4 analog cameras + pv-149 + required hw

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pluttero
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon May 05, 2008 8:22 am

4 analog cameras + pv-149 + required hw

Post by pluttero »

Hi,
from my previous post I learned that zoneminder doesn't work with hw compression cards (anyways hw compression cards manufacturers such as hikvision, are developing linux drivers....it would be interesting to adapt these cards to zoneminder, since they do motion detection in hw....).
Since it's a requirement for me using zoneminder, I'm thinking to buy a card such as PV-149 and a stronger hw. what do you suggest?
Reading the forum I found people saying that a dual core 2 P4 1.8Ghz is enough: do you agree?
Is zoneminder able to use the parallelism feature provided by a multicore cpu?

many thanks,
Paolo
coke
Posts: 518
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2008 5:53 pm
Location: St. Louis, MO, USA

Cores

Post by coke »

Each ZM capture runs as a separate process, as does the analysis, so multiple cores do get utilized. All 4 of my cores are usually going somewhat when it's running.
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Lee Sharp
Posts: 1069
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 9:18 pm
Location: Houston, TX

Post by Lee Sharp »

I have 8 chip cards with slightly less cpu running fine.

Fill it with ram.
Get a big fast hard drive.
Do not view locally.

Do all that and it will fly.
darkpaw
Posts: 166
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2007 2:35 am

load

Post by darkpaw »

You can also reduce CPU load for lower-powered systems a lot by just disabling services that you don't need running. Stuff like bluetooth, hald, and ACPI that you do not need (normally, in a server you intend to run 24/7 and have it constantly checking for hardware changes).

Though these seem like they would be low on CPU usage, I reduced my load on a Duron 1.6 from .8 to about .25-.3 by shutting off stuff I didn't need. Also, it you have no need to be directly on the console with it, you should consider changing your default run-level from 5 to 3, as there is no need for X to run locally for it. This saves a lot of resources.
SlovakJoe
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:27 pm

Re: load

Post by SlovakJoe »

darkpaw wrote:You can also reduce CPU load for lower-powered systems a lot by just disabling services that you don't need running. Stuff like bluetooth, hald, and ACPI that you do not need (normally, in a server you intend to run 24/7 and have it constantly checking for hardware changes).

Though these seem like they would be low on CPU usage, I reduced my load on a Duron 1.6 from .8 to about .25-.3 by shutting off stuff I didn't need. Also, it you have no need to be directly on the console with it, you should consider changing your default run-level from 5 to 3, as there is no need for X to run locally for it. This saves a lot of resources.
Be careful with advice about runlevels. In the "olden" days with Red Hat and Fedora, runlevel 5 included the GUI login screen. For a server, you'd want runlevel 3, a console only login. However, Debian based systems like Ubuntu/Kubuntu have a different setup. And from my understanding, this is where more Linux flavors are headed (as debatable as this is). A Debian system's default runlevel is 2. The rest, 3-5, don't default to a console only login. Runlevel 1 is the "emergency, single user, no services" bootup.

More importantly, just do a regular server install to begin with. No GUI, no unnecessary services, etc. You'll be way ahead.
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Lee Sharp
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Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 9:18 pm
Location: Houston, TX

Post by Lee Sharp »

In Ubuntu, just Disable GDM from the services tool. Now it will start in text mode, but you can have a gui with 'startx' at any time. You also still have all the gui tools via ssh without the overhead of running x on the server.
SlovakJoe
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:27 pm

Post by SlovakJoe »

Lee Sharp wrote:In Ubuntu, just Disable GDM from the services tool. Now it will start in text mode, but you can have a gui with 'startx' at any time. You also still have all the gui tools via ssh without the overhead of running x on the server.
Lee's advice is the preferable route to take if you're a Linux novice. On any server I'm building I never install the GDM or KDM GUI tools. However, when I was first starting in Linux I'd install the GUI even on servers. That way if there was something I couldn't figure out on the command line, I could revert back to the GUI environment.
darkpaw
Posts: 166
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2007 2:35 am

Fedora

Post by darkpaw »

If you have the UI installed, but are running at run-level 3 in Fedora (CLI only), all you need to do to get the UI up is type: init 5

I can't speak about Debian-based distros like Ubuntu, because I don't like them. But for RedHat-based versions like Fedora, this is definitely the way to go for ease of use and CPU load.
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