DVD recording of archived events

[Luchador]

Im a totally newbie about linux and zoneminder, at the moment my pc is running zm without complications but i would like to record my archived events on dvds and purge databases to clean space disk.

I have zm running on modect mode, i archived all events, so now i have 8000 archived events. I want to stored all those archived events on dvds, free disk space and reset all counters to 0.

So my question are
are there some script or plugin to do this on zm?
If not, what is the correct way to do this?

I would like to record all those events on single video files.
I would like sugest this feature on next releases for zm, its a great program but i think is missing most important, that is, backup events on dvd or cds.

Best regards

[ramdisk]

I too would be interested in "backups" of events/archive. Is there a way to create a tar or zip of files greater than 5 days old, and run this every 5 days ? (IE create a backup consiting of everyting older than 5 days) this could then be backed up to tape or DVD using cron or ftp'd using a script etc. Also is there then a way to "unzip or utar" these back to a location and have zone minder locate them to play? Just some ideas.

[ramdisk]

I am working on a script that will basically tar or gzip or cpio any directories older that say 5 days, this can be written directly to tape, or modified to go to DVD if you are so inclined to edit the script to do so. Then it will run the zmaudit script to clean up the dbase.. just a project I am working on .. will let you know when I finish (probably sometime this weekend)

[electron]

You said:

I have zm running on modect mode, i archived all events, so now i have 8000 archived events. I want to stored all those archived events on dvds, free disk space and reset all counters to 0.

So my question are
are there some script or plugin to do this on zm?
If not, what is the correct way to do this?

As a newbie, I would guess you have never used the generate video feature for an event. You mentioned DVD & video, sounds like you are thinking DVD to play in DVD player, I'm not sure. I recently made a DVD data disk from zm files that was about 4 GB & I don't think I had much more than 1 hr of video & exported jpgs. If you want to have actual video files, make sure to tweak output options to ffmpeg to get quality video. i.e. to -r25 add -b 1000000 (try diff settings), & you will get higher quality video files. You can find this under options, images, near the bottom, output options to ffmpeg.

[1]

As a newbie, I would guess you have never used the generate video feature for an event. You mentioned DVD & video, sounds like you are thinking DVD to play in DVD player, I'm not sure. I recently made a DVD data disk from zm files that was about 4 GB & I don't think I had much more than 1 hr of video & exported jpgs. If you want to have actual video files, make sure to tweak output options to ffmpeg to get quality video. i.e. to -r25 add -b 1000000 (try diff settings), & you will get higher quality video files. You can find this under options, images, near the bottom, output options to ffmpeg.

Option -b with that size would give me videos bigger than default so i would need too many dvds to store all events, now, i have 9500 events and i would backup all these archives to free space on disk and reset database counters, my objetive is not for view those dvds on dvd player, only store the videos and images.
I archived all events, so i think these archives are on the database, but i dont know about mysql and im afraid to use it and make errors on the correct job of zoneminder.
Atm i have an error on power on about one user didnt close mysql correctly and i dont know how to fix it.

[jameswilson]

do a search for mysqlcheck

[1]

do a search for mysqlcheck

I run that command on zm database, seems all are ok.
But at the moment still with same objetive, record automatically with a script or similar to burn on dvd all archived events and purge the database.

[1]

I am working on a script that will basically tar or gzip or cpio any directories older that say 5 days, this can be written directly to tape, or modified to go to DVD if you are so inclined to edit the script to do so. Then it will run the zmaudit script to clean up the dbase.. just a project I am working on .. will let you know when I finish (probably sometime this weekend)

Great, i will wait for ur news, and thanks for ur sharing.

[davekelly1979]

I too am in desperate need of a way to clean up old events (short of going all the way back, checking boxes and deleting them one at a time...). I am feeling like an idiot because I cannot find a built-in way to delete or purge old events. I am not a programmer, and am not comfortable writing a script. The filter also seems to do nothing for me. I even tried doing a WinSCP to manually go out and delete files with no luck. I am at 100% disk utilization and getting frustrated. Can anyone out there help a newbie?

[nelsda]

davekelly1979, I think what you want to do is activate the PurgeWhenFull filter. I'm still new to ZM so this may not be the quickest/easiest way to get to it but I think it works. I haven't filled up my drive yet to test it.

Open an events window. I just click on the total number of events value from the ZM Console. Next, click on the show filter window link at the top of the page. Select the PurgeWhenFull filter from the Use Filter: drop-down box. The default disk percent should be 95%. Adjust this if you want a different setting. I don't recommend a higher value based on what I have read about a volume's performance when it gets over 92%. Make sure that the Delete all matches: box is checked and that the limit to first X matches is something like 5. I believe if it is blank it will delete all matches which will mean that it will delete ALL unarchived events. When it is set like you want click on save and make sure that the run in background box is checked in the window that opens up. This should take care of your volume filling up.

HTH

David