Yup, if you have the spare hardware laying around to build a LAMP server on you might like it, but honestly a lot of people don't like Zoneminder because it's not flashy like your basic Windows software and a lot of the functionality is kinda' hidden because it doesn't have a tool bar with choices. It has more flexibility than a lot of other programs but is of course a open source work in progress which is both good and bad, but on my system it works as expected and the ability of viewing and configuring from anything that can access your network and run a browser window is to me a great asset.
I have plans to eventually have the CCTV system on a separate VLAN from my basic LAN with the thought of being able to face the server towards the internet, lock it down, and have access from anywhere that has a net connection, I'm a good ways off from that like prolly another year but we are getting closer and I have way too many things on my plate to even do much more than plan that aspect out.
Zone minder works pretty well and though it takes a bit to set up when it is all configured its is a pretty solid application. There are some applications out that can take over the viewing of you cameras that look cleaner than zoneminders interface however it doesn't give you any warning if your server is down it will just keep steaming the feed from your cameras so I'm not a fan. If I remember correctly zoneminder by default uses the /var directory to store all of your camera data so make sure you partition your drives accordingly.
I noticed that my recording system records many 4GB videos each day. Most of videos with motion are only 30 40 mb. When replaying the video I see the long "4GB" videos that start to record even when there is no motion.
This is why my system has been accumulating 100GB a day. I need to out what the heck is going on. lol
I tried to look at the trendnet pro software last night but windows wasn't cooperating (I run Win 7 in a KVM on top of Linux) it needed to be rebooted to load the trendnet server and I was playing just cause 2 ...lol wasn't really in a position where I could reboot the Windows instance and keep my game progress....needless to say the game won on which was going to stay running...lol
If you can't figure it out let me know and I'll take a look at the software, but like I said before you need to be sure that either the cameras or the monitoring software is taking care of the motion detect not both....I know you know this but it's worth checking sometimes things have a mind of there own.
I have done a few setups using ubiquiti gear really awesome value for money and loads of features. Worth a look for sure I have done one system with 4x 1080 cameras all running on a 200AUD Intel NUC. 2 of the cameras were on the other end of a wireless bridge also ubiquiti.
one of my dome cameras have disconnected completely. Cant find using web browser and IP. Could it be the cold weather that froze the cam? the other cameras are working though, so idk
I have also tried unplugged the camera connection to my switch and plugged in the ethernet again
FIXED! Just had to wait for camera to reboot. It could have been the weather. It was -30C here
Yup, even tried it a couple years ago, not sure why I ruled it out at this point, give it a try I'd be interested in hearing how it works for you I'm sure it's been updated a lot since I tried it.
@Blanger I just tried out iSpy, it's a lot more CPU intensive than Trendnet Viewpro. I think a reason for the high CPU usage is because iSpy also runs a web server for LAN viewing and control. I like the interface of iSpy and the recording calendar feature.
Trendnet CPU usage is around 30% iSpy is around 85% usage
I may need to try iSpy again and change more settings to reduce CPU usage when I have time.
I may also try out so zone minder software, but I need to learn how to setup a "LAMP" server? I could maybe try running it on my proxmox box once I transform the surveillance PC.
That's quite a contrast between the two, running the web server really shouldn't be that much more overhead 55% higher usage is more than that going on I'd think...but we are talking about Windows programs...lol!
Yup.....I'll bet you can get it closer to the Trendnet software.
For me....it's low overhead, there are others who have said that they have higher usage of resources (CPU) then I do but with 16 cameras Zoneminder shows less then 20% CPU load, of course that goes up during events like lighting or snow/rain where multiple cameras are triggered at the same time, if I remember correctly with 4 cameras it was like 3-5%.
Biggest issue I have with Zoneminder is Firefox and the montage view of 16 cameras, no browser except Firefox will display the montage screen with all the cameras on the screen at the same time and Firefox has to have settings changed to even do that, it will show them in a scroll-able column of 1 or 2 wide, but to get all of them on the screen at the same time requires changing settings that for me has caused it to be unstable, it will run 24-48hrs after that Firefox will lock up.
This isn't a big deal and it changes from Firefox build to build, but it sucks also, I like the convenience of being able to view the cameras remotely but browsers really are not made for that many connections at the same time since it views each camera as a separate connection all displayed on one screen. On my old build of my daily driver I eventually had a version of Firefox that would run a week to 10 days before it crashed (but it always eventually crashed) but since I reworked my system a couple weeks ago the version I'm running now is 24-48 hrs and when it crashes it at the least will kill that instance of Firefox or at the worst will lock up the Fedora host.
It's really funny in some ways because as you know I run a Windows KVM on top of Fedora, and if Firefox crashes hard enough to lock up Fedora the KVM still runs and operates as if nothing was wrong almost every time which I find very odd and funny at the same time...lol
I might also mention that I base my "load" on what Zoneminder is telling me.....
If you look at this pic in the upper right hand corner it shows the perceived CPU or system load along with the amount of disk it is using.
This may or may not be the true CPU load that is being created by Zoneminder there are other ways to determine system load in Linux based on each program that is active, the link below shows some of those commands or ways to determine the load individual programs impose on a Linux system.
