Challenges in storing files in Multiple Storage Systems parallelly

[Harsh Agarwal]

Dear Community,

I'm seeking some insight into an unexpected file storage behavior I'm observing and would appreciate any guidance or explanations you might be able to offer.

My Setup: I have configured three distinct file storage descriptors, each pointing to a different folder.

Observed Behavior: Instead of files being copied to all three configured folders simultaneously, I've noticed that incoming "studies" (which I assume are sets of files) are being stored in a round-robin mechanism. For example:

• Study 1 is written to folder 1 (fs1)
• Study 2 is written to folder 2 (fs2)
• Study 3 is written to folder 3 (fs3)
• Study 4 then goes back to folder 1 (fs1), and so on.

My Expectation: My intention was for each incoming study (or its associated files) to be duplicated and stored in all three configured folders, rather than distributed in a rotating manner.

Could anyone shed some light on why this might be happening? Is this a standard behavior for certain file storage configurations or systems, or might I have misunderstood or misconfigured something? Any thoughts, suggestions, or pointers to relevant documentation would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your time and help!

[Vrinda Nayak]

It is not clear why is simultaneous duplication of storage files is required on receive of studies to archive. Are you looking to store studies for long term purposes? What is Storage Duration you've configured for each?

[Harsh Agarwal]

Hello Vrinda,

I am looking for a DICOM archiving solution that implements a two-tier storage strategy: a short-term, temporary storage and a long-term, permanent archive, with all incoming data being copied to both.

This is a common and robust approach for managing medical images, offering both quick access to recent studies and reliable, long-term retention.

Thanks,
Harsh

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[Vrinda Nayak]

What you've described is quite a common use case, but you've configured all 3 storages on own archive device with storage configs that looks identical base on the truncated screenshots you've shared. In my previous post, I asked what has been configured for Storage Duration, which is not clear yet. 

If you want to store from short-term, temporary storage to a long-term, permanent archive, the configuration is not duplicating storage descriptor configs on same archive device and then referencing them in the AE's Object Storage ID! Instead configure a long-term archive device in the Configuration - Devices, with a DICOM Network Connection and a DICOM AE which can then be used in "dcm4chee-arc" device Exporter configuration to export studies to the long-term archive. - see External DICOM Archive for long term Storage.

Typically, another alternative is to configure a long-term storage (instead of long-term archive) which is termed as a Nearline Storage.