copy ZM alarm events into Dropbox

[ansonch]

Hi,
I'm looking for help on how to store alarm events into my Dropbox directory so it can be automatically synced online. What I've been doing is changing my event folder, /var/www/html/zm/events (via symbolic link) over to my Dropbox folder. Every time I do this, I get a -1% on disk space. (Yes, I always shutdown Zoneminder before setting up the symbolic link. ) At -1% disk space, no alarms get trigger and nothing is recording.

Basically, this is what I'm trying to do via command line, starting at /var/www/html/zm directory (this is where events are stored.)

service zm stop /* this stops the ZM service */
mv events events-BACKUP /*always believe in backups */
ln -s /<dropbox>/events /* link created. confirmed with a ls -alF. At this point, I see -1% for disk space in ZM console. */

Ok, since this didn't work, lets try plan b. I use symbolic links for the 1 directory inside events (1 being my first camera)
service zm stop /* always, stop the ZM service */
mv 1 1-BACKUP /*still backing it up */
ln -s /<dropbox>/events/1 /* link created. confirmed with a ls -alF. Disk space in ZM console is set correctly. */
service zm start /* Whoa! my 1 symbolic disappears! And I'm not recording on camera 1 again. */

What do I need to do so that I can change the /var/www/html/zm/events directory over to the Dropbox folder's event directory?

thanks for your help.

background info: ZM 1.25.0, CentOS 5.6

[knight-of-ni]

If I recall correctly, a link will inherit the permissions of the folder you are linking. So.... If you installed your Dropbox folder under your home folder (the default), then you should check the file permissions. By default the apache user account cannot write to anything under your home folder.