The Archiver system archives job files between Prinergy servers and media pools or disks.
The Archiver system performs the following main tasks:

• Archives files to store them on a disk volume. 
  The archive process copies all job files from a server to a media pool or a disk volume. Metadata about the job—that is, information linking job data and files—remains in the database.

• Purges files to free disk space.
  The purge process verifies that job files were correctly archived and then deletes the job files from the server. The job remains in Prinergy because job metadata is retained in the database, including metadata that indicate which files can be found on which media pools or disk volumes.

• Retrieves files from a media pool or disk volume to restore a job. 
  The retrieve process copies archived files from a disk back to a server.

Tip: If you have Prinergy Rules-Based Automation (RBA), consider setting up the Easy Archive rule to automate the archiving process. For information, see the RBA User Guide.

Note: Your archiving strategy should account for data redundancy and failover recovery. Archiving to two or more independent disk volumes is one way to achieve data redundancy. Kodak recommends archiving to two disk volumes, even when using RAID-based volumes. The risk of unrecoverable data decreases as you move from single disk vs. RAID; however, even with RAID, there is still a chance of unrecoverable data, so a second RAID volume is recommended for Archive to Disk. The use of removable external hard drives (for example—USB drives) for Archive to Disk is not recommended and not supported. The external disks are not uniquely identifiable to Prinergy (for example—plugging in Disk1 will show to Prinergy and Windows as K:, and plugging in Disk2 will also show as K:). Use of external drives for archiving requires the operator to track which external drive contains which jobs, and then plug in the appropriate drive when needing to retrieve a job. This is likely overly complex for many users, and is therefore not recommended or supported.

Note: Archiving to tape is not supported by Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2012. As of Prinergy 6.0, archive to tape is no longer supported. Instead, very large and uniquely identifiable permanent network volumes are recommended.

How archiving and backup differ

An archive stores files in job context—that is, it includes all job files, even if they are on multiple servers. For example, an archive can include input files from a file server as well as the job folder on the job's home server. You typically save archives indefinitely as a permanent record of jobs.
A backup does not store files in job context—that is, there is no relationship between backup files and the database. A backup creates an image of a disk partition, all or part of a file system, a system share, or the database files and logs. You make backups for the purpose of disaster recovery—for example, a disk crash or flood. You typically save backups only until the next backup.