Zoneminder

[Ric_]

I'm potentially looking at using Zoneminder for a couple of projects but am struggling to find any info recommending the server spec.

 

What I'm looking for is a recommendation on CPU/memory/disk space.

 

Project 1:

* Poss. 5 IP cameras

* Record about a week of footage (quality need only be 'acceptable')

 

Project 2:

* Initally 8 IP cameras - expandable up to about 15 cameras

* Record about 1 month of footage (quality should be 'good' - able to see faces)

[pete]

In the absence of better documentation, have you looked at the Axis config estimator?

 

http://www.axis.com/products/video/design_tool/index.htm

 

It'll give you something to work with.

[Ric_]

@pete: Thanks... that gives a rough idea for storage capacity required but it doesn't help with the processor/memory requirmenents

[Geoff]

I have just put Zoneminder on a old Toshiba Laptop here Ric. We'll be testing it in one of our rooms with a Logitech USB webcam.

 

I'll let you know what sort of load I see with this single camera setup and perhaps you'll be able to extrapolate from that?

[Ric_]

@Geoff: I beleive that using IP cameras is a little more processor intensive (due to the JPEG handling). We'll see though.

[Geoff]

Ok, this usb camera is running at 640x480 in 24bit colour with a 100 frame buffer. It consumes 45mb of ram and 33% of CPU (CPU is 1.3Ghz Celeron).

 

USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
www-data  6826 36.7 17.8 158920 42880 pts/0    S    15:41   1:49 /usr/local/bin/zmc -d /dev/video0

[plexer]

There is a spreadsheet on their wiki for calculating diskspace Ric.

 

Ben

[Geoff]

Yes, this spreadsheet:

 

http://www.jpwilson.eu/ZM_Utils/ZM storage calc sheet.xls

 

There's also this section of the wiki which deals with tweaking.

 

http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/FAQ#Managing_system_load_.28with_IP_Cameras_in_mind.29

[Ric_]

@plexer: It's less the disk space requirement and more the processor/memory requirement.

 

Disk space is easy to add (especially if I use the SAN). It's a little more tricky/expensive to add a second processor.

 

I have my practice system set up at home now... although I haven't managed to set the cameras up properly yet I have two Panasonic cameras (one BL-C1 and one BL-C10) so this should allow me to see better how to scale it up.

[plexer]

Hi Ric,

 

I'd be very interested to hear how you get on with this especially the BL-C10 camera as well.

 

We have some plans to upgrade our cctv system in the near future hopefully and I'm keen to go with an ip cctv system.

 

Ben

[Ric_]

OK... a quick update on my test setup.

 

Firstly, the cameras... the BL-C1 camera produces an infinitely better image and the I would even say that images in low light light level conditons are acceptable. The more expensive BL-C10 produces good images but I would deinately recommend the BL-C1 over these if you are not desperate for the pan/tilt capability.

 

Next, my zoneminder test... I grabbed the best spare box that I had to hand (a PIII-600 with 256MB RAM). The hardware spec is not ideal is a lot less than I would expect my production system to be. Anyway... runnin the two cameras in 'Modect' mode at 640x480 (standard res) gives a load of between 4 and 5. This is a stock install from the Zoneminder Live CD which has some bloat on it (e.g. X11!!!).

 

I will have to investigate what sort of effect the current setup is having on my network - the activity lights on the switch that the zoneminder box and 2 cameras are plugged in to are going hell for leather! This isn't effecting the rest of my network at the minute mind because these items are on their own switch at the moment.

[Geoff]

How many FPS are you capturing at? That BLC1 will only do 7.5fps at 640x480. Therefore it's pointless capturing faster. Also you can fiddle with the colour depth (or even switch to B&W).

 

As for networking, I'd VLAN the IP cameras off and also use a separate IP range for them. From a security point of view you'll also want to be communicating with them over a secure protocol. Hopefully these cameras support HTTPS?

[Ric_]

At the moment I just want to hammer the Zoneminder box so have not bothered tweaking anything.