FreeNAS as DVR for IP cameras?

[Black Ninja]

Hi guys,

I have the intention of using this hardware:
Atom C2750 with 16GB Ram in 1U chassis with 4x3.5 Bays hotswap and 2x2.5 Bays inside (boot drives)
as DVR for my IP cameras. It will be serving the sole role as FTP server to which 4 IP Cameras will record constantly.(around 20Mb/s)

I was wondering if anybody else is using FreeNAS as dedicated DVR for IP cameras and/or could share pros and cons if this is a good idea or not?


P.S. The alternative will require getting a RAID card (I don't have) and Windows 2008 R2(I already have) set as FTP server.

 

[DrKK]

I like this idea, and thought of doing this myself. Please let me know how it works out.

 

[Black Ninja]

I will. In a mean time I would to hear what others think about it, even if it's just advice on should I use raidz vs raid10 (in this particular case).I am not sure if I need the IOPS that raid10 will provide, case the streams are slow 5 Mb/s each camera, I hope I can scale it to 8 cameras , so 40-50 Mbit combined.

 

[fracai]

I have ZoneMinder running in a jail. It's currently monitoring three cameras, but only records when motion is detected. I also have a script that uploads those motion events to Flickr and sends an alert to Pushover.

I settled on 720p streams as that seemed to be a decent compromise on quality, bandwidth, and processing load.

I'm using FreeNAS for other jails as well so if I was scaling up to 8 cameras I'd personally be looking at using dedicated hardware. There are purpose built IP cam DVRs that support 16 cameras and PoE.

 

[Black Ninja]

Thanks for the input.

You are setup is interesting and little bit complicated, my IP cameras can send notifications with screenshot directly to email. Record on motion I gave up a year ago, and 1080p is a must in my case.

I'm using FreeNAS for other jails as well so if I was scaling up to 8 cameras I'd personally be looking at using dedicated hardware. There are purpose built IP cam DVRs that support 16 cameras and PoE.

I agree with you that dedicated hardware is better. But as far as why not get a Amcrest DVR and be done with it , the answer would be the same if the questions was: Why build a FreeNAS if you can get a 4bay Synology or Qnap NAS already build. I think you know what I mean :)

 

[Rickinfl]

I'm using a Rosewill RSV-L4412 Hot swap case with 12 - 8TB drives on a FreeNAS 11 with 40 HikVision IP Cameras recording in 1080p. What I did is created a dataStore then 40 dataset folders. Then logged into the each Hikvision camera and set up storage to write to a NAS. Works perfect. Each camera writes to its own folder. I did a lot of work setting this up. Also running 2 - 10 gig fiber up-links load balanced.

 

[Black Ninja]

I'm using a Rosewill RSV-L4412 Hot swap case with 12 - 8TB drives on a FreeNAS with 40 HikVision Cameras recording in 1080p.

That's interesting. How your 12 drives are set in the pool ?(vdevs,raidz, raidz2)

I am assuming these 40 cameras are recording all the time and assuming they use FTP protocol as well , right ?

 

[Rickinfl]

Yes RAIDZ2. Running the LSI 9211-8i cards (2). I read some try to convert older RAID cards. But why fight it you can buy the LSI 9211-8i card for 80.00 new?

The cameras get a ton of traffic majority of the day not so much at night. No FTP.

Note: These cameras have NO ACCESS to the outside world.

 

[Rickinfl]

I will tell you this... RAM RAM RAM. Get as much as you can afford.

 

[Black Ninja]

Yes Raidz2. Running the LSI 9211-8i cards (2). I read some try to convert older raid cards. But why fight it you can buy the LSI 9211-8i card for 80.00 new?

12 drives in one vdev raidz2 ?

The cameras get a ton of traffic majority of the day not so much at night. No FTP.

This suggests that they don't record all the time. If "No FTP" then how the cameras reach the FreeNAS server to record on it?

 

[Black Ninja]

I will tell you this... RAM RAM RAM. Get as much as you can afford.

Respectfully I disagree here. I don't think you should get as much RAM you can afford, I think you should get as much RAM as it needed (whatever that may be).

 

[Rickinfl]

I connect the cameras to a NAS.

 

[Rickinfl]

It's 2 RAIDZ2 combined as 1. I had a total of 87 TB out of 96 TB.

 

[Black Ninja]

I connect the cameras to a NAS.

I think is SMB protocol what you mean, I forgot the new cams have that as an option too, mine has it too I just don't use it.

Anyway if your cameras are not recording constantly (which I assume of traffic is heavier during day) then it is hard to tell how many cameras your NAS or any NAS can handle.

For example your NAS can serve 40 or 100 cameras if they record only occasionally, it is hard to size system that way. If they record all the time , you can multiply the bandwidth of each stream with the number of cameras you have. Simple. And this is your best and worst case scenarios, because traffic is the same all the time.

 

[Rickinfl]

The drives

 

[Rickinfl]

The cameras are setup to record on motion, but it's retail and there is a lot of motion all day.

 

[Black Ninja]

It's 2 RAIDZ2 combined as 1. I had a total of 87 TB out of 96 TB.

Oh good that's better. Because 12 drives in one dev will be too many. I see from your screenshot that some cameras take 8% some 84%, because they record different base on the motion they got. You can definitely fit more cameras if continuous recording is not required.

 

[Black Ninja]

When you look at you network traffic in FreeNAS GUI, what is its peak?

 

[Black Ninja]

You mention RAM, so I wonder how much RAM your system has and what CPU is running it?

 

[Rickinfl]

I think is SMB protocol what you mean

No these cameras have the ability to record to a NAS via NFS now there is an option to record using SMB/CIFS I don't use that option. Please read up on Hikvision cameras. They are not cheap cameras.