/queues) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Words Dictionary (/site/dict/words) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Keyboard Macros Dictionary (/site/dict/keymacros) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Case-shifting Dictionary (/site/dict/shift) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

MCS Dictionary (/site/dict/mcs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Device Types Used by Monitor Servers and Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Special Strings Recognized by the Monitor Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Error Messages for the Monitor Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Status Reported in Device Status Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Job List Command Dictionary (/site/dict/joblist) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

D Messages Dictionary (/site/dict/dmessages) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

S Messages Dictionary (/site/dict/smessages) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Appendix D Environment Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Registry Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Environment Variables (Registry Values). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

CCColor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

DestinationOrder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

MailLookup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

MsgMailAlert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

PIColor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

RGB Hexadecimal Color Chart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

ShowTimingBar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

SyncToServer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

VT Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

DisableCommandLine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Environmental Variables for Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Appendix E Managing Traits at the Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Viewing User Traits from the Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Modifying User Traits from the Console. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Changing a User’s Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Listing Users Who Do Not Have Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

User Traits Console Command Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Managing Database Traits from the Console. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Getting Basic Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Getting Detailed Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Changing Database Traits from the Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Changing a Parent Directory Only. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Database Traits Console Command Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Sortfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Changing a Queue’s Sort Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Starting the Queue Sort Function from the Console. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Purge Interval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Mailbox Attribute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

The dis Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

FTSindex Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Interplay Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Managing Group Traits at the Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Read Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Write Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Editorial Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Notify Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Restricting Access Using Read and Write Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Removing Directory or Queue Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Appendix F The Line Editor, ed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Starting ed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Specifying Lines to Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Searching the File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Searching Tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Editing Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Saving Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Quitting ed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Using This Guide

Congratulations on your purchase of your Avid iNEWS system. It is a vital part of the Avid

news system solution that integrates with other Avid systems and third-party equipment to

provide an ideal nonlinear workflow and optimize the news production process.

This guide is part of a two-book set designed to keep pace with current advances in the Avid

system’s news production capabilities. The set—made up of this book and the Avid iNEWS

Setup and Configuration Guide—is a comprehensive resource of all administrative

information you will need to take advantage of the many options available to you.

This guide will lead you through even the most complex procedures with task-oriented

instructions. The information provided here builds on basic news production procedures

described in the help system and other user-based guides, while adding a complete

explanation of all of the tools and techniques required to manage the newsroom computer

system, including useful tips, shortcuts, and custom options.

nThe documentation describes the software features and hardware related to the iNEWS

newsroom computer system, which is extremely customizable. Your system might not contain

certain features and/or hardware that are covered in the documentation.

Symbols and Conventions

Avid documentation uses the following symbols and conventions:

If You Need Help

If you are having trouble using your Avid product:

1. Retry the action, carefully following the instructions given for that task in this guide. It

is especially important to check each step of your workflow.

Symbol or Convention Meaning or Action

nA note provides important related information, reminders,

recommendations, and strong suggestions.

cA caution means that a specific action you take could cause harm to

your computer or cause you to lose data.

wA warning describes an action that could cause you physical harm.

Follow the guidelines in this document or on the unit itself when

handling electrical equipment.

> This symbol indicates menu commands (and subcommands) in the

order you select them. For example, File > Import means to open the

File menu and then select the Import command.

This symbol indicates a single-step procedure. Multiple arrows in a list

indicate that you perform one of the actions listed.

(Windows), (Windows

only), (Macintosh), or

(Macintosh only)

This text indicates that the information applies only to the specified

operating system, either Windows or Macintosh OS X.

Bold font Bold font is primarily used in task instructions to identify user interface

items and keyboard sequences.

Italic font Italic font is used to emphasize certain words and to indicate variables.

Courier Bold font

Courier Bold font identifies text that you type.

Ctrl+key or mouse action Press and hold the first key while you press the last key or perform the

mouse action. For example, Command+Option+C or Ctrl+drag.

| (pipe character) The pipe character is used in some Avid product names, such as

Interplay | Production. In this document, the pipe is used in product

names when they are in headings or at their first use in text.

If You Need Help

2. Check the latest information that might have become available after the documentation

was published:

- If the latest information for your Avid product is provided as printed release notes,

they ship with your application and are also available online.

- If the latest information for your Avid product is provided as a ReadMe file, it is

supplied on your Avid installation CD or DVD as a PDF document

(README_product.pdf) and is also available online.

You should always check online for the most up-to-date release notes or ReadMe

because the online version is updated whenever new information becomes

available. To view these online versions, select ReadMe from the Help menu, or visit

the Knowledge Base at www.avid.com/readme.

3. Check the documentation that came with your Avid application or your hardware for

maintenance or hardware-related issues.

4. Visit the online Knowledge Base at www.avid.com/onlinesupport. Online services are

available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Search this online Knowledge Base to find

answers, to view error messages, to access troubleshooting tips, to download updates,

and to read or join online message-board discussions.

...With the Syntax of Commands

If you are at the console and are unsure about the function of a command, use the help

command.

To view instructions about using a command:

tUse the following command:

help

For instance, type:

help dbvisit

for an explanation of the dbvisit command.

The following data appears:

dbvisit -<d or v or i> [-r or -c name] [-s] [-l] [block# ...]

‘r’ for read only

‘s’ for “slow” to eliminate cache usage

‘c’ use checkpoint partition (forces “-s”)

‘i’ to just validate isam files

‘l’ to list link count distribution

nLengthy console displays might be edited to emphasize only the most important information

in this guide. An ellipsis (...) represents portions of the console display not shown in the text.

Also, because of the margin limitations of this guide, command lines might appear wrapped

to multiple lines. This does not necessarily indicate the need to press an Enter key. Unless

otherwise indicated, commands should be typed on a single line, allowing the computer to

wrap the text whenever the command line stretches beyond the screen margin.

Avid Training Services

Avid makes lifelong learning, career advancement, and personal development easy and

convenient. Avid understands that the knowledge you need to differentiate yourself is always

changing, and Avid continually updates course content and offers new training delivery

methods that accommodate your pressured and competitive work environment.

To learn about Avid's new online learning environment, Avid Learning Excellerator™

(ALEX), visit http://learn.avid.com.

For information on courses/schedules, training centers, certifications, courseware, and

books, please visit www.avid.com/training or call Avid Sales at 800-949-AVID

(800-949-2843).

1Introduction

The iNEWS newsroom computer system is an integrated digital news production system, which

provides journalists, producers, directors, writers, and technical personnel with an array of tools

to make their jobs easier.

This chapter contains the following main sections:

•Overview of iNEWS

•System Administrator Tasks

-Basic Tasks

-User Tasks

-Database Tasks

-Security Tasks

-Customizing the System

-Storage Maintenance Tasks

-Device Tasks

-Reviewing Default Settings

-Troubleshooting

Overview of iNEWS

An iNEWS newsroom computer system provides:

• News gathering from text sources

• News production, including:

- Story creation and script editing

- Association of machine control items to script

- Show planning and creation

- Show archiving

- Contact organization and scheduling

• News to air, including:

- On-air playback control

- File exporting

- Internet publishing

Some primary components of iNEWS include:

• Linux-based computers running the iNEWS Server software. In this guide, these host

computers are referred to as the iNEWS Servers, or individually as server A, server B,

and so forth.

• A Windows-based computer running the PuTTY Command Sender program. This

computer is known as the console.

• Windows- or Vista-based computers running the iNEWS client software. These

computers are known as iNEWS Workstations.

• Windows-based computers running the iNEWS Data Receiver software, which is used

to ingest wires and other text-based research material

• Other peripherals, such as printers and teleprompters.

Additionally, the iNEWS system is capable of interfacing with a wide variety of production

devices. Avid iNEWS Command provides a central point of control for numerous video

servers and graphics devices, or MOS protocol may be used to send playlists to

MOS-compatible playout controllers.

System Administrator Tasks

The following sections describe common system administrator responsibilities and tasks.

Basic Tasks

Before you can customize or maintain the iNEWS newsroom computer system, you must learn

several basic tasks, which include:

• Start up or shut down iNEWS Server software, which includes logging out users and taking

the system offline.

• Back up a site file before making file modifications.

• Send system administrator commands from the console to one or more of your system’s

computers.

• Become a console superuser, capable of performing actions that are only accessible to users

with superuser permissions.

User Tasks

A user is anyone who can log in to the database and use iNEWS NRCS. Your responsibilities

regarding users are:

• Monitor user information, such as users’ access privileges and which users are currently

logged in.

• Customize the traits of users’ accounts to enable users to more effectively use the system.

• Provide a new employee access to the information stored in the iNEWS NRCS database by

creating a new user account.

• Remove user accounts of former employees to prevent improper access to the iNEWS

NRCS database.

Database Tasks

The iNEWS system database contains the information your organization needs to function. A

system administrator’s tasks associated with the database include:

• Design forms (that is, story templates) to display important information about stories in a

queue.

• Monitor changes to files and queues in the database.

• Unlock or delete any item in the database, and recover items that were accidentally deleted

or corrupted.

• Create new folders or queues in the iNEWS system database to meet your organization’s

expanding needs—including setting up rundowns.

System Administrator Tasks

• Remove a directory or queue from the database, if it is no longer used.

• Change the name or traits of an existing directory or queue.

• Assign the mailbox trait to queues for configuring automatic story distribution into and out

of queues.

Security Tasks

There are many ways to ensure the security of your iNEWS system. Your responsibilities

regarding system security include:

• Monitor and change passwords or force users to change them by setting up system checks

and modifications.

• Monitor user login activity to guard against unauthorized use of the iNEWS system.

• Assign security to a directory or queue, limiting access to a specific group of users.

• Restrict database access by placing users into security groups based on job roles and need

for information.

Customizing the System

Your responsibilities regarding customization include:

• Customize command names, message text, and other items by changing their entries in your

system’s dictionary files.

• Create templates for the CG Title Entry tool.

• Design and assign custom keyboards for users with a unique set of keyboard macros.

Storage Maintenance Tasks

You will want to monitor the database regularly to ensure adequate storage. Storage maintenance

tasks include:

• Monitor how much free space is available in the database and, if necessary, increase the

amount to prevent the system from running out of space.

• Perform preventive database maintenance by periodically running certain utility programs

that can find and fix minor problems before they become serious.

• Backup the entire database or portions of it onto tape, so if necessary, the information can be

restored to the database later.

• Make a backup copy of files any time you make important changes.

System Administrator Tasks

Device Tasks

A device is any kind of hardware or software that performs a specific function when it is set up

on the iNEWS system. Your responsibilities regarding devices include:

• List the parameters of any device running on your system or list all devices of one type.

• Add any type of device to your system, if you have the capacity and license permission.

• Edit site-specific files, to change the setup information for a device in your system’s

configuration file.

• Reconfigure the system so it recognizes any changes you make to your system’s devices.

• Set up printer styles so users can print stories or queues in predetermined formats. For

example, a director rundown only showing specific rundown fields.

• Set up servers, which are utility programs automatically performing various actions on the

database.

• Change wire distribution and sorting of data coming into your database from a wire service

to queues based on their category codes or content.

• (Optional) Write dialogs—lists of instructions—for each connect service to automate the

connection process. A connect service is a device that connects a user to a remote computer

system.

Reviewing Default Settings

Your responsibilities regarding system profiles, default settings, and command syntax include:

• Changing a system profile setting to change your system’s operation.

• Reviewing default settings of all system profile parameters.

• Reviewing command syntax for edit, console, and job list commands.

Troubleshooting

Your troubleshooting responsibilities include:

• Transfer system activities from a halted computer to other system computers. If a computer

connected to the system has been halted, bring the system back to operation using the

remaining computers

• Reconnect a computer that has been halted. Following routine maintenance, reintegrate a

computer into your system’s operation.

2Connect Services

Connect services are utilities you can set up to enable iNEWS users to connect to other

computers or information services over the network, such as a remote console for your iNEWS

newsroom computer system.

This chapter contains the following main sections:

•Network Services

•Adding System Services

•Console Connect Sessions

Network Services

It is useful to set up a service to let you connect to your iNEWS Servers. For instance, setting up

network remote connect services lets you perform many administrative tasks from your iNEWS

Workstation rather than from the console.

Dialogs for Connect Services

A dialog is a script that tells the service what prompts to expect from the device it connects to,

and provides the service with appropriate responses for each prompt. Using any service involves

some routine activities, such as logging in, that you do each time you use that service. You can

create a dialog for any service to handle these routine activities.

Building a Dialog

This section explains how to design and create a simple dialog that logs a user in to an

information service. Once logged in, the dialog yields control to the user until he/she is ready to

close the connection. Then the dialog logs the user out of the service and closes the connection.

When you design a dialog, it is helpful to turn on the

capture

connect command and perform

the procedure you want to incorporate into the dialog. This way, steps in that procedure are

captured to a story that you can refer to while designing the dialog; each line in the dialog is built

as a line of the story.

This process includes the most commonly used dialog commands.

To build a dialog:

1. Create a dialog queue.

Each dialog must be in a separate queue in the SYSTEM.DIALOGS directory. The first step

in creating a new dialog is to go to SYSTEM.DIALOGS and create a queue to hold it. The

name you give this queue is also the name of the dialog, so choose a queue name that

describes what the dialog does, such as Console, for a dialog used during connect sessions to

the console. See the iNEWS Setup and Configuration Guide for more information about

adding new directories, queues or stories.

2. Open a new story in the queue and build the dialog.

3. Type a message that will be displayed on the user’s workstation, indicating the connection is

being established, using the following format:

message text

The message dialog command displays on the user’s screen whatever text you enter in place

of the text parameter.

4. Type:

wait CONNECT

Network Services

When you use a modem to make the connection, you want the dialog to wait until the

modem sends the word CONNECT to the workstation, signaling it has made the connection.

If necessary, use these additional commands to accommodate the login procedure:

5. To send your login data, such as an account number, type

type text

with text being the

account number.

6. Type

pass

to yield control to the user after login is complete.

This command instructs the dialog to pass whatever the user enters to the device to which the

service has connected.

Use

pass x

to include a character the user can enter to cue the dialog to resume. The x

should be a character or symbol, such as the at symbol (@), he or she will not normally use.

Use

pass

alone to instruct the system to accept what the user enters until he/she closes the

connection.

7. Type commands to log out of the service.

When the user exits a connection using the quit connect command, the dialog resumes and

performs the logout process and closes the connection.

8. Attach the dialog to the service by placing the dialog’s name in the service’s dialog

parameter in the service table, located in the SYSTEM.SERVICE queue.

9. Type the

configure -s

command to incorporate this change into the service.

Dialog Commands

Available dialog commands are flexible enough to script entire connect sessions. For instance, a

dialog could be constructed to automatically log in to the remote console and “unbusy” a

rundown if desired.

The available dialog commands are reviewed in “Command References” on page 497.

Command Description

delay nn

Use this command to pause the dialog while the service continues connect

and login processes.

(nn is the number of seconds you want the dialog to pause before continuing

to the next command)

type text

Use the type command to send a text message to the device to which the

workstation is being connected.

Adding System Services

Dialog Examples

Here are a few examples of dialogs for remote console connect services:

In the example, <cr> and <lf> are used to indicate a “carriage return” and “line feed.”

Adding System Services

A service consists of two parts:

• A network resource, set up as a device in the configuration file (/site/config).

• The service, set up in the service table in the database file (SYSTEM.SERVICE); it uses the

resource to make a connection.

To add a new service to your system, you must design and build the service and select a

network resource for the service to use. If an appropriate resource does not exist, create one.

Setting up the Service

To set up the service and its resource:

1. Determine whether the service and its resource exists.

Try connecting to a service you want. If it works, then the necessary programs are installed.

If you cannot find the service, or one does not work, call Avid for help.

Adding System Services

2. Choose a device number for the resource and a name for the service. In the following

examples, the service name is console.

Check your configuration file (/site/config) to determine the appropriate device number for

your new resource. For a network resource, choose a number in the range you have reserved

for services, servers, and similar devices. Ensure the number you choose is out of the range

used for normal devices.

nSee the iNEWS Setup and Configuration Guide for more information on the Site Configuration

file and selecting servers via the PuTTYCS application.

3. Add the resource to the configuration file on each server in your system.

a. Add the device number of the network resource to the reslist line in the server’s host

definition.

b. To keep the network resource available if you bring down one of the system servers, add

this line to any appropriate alternate host definitions.

nThe following steps use ed to modify system files. If you are unfamiliar with this line editor, see

“The Line Editor, ed” on page 679.

c. Use

(line editor) to open the configuration file. The display will look similar to:

NRCS-A$ ed /site/config

1356

The general format for a network resource configuration line is:

resource <device #> <resource name> <device name>

For instance, our new network resource configuration line would look like this:

resource 220 net - ; net connect

4. Add the service to the service table in the database.

Parameter Description

device # Identifies resource’s device number.

resource name Name you want to give to the resource. Network resources can share the

same name; services choose the first available resource of the correct kind.

In the following example, we call the resource net.

device name Resource’s device name. If you do not want to give it a name, put a hyphen

in this position.

Adding System Services

Each service installed in your system is defined on a separate line in your system’s service

table, which is the first story in SYSTEM.SERVICE. Each service defined in the service

table consists of a few parameters that determine how the service behaves. It does not matter

where in the service table you add the new line.

A service line has six parameters in this general format:

The following table contains information on service line formats:

You will need one such service line for each server on your system. Use the ssh command in

the following way:

/usr/bin/ssh <servername> -1 <username>

The following sample entries in SYSTEM.SERVICE let you establish a network connection

to your console from an iNEWS Workstation session.

a - console console sysops /usr/bin/ssh NRCS-A -l so

b - console console sysops /usr/bin/ssh NRCS-B -l so

The resource assigned to the service must be configured on the computer you want to log in

to.

5. (Optional) Create a dialog for the service.

Parameter Definition

service Name you want the service to have.

host Name of the server where you want the service to look for its resource. List

the target server’s name in your system’s /etc/hosts file.

A hyphen in this position will force the service to search each server until it

finds one that has a resource it can use.

dialog If you want the service to use a dialog, put the dialog name in this position of

the service line. Otherwise, fill this position with a hyphen.

resource Name of the resource you want the service to use.

group You can restrict who can use the service by specifying a user group. If you do

not want to restrict access, place a hyphen in this position.

command Specifies the command you want the service to use to handle communication.

To create a service using telnet, type the

telnet

command here. Ensure you

specify the program’s full pathname and include the system name to which

you are connecting.

Adding System Services

If you want your service to follow certain instructions every time it is invoked, create a

dialog for the service containing those instructions. See “Building a Dialog” on page 31 for

more information.

6. (Optional) Test your configuration changes on iNEWS. See the iNEWS Setup and

Configuration Guide for more information on testing the site configuration file.

7. Reconfigure the system.

This causes your system to note changes and incorporate them into appropriate programs.

Do the following:

nSee the iNEWS Setup and Configuration Guide for more information on selecting servers and the

superuser mode.

a. Select the console window for the master computer (typically server A).

b. Enter superuser mode.

c. Type what appears in bold text:

NRCS-A# offline

d. If you added a new resource or modified an existing one in the process of creating a new

service, reconfigure your system by typing the following:

NRCS-A# configure

If you modified an existing service or added a service that uses an existing network

resource, you did not make any changes to your system’s configuration file. So, you

need to have the system note only changes made to the service table by typing the

following:

NRCS-A# configure -s

8. When the prompt returns, type what appears in bold text:

NRCS-A# online

9. Exit superuser mode by holding the Control key (Ctrl) down and typing the letter D. A

message similar to the following will appear:

A Tue Oct 5 00:18:58 2000 msg System being configured

When you see the system prompt, the network service you created and its resource you

added (if any) is ready for use.

10. (Optional) Back up site files.

If you have made significant changes, back up your site files with the

sitedump

console

command.

Console Connect Sessions

To connect to the console from an iNEWS Workstation—that is, after the network remote

connect service and its resources are set up—do the following:

1. Log in to any iNEWS Workstation, with a user account allowed to use the Connect to

Service feature.

2. Select Communicate > Connect to Service. The Connect to Service dialog box will appear,

offering you a list of services.

As shown in this example, two options are provided to connect to the console—each option

corresponding to a different iNEWS Server.

3. Double-click on the service you want.

A dialog box will appear with a dialog (as defined in the SYSTEM.DIALOGS) that requests

a password.

4. Type in the password and press Enter.

5. Once connected, the dialog box will display the console prompt, similar to what appears on

the console when you are logged in as a system operator.

Here is an example of a remote console connection:

Console Connect Sessions

6. You can now perform various administrative tasks through the console connect session, as

opposed to doing them while physically located at the console.

cTo stop a console connect session, press Ctrl+D. Do not close the dialog box by selecting File

> Close or by clicking on the X button in the upper-right corner.

3Database Security

This chapter describes how to use various features in the iNEWS newsroom computer system to

establish and maintain database security.

This chapter contains the following main sections:

•Establishing Security Procedures

•User Passwords

•Checking Password Status

•Tracking User Activity

•Using Group Security to Control System Access

Establishing Security Procedures

Use the following guidelines to improve the security of your system:

• Set up official security procedures and have everyone follow them.

• Keep track of your backup tapes. You can get user passwords from a backup tape.

• Assign users superuser status only when they need it.

• If any user does not need superuser status, remove it. Create two user accounts for staff

members who need superuser privileges—one to be a superuser and another to be a regular

user. That way, you can track activity of superuser accounts.

• Change the superuser password regularly.

• Ensure that users do not use their names, station call letters, or other easily guessed words as

passwords. Require everyone to include at least one non-alphabetic character such as a

punctuation mark or a number.

• Use the system profile to set a required minimum length for all passwords so no one uses a

short password.

• For devices for which you have dedicated resources—that is, devices that have a one-to-one

correspondence between the physical device and device number used to identify it—use

device name security on workstations in specific locations and put the device ID in a group.

• If you have dedicated resources, you can put a MODIFY-DEV field in the queue’s story

form if you suspect that someone has broken into a user’s account. When changes are made

to stories created after the MODIFY-DEV field has been added, the system puts the device

name of the workstation where changes were made in that field. This information is kept

internally, but having the MODIFY-DEV field makes it visible to users.

• Be familiar with valid user accounts on your system. Restrict access to these account names

to protect against unauthorized outside access.

User Passwords

Your iNEWS newsroom computer system protects against unauthorized access by giving each

authorized user a password to log into the system. Group security, described under “Using Group

Security to Control System Access” on page 47, lets you control specific areas of your database

that each user can access.

For added security, iNEWS uses encryption to pass user credentials to the server.

Checking Password Status

A user account without a password is an open door to your system. You should always give a

user a password when you add the user to your system. See the iNEWS Setup and Configuration

Manual for more information on setting up new user accounts.

However, if you suspect that a user does not have a password or has not changed it in awhile, you

can find out for certain from any iNEWS Workstation.

nFor information on how to check password status from the console, see “Listing Users Who Do

Not Have Passwords” on page 652.

To check user password status from an iNEWS Workstation:

1. Log in as a system administrator—that is, use a superuser account.

2. Select Tools > Options > Users.

The Manage User Accounts dialog box appears.

3. Type an asterisk (*) in the User ID field if it does not already appear.

The iNEWS system recognizes this as a wildcard and therefore will search the entire

database of users.

nThe other criteria options available in this dialog box are explained in the iNEWS Setup and

Configuration Manual.

4. Click the Advanced button.

Checking Password Status

The Advanced Search Settings dialog box appears with All Users selected by default.

5. Do one of the following:

tTo search for all users without passwords, select Users Without Passwords.

tTo search for all users who have not changed their password within a specific time,

select Date Range. Then click Password Changed, and specify the time frame to search.

6. Click OK to confirm your advanced search setting or click Cancel to cancel it.

7. Click Search to initiate the search.

A progress bar appears if a lengthy search is underway. Results of the search appear in the

User List field in the center of the Manage User Accounts dialog box.

As a system administrator, you can change a user’s password. Change a user’s password to

provide a new user with a temporary password or to supply an established user with a new

password if the user forgets it and cannot log in. See the iNEWS Setup and Configuration

Manual for more information on how to do this from any iNEWS Workstation. For steps on

how to change a user’s password from the console using the utraits console command, see

“Changing a User’s Password” on page 650.

Forcing Individual Users to Change Their Passwords

Occasionally, you might have individual users who do not change their passwords as required.

When that happens, you can force them to change their password at their next login. You can do

this for a single user at an iNEWS Workstation.

Checking Password Status

To force multiple users to change their passwords—such as all users who haven’t changed their

passwords in the past six months—you must go to the console. For steps on how to force

password changes from the console, see “Changing a User’s Password” on page 650.

. . . At an iNEWS Workstation

To force an individual user to change his or her password:

1. Select Tools > Options > Users.

The Manage User Accounts dialog box appears.

2. Type the user name in the User ID field.

3. Click Search.

4. Select the user name when it appears in the dialog box.

5. Click Modify.

The Modify User Account dialog box appears.

6. Check the Force Change box.

7. Click OK.

The next time the user logs in, he or she will be required to choose a new password.

Tracking User Activity

Keep a record of who uses iNEWS and when they use it by following the procedures described

in this section. These security measures can ensure there is no unauthorized use of your system.

At an iNEWS Workstation, you can determine:

• Last login date of one or more user accounts

• Date user accounts were created

• Users currently logged in

At the console, you can determine attempted and successful logins.

Tracking User Login Activity and Date Created

You can search for a user account’s last login and the date the user account was created from an

iNEWS Workstation.

. . . At an iNEWS Workstation

To search for a user’s last login:

1. Select Tools > Options > Users.

The Manage User Accounts dialog box appears.

2. Click Advanced. The Advanced Search Settings dialog box appears.

3. Click Date Range.

4. Do one of the following:

tTo search for user accounts with a last login date that matches a specified date range,

click Last Login.

tTo search for user accounts created within a specified date range, click Account Created.

5. Specify a date range in the From and To fields.

6. Click OK.

7. Click Search.

The requested user name information appears.

. . . At the Console

Another command you can type at the console will give you valuable information about users:

list u-t [<username>]

Tracking User Activity

This command shows the date and time a user account was created, date and time of last login,

and date and time of last password change.

If you do not specify a particular user name to check, you will get a listing for all users.

Listing Users Currently Logged in

From the iNEWS Workstation, you can see a list of all users logged in, and you can find out

whether a specific user is currently logged in.

To see a list of all logged-in users:

1. Press Ctrl+L or select Communicate > Messages > Logged In Users.

A dialog box appears with a list of users currently logged in.

2. Click OK when you are done looking at the list.

To determine whether a specific user is logged in:

1. Select the Message bar.

2. Type the user name in the To field.

3. Move cursor to the message field, using the mouse or Tab key.

4. One of three symbols appears to the left of the To field, depending on what you type in the

To text box:

Recording Logins

Keep track of successful and attempted logins to preserve system security. You can spot

unauthorized users, people logging in at odd hours, or repeated attempts to guess passwords.

Icon Description

If the user is currently logged in, an icon of connected cables appears to the left of the

user name.

If the user is not currently logged in, an icon of disconnected cables appears to the left of

the user name.

If there is no such user name in the system, a question mark appears to the left of the user

name.

Tracking User Activity

To monitor logins from different types of devices:

1. Change the value for the W_LOGTYPES token in the dictionary /site/dict/words. A typical

definition for this token might look like this:

W_LOGTYPES/G

Each letter in the W_LOGTYPES value represents a different type of device that can log in

on an iNEWS newsroom computer system.

The letters are the same ones that appear in the first column of a list s or list c display for

these device types.

2. To track logins by device type, add the appropriate letter to the W_LOGTYPES value.

Use the following letters:

For instance, to track logins from all devices on your system, change the W_LOGTYPES

line to look like this:

W_LOGTYPES/GBc

The letters can appear in any order.

nOn a busy system, this can create a large amount of console activity.

3. When a user logs in at a device of a type listed in W_LOGTYPES, a message similar to the

following is sent to the console:

Apr 5 16:25:47 NRCS-A G3494: Attempted login bloyd 172.24.96.247

3.1.1.2/3.1.1.3 RH5

This message includes the device type and number, time of login, user name, IP address of

PC used, and client version number.

Letter Description

G iNEWS Workstation

g Web Client

B Web sessions

C Community sessions

cCOM

A Interplay (Instinct or NewsCutter)

aWeb Services API

I Instinct

Using Group Security to Control System Access

4. A logout message similar to the following is sent to the console when the user logs out:

Apr 5 16:23:55 NRCS-A G3495: Logout fiatala 172.24.96.247 {9}

3.1.1.2/3.1.1.3 RH5

A failed login—that is, an invalid user name or password—produces a message similar to

this:

Apr 5 16:25:47 NRCS-A G3494: Attempted login bogus 172.24.96.247

3.1.1.2/3.1.1.3 RH5

Regardless of the W_LOGTYPES value, a message is always sent to the console when a

superuser logs in or out. This message includes (n) if the user is a superuser. An

unsuccessful login by a superuser generates a message only if the device type used is

included in W_LOGTYPES.

Using login tracking in conjunction with console history and disk logging, you can keep

accurate records of who is using your system and when and where they are connecting to it.

A listing of currently logged in users may be obtained from the console using the list s

command. See “list s” on page 529 for more information.

Using Group Security to Control System Access

Your system is designed to be used by a wide range of people. For the system to accommodate so

many diverse job roles, restrict sensitive areas of your database to authorized users. The system’s

powerful security features let you restrict access to important directories and queues.

cSecurity ensures that only authorized people can view or make changes to important

queues. It does not provide absolute privacy, because superusers can open any story while

performing normal system maintenance. Warn your staff not to store personal or

confidential material in the database.

Many security features in iNEWS involve establishing groups and assigning privileges and

restrictions to them. The iNEWS Setup and Configuration Manual gives you complete

information about using the group features in iNEWS to help you maintain system security.

4Database Management

This chapter provides you with information required to manage the iNEWS database, where all

business data, such as stories, is stored. Much of the iNEWS system data is stored in

configuration files, which is covered in the Avid iNEWS Setup and Configuration Guide.

This chapter contains the following main sections:

•Monitoring Free Space

•Tracking Database Space over Time

•Increasing Database Space for Immediate Use

•Maintaining the Database

Monitoring Free Space

The iNEWS newsroom computer system is constantly collecting wire stories and adding them to

the database while the news staff adds scripts, rundowns, memos, assignment sheets, and other

stories. To avoid running out of disk space, iNEWS tracks old stories. As stories get old, the

system purges them.

Distribution and purging of disk space is called the database cycle. In this cycle, wire stories are

collected and stored in the database for a specific interval of time. Other news items, such as

scripts and assignment sheets, are created by the news staff and also kept for a preset period of

time, called the purge interval, which is set individually for each queue. Any story older than its

queue’s purge interval is purged, and its space is reclaimed for new stories.

The purge interval is a database trait, so you can set different purge intervals for queues and

directories, depending on the information they hold. Setting purge intervals appropriate for

stories in various queues helps keep the database from growing too large.

Once an hour, at 15 minutes after the hour, an automatic dbpurge program scans each queue for

stories older than the queue’s purge interval and moves these stories into the Dead queue.

Stories sent to the Dead queue are not erased until the system needs the space. Until the system

reclaims this space, stories in the Dead queue can be read, searched, edited, copied, or printed.

To retrieve a story from the Dead queue, select the story and copy it to a different queue in the

database, where you have write permission.

Although you can open stories in the Dead queue, they are marked for removal and will be

permanently removed when the system detects the computer is running out of storage space.

Your system keeps track of the space available by examining and maintaining a list of free space

on the disk. The free list is explained in “Monitoring the Free List” on page 50.

Understanding Database Storage Units

Your computer’s disk is divided into blocks. The database portion of the disk is divided into

1024-byte blocks. When a story is saved, the system allocates as many blocks as necessary to

hold the story and then divides the story among those blocks.

Blocks used to hold a story need not be sequential; a story can be saved in blocks that are apart.

To tie together all blocks, each block contains a reference to the block containing the next part of

the story.

A block is either “in use” or “free”.

Monitoring Free Space

niNEWS versions 3.x and earlier supported a maximum database size of 16GB. Beginning with

iNEWS versions 4.x and later, the maximum database size increased to 128GB. When the

database size was expanded the storage block size also increased from 1k blocks to 4k blocks.

Monitoring the Free List

The free list is the list of free space on the disk. By keeping track of space in the free list, the

system can detect when it is running low on space. It runs an automatic

dbserver

program,

which removes the oldest stories from the Dead queue and adds the space to the free list, where it

is made available to the system. This way, dbserver maintains the volume of free space available

in the database.

The free list measures space in blocks (a block=1024 bytes), and has a lower limit called the

lowwater mark, which represents the least amount of free space available. When the space

available drops below the lowwater mark, the system runs dbserver to reclaim enough space

from the Dead queue to rebuild the free list to the highwater mark.

Together, the highwater and lowwater marks determine the free list’s normal operational range.

If the system cannot get back up to the highwater mark after reclaiming free space, the user will

get a low on space message. Create free space immediately, as explained in the following

section.

Understanding How the System Copies Stories

You can configure iNEWS to distribute a wire story to several queues when it is received.

Likewise, two or more users can put copies of the same story into their personal queues. If you

copy and distribute enough stories, a large portion of the database can become cluttered with the

copies.

To avoid filling up the disk with copies of stories, your system keeps only the original story on

the disk. When a story is copied to another queue, your system puts a reference to the original

story in the queue that will hold the copy.

When someone opens a copy of a story, the system uses the reference to find the original story. It

makes a working copy of that story, which it sends to the user. If the user examines the working

copy and makes no changes, the working copy is deleted when the user closes the story.

However, if the user makes changes to the working copy and saves it, the system saves that copy

as a story, replacing the reference.

Tracking Database Space over Time

In most cases, you can treat a reference to an actual story as if it were the story. The only time

you need to take references into consideration is when setting purge intervals. When the system

references a story to several different queues, each reference takes on the purge interval of the

queue. When a reference becomes older than its queue’s purge interval, the computer puts the

reference, not the actual story, in the Dead queue.

The space used for a story becomes free only when the last reference to the story has been

removed from the system.

Tracking Database Space over Time

Do not wait until you encounter an “out-of-space” condition before you start to think about

database storage. There are two ways you can get a good picture of space usage over time:

• The “hogs” report

• The information generated by the dbfree command

Using the hogs Command to Obtain Information

The hogs command displays how much space particular queues are using in the database. It uses

this format:

hogs [<directory or queue name>]

To get a hogs report on the People directory, type:

hogs people

A screen similar to the following appears:

% USED SHARED HELD LOCKED PURGE QUEUE NAME

0 36 20 0 0 0 PEOPLE.LEVY.BYLINE

0 128 20 0 0 0 PEOPLE.LEVY.FINAL

0 32 40 0 0 0 PEOPLE.LEVY.FORM

...

0 425 40 0 0 0 PEOPLE.WALTERS.NOVEL

Increasing Database Space for Immediate Use

The USED column contains the number of blocks used in that queue. The SHARED column

indicates the number of blocks used in that queue that are also used in other queues. To get the

number of blocks used only by that queue, subtract the SHARED count from the USED count. If

any queue has a substantially greater number of used blocks than the others, examine that queue

more closely.

To obtain a hogs report on the entire database, type:

hogs .

To send a hogs report to yourself, type:

NRCS-A# sh

# hogs . | mail <your username> &

nFor more examples on how to use the hogs command, see “hogs” on page 518.

Using dbserver and dbfree to Obtain Information

To obtain an accurate idea of how much space is being used by stories in the system:

1. Empty out the Dead queue and reclaim all space used in it. Type:

dbserver 34000000

nYou must run dbserver when other programs like dbpurge are not running.The number 34000000

reflects the maximum database size in blocks and ensures the DEAD queue is emptied.

2. The next day, or after completion, run the dbfree program to see how much space is being

devoted to functions in your newsroom you consider critical.

3. Repeat this process from time to time, so you are aware of trends in space usage.

Use the information to make decisions on projected storage needs, and how space is used.

Increasing Database Space for Immediate Use

If your database has not reached the “Low on Space” point, but you want to increase free space

for immediate use, do the following:

To increase free space for immediate use:

1. Type the command that appears on bold:

NRCS-A$ dbfree

database size 16,386,300 free 1,746,564 = 11%, freelist 1,493

Maintaining the Database

The dbfree command—used by a system operator or a superuser—displays database size,

free list size, and percentage of remaining database available. The freelist number indicates

how many database blocks are used to hold the free list. The free list is compressed. This

results in anywhere from 250 to 5,000 free-block numbers contained in each free list block.

In this example, 1,493 blocks are used to hold the 1,746,564 free block numbers. That is an

average of 1,169 free block numbers per free list block.

2. Back up old material to tape and remove it from the database.

3. Check and reset purge intervals of Wires directories and queues.

To view purge intervals at the console, type:

list d wires

Information similar to the following appears:

SRPlo-LIsUG-QSXWFiT sortfield purge dis mbox directory

D-R-----I----Q-XW--- TITLE P4.0 D1 - WIRES

D-R-----I----Q-XW--- TITLE P4.0 D1 - WIRES.ALL

D-R-----I----Q-XW--- TITLE P4.0 D1 - WIRES.AP

...

One of the biggest consumers of database space in a newsroom is the Wires directory.

Because wire stories lose much of their value after a few days, most newsrooms set a purge

interval of 2 or 3 days. In this example, all Wires directories and queues have a purge

interval of four days. The purge interval is a database trait you can customize for each

database directory or queue. For more information on modifying database traits, including

purge intervals, see the Avid iNEWS Setup and Configuration Guide.

Maintaining the Database

The following sections describe the two most important maintenance procedures you should

perform regularly on your database:

• Check the database for errors

• Clean up the database on a monthly basis

Checking the Database for Errors

In the large databases typically maintained by newsrooms, minor errors can develop in some

stories as a result of vast amounts of information the system processes every day. These errors

can grow and eventually begin to damage the database if they are not removed.

Maintaining the Database

To check stories in your database for errors, use the dblines console command, which examines

every story in the database. You can run dblines on any server while the system is online. It can

point out problems or errors in the structure of the database, find queue corruption that must be

fixed before a dbvisit is run, and make some repairs. It cannot reclaim unreferenced blocks,

adjust link counts, or rebuild the free list; dbvisit is required for that.

Since dblines examines every story in your database, it requires several hours to complete its

task, so run dblines before you go home at night. By the time you return in the morning, it should

be done.

When dblines discovers an error, it ordinarily sends an error message to the console. However, if

you run it at night, you can have the system send its messages to a log file for you to review the

next day.

nFor more information on the various commands used in this section, see “Command References”

on page 497.

To execute the command and have it send output to a log file:

1. Enter superuser mode on the master computer.

2. Type:

dblines . > /tmp/dblines.log

You can also use the at command to schedule the dblines command to run at a specified

time. For instance:

To execute the dblines command so it logs at a specified time:

1. Enter superuser mode on the master computer

2. Get the current time, using the date command:

NRCS-A# date

Sat Jul 10 11:05:07 EDT 2010

nYou must use 24-hour military time.

3. Set the schedule, such as 5 minutes later, using the at command:

NRCS-A# at 11:10

4. Type the dblines command line:

/exc/dblines . > /tmp/dblines.log

<Ctrl+D>

Pressing Ctrl+D after entering the command line marks the end of commands to be executed

according to the at schedule. Afterwards, the server prompt returns to the original prompt,

showing the server name, such as NRCS-A#.

Maintaining the Database

After the dblines is complete, you can check the log file for error messages, by using the

grep command:

NRCS-A# grep failed /tmp/dblines.log

This searches the log file for the word failed. If there are no errors involving queue

corruption, such as <queue> scan failed , <queue> read error, or unable to open <queue>,

the prompt will simply be returned. If there are any error messages related to queue

corruption, call Avid for assistance.

If you want to review the entire log, you can use the doc command to place a copy in a queue

you specify. For instance, replacing the previous example, the sequence of commands

(shown in bold) may appear similar to the following:

nYou must use 24-hour military time.

NRCS-A# at 11:10

/exc/dblines . |/exc/doc-ptu people.sysadmin.notes

<Ctrl+D>

job 1001340600.a at Sat Jul 10 11:10:00 2010

NRCS-A#

In the example, the system would execute the dblines command at 11:10, and then place the

output in PEOPLE.SYSADMIN.NOTES. As indicated by the pound sign (#) in the prompt,

you must be in superuser mode to execute the commands.

Cleaning the Database

Over the course of a month, the iNEWS database may develop minor errors in its structure—the

overall organization in which individual stories are arranged. These errors are the result of

normal database cycles in which old material is removed and new information is added.

These errors grow and begin to damage the database if you do not remove them. The database

cleanup procedure identifies errors so you can repair them before they become harmful.

nUnless you are instructed to perform this procedure more often, do a database cleanup once a

month.

You can conduct database cleanup, using the dbvisit command, while your system offline or

online. The procedures for each are provided in the following sections:

•Cleaning Your Database Offline

•Cleaning Your Database with Online Dbvisit

Maintaining the Database

Cleaning Your Database Offline

The database cleanup procedure using the dbvisit command requires you to briefly take your

system offline, preventing users from logging in.

The day before performing the monthly database cleanup offline, do the following:

1. Select the console window for the master computer (typically server A).

2. Type

dbserver 16000000

to empty the Dead queue.

Starting the day before, allows time for the system to complete this process, which may take

several hours, before you run dbvisit.

nTo check the database structure for errors, dbvisit must perform a cursory check of stories in the

database, including those in the Dead queue. You can shorten the time it takes dbvisit to examine

the database by using dbserver to empty the Dead queue first.

The dbserver command initiates a day-long operation and should be done one day ahead of the

next steps in this procedure. Your system remains online during the operation.

After the dbserver operation is completed, you are ready to clean up the database offline,

by doing the following:

1. Shutdown the system, by completing the following steps:

nFor more details on the procedure for shutting down the system, see the Avid iNEWS Setup and

Configuration Guide.

a. From the PuTTYCS application, select the PuTTY Filter created for sending server

commands to all servers, such as iNEWS Consoles.

b. Take the system offline.

c. Log out all users.

The dbvisit command cannot examine stories being edited. You must log out everyone

on the system and stop all news programs on the servers before running dbvisit.

d. Run the stop all console command on all servers to stop all workstations, wires, and

other devices from making further changes to the database.

After using the stop all command, wait a few seconds for the prompt to reappear. When it

does, proceed to the next step.

cIf conducting a dbvisit offline, ensure system is offline and that you have stopped all

network devices. If you do not do this before cleaning your database, you may corrupt the

data when you perform the cleanup. For procedures to conduct an online dbvisit, see

“Cleaning Your Database with Online Dbvisit” on page 58.

Maintaining the Database

2. Start the database cleanup by doing the following:

a. Select the console window for the master computer (typically server A).

b. Enter superuser mode.

c. Type:

dbvisit -d

A message similar to the following appears:

09:31:45 opening database

09:31:45 traversing roots

The

-d

instructs dbvisit to print a period each time it visits a new queue and a colon for

every 1,000 stories in a queue. After you have done a few cleanups, you can judge how

far dbvisit has progressed by the number of periods it has printed. When you run dbvisit,

it begins with the root file structure and then examines the entire directory. As it inspects

the root files and then the directory, dbvisit prints messages indicating its progress.

Add the

-l

flag (the letter L) to include the link count distribution information in the

output. If there are link count discrepancies, the system will list them. Such advisory

messages about high and low link counts are not errors, however, you will be prompted

to correct them.

nRunning dbvisit on all servers instead of just the master computer is an option, performed by

typing

dbvisit -dr

. The 'r' indicates read-only mode, and it can run while the read-write

dbvisit is running on the master server. The read-only dbvisit cannot be started until the

read-write dbvisit reaches the 'traversing directory' phase. After dbvisit runs on all computers,

the output can be compared to verify the integrity of the mirror.

The dbvisit process has four main phases:

- Visiting the “root” blocks

- Traversing the project, directory and queue structures

- Visiting the stories

- Updating the free list and fixing link counts

3. Beginning with iNEWS version 4.x, dbvisit was modified so that it would no longer allow

you to update the free list if critical errors are found in the database. Instead, if critical errors

are found, dbvisit will attempt to traverse the directories, reporting all errors it finds, and

then completes without offering an opportunity to update the free list. Errors reported during

the traversal of stories are not considered critical. Therefore, if the system presents you with

the question: Update the free list (y/n)?, do one of the following:

tType

to update the free list.

tType

to skip the update.

Maintaining the Database

nIf there are many story errors, you may want to skip the update and contact Avid to assess the

problems.

In addition to spotting errors in the database structure, dbvisit collects any unreferenced

blocks and puts them on the free list. Unreferenced blocks are not used by any story and

are not a part of the free list. They are stray blocks that cannot be used until they are put

on the free list. Skipping this update of the free list retains the old free list. While this

means that unreferenced blocks are not collected back to the free list, you can add them

to the free list later by performing another dbvisit.

4. Restart your system, by doing the following:

a. From the PuTTYCS application, select the PuTTY Filter created for sending server

commands to all servers, such as iNEWS Consoles.

b. Exit superuser mode by pressing Ctrl+D.

c. Type

online

to bring the system back online.

d. Type

restart all

to restart all devices.

The system displays Hot-to-go messages as the devices start. If a device cannot be started, a

failed message is displayed for that device. Wait for the other devices to start, then use

standard procedures to restart failed devices, as covered in the Avid iNEWS Setup and

Configuration Guide.

Cleaning Your Database with Online Dbvisit

If performing a dbvisit offline prevents usage of your system for too long a period of time, there

is a way to run dbvisit while your system is online, letting system administrators do crucial

database maintenance without stopping iNEWS users from doing their work.

The strategy used to allow an online dbvisit is to checkpoint the system in a quiet/inactive state,

and to maintain the checkpoint state by copying any block that is to be change in the database

onto the checkpoint partition, namely /dev/rp5backup prior to writing the block onto the

database partition - /dev/rp5.

Your system must be shutdown briefly before initiating checkpoint mode. But after checkpoint is

turned on, you can bring your system online for iNEWS users while performing database

cleanup with the dbvisit command.

nDo not conduct an online dbvisit without checkpoint mode initiated.If you do, not do this before

cleaning your database, you may corrupt the data when you perform the cleanup.

Maintaining the Database

To perform an online dbvisit:

1. Bring the iNEWS system down and close the database on all servers. This is only for the

very brief period of time it takes to ensure checkpoint mode is active.

a. From the PuTTYCS application, select the PuTTY Filter created for sending server

commands to all servers, such as iNEWS Consoles.

b. Type

offline

to take the system offline.

c. Type

logout all

to logout all users. You might want to broadcast a message to users

prior to this so they can save their work and prepare for the brief downtime.

d. Type

shutdown

to stop all devices and close the database.

e. The system will present a warning and question: Do you really want to do this? (y/n)?

Type

to shut down the system.

2. Initiate checkpoint mode.

a. (Optional) Type the

status

command to determine which server is the master computer

and view the current status of the database.

For instance:

WAVD-A# status

A is OFFLINE and has been CONFIGURED. ID is WAVD.

System is AB. Master is A.

Disk status is OK. The database is CLOSED.

b. Select the console window for the master computer (typically server A).

c. Type

checkpoint on

to reopen the database in checkpoint mode.

nAttempting to turn checkpoint on while the database is open will result in the following warning:

Database must be CLOSED when activating checkpoint --

3. Bring the iNEWS system online.

a. From the PuTTYCS application, select the PuTTY Filter created for sending server

commands to all servers, such as iNEWS Consoles.

b. Type

startup

to start the system. This will put the system online as well as start up all

iNEWS devices.

c. (Optional) Type the

status

command to view the current status of the database.

Maintaining the Database

For instance:

WAVD-A# status

A is ONLINE and has been CONFIGURED. ID is WAVD.

System is AB. Master is A.

Disk status is OK. The database is OPEN with checkpoint.

Users can now log in to iNEWS.

4. Start the database cleanup by doing the following:

a. Select the console window for the master computer (typically server A).

b. Enter superuser mode.

c. Type:

dbvisit -cd

A message similar to the following appears:

09:31:45 2013-06-30 Using checkpoint partition

09:31:45 traversing roots

-----message truncated for documentation brevity-----

The dbvisit process has four main phases:

- Visiting the “root” blocks

- Traversing the directory, queue, and project structures

- Visiting the stories

- Updating the free list and fixing link counts

nMore details on the dbvisit command syntax and all of its flags are provided in Command

References appendix of this guide. See“dbvisit” on page 512 for more information.

5. Beginning with iNEWS version 4.x, dbvisit was modified so that it would no longer allow

you to update the free list if critical errors are found in the database. Instead, if critical errors

are found, dbvisit will attempt to traverse the directories, reporting all errors it finds, and

then completes without offering an opportunity to update the free list. Errors reported during

the traversal of stories are not considered critical. Therefore, if the system presents you with

the question: Update the free list (y/n)?, do one of the following:

tType

to update the free list.

tType

to skip the update.

nIf there are many story errors, you may want to skip the update and contact Avid to assess the

problems.

6. At the end of the dbvisit process, you might be presented with the question: Do you want to

turn off the checkpoint (y/n)?

Maintaining the Database

tType

to turn checkpoint mode off.

A message similar to the following appears:

09:51:17 Checkpoint partition closed

09:51:17 complete - Elapsed time: 20:32

7. (Optional) Type the

status

command to view the current status of the database.

For instance:

WAVD-A# status

A is ONLINE and has been CONFIGURED. ID is WAVD.

System is AB. Master is A.

Disk status is OK. The database is OPEN.

5Avid System Monitoring

This chapter provides you with information about monitoring iNEWS Server statistics via an

SNMP monitoring application such as Avid System Monitor (ASM).

This chapter contains the following main sections:

•Using SNMP Monitoring on the iNEWS Server

•Installing and Enabling the SNMP Agent

Using SNMP Monitoring on the iNEWS Server

Avid iNEWS version 4.5 supports SNMP monitoring. SNMP monitoring applications, such as

Avid System Monitor, lets you monitor system level environmental information dynamically

through an SNMP agent. Avid System Monitor also lets you graph this information over time.

For example, the following data can be graphed over time in the Avid System Monitor web page

interface:

•Average CPU load

• Number of CPU interrupts per second

• System uptime

• Swap space (disk space reserved for memory when RAM is fully loaded)

• System memory usage

•CPU usage

By default, the SNMP Agent is not enabled.

Installing and Enabling the SNMP Agent

This section describes how to install and enable the SNMP agent on the iNEWS Server. See your

Avid representative for information about setting up an Avid System Monitor server and

configuring it to monitor the iNEWS Server.

nThese steps should be performed only by qualified Avid personnel.

To install the SNMP agent on the iNEWS server:

1. Install the net-snmp Red Hat 6 packages. This will create a /etc/snmp directory.

2. Set up the snmpd.conf configuration file. In the /etc/snmp directory, locate the snmpd.conf

file. Using a Linux editor, open the configuration file and add the following information near

the top of the file.

a. Replace the public value in

rocommunity public

with your community name.

b. Locate the line with

syslocation

and add your location, such as the name of your city.

c. Locate the line with

syscontact

and add your iNEWS administrator email.

3. Save the changes and exit.

To enable the SNMP agent process:

tIn a console to the server, type:

# service snmpd start

Installing and Enabling the SNMP Agent

t(Optional) Set snmpd to automatically start at boot by typing:

# chkconfigsnmpd on

To disable the SNMP agent process:

tIn a console to the server, type:

# service snmpd stop

6Backing Up the iNEWS System

Proper maintenance of the iNEWS system requires three kinds of backups:

• Database backups—of the iNEWS database

• Software backups—of iNEWS software and the operating system

• System file backups—of files like /site/config and /etc/hosts

This chapter explains the procedures for the various types of backups necessary to maintain the

iNEWS system. It also provides general information about using tapes and tape drives or

conducting a tapeless backup for iNEWS on RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

nPrevious versions of iNEWS worked on 32-bit or 64-bit RHEL; iNEWS v4.0 and later are only

qualified on 64-bit RHEL.

This chapter contains the following main sections:

•Tape Operations

•Backing up the iNEWS Database

-Backing up the Entire Database to Tape

-Tapeless Database Backup

-Backing up Individual Queues

•Restoring Data to the iNEWS Database

•Disaster Recovery Planning

•Backing up Software

•Backing up System Site Files

Tape Operations

When making backup tapes, pay particular attention to the write-protect tab on the tape. If you

have trouble writing to the tape, check the tab and try moving it in the opposite direction.

When loading a tape, ensure the tape has finished loading before issuing tape commands. Trying

to access the tape before it is ready may result in a “hung” process that waits forever for the tape

to be ready. The only solution is a reboot. For DAT tapes, wait at least a minute after all tape

activity lights cease blinking to be sure the tape is properly loaded.

nAlways clearly label tapes with the type of backup tape it is, date it was produced, and command

used to produce it. Ensure that your tapes can be found quickly, in case of emergency.

Since the database is mirrored on all servers in your system, it does not matter on which server

you produce the database backup tape. You might want to rotate which server does the database

tape dump so the tape drives wear evenly and you extend the life of the drives. Alternatively, you

might want to always run the backup on one server’s drive so you have another, relatively unused

drive standing by in case the heavily-used drive develops problems. However, for software and

site file backups, Avid recommends separate backups be made on each iNEWS Server.

Later in this chapter, various procedures are provided for checking data on tapes, searching for

specific data on tapes, and restoring data from tapes. For more information, see “Listing Tape

Contents and Backup Dates” on page 79 and “Searching a Tape” on page 82.

Establishing Policies for Backup Procedures

Since your software and system files change infrequently, you do not need to back them up very

often. Your database, however, changes hundreds or even thousands of times every day, so they

need more frequent backups

Avid recommends your station establish and follow a local backup policy for each type of data in

your iNEWS system.

The following list has some general backup guidelines:

• Since the database is mirrored across multiple servers you have built-in hardware

redundancy. Backups also provide some protection against the rare cases of database

corruption.

• One approach is weekly backups rotating through 5 tapes, one for each week of the month.

If you need to keep old data for a period of time you may supplement the five tape rotation

with 12 more tapes labeled with the months in the year.

• Do not store archived material beneath daily show production queues. Segregate archive

material under it’s own directory.

Backing up the iNEWS Database

• If you archive old shows on your system, you might want to produce dbdump tapes that

cover old years For instance, ARCHIVE.2008 through ARCHIVE.2009, and store them

separately.

• It is a good idea to make extra copies of the tapes and store them off site. If your computer

room is destroyed, you can buy new servers. But if the computer room is destroyed with all

backup tapes stored in the room, your data is lost. Many corporations use off-site storage

services for backup tapes.

Backing up the iNEWS Database

Database backups provide insurance against system calamities. Also, to free up space in the

database, you can back up stories to a tape—or to a file, which can be transferred to another

computer for storage—and then remove those stories from the database.

Avid recommends making frequent backups of important material and the entire database. To

back up database items, you will need to use the dbdump console command.

The dbdump Command

The dbdump command backs up the news database, including the People files, show rundowns,

wire stories, and root database information such as user accounts, passwords, and directory traits.

All user, database, and group traits are stored within the database.

The simplest form of the dbdump command is:

NRCS-A# dbdump c

The c stands for create. When you use this command, it overwrites any information currently on

the tape and does a full database backup of everything—except the contents of any queue or

directory with its skip flag enabled.

nThe skip flag is a database trait that prevents the dbdump c command from backing up contents

of queues and directories. Generally, Wires queues and the Dead queue are usually skip-flagged

so they are not backed up. This results in less time for the backup and less tape used. If a dbdump

reaches the end of the tape and still has more data to back up, you will be prompted for another

tape. For more information on skip flags—also known as the Skip Backup database trait—see the

iNEWS Newsroom Computer System Setup and Configuration Manual.

For instance, to dump all database items contained in the SCRIPTS.2010 directory to tape, you

could type:

dbdump c -n script.2010

Backing up the iNEWS Database

If you already have dbdump material on tape and you want to append another dbdump to the end

of it, use the following command:

NRCS-A# dbdump ad

An append does not overwrite dbdump information currently on the tape. See “Backing up

Individual Queues” on page 75 for more information.

nTo minimize the impact of any potential problems, perform dbdump at less critical usage periods.

Backing up the Entire Database to Tape

This section provides the procedure for backing up the iNEWS database to a tape. For

information on tapeless database backups, see “Tapeless Database Backup” on page 69.

To back up the entire database to tape:

1. Insert a tape into a server’s tape drive.

2. Select the server that has the backup tape. For information on selecting a server, see the

iNEWS Newsroom Computer System Setup and Configuration Manual.

3. Type

dbdump c

A verification request similar to the following appears:

Do you really want to create a new archive? (n/y)

cWhen backing up the database onto a tape, anything on that tape is overwritten by the new

copy of the database.

4. Type

to begin copying the database to tape.

Information similar to the following appears:

Starting Dump(1), block(0)

dumping isam user

...

3121 stories dumped

Ending Dump(1), block(223)

As dbdump copies, the console displays messages like those above. The number of stories

dumped and the ending block mentioned in these messages depends on your system.

When the console prompt returns, the backup is done. You can then verify the backup.

Otherwise, remove the tape from the drive. Set the tape’s write protect switch to the on

position, return it to its case, and write the date on the case label.

Backing up the iNEWS Database

5. (Optional) Type

dbrestore tdv

at the console to verify the backup was complete—that

everything you wanted backed up was copied to tape.

The dbrestore tdv console command lists every directory and queue on the tape. Since the

tape contains most of the database, this list is very long.

nTo list contents of a tape, the server must read the entire tape; therefore, listing contents takes

approximately as long as it does to back up the database to tape.

A truncated example of the output of the dbrestore tdv command looks like this:

Listing tape contents only!

Type Stories Name

Dir

Que DEAD

Dir SYSTEM

Dir SYSTEM.KEYBOARDS

Que 1 SYSTEM.KEYBOARDS.000-INSTALLATION

...

Que 3 TEST.SMITH

3630 stories listed

The first column of the listing identifies whether the item is a queue or a directory. If it is a

queue, the second column indicates how many stories are in that queue. The third column

displays the name of the directory or queue.

If any queues in the list do not have stories listed, then either the queue has no stories, or the

queue has its skip flag enabled. If the skip flag is enabled, the queue name is copied to tape,

but none of its stories are copied. In the previous example, the Dead queue does not have any

stories on the tape.

6. When the list is complete, remove the tape.

7. Set the tape’s write protect switch to the on position, and write the date on the case label.

Tapeless Database Backup

Instead of backing up the iNEWS database to tapes for potential restoration, you can dump the

information to a file and then transfer (FTP) the backed up data to another computer for storage.

The more compact way to do this is to use the dbdump C command piped through gzip and

directed to create a file in the /tmp/directory. For instance, type:

NRCS-A$: dbdump C -f+ |gzip > /tmp/061709.gz

Backing up the iNEWS Database

To dump information to a file without the gzip option:

1. On an iNEWS Server, use the dbdump command in the following format:

dbdump Cv -f <path/file name>

For instance, type:

NRCS-A$

dbdump Cv -f /tmp/dbdump.061709

The C option creates a new dump file, and the v option switches on the verbose mode, which

gives you an idea of progress. After you enter the command, a message similar to the

following is displayed:

Starting Dump(1) Block(0), dumped on 2009-06-17 16:33:37

Dumping ISAM files

Dumping user

Dumping message

Dumping group

Dumping system-blobs

Dumping community

Type Stories Name

Dir

Dir SHOW

Dir SHOW.TRAINING

Que SHOW.TRAINING.RUNDOWN

Que SHOW.TRAINING.CG

Que SHOW.TRAINING.VIDEO

Que 44 SHOW.TRAINING.MASTER

Backing up the iNEWS Database

…

Que 1 SHOW.MOSGWE

Que 31840 SHOW.VID-ID

Dir SHOW.SCRIPTWRITING

Que SHOW.SCRIPTWRITING.ONE

Que SHOW.SCRIPTWRITING.TWO

Que SHOW.SCRIPTWRITING.THREE

Que 5 SHOW.NEWSTARTEST

Que ARCHIVE.SCRIPTS.2009

310 directories scanned

1684 queues dumped

3109046 stories dumped

Ending Dump(1) Block(136), dumped on 2009-06-17 16:33:37

2. On a Windows-based PC with at least 16 GB free for storage, start a command prompt

session, by selecting Start > Run and then entering

CMD

3. Navigate to the directory on the PC where you want to store the backup file by typing

and

the directory path. In this example, the directory is

C:\dbdumps

4. At the cmd prompt, type

ftp -i

and press Enter to start the FTP session.

Backing up the iNEWS Database

5. Then type the open command using the following format:

open <resolvable name or IP of iNEWS Server> 49152

The numerical value at the end of the command line is the number for the port, which should

be 49152.

6. Type

and press Enter. Then enter the system operator password when prompted. A

message will appear to indicate whether the login was successful.

Backing up the iNEWS Database

7. Type

cd /tmp

to change to the /tmp directory.

8. Type

binary

to change to binary mode.

9. (Optional) You can list the directory contents to get the name of the file you want to transfer,

by entering the command:

ls -l

10. To transfer the dump file, enter the get command using the following format:

get /tmp/<filename>

Backing up the iNEWS Database

The FTP command prompt will reappear in the window as a definitive indication that the

transfer has finished. However, you can check the directory on the Windows PC for the

presence of the file; it is created as soon as the transfer begins, and the size will continue to

grow during the transfer process.

nThe file will be much larger than the one shown in the example here, so the transfer can take a

while to complete. Avid suggests conducting file transfers (FTP) from computers that do not have

aggressive power saving settings in place.

Backing up the iNEWS Database

11. Type

bye

to end the FTP session.

12. Type

exit

to exit the command prompt window.

You are now ready to remove the temporary dump file.

nWhile you can leave one or two in the /tmp folder temporarily, Avid recommends that no more

than a couple of database dump files be kept at any given time. Removal of older dump files will

help avoid running out of hard drive space on the server.

13. Use the rm command at the console to remove old database dump files from the /tmp folder

on iNEWS.

a. Enter superuser mode, first.

NRCS-A$ su

Password:

b. Type the rm command, using the following format:

rm /tmp/<file name>

NRCS-A# rm /tmp/dbdump061709-div

rm: remove regular file ‘/tmp/dbdump061709-div’?

c. Type y to answer verification question.

rm: remove regular file ‘/tmp/dbdump061709-div’? y

d. (Optional) When the prompt reappears, such as NRCS-A#, you can verify the file’s

removal by viewing the contents of the /tmp folder again.

NRCS-A$ cd /tmp

NRCS-A$ ls -l

Backing up Individual Queues

Individual queues can be backed up by specifying the

-n

flag and listing up to 10 queue or

directory names:

NRCS-A# dbdump c –n <queue or directory name>

To back up individual queues or directories to tape:

1. Insert tape into a server’s drive and select that server.

2. Use the dbdump command in one of the following formats:

tIf you do not have a tape that already contains a backup, insert a new tape and back up

the queue. For instance, to back up SCRIPTS.2010.FEB on a new tape, type:

dbdump c -n scripts.2010.feb

Backing up the iNEWS Database

A verification request appears:

Do you really want to create a new archive? (n/y)

If there is nothing on the tape that you want to save, type

to continue. A message

similar to the following will appear:

Starting track(1), block(0)

47 stories dumped

Ending track(1), block(34)

nWhen you back up a queue, dbdump ignores the queue’s skip flag, so you can use it to back up a

queue or directory that has its skip flag enabled. You can also use this process to save a queue or

directory to tape before removing it from the database. For instance, if you want to restore

database space by removing a queue with material no longer used, use dbdump to backup the

queue first. Then, if you need it later, you can retrieve it from the tape.

tIf you have previous backups on the tape, append the next backup to the tape with:

dbdump a -n <queue or directory name>

You can append additional backups to that tape until you use up all space on the tape.

Continuing with the previous example, the next day you would insert the same tape,

make sure its write protect is off, and then type

dbdump a

to append that day’s scripts to

the tape:

For instance, after making the first backup of SCRIPTS.2010.FEB shown in the

previous example, back up SCRIPTS.2010.MAR the following month by inserting the

same tape and entering the following:

dbdump a -n scripts.2010.mar

nIf you try to use dbdump a with a tape that does not already contain at least one backup, you get

an Empty tape message. If this happens, use dbdump c instead.

3. When the console prompt returns, the backup is done. Remove the tape and set the

write-protect switch on. Date the tape case label.

4. To verify the backup, type:

dbrestore tdv

This list should be short, but it could take time to complete if the tape contains several

weeks’ worth of backups.

Restoring Data to the iNEWS Database

Notes on Backing up the Database

If you try to back up data to a write-protected tape on the Linux platform, you get a message

similar to the following:

NRCS-A# dbdump c

Do you really want to create a new archive? (y/n) y

Starting Dump(1) Block (0), dumped on Thur Jul15 ‘0:36:14: 2010

dumping isam user

Please remove tape.

Insert continuation tape (make sure safety is off)

When continuation tape is ready type: y (RETURN)

If the tape is write-protected, remove it from the drive. On some tape drives you can change the

write-protect without removing the tape. Set the write protect switch to off, insert the tape, and

repeat dbdump.

Daily backups usually take very little time and generally do not affect system performance.

However, backing up a large amount of material to tape may hinder system performance, so you

should only do it during times of lighter system use.

If you have a very large database, the full database backup may require two or more tapes. The

system prompts you to insert the next tape. Remove the current tape, number it as tape number

one, and insert another tape. The server automatically continues copying the database when you

insert the second tape.

Restoring Data to the iNEWS Database

The following sections describe how to restore data from tape.

The dbrestore Command

Tapes produced with the dbdump command can be read back in and restored using the dbrestore

command. The most common use of the dbrestore command is to restore a specific queue or

directory. This is done by specifying the name on the command line:

NRCS-A# dbrestore d –n <queuename> <queuename> ...

Restoring Data to the iNEWS Database

nYou can use the dbrestore tdv command to verify that you can properly read a dbdump tape.

Check free space before you restore large amounts of data to the database. Before you dbrestore

stories or queues to your database from tape, ensure you have enough free space available to hold

the restored stories. You can create free space using the dbserver command to empty out some of

the Dead queue and add that space to the free list. A conservative estimate would be to have 10

free blocks for every story you plan to restore.

nWhen the -i option is used with the dbrestore command, dbrestore does not create any index

requests in SYSTEM.INDEX when stories are restored to indexed queues.The dbrestore process

is slowed when attempting to create index requests. Avid recommends the database be restored

using the -i option and the stories be re-indexed at a later time.

Restoring a First-Level Directory

Restoring a first-level directory, such as Scripts, as opposed to SCRIPTS.FEB, is the same as

restoring queues and other directories. However, when restoring such a directory, you also have

the option of restoring it under a new name. Use:

dbrestore d -n <old dir. name>[=<new dir. name>]

If the new directory does not already exist, dbrestore creates it.

For instance, suppose you have a directory called Scripts and you want to restore a previous

backup of this directory to another directory called Scripts-temp, which does not exist. Type:

dbrestore d -n scripts=scripts-temp

A message similar to the following appears:

744 stories restored

Since Scripts-temp does not exist, dbrestore creates it before restoring Scripts-temp. When

dbrestore has restored all stories in Scripts-temp, it displays a message indicating how many

stories were restored.

nIf you want to restore a specific directory, be sure to always include the

-n

and the directory

name. If you do not, dbrestore tries to restore everything on the tape to your database, which

could cause your system to run out of space.

You may not restore a first-level directory to a lower level. In the example above, for instance, we

could not have restored the Scripts directory to SCRIPTS.MAY.

Restoring Data to the iNEWS Database

When you restore a first-level directory to an existing directory, it acquires the traits of that

directory. If dbrestore must create the directory, it uses database traits of the directory it is

restoring.

cIf the new directory name is longer than the old one, there is a possibility that sub-directory

names may become too long and cannot be restored. When the new name is longer than the

old name, the dbrestore program will prompt with the following warning message:

WARNING: Alias too long! It should be shorter or the same length as current directory

name to avoid exceeding directory name length restrictions.

Do you really want to continue? (n/y)

Listing Tape Contents and Backup Dates

When restoring a directory, you might need to examine the tape’s contents to ensure the directory

you want to restore is actually on that tape. Otherwise, if you attempt to restore a directory or

queue that is not on the tape, the system may take several minutes to search the entire tape before

reporting no stories restored.

The pages that follow show you how to use the dbrestore command to list the directories and

queues that have been backed up on a tape, to find out if the tape contains any stories saved after

a certain date, and to find out the date of each backup on the tape.

Listing Contents of a Tape

If you want to list every directory and queue on the tape, as well as the number of stories in each

queue, to the server with the tape drive, type:

dbrestore tdv

Restoring Data to the iNEWS Database

Information similar to the following appears:

Listing tape contents only!

Type Stories Name

Dir

Que DEAD

Dir SYSTEM

Dir SYSTEM.KEYBOARDS

...

Que 3 TEST.SMITH

3630 stories listed

Each line in the list consists of three columns and identifies a directory or a queue that has been

saved to the tape:

• The Type column indicates whether the line lists information about a directory or a queue.

Directories are identified by Dir and queues by Que.

• The Stories column is used only in lines beginning with Que and identifies how many stories

are in that queue. Use this number as a guide to how much space you need to restore the

queue. If there is no number, the queue is empty. (The queue is empty because either no

stories existed in the queue or the queue’s skip flag was enabled.)

The Name column identifies the directory or queue by name.

If you attempt to restore a queue with no stories, you see the following message:

no stories restored

Listing Items Dumped on a Particular Date

To list items dumped on a particular date:

1. Use the following format of dbrestore:

dbrestore td -d <date>

2. Enter the date in YYMMDD (year, month, day) or YYYYMMDD format.

Begin single-digit months and days with a zero, such as 04 for April. Also check for items

dumped to tape during a month by using the year and the month (YYMM).

Restoring Data to the iNEWS Database

You can check to see what was dumped to a tape during a year by specifying just the year

(YY).

For instance, to list everything dumped in October 2009, type:

dbrestore td -d 0910

A message similar to the following appears:

Listing tape contents only!

Type Stories Name

Dir

Dir SHOW.TODAY

Que 34 SHOW.TODAY.SCRIPTS

Que 3 SHOW.TODAY.RUNDOWNS

Continuing with Dump(2) Block(0)

Dumped Thu Jul15 10:30:19 2009

Dir SHOW.TODAY

Que 27 SHOW.TODAY.SCRIPTS

Que 3 SHOW.TODAY.RUNDOWNS

67 stories listed

In the previous example, the tape contains only backups from two dates: the first backup and

one made on July 15, 2009. Notice the date of the first backup is not included in the listing.

To find the date of the first backup, type the

dbrestore tf

command described below.

The dbrestore displays a Continuing with Dump

message just before processing the second

dump.

Listing the Date of Each Backup

To list the dates of each backup on a tape:

tType:

dbrestore tf

A message similar to the following appears:

Listing tape contents only!

Starting: Dump(1) Block(0)

Dumped Tue Jul10 15:33:01 2009

Continuing with Dump(2) Block(0)

Dumped Thu Jul15 10:30:19 2009

Elapsed time: 00:13

Restoring Data to the iNEWS Database

In the example, the tape contains two backups, one done on July 10, 2009, and another done

on July 15, 2009.

Searching a Tape

You can retrieve individual stories from a tape by searching for a word contained in the story.

The searchtape Command

The searchtape command allows you to search through a tape looking for a specific word. Stories

that contain that word are restored to the SYSTEM.SEARCHTAPE queue. There is a maximum

number of stories or hits that will be restored with the searchtape command. This default is

specified in the /site/system file. See “Searching a Tape by Word(s)” on page 82 for more

information.

nWhen you list a tape’s contents, your system must read all information on the tape to generate a

list of the contents. If the tape contains much information, listing the tape’s contents takes a

significant amount of time.

Because searching tapes for stories takes a long time and can reduce system performance,

restrict tape searches to periods of lighter system use. Avid recommends running all tape

operations during non-critical periods, not during shows.

Searching a Tape for Stories

To search a tape for stories:

1. Combine one or more keywords with a date or range of dates, as described in the following

sections.

2. When the system finds a story matching the search criteria, it restores the story to the

database. Because stories on tape may be old versions of stories still in the database, the

system restores them to the SYSTEM.SEARCHTAPE queue. This prevents the system from

putting an old version of a story in a queue that contains the current version of the same

story.

After restoring a story to SYSTEM.SEARCHTAPE, you can move it to any queue.

nBefore restoring stories from tape, check how much free space remains in your database at the

console. See “Checking for Free Space on a Database” on page 85 for more information.

Searching a Tape by Word(s)

To search a tape by word(s), follow the searchtape command with the word

for

and the word(s)

for which you want to search.

Restoring Data to the iNEWS Database

Use this form of the command:

searchtape for <words>

If you include more than one search word, the system searches for stories that contain any words

for which you are searching. You can search for up to 20 words at a time with this command.

For instance, to search for stories that contain either helicopter or president, type:

searchtape for helicopter president

A message similar to the following appears:

8 stories restored to SYSTEM.SEARCHTAPE

This command finds stories with the word president and it also finds stories with the word

helicopter. It would not limit the results to stories that contained both president and helicopter.

nIt is not possible to construct Boolean (and) searches using the searchtape command.

Always include the word “for” and one or more words for which you want to search when you

use the searchtape command. Even if you use a date or a date range as part of the search criteria,

as explained in the next section, you must include a word or words for which you want the

system to search.

Use search criteria that is as specific as possible:

• Always use a narrow range of dates

• Use a small number of search words

• Use words likely to appear only in stories for which you are searching

Searching a Tape by Word and Date Range

To restrict a search to stories backed up between certain dates:

1. Include the range of dates to which you want to restrict the search in the

searchtape

command.

The command format for this kind of search is:

searchtape from <date> to <date> for <words>

Dates must be in YYMMDD (year, month, day) or YYYYMMDD format, and single digit

months and days must begin with a zero (for instance, April is 04). If you want to specify

only a month or year, shorten the date format to YYMM or just YY.

2. Follow the second date with the word

for

and the word(s) for which you want to search.

Restoring Data to the iNEWS Database

To restore stories archived between May 1, 2000, and May 21, 2000, that contain the word

helicopter, type:

searchtape from 000501 to 000521 for helicopter

A message similar to the following appears:

6 stories restored to SYSTEM.SEARCHTAPE

nThe searchtape command looks for stories saved to tape within the dates you specify. It does not

look for stories created within those dates.

Searching a Tape by Word and Day

To search for stories saved to tape on a particular day, use the search format:

searchtape just <date> for <words>

To search for stories backed up on May 15, 2010 that contains the words helicopter or president,

type:

searchtape just 100515 for helicopter president

Searching a Tape by Word and Month

To search for stories saved to tape during a particular month, follow

searchtape

with

just

and

shorten the date to the year and month (YYMM).

For instance, to search a tape for any story saved to tape in February, 2009 that contains the word

helicopter, type:

searchtape just 0902 for helicopter

Specifying a Maximum Number of Stories to Search

To specify a maximum number of stories for searchtape to restore, include the word max and the

number of stories you want to restore.

To search a tape for all stories that contain the word president, type:

searchtape for president

If you do not specify a maximum, the system restores up to 50 stories.

If you specify a maximum number, searchtape stops when that number of stories has been

restored, or when all stories containing the text have been found—whichever comes first.

Restoring Data to the iNEWS Database

To search a tape for the first 10 stories containing president, type:

searchtape max 10 for president

Anytime you specify more than 50 stories to restore, you are reminded that this could cause the

system to run out of disk space.

When the search is complete, searchtape stops and displays a message indicating the number of

stories it has restored.

To cancel the restore operation at any time while in progress, press Delete.

Checking for Free Space on a Database

To check free space on a database:

1. Select a server.

nFor information on selecting a server, see the iNEWS Newsroom Computer System Setup and

Configuration Manual.

2. Type:

dbfree

A message similar to the following appears:

database size 16,386,300 free 3,288,408 = 20%, freelist 3,730

In the previous message example the freelist item indicates how many database blocks are

used to hold the free list. The freelist is compressed. You should have 10 free blocks for each

story you want to restore. For instance, if you expect to find 10 stories to restore, you should

have 100 free blocks. Add extra space to the free list before conducting a search because the

search may find and restore more stories than you expect.

Adding Blocks to the Free List

To add 100 blocks to the free list:

1. Select the master computer (typically server A).

2. Type:

dbserver 3288508

The number after dbserver must be the sum of the additional blocks and the free blocks from

dbfree.

A message similar to the following appears:

NRCS-A Sat Jul24 10:29:26 2010 dbserver complete-exiting

At this message, dbserver is finished and you may proceed. You can run dbfree again to

verify that you have enough space.

Disaster Recovery Planning

Restoring the Database

When a story being restored has more than 1,000 lines, the following message is displayed:

Warning: Large story being restored.

Queue: FUTURES.FEBRUARY

Title: "Senate Hearing"

Size: 1004 lines (approximate)

Press <del> to skip this story.

If the story size continues to grow, the following message prints every 1500 lines:

Large story continuing: 1500 lines

Press <del> to skip this story.

To skip the large story, press Delete while it is being restored.

Disaster Recovery Planning

Having a complete dbdump of the database ensures that you can restore your data in case of

calamity; however, restoring a complete dbdump to a freshly initialized database can be very

time-consuming and leave the newsroom without access to the system until the full database

dbrestore finishes. On very large databases, the full database dbrestore can take from 12 to 36

hours.

Planning a separate, efficient disaster recovery dbdump/dbrestore procedure can significantly

speed up the time before the system becomes functional to users.

Disaster Recovery Dbdump

The first step is to create a stripped down dbdump that contains the directory structure and

minimal amount of queues and directories needed to bring the system online. After the minimal

dbdump was restored, users can start working while the remainder of the database is restored

from the last full database dbdump tape.

Backing up Software

Create Minimal dbdump

The entire structure of the database, along with your designated minimal set of queues, can be

backed up, specifying the list of essential queues (or directories) to be backed up:

NRCS-A# dbdump ci -d -n <directory or queuename> ...”

nThe -d option dumps the news directory skeleton but will not dump any stories. The -n option will

dump the stories in any directories and/or queues specified. The i option will dump the isam files.

The essential directories would be System and possibly Show and a few daily Assignments

queues. The System directory must be part of the minimal dbdump.

If master rundown skeletons are stored elsewhere, add them to your list of essential queues. This

may be the bare minimum of directories needed to get a show on the air.

nDo not store archives of shows beneath the Shows directory. Having years of archive material

mixed in along with your rundowns and master rundowns will slow the dbrestore significantly. If

restoring Assignments queues, ensure you restore only daily queues needed to operate; do not

include all future files in the minimal dbdump.

You may list up to 10 directories and queues with the -n option of the dbdump program.

NRCS-A# dbdump ci -d -n system shows assignments

In case of disaster, this minimal dbdump would be the first tape restored to the system. Since it

will not contain many stories, to dbdump to or dbrestore from this tape is relatively quick and

users can resume work while the remainder of the material trickles in from the full dbdump tape.

This minimal dbdump tape should be updated periodically.

Backing up Software

Your system uses programs and site-dependent configuration files, called site files, to adapt it to

your newsroom operations and run the workstations, printers, wires, and other devices. These

programs and site files make your system software unique from that found in any other

newsroom.

It is important you keep a current copy of your software on tape in case you need to restore the

software area of the disk. Anytime you make major changes to the system software—such as

extracting new programs from an update tape—make a new software backup.

Backing up System Site Files

Likewise, when you make major changes to a site file, update the software backup to include

these changes. For instance, if you add a new wireserver to your system, you define that

workstation in the configuration file. This represents an important change to this site file so, after

modifying this file, update your software backup tape.

Backing up System Site Files

Your system uses site files in combination with software taken from your release CD and update

tapes. Back up your site files on a separate tape. If anything happens to your system, you can use

your release CD and site file backup to rebuild your system software.

Make a new site file backup after making significant changes to any site file. For instance,

adding a wireserver to your system requires that you modify your configuration file

(/site/config). After making this change, make a new site file backup.

To make a separate sitedump tape for each server, repeat this procedure on each server. After

backing up a server’s site files, ensure you label the tape to clearly indicate which server’s site

files are on it.

The sitedump Command

The sitedump command backs up files in the /site directory and certain key files in the /etc

directory. This is where all of your site-specific configuration files are kept. The tape should be

updated whenever you make changes to your configuration.

To back up your system’s site files to tape:

1. Insert the tape into the master computer (typically server A).

2. Select the master computer.

3. Enter superuser mode.

4. Type:

sitedump

Linux systems can make sitedumps to their hard drives.

sitedump -f /backups/<date>.sitedump

5. When the sitedump is done and the prompt returns, exit from superuser mode by pressing

Ctrl+D.

6. Remove the tape and label it. Include the date and type of backup.

7Disconnects

This chapter provides vital information to help you recover from a system disconnect.

This chapter contains the following main sections:

•Normal System Status

•Disconnects

•Disconnect Recovery

Normal System Status

The displays will vary when the system is a triple system configuration.

On a dual server system, the status command will show the system is AB, with both servers

connected to each other. A display similar to the following will appear on server A:

NRCS-A# status

A is ONLINE and has been CONFIGURED. ID is NRCS.

System is AB. Master is A.

Disk status is OK. The database is OPEN.

The system status is reported identically on both servers in the system. For instance, a display

similar to the following will appear on server B:

NRCS-B# status

B is ONLINE and has been CONFIGURED. ID is NRCS.

System is AB. Master is A.

Disk status is OK. The database is OPEN.

When the system is dual and databases are mirroring between the two servers, a story written on

one server is automatically mirrored to the database of the other server. When the system is

connected and has the normal prompt, the servers are in communication with each other and the

disk mirroring process is active.

Disconnects

If the servers disconnect from each other, the databases are no longer mirrored between the two

servers and immediate attention is required. Since mirroring has stopped, stories written by users

on server A will not be seen by users logged in to server B. There will be two entirely separate

databases.

There is no way to reintegrate two disparate databases. You must decide which database will be

retained as the master database, and the other database must be erased. The steps for recovering

from a disconnect are outlined later in “Procedures” on page 95.

Disconnects

If a disconnect occurs, users may want to export the stories they are working on to local hard

drives, in addition to normally saving them to the server. They can export stories by selecting

File > Export Story. This will make a backup copy of the story on the local hard drive of their

PC. Since they may be logged in to the server containing the non-master database that will be

erased, this will give them a backup copy, which could be re-imported if necessary.

cWhen the servers disconnect, stories written on server A are not mirrored to server B and

stories saved on B are not mirrored to A. The system issues a popup to alert users who must

contact their system administrator immediately.

Detecting a Disconnect

You can check to see if the servers are connected to each other and mirroring at any time using

the status command at the console. If they are connected and properly mirroring, they will both

agree on the system status and it will report that the system is dual (AB):

System is AB.

See “Types of Disconnect” on page 93 for more information.

If the servers disconnect, a disconnect warning message appears on the console.

Disconnects

On the Linux platform, the messages include detailed information from the driver (mp) that

controls the mirroring:

Jul 13 07:45:44 nrcs-a IO handler: B silent for 30 seconds

Jul 13 07:45:44 nrcs-a IO handler: LINK TO B FAILED, DISCONNECTING B

Jul 13 07:46:05 nrcs-a msg: 66 to server on computer A

Jul 13 07:46:25 nrcs-a S508: [15028] monitor 508 508 Server - Hot-to-go

Jul 13 07:46:25 nrcs-a S510: [15029] monitor 510 510 Server - Hot-to-go

Jul 13 07:46:25 nrcs-a S238: [14998] seek 238 238 Server - Hot-to-go

Jul 13 07:46:25 nrcs-a S240: [14999] seek 240 240 Server - Hot-to-go

Jul 13 07:46:25 nrcs-a S236: [14997] seek 236 236 Server - Hot-to-go

Jul 13 07:46:25 nrcs-a S232: [14995] seek 232 232 Server - Hot-to-go

Jul 13 07:46:25 nrcs-a S234: [14996] seek 234 234 Server - Hot-to-go

Jul 13 07:46:25 nrcs-a S254: [15001] action 254 254 Server - Hot-to-go

Jul 13 07:46:25 nrcs-a S504: [15026] monitor 504 504 Server - Hot-to-go

Jul 13 07:46:25 nrcs-a S506: [15027] monitor 506 506 Server - Hot-to-go