ZoneMinder Forums

Hello all,

Just thought I would share my experience with ZM and hardware I have got working with it.

1. DELL PC built with CENTOS 4.1, 64Bit and 32Bit
Had to re-compile the kernel that ships with centos 4.1 to include V4L and bttv as modules.

2. Capture Card.
Purchased the PV149PA for $110 US, which is a 4 Chip card using the Conexant Fusion 878A chipsets. Working a treat.. 1 card easily handles 16 analog cameras without a sweat. 5 - 30 FPS, depending on resolution, ring buffers, memory etc..
The card is automatically detected by this kernel, so no module options have to be configured, i.e.. you don't have to specify a card type, or tuner type number, it picks up the right one automatically.
Quality of this card is quite impressive. Very stable.

3. IP Cameras.

I have also got ZM working with IP Cameras in conjuction with Analog cameras. The IP cameras I have sucessfully used under 1 server at the same time(MODECT and RECORD permanently)are as follows;
4 x AXIS 206 (/axis-cgi/mpjpg/video.cgi)
4 X Dlink DCS 1000(/video.cgi)
3 x Panasonic KX-HCM10(SnapshotJpeg?Resolution=320x240&Quality=Standard)

All of the above are streaming fluently using cambazola.

I am using FFMPEG to create mpegs.

I have also created a ksh script which will once in cron, will go through each monitor ID, and convert all eventIDs to MPEG, and place the mpg in a separate filesystem/directoy for archiving to DVD burner, which then deletes the JPGs. I will post the script once I have it running for a week or two without any problems.

Filters are working great, alerting via email when disk usage gets to a certain percentage.

I setup virtual hosting on apache, so I can include phpmysql-webadmin in its own www root directory.

I also have samba shares for users who simply want to browse the mpg videos, without logging into ZM.

If anyone has any questions with regards to this setup, I will be more than happy to answer you questions.

Phil,
Once I get paid from the client I did this installation for, I will be donating your fair share..


its all good!


-M

Good useful info thankyou

What processer this on, speed etc memory use and hard drive setup.

And whats your ave load on it

James

Hi James,
Here is the PC Hardware specs;

Dell(TM) PowerEdge(TM) SC430 Server
Intel P4 3.0GHz,800MHz FSB
64Bit enabled.
1GB RAM;
SWAP=512MB
Trying 256MB of shared memory(might have to bump it up), but so for so good.

I have it currently running with the 64Bit kernel of centos 4.1

I currently have 3 Analog Cameras, running in MODECT mode, forced to 5FPS MAX, 320x240, 24bit colour.
with 4 x DCS 1000 (all in MODECT), 320x240, 2FPS each
plus, 4 x AXIS 206(2 MODECT, 2 RECORD), 2FPS each
plus 3 x Panasonic KX-hcm10(MODECT), 2FPS, 320x240

I have all these running simultaneously, and the cpu averaged around 20-30%, memory usage goes between, 500-800MB, then again, in this you also have the cached memory which its using.

They want to add more IP cameras to this setup, which will be interesting to see how it handles the load.. I will probably put some cameras on monitor, as they don't need to record on a few cameras.

I am using a 200GB SATA hard drive, which seems to be handling the IO ok. I run iostats when all the cameras were on RECORD, and the SATA hard drive handled it well, no hiccups.
I have the events directory on its own filesystem.

I still have to tune the filters and zones to optimize MODECT alarms.
Not to clued up on these settings yet. So still experimenting.


One thing to make sure of with your hardware is that, when you get your PC, always run the latest memtest on your RAM, I found quality RAM makes a big difference to stability and performance.


-M

iostats? what does that do
And whats you load as in 15 min average sorry i was vauge

James

Thats ok,
I think I was bit vague, but anyways here is some more info;

I run the command "iostat" with the following syntax when the cameras are recording;

#iostat 1 30

1 = interval to check disk io
30 = repeat 30 times

all iostat does is gives me information on how many transfers per second it is doing, and cpu wait times, if IO is too busy.. to get back to the cpu for a read or write request.. It also tells me how many blocks are written and read.. then I just compare to amount of data that has been recorded, to see if it matches... with a specified time period.

If you want more information on iostat command, just run a man iostat in most unix distros and you should get a detailed explanation of how to read the output. There are lots of other io utilities to measure io throughput, I just use this becuase its simple, and already installed.

The load for a 15 minute interval was 10%CPU, and 500MB of Ram utilization.
Take note that I have disabled/removed a lot of the standard services on centos. for example, I set the server to boot to runlevel 3 (text + network mode), I dont start any Xservers. Its pretty much a "headless" server, with only ssh enabled for remote access, and http for zm.
I also do use authentication for different access levels for users.

hope this clears a few things, or have I put more questions in your head?
sometimes I loose myself, so excuse me if I repeat myself, or don't give enough information.

cheers,

-M

ok more questions lol
run level 3
If i change the system to run at run level 3 how much load would i remove (ish)
And isnt this changeable from the prompt ie i could change it back to 5 and run x?


onto the 'load question' i was meaning the load in the top right of zm console i think its called the unix load and displays number of queud proceses for the processor
Mine normally ave 15 min at 0.2 but can be as high as 10

James

You can change your run level to 3 using
init 3
this will kill X and the desktop that takes up resorces, I normaly run zm on level 3

and back to 5
init 5
Regards,
Cordel

right then, how do i change the setup so when it boots it boots to init 3
I assume once it boots to init 3 ill have a console only
If i then type init 5 would it load x and give me a login screen or do i need to type out else?

Thanks
James

You are right James,
When you boot into runlevel 3 by default, just type init 5 or startx to start and Xserver, there are afew other ways to start the xserver also.

To make the system boot into a default runlevel of 3, so it doesn't load any Xservers if the server is rebooted, edit the following file;

/etc/inittab

edit the following line to the following.

id:3:initdefault:

You also get asked the question when installing centos or most redhat installations if you want to boot into text or graphics mode. The /etc/inittab file is where it is set. for redhat linux.

Thnaks got it sorted installed webmin and did it from there works great and drops the load too

James

iostat
I have run this but every thing is at 0
Would this be because im using a raid array??

James

You can try to specify the device,

iostat -x md0 1 10

check /proc/partitions to see which partitions the kernel has detected.

forgot to posr sorry
I found out i had installed a very old iostat.
Use new one a lot now thanks for pointing this one out to me

James

Good to see you got it working.

Could you point me in the right dir direction to purchase a PC149PA?

Tried google & ebay

videoman aka Phil

Hi,

To get the card I am using, which still to date is performing well(touch wood!) I went to a taiwanese shop at www.provideo.com.tw
The card is not in the E-Shop. Send them an email requesting a complete price list and you will see the model I got for USD100.

This is the actual order I made:
PV149P 4~16ports Realtime video capture card w/SDK,GPIO,Watch Dog US$100.00


The person to contact is Cathy;
cathy_chang@provideo.com.tw

Have fun!

-M