Getting Started with SAFR Platform on Windows or macOS

The computer used for the first installation of SAFR Platform acts as the primary server for the entire SAFR system. The primary server acquires a SAFR license that is then restricted to that machine. (See On-Premises Licensing for details.) Any additional instances of SAFR Server you install under the same SAFR Local Account must be configured as secondary servers for the purposes of load balancing or redundancy and are linked to the primary server as described in SAFR Server Clusters.

SAFR Platform Contents

The Windows SAFR Platform installation includes the following:

The macOS SAFR Platform installation includes the following:

Prerequisites

Before you begin the installation, ensure that you have the following prerequisites:

Download and Install SAFR Platform

To download and install SAFR Platform using Windows or macOS, do the following:

  1. On the computer where you want to install SAFR Server, open a web browser and go to the SAFR Download Portal.

  2. Sign in with your SAFR Local Account credentials.

  3. Once signed in, select your operating system from the menu and download the appropriate SAFR Platform installer.

  4. After the download is complete, start the installation.

  5. The Platform installer displays a Choose Components window where you can choose the features you want to install, such as:

    You may uncheck the boxes for any features you do not want to install. We recommend installing all the components except the VMS extensions the first time you install SAFR Platform.
    In addition to whatever components you selected, SAFR Platform also always installs SAFR Server.

  6. Follow the installer prompts as they guide you through the rest of the installation process. The final phase of the installation may take a few minutes to complete as it installs dependencies and runs the configuration scripts. Allow it to continue without interruption.

  7. On Windows the default SAFR port assignments sometimes conflict with other software port assignments. If a port conflict occurs, the error message shown below will pop up in the middle of your installation.

    If this happens, do the following:

    1. Click OK to edit port configurations.
    2. Notepad will open, displaying the safrports.conf file.
    3. Edit any conflicting ports to new values. (e.g. CoviHTTP=18080)
    4. Save and exit Notepad.
      The Platform installer will then restart and the new port values will be used. You can find the modified safrports.conf file at C:\Program Files\RealNetworks\SAFR\.

After the installation finishes, three icons will appear on your desktop:

On Windows, SAFR is installed as a SYSTEM user. SAFR Server runs as a collection of Windows services and will start at machine boot time. Permissions are set such that any administrator account can administer the server, including such actions as changing configuration files, viewing log files, and running scripts.

Immediately following installation, the Platform installer opens the Desktop Client and prompts you to log in with your SAFR Local Account. Make sure to log in; it's important in acquiring the SAFR license.

Note: Windows SAFR versions earlier than 3.1 are only compatible with NVidia driver versions 418.96 to 431.86.

Check Server Status

To check the status of your SAFR Server, use the check script. See the table below for the location of the script.

Platform Script Name File Location
Windows check.bat C:\Program Files\RealNetworks\SAFR\bin
macOS check.sh /Library/RealNetworks/SAFR/bin

The check script displays the status of all SAFR services. The following screenshot shows a server installation with healthy statuses for all its services:

Configure Background Processes

Sometimes long-running background processes that index or scan your hard drive (e.g., antivirus software) can cause your system to slow down or become unresponsive. If allowed to persist, this may result in system instability due to an accumulation of memory in writing images when large event volumes are experienced. Long write times can be confirmed by looking for write times greater than 500 milliseconds in the cv-object-storage.log file, located here:

This issue can be resolved by either disabling the problematic background process or by configuring the process to ignore files located in the cv-storage folder, by default located here:

On Windows this issue can also be caused by the Windows Search Service. If the Windows Search Service is being problematic, then you should exclude the cv-storage folder from the search by doing the following:

  1. Right click on the Windows Start menu.
  2. Search for Windows Search Settings.
  3. Click on Add an excluded folder.
  4. Select the cv-storage folder.

Connect Desktop Clients

A Desktop Client that is installed on the same machine as the primary server is automatically connected with your primary server; no additional actions need to be taken.

Desktop Clients that are installed on machines other than the primary server, however, need to be configured so they can connect with the primary server. Clients that aren't connected to a server are nearly useless and have very limited functionality.

To connect a remote Desktop Client, do the following:

  1. On the remote machine download and install SAFR Desktop for your OS from the SAFR Download Portal.
  2. Start the Desktop Client. If prompted, cancel the camera login screen. Also cancel the SAFR Account login if it is displayed.
  3. Click Tools > Preferences. On the Account tab, enter your user identifier and password for your SAFR Local Account.
  4. Select SAFR Custom from the drop down menu of the Environment setting. Do one of the following:
    Note: If you customized ports when installing SAFR Server, use the customized port values instead of the values listed below.
    • If you are running the server without an SSL certificate, enter the following in the associated fields, substituting the server IP Address for localhost:
      • CoVi Server: http://localhost:8080
      • Event Server: http://localhost:8082
      • Object Server: http://localhost:8086
      • VIRGA Server: http://localhost:8084
    • If you are running the server with an SSL certificate, enter the following in the associated fields, substituting your server's hostname for localhost:
      • CoVi Server: https://localhost:8081
      • Event Server: https://localhost:8083
      • Object Server: https://localhost:8087
      • VIRGA Server: https://localhost:8085
  5. Click OK to save the preference changes.

Next Steps

Great! Now that you've installed the SAFR Platform, you're ready to explore SAFR's features. We recommend that you do the following: