Milestone Systems

XProtect® Professional VMS 2016 R2

Administrator Getting Started Guide

XProtect Professional VMS 2016 R2 - Administrator Getting Started Guide

Contents

Guide contents ........................................................... 4

Installation ................................................................ 5

Getting started ........................................................... 6

About the Getting started page ............................................. 6

Automatic configuration wizard............................................. 6

Automatic configuration wizard: First page .......................................... 6

Automatic configuration wizard: Scanning options ............................... 6

Automatic configuration wizard: Select hardware manufacturers to scan

for ........................................................................................................ 7

Automatic configuration wizard: Scanning for hardware devices ......... 7

Automatic configuration wizard: Continue after scan ........................... 7

Configure in Management Application ........................ 8

Licensing ............................................................................... 8

Add hardware devices ........................................................... 8

Configure user access ............................................................ 9

Configure a Mobile server ...................................................... 9

Clients ...................................................................... 11

Additional features ................................................... 13

Upgrade from a previous version ............................. 14

Upgrade video device drivers ................................... 15

For more information ............................................... 16

Index ....................................................................... 17

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XProtect Professional VMS 2016 R2 - Administrator Getting Started Guide

Copyright, trademarks and disclaimer

Copyright 2016 Milestone Systems A/S

Trademarks
XProtect is a registered trademark of Milestone Systems A/S.
Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. App Store is a service
mark of Apple Inc. Android is a trademark of Google Inc.
All other trademarks mentioned in this document are trademarks of their respective owners.
Disclaimer
This text is intended for general information purposes only, and due care has been taken in its
preparation.
Any risk arising from the use of this information rests with the recipient, and nothing herein should
be construed as constituting any kind of warranty.
Milestone Systems A/S reserve the right to make adjustments without prior notification.
All names of people and organizations used in the examples in this text are fictitious. Any
resemblance to any actual organization or person, living or dead, is purely coincidental and
unintended.
This product may make use of third party software for which specific terms and conditions may
apply. When that is the case, you can find more information in the file
3rd_party_software_terms_and_conditions.txt located in your Milestone system installation
folder.

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XProtect Professional VMS 2016 R2 - Administrator Getting Started Guide

Guide contents
This guide briefly explains how to install your XProtect Professional VMS system as well as how to
configure some of its basic features.
The guide is valid for:

 XProtect® Enterprise

 XProtect® Professional

 XProtect® Express

 XProtect® Essential

 XProtect® Go
Check the Milestone website http://www.milestonesys.com/downloads for updates to make sure
that you install the most recent version of your system.

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XProtect Professional VMS 2016 R2 - Administrator Getting Started Guide

Installation

Minimum system requirements

For information about system requirements for the various components of your system, read the
release notes available on the software DVD or on http://www.milestonesys.com.

Administrator rights
When you install your system, it is important that you have administrator rights on the computer
that should run your system. If you only have standard user rights, you cannot configure the
surveillance system.

Install the software

Prerequisites: Shut down any existing surveillance software.

1. Run the installation file. Depending on your security settings, you may receive one or more
security warnings. Click the Run button if you receive a warning.

2. When the installation wizard starts, select language for the installer and then click
Continue.

3. Select if you want to install a trial version of your system or indicate the location of your
software license file.

4. Read and accept the license agreement, and indicate if you want to participate in the
Milestone data collection program.

5. Select Typical or Custom installation. If you select Custom installation, you can select
application language, which features to install and where to install them. Let the installation
wizard complete.
You can now begin configuring your system through the Management Application.

If you are upgrading from a previous version, make sure you read the upgrade information in the
Administrator Manual for the relevant XProtect Professional VMS product.

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XProtect Professional VMS 2016 R2 - Administrator Getting Started Guide

Getting started

About the Getting started page

The Getting started page is always shown when you open the Management Application. The
Getting started page serves as a place of reference for users. It also provides different wizards
that help to configure your surveillance system quickly. After you have run the wizards, it is likely
that you need to fine-tune your system further. For more information, see the Advanced
configuration chapter in the help.
Under the License heading in the bottom-left part of the page, you can get an overview of your
system's hardware device licenses and your number of device changes without activation.
Under the Milestone Care heading you can see information about your current Milestone Care™
level and if there are updates for your installation. Your installation is always covered by Milestone
Care Basic which gives you access to different types of self-help material like knowledge base
articles, guides and tutorials on the Milestone website http://www.milestonesys.com/support. If
you have bought a Milestone Care Plus subscription through your reseller, you also have access to
upgrades. You also get access to the Customer Dashboard service, the Smart Connect feature, and
the full Push Notification functionality. The expiration date of your Milestone Care Plus subscription
is visible on the page. If you have a Milestone Care Premium subscription, you can also contact
Milestone support for help. Please remember to include information about your Milestone Care ID
when contacting Milestone support. Again, the expiry date for your Milestone Care Premium
subscription is visible. To learn more about Milestone Care, follow the links. If you decide to buy or
renew a Milestone Care subscription after you have installed your system, you must activate your
licenses before the correct Milestone Care information is shown.
You can also access and view video tutorials that show and explain how to go through each step of
your system's wizards. To access the video tutorials, click the View tutorials link in the
bottom-right part of the page. The link takes you to an external web page with video tutorials for
your system.

Automatic configuration wizard

The Automatic configuration wizard is for easy configuration for first time use of the system.
Use the wizard to automatically add cameras to your system using this step-by-step procedure.

Automatic configuration wizard: First page

When you open the Management Application for the first time, the Automatic configuration wizard
opens to guide you through the process of adding hardware devices to your system.
If you are new to the system, click Yes, configure to scan your network for available cameras and
configure your system. To exit and use a more advanced way of adding devices to your system,
click Skip to leave the wizard and go to the Management Application to get more options for
setting up your system's device configuration.

Automatic configuration wizard: Scanning options

Choose where you want your system to scan for cameras and devices.

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XProtect Professional VMS 2016 R2 - Administrator Getting Started Guide

By default, the Scan local network checkbox is selected, which means that you only scan your
local network for devices. However, if you know the IP address or a range of IP addresses to which
cameras and devices are attached, specify these by clicking the Plus icon next to Add the IP
addresses or IP ranges to be scanned. You can add more than one range of IP addresses if you
need to.

Automatic configuration wizard: Select hardware

manufacturers to scan for
If you know the specific manufacturer of your hardware device(s), select these in the dropdown on
this page. You can select as many manufacturers as you want to.

Note: By default, all manufacturers are selected. If you want to reduce the scanning time or know
the specific manufacturers of your cameras, only select the checkboxes that represents these
manufacturers.

Automatic configuration wizard: Scanning for hardware

devices
Scanning for hardware devices that match your selected manufacturers begins. A status bar
indicates how far in the scan process you are. Once scanning for cameras and devices is complete,
you may need to provide user name and password for your selected devices or cameras. When you
have typed in the relevant credentials, click the Verify button to add the device to your system.

Note: Not all devices and cameras need a user name and password. You can add such devices to
your system without any need to type in credentials.

Automatic configuration wizard: Continue after scan

Once you have added the number of devices and cameras you want to add, your system sets up
storage for you. Storage is the location to which your system saves recordings. By default, your
system chooses the location with most available disk space.
When the system has finished configuring storage, you are given the option to automatically add
new cameras to your system as they are detected on the network. Enabling this allows you to set
up your system so that any devices or cameras are automatically set up for you in the future as
soon as they are connected to your network. Note that not all devices and cameras support
automatic discovery. If your device/camera does not show up automatically after you have
connected it to your network, you must add it manually.
To go directly to XProtect Smart Client once you have completed the wizard, select the check box
in the bottom-left corner of the wizard page.

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Configure in Management Application

The Management Application is the server-side user interface. All management of your system is
handled here.

Licensing
When you purchase your software and licenses, you receive:

 An order confirmation.

 A software license file (SLC) with the .lic extension and named after your SLC (Software
License Code).
Your SLC is also printed on your order confirmation and consists of several numbers and letters
grouped by hyphens similar to this:

 Product version 2014 or earlier: xxx-xxxx-xxxx

 Product version 2016 or later: xxx-xxx-xxx-xx-xxxxxx

The software license file contains all information about your purchased VMS products and licenses.
Milestone recommends that you store the information about your SLC and a copy of your software
license file in a safe place from which you can find them again.
To get started, you download the software from our website. While you are installing the software,
you are asked to provide the software license file. If you have not yet received the software license
file, you can still install the software and run it for a 30-day trial period with a maximum of eight
added cameras and a retention time of maximum five days. To continue using your system, you
must import your software license file before the end of the trial period.
When the installation of your system is complete and you have added your cameras, encoders and
other relevant hardware, you must activate your licenses. If your system is online, your licenses
are activated automatically and only in a few scenarios, you need to activate them manually. If
your system is offline and you have used all of your device changes without activation, you must
manually activate your licenses each time you make changes that affect your use of your licenses.
It is important that you activate licenses in a grace period before the grace period ends because
the then unlicensed hardware stops sending data to the system.
When the installation is complete, please refer to the help for your Professional VMS product, for
more information about:

 how our license system works specific for your Professional VMS product

 how you activate your licenses manually

 when you need to activate your licenses manually even if your system is online

 what device changes without activation is

 where you see how many used and free licenses you have

Add hardware devices

To add more cameras after having run the Getting Started wizard, do the following:

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6. On the Getting started page, start the Add Hardware wizard.

7. Select a hardware detection method, and follow the wizard.

Before you add hardware devices, make sure you have configured their IP addresses, user name
and passwords as described by the manufacturers.

Configure user access

To quickly and easily configure how client applications should access your system server, and which
users should be able to use the client applications, start the Configure User Access wizard. Note
that the wizard gives users access to all cameras on your system. If you require different rights for
individual users, you should use advanced configuration instead:

 Under Advanced Configuration > Server Access, specify port number to use, whether
you want clients to be able to access the system server from the Internet, how many clients
you want to be able to connect simultaneously and more.

 Under Advanced Configuration > Users, configure settings and rights for client access.
You can add users from Active Directory, which allows you to use your organization's
existing user data.

Configure a Mobile server

A Mobile server handles log-ins when a user wants to log into his/her XProtect surveillance setup
via the XProtect Web Client, or the Milestone Mobile client from a mobile device.
Upon correct login, the Mobile server distributes video streams from relevant recording servers to
XProtect Web Client or Milestone Mobile client. This offers an extremely secure setup, where
recording servers are never connected to the Internet. When a Mobile server receives video
streams from recording servers, it also handles the complex conversion of codecs and formats
allowing streaming of video on the mobile device.

Add a Mobile server:

1. Go to Servers > Mobile Servers. From the menu that appears, select Create New. Fill
in/edit the needed properties.

Important: If you edit settings for Login method, All cameras view and Outputs and events,
while you are connected to the Milestone Mobile client, you must restart the Milestone Mobile client
for the new settings to take effect.

Delete a Mobile server:

1. Expand Servers > Mobile Servers in order to see existing servers.

2. Right-click the unwanted server and select Delete. Click Yes.

Rename a Mobile server:

1. Expand Servers > Mobile Servers in order to see existing servers.

2. Select the required Mobile server.

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3. On the Info tab, which opens once the Mobile server is selected, change the name of the
server by typing in the Server name and Description fields.

4. In the lower right corner, click Apply.

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Clients
You can use these three client applications with your system:

 XProtect Smart Client

 XProtect Web Client

 Milestone Mobile client

XProtect Smart Client is installed automatically when you install your system. Milestone Mobile
client and XProtect Web Client are available if you install the Milestone Mobile server (included per
default in a Typical installation). To use the Milestone Mobile client, you must have a mobile device
running iOS 5+ or Android 2.2+. You can download the application to your device from App Store
or Google Play.

XProtect Smart Client

You view live and recorded video with clients such as XProtect Smart Client. Users and
administrators can get XProtect Smart Client in two ways: Either from the software DVD or from
the surveillance system server. You must download and install XProtect Smart Client on users’
computers.
To install XProtect Smart Client from the server:

1. Open an Internet Explorer browser (version 6.0 or later), and connect to the IP address of
the XProtect server with the port number specified under Advanced Configuration >
Server Access (default is port 80). Example: If the server’s IP address is
123.123.123.123 and you use the default port number 80, connect to
http://123.123.123.123:80.

2. When you connect to the server, you see a welcome page. On the welcome page, click the
relevant link to get XProtect Smart Client.

Milestone Mobile client

1. Access Google Play or App Store℠ on your device.

2. Search for and download the application Milestone Mobile. Once the download of the
application is completed, the Milestone Mobile client is ready for use on your mobile device.
For detailed information about how to set up your Milestone Mobile client, visit the Milestone
website at http://www.milestonesys.com.

XProtect Web Client

If you have a Milestone Mobile server installed on your computer, you can use the XProtect® Web
Client to access your cameras and views. Since you do not need to install XProtect Web Client, you
can access it from the local computer on which you installed the Milestone Mobile server or any
other computer you want to use for this purpose.
To access the XProtect Web Client:

1. Set up the Milestone Mobile server in the Management Application.

2. Open an Internet browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome or Safari) or
click Open XProtect Web Client in the Mobile Server Manager.

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3. Type in the IP address (that is, the external address and port of the server on which the
Milestone Mobile server is running.

Example: The Milestone Mobile server is installed on a server with the IP address
127.2.3.4 and is configured to accept HTTP connections on port 8081 and HTTPS
connections on port 8082 (default settings of the installer).

In the address bar of your browser, type: http://127.2.3.4:8081/Milestone Mobile/Web or

https://127.2.3.4:8082/Milestone Mobile/Web, depending on whether you want to use a standard
HTTP connection or a secure HTTPS connection. You can now begin using XProtect Web
Client.

4. Add the address as a bookmark in your browser for easy future access to XProtect Web
Client. If you use XProtect Web Client on the local computer on which you installed the
Milestone Mobile server, you can also use the desktop shortcut created by the installer.
Click the shortcut to launch your default browser and open XProtect Web Client.

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Additional features

XProtect Download Manager

Manage which system features your organization's users can access from a targeted welcome page
on the surveillance system server. Access XProtect Download Manager from Windows' Start menu.
XProtect Download Manager comes with a default configuration ensuring that users get access to
the XProtect Smart Client. To make special language versions, plug-ins or similar available to
users.

Matrix
The Matrix feature allows distributed viewing of live video from any camera to any Matrix recipient
on a network operating with your system. A computer on which you can view Matrix-triggered
video is known as a Matrix recipient. In order to become a Matrix recipient, the computer must
have XProtect Smart Client installed.

Built-in help system

To access the help system from anywhere within the Management Application, click the Help
button in the toolbar or press F1 on your keyboard.

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XProtect Professional VMS 2016 R2 - Administrator Getting Started Guide

Upgrade from a previous version

You can upgrade your entire system configuration from one version to another. The following
information applies if you upgrade from one version of a product to another version of the same
product and if you upgrade to one XProtect product from another streamlined XProtect product.
When you install the new version of your system, it inherits the configuration from your previous
version. Milestone recommends that you make regular backups of your server configuration as a
disaster recovery measure. You should also do this when you upgrade your server. While it is rare
that you lose your configuration (cameras, schedules, views, and more), it can happen under
unfortunate circumstances. Fortunately, it takes only a minute to back up your existing
configuration.

Back up configuration
The following describes backup of the configuration in XProtect Enterprise 7.0 and onwards. If you
need information about how to back up configuration from an earlier version of your XProtect
XProtect Enterprise, see the relevant Administrator's Manual for your XProtect product.
In the following, we assume that you have not changed the system's default configuration path,
which is C:\Program Data\Milestone\Milestone Surveillance on servers running all supported
operating systems. If you have changed the default configuration path, you must take your
changes into consideration when using the method described in the following.

1. Make a copy of the folder C:\Program Data\Milestone\Milestone Surveillance and all

of its content.

2. Open the folder C:\Program Files\Milestone\Milestone Surveillance\devices, and

verify if the file devices.ini exists. If the file exists, make a copy of it. The file exists if you
have configured video properties for certain types of cameras. For such cameras, changes
to the properties are stored in the file rather than on the camera itself.

3. Store the copies away from the server, so that they are not affected if the server is
damaged, stolen or otherwise affected.
Remember that a backup is a snapshot of your system configuration at the time of backing up. If
you later change your configuration, your backup does not reflect the most recent changes. Back
up your system configuration regularly.

When you back up your configuration as described, the backup includes restore points. This allows
you to not only restore the backed-up configuration, but also to revert to an earlier point in that
configuration if you need to.

Restore configuration
If you need to restore your system configuration, do the following:

1. Copy the content of the backed-up Milestone Surveillance folder into C:\Program
Data\Milestone\Milestone Surveillance.

2. If you backed up the file devices.ini, copy the file into C:\Program
Files\Milestone\Milestone Surveillance\devices.

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Upgrade video device drivers

1. On the system server on which you want to install the new video device drivers version,
shut down any running surveillance software, including any running Recording Server
service.

2. Run the XProtect Device Pack installation file and follow the wizard.

3. When the wizard is complete, remember to start the Recording Server service again.
Video device drivers are installed automatically during the initial installation of your system. New
versions of video device drivers are collected in device packs which are released from on a regular
basis and made available for free on the Milestone website http://www.milestonesys.com (within
the same product version).
Milestone recommends that you always use the latest version of video device drivers. When you
update video device drivers, you can install the latest version on top of any version you may have
installed.

IMPORTANT: When you install new video device drivers, your system cannot communicate with
camera devices from the moment you begin the installation until the moment installation is
complete and you have restarted the Recording Server service. This process usually takes no
longer than a few minutes, but Milestone recommends that you perform the update at a time when
you do not expect important incidents to take place.

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For more information

For information about how to back up and upgrade your system as well as how to change advanced
settings in your system, read the Administrator's Guide for your relevant XProtect product. You can
always find the latest Administrator's Guides at http://www.milestonesys.com.

For more information 16

XProtect Professional VMS 2016 R2 - Administrator Getting Started Guide

Index
A
About the Getting started page • 7

Add hardware devices • 9

Additional features • 14

Automatic configuration wizard • 7

Continue after scan • 8

First page • 7
Scanning for hardware devices • 8
Scanning options • 7
Select hardware manufacturers to scan for
•8
C
Clients • 12

Configure a Mobile server • 10

Configure in Management Application • 9

Configure user access • 10

Copyright, trademarks and disclaimer • 4

F
For more information • 17

G
Getting started • 7

Guide contents • 5

I
Installation • 6

L
Licensing • 6, 9

U
Upgrade from a previous version • 15

Upgrade video device drivers • 16

Index 17
About Milestone Systems
Milestone Systems is a global industry leader
in open platform IP video management
software, founded in 1998 and now operating
as a stand-alone company in the Canon Group.
Milestone technology is easy to manage,
reliable and proven in thousands of customer
installations, providing flexible choices in
network hardware and integrations with other
systems. Sold through partners in more than
100 countries, Milestone solutions help
organizations to manage risks, protect people
and assets, optimize processes and reduce
costs. For more information, visit:
http://www.milestonesys.com.