I'm new to Ubuntu and Zoneminder. I have 10 cameras set up right now. 9 are Toshiba IK-WB02A and the other is a D-Link DCS-6620G. All are working good except for the D-Link. it will work fine for awhile and then turn red. If i restart zoneminder it will usually turn green and record events, but will turn back to red at some point.
If anyone can help me try to figure out why this is doing this that would be great! Again, I'm very new to both ubuntu and zoneminder.
Thanks
D-Link Cam keeps dropping out
If it's running wireless, dropouts there can cause the symptoms you describe.
Certain cameras also hang/stall/stutter or supply buggy feeds. This can be overcome in their own display software or activex wrappers but less easy for a third party app like zm to handle. Eg, cameras not supplying true mjpeg standard files. Not saying that's the case here, I have no experience of this camera, but D-link do have a bit of a reputation for less than perfect gear and I think there is a real chance the problem is not zoneminder nor your configuration.
Certain cameras also hang/stall/stutter or supply buggy feeds. This can be overcome in their own display software or activex wrappers but less easy for a third party app like zm to handle. Eg, cameras not supplying true mjpeg standard files. Not saying that's the case here, I have no experience of this camera, but D-link do have a bit of a reputation for less than perfect gear and I think there is a real chance the problem is not zoneminder nor your configuration.
Not sure if I can help you but I will take a stab at the similar experience I had.
First off let me say that this occurred with my Vivotek cameras. Particularly the model PZ6112 and PZ 6117. I realize they are not D-Link BUT if I am not mistaken the D-Link and Vivoteks have some similarities and in some cases the D-Links were rebranded Vivoteks. Anyway here goes.
I was plagued with the same problem you have for months. I have 4 IP cameras setup on my Zoneminder Dell PE860 Dual Core, 4GB ram server with sata drive. that should be plenty to run 4 simple old IP cameras right? Well after questioning the ability of this computer then trying it on three other different setups and getting the exact same results I decided it must be something with the cameras. It took me months as I said but here is what I finally came to;
I had the four cameras installed as follows;
Monitor #1 was an analog camera connected to a Vivotek VS2101 video server. Basically I was using this to convert an analog camera to IP. I had this set up in ZM at 3 fps live and 5 fps record and had the status set to MODECT. THIS CAMERA WORKS PERFECT ALL THE TIME.
Monitor#2 was an Axis camera. An older model running in 1/2 D1 resolution. This camera worked perfect all the time. Or so I thought. More on this in a minute.
Monitor #3 is a Vivotek PZ6112. The wired version of their IP PTZ camera. It would do exactly as you described. Run for a short period of time then WHAMO dead as a door knob.
Monitor #4 is a Vivotek PZ6117. The wireless version of the PZ6112. I had the same problem as the wired version except this camera did not drop out as often or as quickly as the one above. It also just might restart itself without notice and without any help from me. I could never determine what it was going to do next.
Here is how I have resolved this problem so far. Or at least I have apparently been working in the right direction.
I stated earlier that camera #2 was working fine right? Well sort of. I got to noticing that the Axis camera never dropped off line but what it did do more often than not was a bit confusing. If I rebooted the system today then camera #2 would appear to have no problem what so ever but if I come back tomorrow and check the cameras I would find that indeed camera #2 was up and running BUT the clock in that camera appeared to be as much as an hour behind all the others when I was viewing it in the ZM live view. When I checked the camera directly the clock was ok. For some reason the live view on that camera was gradually falling further and further behind. After thinking about this for some time I concluded that there must be a relationship between this problem and cameras #3 and #4 dropping out for no reason. Especially since Monitor #1 was also a Vivotek and uses almost identical settings as the other two Vivoteks cameras which kept dying. I played with this Axis camera settings until I was about to scream and got NOTHING. That is UNTIL I started reducing the outbandwidth of the camera. Normally I set my cameras up so that the server determines the FPS to request from the camera. I then set the cameras at a full 30FPS and fill bandwidth capacity. This way the server SHOULD only get what it asks the camera to send it. NOT SO in the case of the Axis camera so I learned. When I reduced the bandwidth output of the Axis camera I started to notice two major changes. First was that the camera was not trying to lag behind the others in the live view as it was before. The second thing I learned is that the Vivotek PTZ cameras were taking longer to drop off line than they were previously. Needless to say I kept tweeking the #2 monitor (Axis Camera) settings until I was able to get the frame rate and resolution I wanted AND NO MORE than that. It was at that point that I stopped dropping cameras # 2 & 4.
My conclusion is that even though the Axis camera was only being requested to send 3 FPS live mode and 5 FPS recording mode, it was spewing out a ton of bandwidth. The camera which was ahead of it in the #1 position I can only assume had a priority over the #2 camera and was never affected by this problem. Cameras #3 and 4 were installed AFTER the #2 camera and and held a lower priority in ZM. The high bandwidth from that camera was flooding the servers NIC and apparently ZM was unable to maintain a connection with cameras #3 & 4 as a result and eneded up dropping the connections to them as well.
I hope this helps you and if not MAYBE it will help someone else.
First off let me say that this occurred with my Vivotek cameras. Particularly the model PZ6112 and PZ 6117. I realize they are not D-Link BUT if I am not mistaken the D-Link and Vivoteks have some similarities and in some cases the D-Links were rebranded Vivoteks. Anyway here goes.
I was plagued with the same problem you have for months. I have 4 IP cameras setup on my Zoneminder Dell PE860 Dual Core, 4GB ram server with sata drive. that should be plenty to run 4 simple old IP cameras right? Well after questioning the ability of this computer then trying it on three other different setups and getting the exact same results I decided it must be something with the cameras. It took me months as I said but here is what I finally came to;
I had the four cameras installed as follows;
Monitor #1 was an analog camera connected to a Vivotek VS2101 video server. Basically I was using this to convert an analog camera to IP. I had this set up in ZM at 3 fps live and 5 fps record and had the status set to MODECT. THIS CAMERA WORKS PERFECT ALL THE TIME.
Monitor#2 was an Axis camera. An older model running in 1/2 D1 resolution. This camera worked perfect all the time. Or so I thought. More on this in a minute.
Monitor #3 is a Vivotek PZ6112. The wired version of their IP PTZ camera. It would do exactly as you described. Run for a short period of time then WHAMO dead as a door knob.
Monitor #4 is a Vivotek PZ6117. The wireless version of the PZ6112. I had the same problem as the wired version except this camera did not drop out as often or as quickly as the one above. It also just might restart itself without notice and without any help from me. I could never determine what it was going to do next.
Here is how I have resolved this problem so far. Or at least I have apparently been working in the right direction.
I stated earlier that camera #2 was working fine right? Well sort of. I got to noticing that the Axis camera never dropped off line but what it did do more often than not was a bit confusing. If I rebooted the system today then camera #2 would appear to have no problem what so ever but if I come back tomorrow and check the cameras I would find that indeed camera #2 was up and running BUT the clock in that camera appeared to be as much as an hour behind all the others when I was viewing it in the ZM live view. When I checked the camera directly the clock was ok. For some reason the live view on that camera was gradually falling further and further behind. After thinking about this for some time I concluded that there must be a relationship between this problem and cameras #3 and #4 dropping out for no reason. Especially since Monitor #1 was also a Vivotek and uses almost identical settings as the other two Vivoteks cameras which kept dying. I played with this Axis camera settings until I was about to scream and got NOTHING. That is UNTIL I started reducing the outbandwidth of the camera. Normally I set my cameras up so that the server determines the FPS to request from the camera. I then set the cameras at a full 30FPS and fill bandwidth capacity. This way the server SHOULD only get what it asks the camera to send it. NOT SO in the case of the Axis camera so I learned. When I reduced the bandwidth output of the Axis camera I started to notice two major changes. First was that the camera was not trying to lag behind the others in the live view as it was before. The second thing I learned is that the Vivotek PTZ cameras were taking longer to drop off line than they were previously. Needless to say I kept tweeking the #2 monitor (Axis Camera) settings until I was able to get the frame rate and resolution I wanted AND NO MORE than that. It was at that point that I stopped dropping cameras # 2 & 4.
My conclusion is that even though the Axis camera was only being requested to send 3 FPS live mode and 5 FPS recording mode, it was spewing out a ton of bandwidth. The camera which was ahead of it in the #1 position I can only assume had a priority over the #2 camera and was never affected by this problem. Cameras #3 and 4 were installed AFTER the #2 camera and and held a lower priority in ZM. The high bandwidth from that camera was flooding the servers NIC and apparently ZM was unable to maintain a connection with cameras #3 & 4 as a result and eneded up dropping the connections to them as well.
I hope this helps you and if not MAYBE it will help someone else.
I don't know wether to wind my butt or scratch my watch.
I know how hard such things are to trace, and you get to thinking all kinds of weird explanations. In case it helps you trace, Axis cams have a url switch (as well as the settings place) that allows you to specify the fps sent by the camera, before zoneminder ever sees it.
Add &req_fps=3 (or whatever number you want) to the feed url and that's all it'll send.
(BTW, I run about 18 Axis cams of various models. The only issues I had were poor wireless in the 207w (fixed by running some cat5) and very occasional crashes. (Fixed by a cronned curl request which was run once a day by a server and caused each camera to restart) )
I like Axis, but they're still too expensive and are falling behind in features - specifically IR.
Add &req_fps=3 (or whatever number you want) to the feed url and that's all it'll send.
(BTW, I run about 18 Axis cams of various models. The only issues I had were poor wireless in the 207w (fixed by running some cat5) and very occasional crashes. (Fixed by a cronned curl request which was run once a day by a server and caused each camera to restart) )
I like Axis, but they're still too expensive and are falling behind in features - specifically IR.
Thanks Flash. Not only are you very observant of my situation but that tip should come in handy. It is most appreciated. When I say understanding I am referring to the fact that from my post it should be easy to see that I am in no way an expert on Linux, Ubuntu, or Zoneminder. Or Axis cameras for that matter. Occassionaly people will read a post like mine then voice their opinions of my ignorance or amateur methods of solving a problem. You on the otherhand did not and that is nice to see someone who understands the difficulty of this for people like myself. I, like many on here, am an old Windows guy so taking advantage of the Linux distros and all that is possible with them is not always an easy task for me. It is a blast though. I always have fun with it and as an adde bonus I am learning from it which is always a good thing. So again thanks for being very understanding. I would have loved to have known about the tip with the Axis camera when I started this. It would have saved me a lot of trouble. It's strange that of all the information I read on these cameras that I never remember seeing that tip. But hey I probably missed it somewhere.
Just for information sake though ....... since I last posted on this topic ........ my Vivotek cameras have not failed. Not even once. So now maybe I have two ways of cutting the bandwidth of the Axis camera and preventing network flooding. This will allow me to bring up the image quality and keep the frame rate low. A huge plus for me.
By the way. Since I did all this camera adjusting, and keep in mind I have 4 IP cameras running, my system LOAD has dropped tremendously lower than I have ever seen it before. If my LOAD reading is correct then I have now reached the point where I am starting to see actually being able to use this productively. My LOAD used to run at approximately .60 but after the camera changes, the first day I saw a 0.09 and last night I saw a 0.02. I mean is this right or is my load reading incorrectly? Either way my server is rocking right along without even breaking a sweat.
Thanks again Flash. Your info was useful. I hope I can do the same for someone some time.
Just for information sake though ....... since I last posted on this topic ........ my Vivotek cameras have not failed. Not even once. So now maybe I have two ways of cutting the bandwidth of the Axis camera and preventing network flooding. This will allow me to bring up the image quality and keep the frame rate low. A huge plus for me.
By the way. Since I did all this camera adjusting, and keep in mind I have 4 IP cameras running, my system LOAD has dropped tremendously lower than I have ever seen it before. If my LOAD reading is correct then I have now reached the point where I am starting to see actually being able to use this productively. My LOAD used to run at approximately .60 but after the camera changes, the first day I saw a 0.09 and last night I saw a 0.02. I mean is this right or is my load reading incorrectly? Either way my server is rocking right along without even breaking a sweat.
Thanks again Flash. Your info was useful. I hope I can do the same for someone some time.
I don't know wether to wind my butt or scratch my watch.