Archiware P5 Archive
P5 Archive is a long-term storage solution that moves data to disk, tape & the cloud
P5 can be set up within minutes, and works cross platform on Mac, Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, Synology, QNAP and NETGEAR. You can restore data on any platform since P5 stores it in a platform-neutral format.
☑ Browse & Search
☑ User Restore
☑ Offsite Storage
Media Archiving Software
The software’s browser-based interface enables fast and easy configuration, administration and monitoring – regardless of your location.
P5 Archive helps to move data to cost-effective tape media. In the process, expensive server storage can be reclaimed while backup times are reduced. By relieving your network of traffic, you’ll get a better working experience and increased productivity.
Archiving is possible to Amazon S3, Amazon Glacier, Google Cloud, Hitachi S3, Microsoft Azure, Wasabi S3, Backblaze B2 and Generic S3. Access to Wasabi storage is built-in to P5. Manual configuration of the Wasabi end-point DNS names is not required. Archiving to the cloud saves hardware and administration cost, plus the available storage can be easily extended when the need arises.
As users requirements grow and change, P5’s modular design allows for optimal scaling to fit your specific needs. There are no limits to possible growth: you can easily add further Archiware products, hardware or media to expand your setup. P5 Archive can save data to disk, tape and the cloud, while the same hardware is used by P5 Backup.
Offsite Storage
P5 Archive lets you move or migrate data offline to disk, tape and the cloud. You can monitor files, folders and the directory structure to archive files automatically. Fine-grained filtering can be applied to select or exclude files based on name, size, date etc. Data can be cloned to a second tape for offsite storage. Encryption options protect data against non-authorized access both during the transfer and on the media itself.
Free Choice of Storage
Which storage fits best depends on your requirements, budget and strategy. Each of the available storage categories - disk, tape and cloud - have their own specific characteristics and strengths. P5 Archive can use disk, tape and cloud storage to offer maximum flexibility.
Incremental Archive
P5 Archive allows data to be archived in incremental mode. This way, only new and changed files will be archived, effectively minimizing the growth of the Archive.
Easy Asset Management
P5’s archiving software can function as an easy to use asset management system, e.g. to manage video archives. Features include media previews and proxy clips, customisable metadata fields and menus. Visual browsing as well as combined searching helps to find and restore specific files even years after they were created. An automatic backup of the Archive index provides maximum security for the operation of the archive.
3rd Party Integrations
P5’s scriptable command line interface and REST-based API offer unlimited options for 3rd party integrations. The following options are already available: axle, CatDV, CANTEMO Portal™, Canto Cumulus, DALIM ES, EditShare Flow, empress eMAM, FocalPoint Server, Helios, Kyno, medialoopster, Primestream FORK, Strawberry by Projective, Metus, and Xinet.
ENHANCED LTFS SUPPORT WITH P5 ARCHIVE
With the release of version 6.1, Archiware offers an entirely new cross-platform LTFS driver that brings features and convenience not seen before with LTFS software products. Archiware's new approach removes the need for the open-source 'FUSE' software used by competitive products, allowing direct control of the tape media, while maintaining full ISO/IEC compatibility.
LTFS formatted LTO tapes are now supported by the P5 Archive module. Users wishing to archive data to tape, with full indexing, searching, thumbnail generation and meta-data ingest, can now choose between two different tape formats:
P5 VOLUME FORMAT
Supported for 20 years across thousands of P5 installations, compatibility across all P5 supported platforms, support for block-level cloning, parallel writing across multiple tape drives, data-compression/encryption and free from character set limitations for file/folder names.
LTFS VOLUME FORMAT
Open standard (ISO/IEC 20919:2016) and manufacturer-independent tape format, compatible across all P5 supported platforms (macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD) and also with other LTFS software tools for software-independent restore of data.
Both formats support spanning of large files across tapes. When a storage pool is created for archiving, there is now an option to choose between the 'P5 Native' and LTFS formats. Volumes can be formatted as LTFS by labelling, in single drives or libraries.
Existing native pools and LTO volumes will continue to work in combination with LTFS volumes. P5 Volume format continues to be the recommended option for P5 Archive. LTFS is a useful option where interoperability with non-Archiware systems is required.
| Feature | P5 Native Format | LTFS Format |
| Single drive and library support | ✓ | ✓ |
| macOS, Windows, Linux | ✓ |
✓ |
| Spanning large files across two tapes | ✓ | ✓ |
| Verify by checksum comparison | ✓ | ✓ |
| P5 Companion for drag-and-drop archiving | ✓ | ✓ |
| Block level cloning | ✓ | - |
| Drive parallelisation | ✓ | - |
| Multiple jobs writing to the same tape | ✓ | - |
| Importing tape from foreign/P5 system | ✓ | - |
| Verify by re-reading content | ✓ | - |
| Manufacturer (Archiware) independent restore | - | ✓ |
Important Note: The LTFS Import/Export feature, which is independent of the new LTFS functionality described above, is supported only on macOS and Linux in the 6.1.0 release.
ARCHIVE USING POOL OR OBJECT FORMAT
Pool Format
P5 Archive can migrate and archive data offsite using two options: the Pool or Object Format. The Pool Format includes all the familiar, powerful features of P5 (cloning, migration, etc.). This standard procedure assigns archived data to a Pool consisting of a flexible number of Volumes. The organization and bundling of data into Pools and Volumes creates manageable entities. In the Pool Format, data is exclusively restored through P5. Supported storage formats include tape, disk and the cloud. Native Microsoft Azure cloud storage support, along with Hitachi and Wasabi support, via the Generic S3 option are available when using the Pool format for cloud storage.
Object Format
The Object Format allows single-file access and share-ability for cooperative workflows. In this format, archived data are stored as individual objects (Files). This mode provides applications and users the option of directly accessing and restoring data archived to the cloud without P5. To enable direct data access, P5 stores data in its original format in the cloud. The link-addresses required for external access are logged by P5. This storage format is only supported in the cloud (Amazon S3, Backblaze, generic S3).
CLOUD IMPORT/EXPORT SERVICES
Backblaze, Amazon and Microsoft all offer an upload service, whereby a physical storage appliance can be shipped to a location where data can be transferred locally using NAS/DAS protocols to the appliance and then into a cloud container when the disk is returned to the cloud vendor. This allows for larger dataset to be migrated to cloud storage without potentially slow transfers using public WAN connections.
P5 Archive allows such services to be used, to bootstrap a cloud archive. The initial data requiring archive can be moved to the cloud using one of these storage appliances coupled with the service offered by the cloud vendor.
LTFS IMPORT/EXPORT
The Linear Tape File System (LTFS) allows files to be stored on LTO tape and be accessed in a similar fashion to those on disk or removable flash drives. Since LTFS-formatted tapes can be used between different drives/software, they are a useful format for transfer of data between systems and locations.
P5 Archive supports labelling tapes as LTFS, writing files from local and client filesystems and reading from a tape and writing back to a filesystem.
The 'LTFS Exchange' section of the UI, within the P5 Archive configuration, provides all of the LTFS configuration and operation options in one convenient place. A formatted and mounted LTFS tape can additionally be selected when restoring data previously archived or backed up using P5 Archive and P5 Backup.
LTFS data exchange is supported initially on macOS and Linux operating systems, with Windows support being added in a future release.
The P5 Archive restore catalogue with mini-MAM Archive
Read more about the System Requirements and Compatibilities for P5 Archive.