Pinnacle Systems Unity MediaManager - 3.0 Administrator’s Guide

Avid Unity™

MediaManager

Administrator’s Guide

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©1999–2000, 2002 Avid Technology, Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved.

Avid Unity MediaManager Administrator’s Guide • Part 0130-05037-01 Rev. A •

April 2002

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Contents

Chapter 1 Getting Started

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Database Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Accessing and Logging In to MediaManager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Opening MediaManager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Logging In as Administrator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

User Interface Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Administrative Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Logging Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Chapter 2 Managing User Accounts

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Accessing Shortcut Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

MediaManager Privilege Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

The Users List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Creating User Accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Editing User Accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Deleting User Accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Selecting the Media Deletion Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Chapter 3 Administrative Tasks

Maintenance Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Database Maintenance Tasks and Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Performing Database Maintenance Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

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Managing Database Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Deleting Media Pending. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Deleting Disassociated Media from MediaManager . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Checking Consistency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

MediaManager Database Backup and Restore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Specifying the Location for MediaManager Backup Files . . . . . 8

Backing Up the MediaManager Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Restoring the MediaManager Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Setting Session Timeouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Setting the Default Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Setting the Desktop Check-in Limit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Syncing with Avid Unity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Resyncing to the Avid Unity Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Recovering from a Server Crash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Restarting MediaManager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Index

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CHAPTER 1

Getting Started

MediaManager is a media management tool that allows MediaNet
clients to search the large number of media objects (master clips,
sequences, effects, and any other type of object that references digital
media) in the MediaNet shared storage environment.

The MediaManager database resides on a dedicated Windows
system, apart from the MediaNet server, so that database load can
never impact critical file system operations.

This chapter discusses the following topics:

• Overview

• Accessing and Logging In to MediaManager

• User Interface Overview

• Administrative Tasks

• Logging Out

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®

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Overview

MediaManager is based on Microsoft® SQL Server. It manages the
database by adding, removing, and modifying objects and records in
the database in response to client requests. MediaManager consists of
two major components:

• Database services — The software applications that drive the

• Data — The information about media objects physically stored on

Database Services

MediaManager is implemented using a number of Windows services
on the MediaManager server system. The main database service is
listed in the Services control panel as MSSQLServer. Ancillary services
also required for MediaManager operation are IIS Admin Service and
World Wide Web Publishing Service.

database functions

drives (optionally mirrored for data security)

Data

The data is stored on one or more drives, depending on whether you
have a server configuration that supports mirroring (duplication of the
data on multiple drives in a redundant configuration). In a mirrored
configuration, if one drive fails, the mirrored drive is automatically
used instead.

For every media object, the database stores an associated record that
contains specific information about the object. Information in each
record is recorded as a predetermined set of attributes. Each attribute
describes a feature of the object, for example, its name, creation date,
or tape ID. When you initiate a search, MediaManager finds the
records with the attributes you specify and then lists the associated

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objects. For a complete list of attributes, see the Avid Unity
MediaManager Setup and User’s Guide.

Accessing and Logging In to MediaManager

The MediaManager user interface is implemented as a dynamic Web
page. You can open MediaManager with Internet Explorer 5.0 or later.

For installation information, see the Avid Unity MediaManager Release
Notes.

For an overview of how to use MediaManager for administrative
purposes, see “User Interface Overview” on page 10. For more
information about the user interface, see the Avid Unity MediaManager
Setup and User’s Guide.

To set up Internet Explorer to work with MediaManager, see the
Avid Unity MediaManager Setup and User’s Guide.

This section describes how to open the MediaManager Web page and
then log in.

Opening MediaManager

You can access the MediaManager user interface to perform
administrative functions from the MediaManager server or any
system running Internet Explorer that has a TCP/IP network
connection to the MediaManager server by opening the appropriate
dynamic Web page.

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To open MediaManager, first obtain its Uniform Resource Locator
(URL) from your site administrator. A typical example is:

mmserver/omm/

(In this example, mmserver is the computer name of the MediaManager
server.)

To open the page in Internet Explorer:

1. Start your Internet Explorer application.

2. Choose Open from the File menu (or press Ctrl+O).

3. Type the URL supplied to you by your administrator in the Open
dialog box, and then click OK.

Alternatively, if the Address toolbar is open, you can simply type
the URL there and press Enter.

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After you open the MediaManager page for the first time by specifying its
address manually, you might want to set it as your default home page or to
bookmark it for easy access. For more information, see the Help provided with
your Internet browser.

Logging In as Administrator

Each time you open MediaManager, a login screen appears,
prompting you to enter a user name and password. To gain access to
MediaManager’s administrative functions, you must supply a user
name with administrative privileges. Once you have logged in as
administrator, you can access all the standard MediaManager
functionality as well as its administrative functions.

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MediaManager comes preconfigured with a default administrative account
(Administrator) with no associated password to allow you to log in for the
first time. Once you have logged in, Avid recommends that you immediately
specify a password for this account to prevent unauthorized users from
gaining administrative access to MediaManager.

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Type any user name and password with administrative privileges in
the text boxes, and then click Login. The first time you need to log in
(prior to setting up user accounts), specify user name Administrator
with no password.

If both are accepted, the full MediaManager user interface will appear,
automatically running a default search to find any media objects
added to its database during the last 10 minutes.

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User Interface Overview

The user interface has several modes that provide access to
MediaManager’s most commonly used functions. You choose the
mode by clicking the appropriate item in the mode selector. As
administrator, you will be interested primarily in Administration mode,
which provides access to the Users list and the Functions list.

Mode
selector

Mode­related
controls

Control frame

For more information about the other MediaManager modes
(Searches, Projects, Catalogs, and Services), see the Avid Unity
MediaManager Setup and User’s Guide.

Results frame

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Administrative Tasks

As administrator of MediaManager, you are responsible for:

• Creating, editing, and deleting user accounts. You must establish
an account for each client user that needs to access the
MediaManager database. For more information, see Chapter 2.

• Selecting the Media Deletion setting. The administrator must
select the Media Deletion setting. This determines whether the
delete options are based on the user’s Avid Unity workspace
privileges or MediaManager privileges. For more information, see
Chapter 2.

• Purging media objects from the database. MediaManager users
delete media objects from the database, but items that are in use in
another project are not deleted. These items are placed in the
Delete Media Pending catalog. As an administrator, you must
purge these objects to actually remove them from MediaManager.
For more information, see “Deleting Media Pending” on page 5.

• Backing up the database. Backing up the database regularly
protects your data, allowing you to restore the database to a saved
state in the event of failure. For more information, see

“MediaManager Database Backup and Restore” on page 8.

• Other routine maintenance tasks. Other routine maintenance
tasks include checking the database size, performing consistency
checks, and periodically rebooting the server. For more
information, see Chapter 3.

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Logging Out

When you are finished using MediaManager, you should log out
rather than leave it open or access another page in Internet Explorer.

To log out:

t Click Logout in the MediaManager banner.

MediaManager logs you out, and the login screen opens.

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MediaManager defaults to automatically time-out and log you out after it has
been idle for more than 30 minutes. This makes your license available for
other sessions. If this happens, you will need to start a new session by logging
in again. The session time-out default can be changed by the administrator in
the System Setup window. See “Setting Session Timeouts” on page 13.

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CHAPTER 2

Managing User Accounts

The administrator controls access to MediaManager with user
accounts. This chapter describes how to create, edit, and delete user
accounts so that all authorized MediaNet client users can access
MediaManager. It also describes how to select the Media Deletion
settings.

This chapter discusses the following topics:

• Overview

• Creating User Accounts

• Editing User Accounts

• Deleting User Accounts

• Selecting the Media Deletion Settings

Overview

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You must create a user account for each MediaNet client user and
anyone else who needs to access MediaManager.

To simplify user access and administration, create MediaManager user
accounts with the same names and passwords as MediaNet user accounts.

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