Archive Server: Key concepts

An archive is a DICOM-compliant solution for long-term storage and retrieval of studies from long-term storage.

The types of archives supported are:

A computer with an HSM file system
PACS Store and Remember archiving

Studies are archived by transmitting them to the Archive Server. The exams are temporarily stored on hard disk (cache) and are eventually stored on long term storage media in the archive. The Archive Server is administered through the Administration Tools.

If a user requests an exam that exists in the archive cache, the images are sent immediately. If the images exist only on long-term storage media, the images must be retrieved from the archive, which takes longer.

Image storage

When changes to patient or exam information are made (for example, patient name, exam procedure code, adding markup, and so on), the changes are stored in the system database. The image headers are updated with the latest information at defined boundary points in the system, such as when the images are written to archive media, and when they are retrieved from the system via DICOM. Also, the Clients display the patient and exam information out of the database, but ignore the image headers.

Images on archive media are never updated. After the images are on archive media, the changes are only stored in the database. This is true for all types of archive media.

All archive administration tasks are performed as jobs. When preparing, exporting, or importing media, the archive remains functional.