How Serpentua Cloud Works (For Archivists and Digital Preservation Professionals)

Local Repository Environment — Digital Objects Remain In-Situ

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Step 01

Archival Storage Infrastructure

Primary bit-level storage housing the digital collection; serves as the repository's authoritative copy environment

💾 SAN Storage Area Network

📦 NAS Network Attached Storage

🔲 JBOD Just a Bunch of Disks

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Step 02

Repository Host System

On-premises server with direct mount access to archival storage; the trusted system boundary within which digital objects reside

🐧 Ubuntu / Linux 🪟 Windows Server 😈 FreeBSD 🍎 macOS 😈 OpenBSD / NetBSD

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Step 03

Serpentua Fixity Agent

Installed on the repository host. Runs fixity checks on a configurable schedule, traversing all mounted storage and computing cryptographic checksums for every digital object. No content data ever leaves the system boundary.

<200MB installed footprint Scheduled fixity checks Non-disruptive background processing SHA-256 SHA-512 MD5 Digital objects never transmitted

🔒 TLS 1.3 · Certificate Pinning · API Key Auth

📤 Transmitted fixity values only — no content, no representations: SHA-256 checksums SHA-512 checksums MD5 checksums —

☁️ Serpentua Cloud · 99.99% Uptime

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Step 04

Fixity Ingest Endpoint

Receives the encrypted fixity value payload. Authenticates the agent via API key, validates transmission integrity, and routes checksums to the preservation processing pipeline.

RESTful API API key authentication Unlimited concurrent repository agents

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Step 05

Fixity Validation & Integrity Audit Engine

Compares inbound checksums against the stored fixity manifest (baseline registry). Detects bit rot, silent data corruption, unauthorized modification, accession of new objects, and unrecorded deletion.

Fixity manifest comparison SHA-256 · SHA-512 · MD5 Bit rot & corruption detection NIST IR 8387 aligned

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Step 06

Preservation Metadata Store & Audit Trail

All fixity audit outcomes are written to a tamper-evident cloud ledger — a permanent, time-stamped PREMIS-aligned event log recording every digital object's integrity state and chain of custody.

Tamper-evident audit trail Full provenance history Configurable retention schedules Indefinite storage available

📤 Secure report delivery — on demand or scheduled

🏛️ Curator / Archivist Access — Review from Anywhere

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Step 07

Curator Dashboard & Preservation Reports

Access fixity audit results, integrity alerts, and exportable preservation reports from any browser — no client software required.

📊 Preservation Status Dashboard Real-time fixity status, agent health, collection-level integrity overview

🔔 Fixity Failure Notifications Instant email or webhook on bit rot, corruption, or unauthorized modification

📥 Export Audit Reports PDF · CSV fixity audit trails for OAIS compliance & legal admissibility

Local repository — digital objects never transmitted

Fixity value (checksum) computation only

Encrypted transmission & cloud preservation store

Curator access & preservation reporting