USB dedicated storage question

Discussions related to the 1.36.x series of ZoneMinder
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mrd
Posts: 269
Joined: Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:39 am
Location: Boston USA

USB dedicated storage question

Post by mrd »

I followed these instructions and it went well:

https://zoneminder.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

But it is not clear to me if I need to do this too because I see my only default storage now shows the capacity of the external hdd:

https://zoneminder.readthedocs.io/en/la ... drive.html

Thanks
MRD
Pedulla
Posts: 167
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 11:16 am
Location: Portland, Or

Re: USB dedicated storage question

Post by Pedulla »

Yes, you will need to set ownership of your new storage location to your webserver's user:group or zoneminder won't be able to write events to the storage area.
mrd
Posts: 269
Joined: Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:39 am
Location: Boston USA

Re: USB dedicated storage question

Post by mrd »

Yes. I did that because it was also part of the blog instructions, but I guess I'm not sure if I need to create the config file or if I need to add a another storage device in the GUI since the blog process uses the default mount points and so my default ZM storage shows up as the newly added USB HDD capacity.

So it seems like I don't want to change the ZM_DIR_EVENTS value or add another storage device in the ZM GUI.
MRD
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bkjaya1952
Posts: 282
Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2018 3:24 pm
Location: Sri Lanka

Re: USB dedicated storage question

Post by bkjaya1952 »

Pleae try the method used in the following link
https://bkjaya.wordpress.com/2018/08/23 ... -computer/
bbunge
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2012 11:40 am
Location: Pennsylvania

Re: USB dedicated storage question

Post by bbunge »

Here is another how to for systemd mount.
https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Common_Issu ... ive_or_NAS

Actually an easier way is to install Ubuntu with the USB drive attached. Format the main drive as "/" and format the USB drive to mount as "/zmstore"
then in Zoneminder storage add the "/zmstore"

However, using the systemd procedure you gain protection if, for some reason, the "extra" drive does not mount.
mrd
Posts: 269
Joined: Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:39 am
Location: Boston USA

Re: USB dedicated storage question

Post by mrd »

Thanks for the replies on this.

The only difference I can see from the procedure bbunge referenced above that I did not do is to remove the original events and images directories.

Code: Select all

Remove or events and images directories

rm -r /var/cache/zoneminder/events
rm -r /var/cache/zoneminder/images
I guess that is worth doing to avoid a false since of success in the event that the external drive fails so it doesn't quietly default back to them even though my new mounts are on top of those same paths?

I guess I am fine not adding a new storage source to ZM either since it shows as my default source now because I am using the same default paths in my mounts? Also, seems like no need to create the conf file to define the ZM_DIR_EVENTS since that s redundant in this case?
MRD
bbunge
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2012 11:40 am
Location: Pennsylvania

Re: USB dedicated storage question

Post by bbunge »

In this modern age you really do not have to stand on your head to add extra storage. Newer Zoneminder versions allow you to have multiple storage locations.
1. Mount the new storage formatted with "NIX" (EXT4 is great)
2. Create a folder on the new storage source and give it permissions to read and write by the web server (Apache2 is www-data)
3. Ad the new storage in Zoneminder - Options - Storage. Say the drive is mounted as /zmstore with a folder of events - use /zmstore/events
4. When adding a camera select the storage you want to use - Storage - Storage Area

You will have to make sure the events are purged from those areas with disk full or time purge.
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