Cloud backup ensures your valuable footage is retained according to your schedule, based on your compliance or audit requirements, and safeguards your footage against theft, disaster, or hardware issues. You can enable and customize cloud backup on a per camera stream basis for cameras connected to your Site Gateways.
After cloud backup is enabled on a stream you can perform normal camera footage operations just as if the footage was stored on the Site Gateway – even when the Site Gateway is offline. This includes viewing footage, searching footage, saving clips to the video library, and downloading clips.
Note
Samsara may compress and re-format camera stream footage uploaded for cloud backup.
Footage older than the configured footage retention period is automatically scheduled for deletion. If cloud backup is later disabled on a stream, all footage stored in the cloud is automatically deleted after a 24-hour grace period. Reducing the number of days of configured footage retention will also result in the deletion of footage older than the revised retention period.
Cloud backup is available with the purchase of an additional Cloud Backup License. Licenses are available in 30 day increments, segmented by three tiers of camera resolutions, up to 360 days of storage. Cloud backup is redundant with local storage, not an extension beyond what’s retained locally. If you achieve 30 days of local storage on your Site Gateway, and only purchase 30 days of cloud backup, your footage will be safeguarded in the cloud but no additional days of footage will be retained.
You can purchase licenses at the tier corresponding to the resolution of your camera, or a higher tier, and can reassign licenses between cameras after purchase. To determine the camera resolution and appropriate license tier, refer to the following guidelines:
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For Samsara Site Cameras, the default is 1080p and the maximum is 5MP. The current resolution is displayed on the camera settings page (any number up to 1080 requires a 1080p license and any number above requires a 5MP license).
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For third-party cameras already connected and online within Sites, Samsara Support can help you determine the appropriate resolution tier and license.
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For third-party cameras not yet connected to a Site Gateway, consult the manufacturer’s documentation or admin portal to determine the resolution. You may need to convert the resolution name to Megapixels by researching the width and height in pixels, and then calculating (pixel width x pixel height / 1000000). For example, 720p is 1280 pixels wide by 720 pixels high, or 0.92 Megapixels, which falls under the 1080p license tier as shown in the table below.
Note
As each enabled camera will continuously stream to the cloud, you must also ensure you have sufficient upload internet bandwidth on site to handle the combined bitrate of all enabled cameras (Cloud Backup is not supported over cellular).
If your cameras are already online, the average bitrate is displayed when you enable Cloud Backup. Otherwise, refer to the following table for a general range of bitrate by resolution.
|
Camera Resolution Tier |
Additional Upload Bandwidth per Camera |
SKU |
Days of Cloud Backup per SKU Quantity Purchased |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1080p (up to 2.1 Megapixels) |
1-2 Mbps |
LIC-SCB-1080 |
30 days |
|
5MP (up to 5 Megapixels) |
2-4 Mbps |
LIC-SCB-5MP |
30 days |
|
4K (up to 8.3 Megapixels) |
4-6 Mbps |
LIC-SCB-4K |
30 days |
You can purchase between 30 and 360 days in 30 day increments for each stream. To calculate the number of licenses required for different lengths of retention, divide the desired number of days of retention by 30.
When evaluating the number of licenses for a 1080p camera, refer to the following license quantities by your retention requirement:
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30 days: 1x LIC-SCB-1080
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60 days: 2x LIC-SCB-1080
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90 days: 3x LIC-SCB-1080
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120 days: 4x LIC-SCB-1080
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180 days: 6x LIC-SCB-1080
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360 days: 12x LIC-SCB-1080
If your organization uses different cameras with different retention requirements you can evaluate the calculate the number of licenses on a per camera basis. For example:
|
Camera Location |
Resolution |
Days of Cloud Backup |
SKUs Necessary |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Front Entrance |
5MP |
60 Days |
2x LIC-SCB-5MP |
|
Back Door |
1080p |
30 Days |
1x LIC-SCB-1080 |
|
Cash Register |
1080p |
90 Days |
3x LIC-SCB-1080 |
|
Break Room |
1080p |
— |
— |
|
Parking Lot |
1080p |
— |
— |
|
TOTAL: |
60 Days (5MP) 120 Days (1080p) |
2x LIC-SCB-5MP 4x LIC-SCB-1080 |
Before enabling cloud backup, you must have first purchased enough unassigned licenses that correspond with the resolution tier of the camera (or a tier of a higher resolution).
After configuring cloud backup settings, you can return to the camera settings page at any time to modify or disable settings. If you later reduce the retention period or disable cloud backup on a camera stream, the licenses previously assigned to the camera are immediately available to be reassigned to another camera (within the same license tier).
To enable cloud backup on a camera stream:
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To navigate to the camera’s details and settings page, select Devices in the Sites menu on the left.
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Select the gateway for which you want to back up any connected cameras, and then choose the camera from the list.
Alternatively, you can go to Devices > Site Cameras, and choose the camera from the list.
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Enable Cloud Backup.
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Click Save.
If you attempt to enable cloud backup retention settings that exceed the storage capacity as determined by your license, the Samsara dashboard displays an error. In this case, correct the number of days retention, reassign licenses from other cameras, or purchase additional licenses to proceed.
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(Optional) If this is the first camera enabled for Cloud Backup on a Site Gateway (or if this step was skipped previously), you can set up an alert to notify you when the gateway fails to upload backups to the cloud due to network bandwidth issues.
For more information about alerts, see Site Alert Types.
Click Create Cloud Backup Alert to proceed or Close to dismiss for now.
From the Devices > Cloud Backup page, you can view a summary of Cloud Backup license purchases and consumption information, and details of all cameras for which Cloud Backup is enabled.
To find a specific camera or group of cameras, Search for a full or partial camera name, site name, resolution, or license; or use the filters to display cameras associated with specific Tags, Sites, or Resolutions.
For each camera, you can view the following information:
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Camera |
Name used to identify the camera |
|
Site |
Site location name |
|
Resolution |
Resolution for the camera |
|
Video Retention |
Video retention length (allocated in 30 day increments for a maximum of 360) |
|
Licenses |
License associated with the specific camera |
To view more details about the camera or change backup settings, select a camera.
To ensure that cameras enabled for cloud backup are operating as expected, you can verify footage uploads from the Samsara dashboard.
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From the Devices > Site Cameras page or Devices > Cloud Backup page, select the cloud backup-enabled camera for which you want to verify footage.
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Select the Diagnostics tab and review the timeline in the Cloud Backup section.
The timeline uses green bars to identify periods of time where footage was uploaded successfully. Use the date selector to adjust the time period shown.
If recent footage has not yet been backed up, the Site Gateway may not have enough internet bandwidth available to maintain uploading to the cloud.
If there are other gaps in footage:
