Feedback on my proposed setup for home monitoring?

[desertcroc]

Hi all,

I'm fairly experienced with Linux and even setup Zoneminder successfully about 8 years ago to monitor my cat at home, just as a fun project. I'm now looking to use Zoneminder for home security, and have thought through various aspects, but wanted to see if others have advice on anything here that doesn't make sense.

I live in a nice area, but there have been problems with occasional break-ins, partly because it's a nicer area. I live in a 2-story house, about 3K sq ft, built in 1998. There was actually a home invasion/assault a few years back a few miles away that was pretty scary, but I know they're pretty rare in general.

My goals/setup:

• 3-4 exterior cameras (front door, driveway, backyard) - to monitor prowling
• 2-3 interior cameras (kitchen, foyer) - I plan to pair with a security system (potentially connected to or powered by Home Assistant). It seems like having interior cameras is pretty useful to be able to know why the security system is going off if I'm not home, as opposed to just being in the dark.
• low-cost PoE IP cameras - make them easily replaceable, minimal wiring, low cost, accessible from mobile phone apps via SSH tunnel for simplicity. I've had success with one Foscam FI8910W camera used as a baby monitor, so leaning toward more of those, but not pan/tilt and PoE enabled.
• hire a audio/alarm installer to pull Cat6 cable and consult on exact placement of the cameras. We have a "network closet" where current wall plate Cat5 cable terminate, but I'm slightly worried about the number of drywall holes to pull wire. I may just go with exterior cameras.
• UPS to support the router, cameras, switch, and ZM machine in the event power is interrupted
• Computer - I'm leaning toward a 3-4 year old ex data center rack-mounted computer. My goal is adequate horsepower to support the number of cameras, reliability, and lower power usage.

Ok, so on to some specific questions:

• Easy disaster recovery - I'm pretty experienced in LAMP/Linux, but don't really enjoy spending my spare time diagnosing system issues. Is it easy to put ZM on a VM or Docker image that can be backed up and easily installed on another machine in the event of a hardware failure?
• Power usage - am I going in the right direction with going for reliable hardware that used to be in a data center? Is the power usage going to be reasonable? I have solar panels, but am generally looking to minimize my energy footprint wherever I can.
• IP vs analog - IP cams with PoE seems the easiest in terms of running wire and future replacement... is that right?
  Is this overkill? Should I just buy an off the shelf solution? (I can kind of guess the answer here, given the audience. )

Here's my rough budget off the top of my head, supposing I go with 5 cameras:

• Cameras: 5@ $100 each
• Computer: $300
• Switch + PoE injector: $50
• Installation: $500
• Cable: ?
• Total: $1400 ?
  
  Am I in the right ballpark with approach and budget? I'm excited to get this built, as I"ve been thinking about it for some time, but want to get it done now in the next month.

[bbunge]

You seem to be on the right track. PoE is a good choice but if you can save a buck or so use CAT5 and a 10-100 PoE switch. No reason to have a GIG feed as this is a security camera system not a HD movie maker. Use an old PC that uses less power than a data center rack and is not as noisy. I have 17 cameras on a Dell i5 Quad core, 16 GIG RAM and 1 TB drive. Camera resolution 640x480, 4 cameras on mocord and I keep 28 days of events. Have run the system on 8 GIG RAM with no issues. Most everything is 2nd hand except 4 cameras. Set up your server sans docker or VM and image the system once set up. Also get a dump of the database once all the cameras are up and running. With that you can install a new system from scratch in about 1/2 hour including loading Linux. There is a shell script on the wiki that does all the "complicated" stuff for you (I set up a Ubuntu Bionic desktop with Zoneminder the other day. Including updates it took me 20 minutes).
Best of luck!

bb

[desertcroc]

Thanks for these details and suggestions! Super helpful. I had an installer over today, so here's some more details, in case it helps someone else on a similar project, as well as a few follow-up questions.

Here in Southern CA, I found a highly rated alarm/video camera installer on Yelp, and they charge $75 per hour per tech, typically working as a team of two techs. I hired one tech for an hour to walk through my house and advise me on placement for this custom project. If I buy their system, the walkthrough is free.

We ended up with a plan for 4 exterior cams and 3 interior cams. The most expensive part of install will be ~2 hours to run Cat5 in an exterior conduit to the back of the house. The whole job is quoted at 3.5-4 hours (conservatively estimating $600). I happen to have my network closet adjacent to the garage where they'll run a lot of Cat5, and also with easy access via a couple of holes for the interior cams. The interior part of this job is a lot easier than I expected (given their advice on placement) and could probably be completed by two techs in an hour. I'm going to buy my CAT5 from them at $0.35 per foot.

The installer recommended not using any interior cams outside here in Southern CA (~5 miles from the ocean) because the condensation will make the Ethernet contacts rust.

The system they normally install costs $200 per camera and $675 for an 8-channel NVR with 3-year warranty. I'll save a fair bit with this DIY system.

On to my remaining questions:

• I discovered a repo with a zoneminder docker instance, as well as instructions on the wiki for installing zoneminder in a docker instance. Out of curiosity, why do you recommend just configuring and then imaging? I'm pretty familiar with VMs, but not very familiar with docker, other than spinning up some pre-configured instances. I do like the idea of running it on my current desktop as a test, and then easily moving it over to low power hardware once I have it. Is your point that once you back up the config/database, the rest of the setup time is negligible, anyway?
• Anyone have a reliable but low-cost outdoor camera to recommend? It seems like compatibility isn't much of an issue these days, but I'm looking for one that isn't going to fail and make me replace it in under a few years.
• What's a good estimate of power draw from the cameras? I'm looking for a UPS to power the PoE switch, computer, (wifi) router, and cable modem for... 10-15 minutes? I'm trying to figure out how big/expensive a UPS that would be. If life were easier, I would turn off the wifi on the router to reduce power consumption when the power is out, but that seems more trouble than it's worth.