ZoneMinder Forums

Hi everyone,

we want to use 20Cams DS-2CD2032-I with 2048x1536px and need a new server for that.

We will record all the time without motion detection, we want full color 24bit and full resolution @5fps

Each Cam will send about 2.3MByte/s (not Mbit!)

I believe 32GB RAM will be enoupgh, but what CPU to use?

2,3MByte/s and 20CAMs results in 46Mbyte/s.

I am thinking about the following Hardware
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on SSD
32GB RAM
5x4TB HGST Deskstar 7K4000 4TB in Raid5 with Softwareraid mdadm

1) What CPU/Plattform to use?
2) All in one machine or better to use dedicated storage?
I would prefere all in one machine and dont want to spent that much money.


thank you for your suggestions

I'd be thinking dual quad core xeons and I'm not sure your hdd throughput will be enough.

I guess I will buy somethink like that: HP ProLiant ML350 G6 Server 2x Xeon X5670 Six Core 2.9 + extra RAM.

HDD throughput not enough? I expect 50Mbyte/s writing all the time, but my Raid5 should be able to handle that.
What else would you suggest?

Not cheap but you might even be looking at hardware raid 10.
It's pretty fast.

I had one with software RAID 10 with 7 HD cams, no problem.
The install was supposed to grow to 15 cams and possibly a
hardware RAID card but once he saw the coverage with HD cams
he let it stay at 7 cams.

If you don't do motion detect the CPU(s) won't take as big as hit.
Writing at 2048x1536 is a chore.
The real problem will be when it starts purging, keeping the HD
from filling up. You didn't mention how much of a back log you want
so it may not be super expensive but raid 10 is the most expensive RAID.
You can get decent Hardware controllers cheaper on Ebay.

2 of the Xeon X5670 would probably do it.

I was thinking about 7 days of back log. Did a little bit of math and ended with 16TB needed.

So far, I was thinking about using Raid5. I didnt realize raid10 has such a writeperformance advantage over raid5. Now I know better.

I was aiming so high with the 2 Xeon X5670, because of motion detection and know, it takes a ton of cpu power.

Do you need redundancy ? A lot of people run RAID 0, if hard drive dies you loose your events
but to some it's not that big of deal. RAID 0 is twice as cheap .

No redundancy needed good point! I was thinking about raid0 too but didnt dare to post this

i switch a server over to RAID 0 from RAID 10 when a business was sold. the new owner didn't need Raid 10.
been running great.