Archivematica Storage Service 0.18.1 is a legacy release, and these documents are no longer being maintained.

AIP recovery

AIP recovery allows a Storage Service administrator to replace a corrupt version of a stored AIP with the correct version. This process requires that you have a non-corrupted backup copy of the AIP. By replacing the AIP using the recovery process, the recovered version of the AIP will be available to users through the Archivematica dashboard.

On this page:

Performing an AIP recovery

  1. Determine the path of the AIP recovery directory. You can find the path of this directory by clicking on the Locations tab in the Storage Service user interface, then finding the path that has the purpose “AIP Recovery”. This is the AIP recovery location.

    The Locations tab has a table with all Storage Service locations listed. The AIP recovery location has the purpose "AIP Recovery" in the first column.
  2. Copy the recovered version of the AIP to the AIP recovery location.

  3. Using the Storage Service REST API, make a recovery request.

  4. Approve the AIP recovery request by going to the Packages tab in the Storage Service user interface, then clicking on View recovery requests. Provide a reason for the recovery and click Approve.

  5. Once the recovery has been approved, the Storage Service will do the following:

    • Check the fixity data of the recovered AIP. Recovery will fail if this initial fixity check fails.
    • Copy the corrupt AIP to a backup directory within the recovery location.
    • Copy the recovered AIP to AIP storage.
    • Check the fixity data of the stored AIP. Recovery will fail if this second fixity check fails.

The AIP will now be available for download in the Packages tab of the Storage Service user interface, as well as through the Archival Storage tab of the Archivematica dashboard.

Example recovery request

Once the recovered AIP is in place, you must make an API request using the Storage Service REST API. Here is an example:

curl --data="event_reason=<description>&pipeline=<pipeline UUID>&user_id=<int>&user_email=<email>" http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/v2/file/<package UUID>/recover_aip/?format=json

Replace the placeholders with the following information:

  • <description>: a description of why the recovery request is being made.
  • <int>: the numerical user ID. To find the user ID, go to the Administration tab and click on Users in the lefthand sidebar. Click on Edit for the user who is making the request. The user ID is shown in the URL of the user edit page - for example, the user ID for http://my-site:8000/administration/users/1/edit/ is 1.
  • <email>: the email address of the user making the request.

If you use Binder, Binder is capable of sending a notification to the Storage Service that a replacement AIP is ready for recovery. Check the Binder recovery documentation for more information.

Reporting recovery progress to external systems

AIP recovery can be optionally configured to report progress to another system via a REST POST call. The call will report whether the AIP recovery task has been approved, rejected, or has failed. The information sent includes the ID of the recovery request, whether the recovery request was processed successfully, and a text message including the recover request status (“APPROVE” or “REJECT”) and the administrator’s reasoning for the decision.

The following is an example of the JSON sent by this POST call:

{
  "event_id": 127,
  "message": "APPROVE: Request approved, files look good.",
  "success": true
}

To configure the Storage Service to report AIP restore progress to another system, click Administration in the Storage Service user interface and enter a REST endpoint URL into the Recovery request: URL to notify field.

If the endpoint requires authentication, you’ll also need to enter a username and password into the two fields below it. Click Save when you are done.

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