Need Recommendation for Zone Minder Server

Forum for questions and support relating to the 1.30.x releases only.
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jimkoh
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Joined: Mon Nov 20, 2017 1:13 am

Need Recommendation for Zone Minder Server

Post by jimkoh »

I'm running ver 1.30.04 on Debian 9 with 4 2mp poe cameras set to Mocord at 9 fps and everything works fine. I want to upgrade the cameras to at least 4mp, possibly as high as 8mp if the price is right, as well as add 5 more cameras for a total of 9. My current server is a dual core cpu with a 1tb dedicated hard drive which lets me store almost 48 hrs of data. But newer versions use h265 so I'm trying to find out how much cpu I'm going to need as well as get an idea of the storage requirements because I want to store up to 30 days of data. I've added the repos from this link https://zoneminder.readthedocs.io/en/la ... an-stretch it still tells me I have the newest version and doesn't upgrade, so I haven't been able to test newer versions.
Thanks
Jim
bbunge
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Re: Need Recommendation for Zone Minder Server

Post by bbunge »

4 mp is overkill for a security camera system. I run 17 cameras 640x480 5 fps on an i5 quad core, 16 GB Ram, 1 TB WD Black HD. Mocord on 5 cameras while working modect the rest of the time. HD averages 70% used with 30 day purge.
Stay with lower res cameras and buy yourself a new laptop!
jimkoh
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Nov 20, 2017 1:13 am

Re: Need Recommendation for Zone Minder Server

Post by jimkoh »

Thank you for your reply. However, after watching this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjUa0UjZBYQ it seems like I need at minimum 5 mp with 8 mp being ideal. We have had property and autos stolen so details matter.
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iconnor
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Re: Need Recommendation for Zone Minder Server

Post by iconnor »

I personally find that 720p is the sweet spot for me. However if you are watching a large area and want the details then yeah you need the megapixels.

That being said everytime you increase the resolution, you are increasing the work by 4x. So you are going to need lots of cpu and ram. Not a big deal given the price of last years used servers.
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snake
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Re: Need Recommendation for Zone Minder Server

Post by snake »

jimkoh wrote: Mon Jun 10, 2019 3:48 pm I'm running ver 1.30.04 on Debian 9 with 4 2mp poe cameras set to Mocord at 9 fps and everything works fine. I want to upgrade the cameras to at least 4mp, possibly as high as 8mp if the price is right, as well as add 5 more cameras for a total of 9.
Buy a used server on ebay or a local IT recycler, preferably with a warranty. Put Ubuntu 19.04 on it with MP4 support (see install guide on wiki). Throw a few at least 2TB HDDs in there at RAID 0, and split the storage areas across the HDDs (this will give you > 30 days history). Make sure H264 encoding or passthrough is setup. Don't save JPEGs. I'd recommend you setup a 2nd server in addition to your existing one, and you can decommission the old server after you have everything working right on the new one. Or you can keep them both.

Official Debian stable only has 1.30.4, and the experimental package doesn't have MP4 encoding, so avoid for now. I'm not sure if ZMRepo has MP4 support included for debian.
bbunge
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Re: Need Recommendation for Zone Minder Server

Post by bbunge »

snake wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 8:32 pm
jimkoh wrote: Mon Jun 10, 2019 3:48 pm I'm running ver 1.30.04 on Debian 9 with 4 2mp poe cameras set to Mocord at 9 fps and everything works fine. I want to upgrade the cameras to at least 4mp, possibly as high as 8mp if the price is right, as well as add 5 more cameras for a total of 9.
Buy a used server on ebay or a local IT recycler, preferably with a warranty. Put Ubuntu 19.04 on it with MP4 support (see install guide on wiki). Throw a few at least 2TB HDDs in there at RAID 0, and split the storage areas across the HDDs (this will give you > 30 days history). Make sure H264 encoding or passthrough is setup. Don't save JPEGs. I'd recommend you setup a 2nd server in addition to your existing one, and you can decommission the old server after you have everything working right on the new one. Or you can keep them both.

Official Debian stable only has 1.30.4, and the experimental package doesn't have MP4 encoding, so avoid for now. I'm not sure if ZMRepo has MP4 support included for debian.
Debian 9 has install for 1.32.3 in various flavors. I set up a Pi 3B+ tonight with ZM 1.32.3.So with Debian 9 on at least an i5 quad core and 16 GIG ram it should run you just fine.

I would stay with a LTS version of Linux or Debian. While 19.04 runs Zoneminder very well it will loose support very soon and you will need to upgrade. My production system runs Ubuntu Bionic with Zoneminder 1.30.4 which I will likely upgrade when someone donates a better PC.
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snake
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Re: Need Recommendation for Zone Minder Server

Post by snake »

bbunge wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 1:42 am Debian 9 has install for 1.32.3 in various flavors. I set up a Pi 3B+ tonight with ZM 1.32.3.So with Debian 9 on at least an i5 quad core and 16 GIG ram it should run you just fine.
Looks like you are right. ZMRepo appears to have libmp4v2-2 as a dependency in debian/control and the cmake config for stretch so it should be compiled with MP4 support. It's just that the official Debian repos do not. Something to beware of.
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