Building a new Zoneminder server

Forum for questions and support relating to the 1.30.x releases only.
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jimkoh
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Nov 20, 2017 1:13 am

Building a new Zoneminder server

Post by jimkoh »

I’m running version 1.30.4 on Debian 9 configured for low band with 4 Dahua 2MP cameras set to Mocord. Everything is on a gigabit network and the camera’s are running 10 fps through a POE switch. It’s running on a Core i5 with 8GB of ram which also servers as my file server. The load measures 1.55 and up in Zoneminder and anywhere from the low 40’s to almost 70% CPU usage in webmin. The resolution on the camera’s is set to 960x560 but anything higher than 1200 causes FireFox to crash. While the cameras give a good picture in the day time and have good night vision, they can’t capture a license plate with any detail which makes them unusable if you ever “need” the footage.

I’d like to upgrade to 8MP cameras in the near future and eventually increase to 8-12 cameras with room to grow, so my question is what cpu should I be looking at? Because the only answer I can find on the forums is get as many cores as possible. But that’s really vague considering cpu’s can have 28+ cores. I’m also trying to take into consideration the eventual move to the h265 format since it’s supposed to be more cpu intensive.

Currently my server is using less than 1GB of ram and truthfully I don’t care too much about ram or hard drives at the moment since they are easy to add. But I don't want to build a new server with the wrong cpu and be faced with the same problem a year or so down the road.
Thanks for any feedback.

Jim
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