Install questions -xubuntu 24.04 for install of ZM 1.36? SSD?

[JimS]

Have 8 cameras. Only need low-moderate frame rate. Using motion detection. Looking to update from 1.34 and put it on a different box - Dell Optiplex 5040, i7-6700 with 16G of DDR3 ram. 500G 7200 RPM HDD and 500G m.2 SSD. Running this headless. Seems like hardware is overkill so I may run some other things in VMs. Thinking the minimal package install would be best for ZM somewhat regardless of hardware for best performance but wanting to get some confirmation/comments on this. Planning to use Xubuntu 24.04. Any guides on how best to set up SSD and HDD? I did a bit of searching and saw some comments about putting OS and db on the ssd but didn't find much.

[burger]

This type of question is asked periodically in the hardware queries forum. See:
viewforum.php?f=14&start=20
viewtopic.php?t=33071
viewtopic.php?t=30166

With regards to your post, I would recommend Debian over Ubuntu. People are always having trouble with non-LTS Ubuntu releases and ZM. I would also put a couple TB for the spinning hdd, because it's not a big price increase to go from 500GB to 3TB (or more). VMs are generally not recommended, but if you run the system lean enough you may be OK.

[Andyrh]

Through my several iterations of ZM, I have come to the conclusion that you need about 1 thread per motion detection. This is not a hard rule, but my experience.
My 6 cameras use about 1.5TB per month. 6x 2-8MP motion only and 6x 640x480 continuous recording. The advice for a larger HDD may be wise. Also avoid green drives, they will not survive.

[dougmccrary]

People are always having trouble with non-LTS Ubuntu releases and ZM

Which is why they should stick with the LTS releases....

[JimS]

This type of question is asked periodically in the hardware queries forum. See:
viewforum.php?f=14&start=20
viewtopic.php?t=33071
viewtopic.php?t=30166

With regards to your post, I would recommend Debian over Ubuntu. People are always having trouble with non-LTS Ubuntu releases and ZM. I would also put a couple TB for the spinning hdd, because it's not a big price increase to go from 500GB to 3TB (or more). VMs are generally not recommended, but if you run the system lean enough you may be OK.

Xubuntu 24.04 is a LTS release. So what's the issue? You mentioned people having trouble with non-LTS releases but I'm not doing that...

I figured Xubuntu was better than ubuntu for this - is that what you are recommending against?

[burger]

Xubuntu 24.04 is a LTS release. So what's the issue? You mentioned people having trouble with non-LTS releases but I'm not doing that...

I figured Xubuntu was better than ubuntu for this - is that what you are recommending against?

I wasn't clear enough. I swear in the back of my mind I've seen some LTS releases also give people trouble (not as often, mind you). There is also the possibility that you will update from an LTS to a non LTS (a trap for non power users). And then there are some things that Ubuntu does differently from Debian (for example netplan) which, because less people use Ubuntu vs. Debian, there just isn't as much of a community behind it. The PPAs are managed separately. Ubuntu has multiple releases within the LTS... When you use Debian, and zmrepo you eliminate these potential traps. Not to say that there still aren't things that can break on Debian. But Ubuntu has another layer of things that can break on TOP of Debian's bugs.

I've watched this forum a bit, and looking at the search, Ubuntu tends to get a lot of problems. This may be because it attracts less power users than Debian. I also see that there are quite a lot of posts for Ubuntu, so a lot of people are using it, and it likely works for the majority.

So, if you are asking a basic 'what's the recommended setup to use', I would say Debian. But you should be OK with Ubuntu, just make sure you stay on the LTS. You don't need a GUI with Ubuntu, so I don't see the benefit of using Xubuntu, which I understand to be XFCE-Ubuntu (but I haven't used it). You should be running a headless (or server) Ubuntu.

And I think Ubuntu is great, with its business support. I don't mean to talk it down. Just that ZM doesn't benefit from the support contracts which is its main selling point.

[parky]

This sounds like my size of setup with 8-10 cameras running Mocord

Just moved my setup to a Lenovo P300 with an i7 4790 as it has an integrated graphics card which is more power efficient that a dedicated card. 32GB of Ram over 16Gb, but only because it came with the box and a 480Gb SSD writing to a 4TB Purple drive
I stick with Ubuntu 22 LTS server headless as it's still got plenty of life left for support and there is no need for a GUI. ZM is developed in Ubuntu so for me that means they will be the stable match. I also run Cockpit for Plex and PiHole VM's with the Mariadb co-hosting zm and my weather station
I have run this same setup on older hardware for 5-6 years now with no issues and it also allows me to spin up other VM's for other projects like you suggest. The install guides in the documentation for 'Jammy' just work and the dedicated drive is just a case of getting it mounted as per the guides on the same link

[bbunge]

My OS of choice is Debian 12. Far fewer issues that the Ubuntu distros. I do , however, manually configure the HD and increase the swap size to equal the box RAM. OK, so I am old school but I have had the OS run out of swap and go bonkers.
My current box is a Dell Optiplex i5 six core with 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD running 7 cams on Modect. I purge events after 14 days and seldom use more than 20% of the drive space. Oh, I also use Mariadb. Server is run headless with a UPS to shut things down with power failure. Six cams and server are connected to a PoE managed switch which also run off of the UPS. The cams all have micro SD cards that record motion events just in case the server is down.