ZM 1.36.10 - Raspberry Pi 4 8 GB - Ubuntu 20.04 - USB Hard Disk

Post here to indicate any hardware you have used and which is known to work with ZoneMinder. Not for questions.
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sfritz
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2020 4:14 am

ZM 1.36.10 - Raspberry Pi 4 8 GB - Ubuntu 20.04 - USB Hard Disk

Post by sfritz »

I did a fresh install of Zoneminder 1.36.10 on a Raspberry Pi 4 to take advantage of the ability to disable decoding of my cameras' 5MP and 8MP video streams and link them to the VGA streams for motion detection. My previous Zoneminder 1.34.x installation had CPU bottlenecks, and 1.36.10 freed up a lot of clock cycles to devote to higher frame rate and resolution motion detection.

For background, this is the CPU utilization for the system, a low resolution motion detection (Monitor 3, 4 fps, 1024 kbps VBR) and the linked 5MP video (Monitor 4, 8 fps, 6144 kbps)

Zoneminder 1.34, 2 5MP cameras
Zabbix_ZM134_CPU.png
Zabbix_ZM134_CPU.png (24.45 KiB) Viewed 14041 times
Zabbix_ZM134_Monitor_3.png
Zabbix_ZM134_Monitor_3.png (17.76 KiB) Viewed 14041 times
Zabbix_ZM134_Monitor_4.png
Zabbix_ZM134_Monitor_4.png (16.71 KiB) Viewed 14041 times

The decoding of the 5MP video kept a CPU near maximum and the server was limited to two 5MP cameras (a second server was dedicated to the 8MP camera). I tried to upgrade from 1.34.x to 1.36.10, but there was very high CPU iowait time that I could not diagnose; I then opted to apt purge, delete the old videos and drop the database for a fresh install. The results were worth the work.

The new installation:

Cameras
2 x Amcrest IP5M-1173E POE
2 streams at 640x480 (8 fps,1024 kbps VBR) and 2592x1944 (15 fps, 10240 kbps VBR)
1 x Amcrest IP8M-2493E POE
2 streams at 704x480 (8 fps, 1024 kbps VBR) and 3840x2160 (15 fps, 10240 kbps VBR)

Raspberry Pi Server
Canakit Raspberry Pi 8 GB
CanaKit Premium White Case (High Gloss)
Set of 3 Aluminum Heat Sinks
CanaKit Fan
1 TB Hard Disk in USB3 HD Enclosure

Software
Ubuntu 20.04 32-bit OS
Raspberry Pi OS Zoneminder was not able to recognize camera streams greater than 1080p
Zoneminder 1.36.10 installed from Launchpad repository

So far all is reasonably good, although I did notice some problems with the saved high resolution video. I'll look into that later.

As for performance, the overall CPU utilzation -- even at much higher frame and data rates -- is low and I have much lower CPU iowait utilization than in the past. As I am limited to three attachments, I post the current performance monitoring graphs in replies to this post.
sfritz
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2020 4:14 am

Re: ZM 1.36.10 - Raspberry Pi 4 8 GB - Ubuntu 20.04 - USB Hard Disk

Post by sfritz »

Below are the system CPU utilization and Gigabit Ethernet utilization for all three cameras:
Zabbix_ZM136_CPU.png
Zabbix_ZM136_CPU.png (23.25 KiB) Viewed 14040 times
Zabbix_ZM136_eth0.png
Zabbix_ZM136_eth0.png (26.93 KiB) Viewed 14040 times
I estimate the Raspberry Pi 4 can handle 8 high resolution cameras operating at or near their maximum frame rates and resolutions.
sfritz
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2020 4:14 am

Re: ZM 1.36.10 - Raspberry Pi 4 8 GB - Ubuntu 20.04 - USB Hard Disk

Post by sfritz »

This is the Zoneminder process loads for the 8 MP camera, Monitor 1 is the low resolution motion detection video and Monitor 2 is the high resolution video linked to it with decoding disabled.
Zabbix_ZM136_Monitor_1.png
Zabbix_ZM136_Monitor_1.png (12.52 KiB) Viewed 14040 times
Zabbix_ZM136_Monitor_2.png
Zabbix_ZM136_Monitor_2.png (12.71 KiB) Viewed 14040 times
sfritz
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2020 4:14 am

Re: ZM 1.36.10 - Raspberry Pi 4 8 GB - Ubuntu 20.04 - USB Hard Disk

Post by sfritz »

This is the Zoneminder process loads for a 5 MP camera, Monitor 3 is the low resolution motion detection video and Monitor 4 is the high resolution video linked to it with decoding disabled.
Zabbix_ZM136_Monitor_3.png
Zabbix_ZM136_Monitor_3.png (12.83 KiB) Viewed 14040 times
Zabbix_ZM136_Monitor_4.png
Zabbix_ZM136_Monitor_4.png (13.44 KiB) Viewed 14040 times
leopard
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2021 8:00 am

Re: ZM 1.36.10 - Raspberry Pi 4 8 GB - Ubuntu 20.04 - USB Hard Disk

Post by leopard »

sfritz wrote: Thu Nov 11, 2021 5:54 pm Below are the system CPU utilization and Gigabit Ethernet utilization for all three cameras:

Zabbix_ZM136_CPU.png

Zabbix_ZM136_eth0.png

I estimate the Raspberry Pi 4 can handle 8 high resolution cameras operating at or near their maximum frame rates and resolutions.
wow... I had no idea that raspberryPi 4 can handle that well... and I bought used 8c/16t xeon with 40GB and some dell poweredge servers for less cameras. I might invest for 90€ for raspberry pi 4 also, because those servers took 250€/year for electricity per each :D
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