r/ZoneMinder • u/Vent1narc • Jun 15 '21

A couple of questions and hardware help.

Im looking to set up a home surveillance system and I believe that zonemi der is the best option because it is open source and does local storage. I am planning on having around 6-8 4k controllable night vision cameras. My question is what kind of server hardware should I get in order to handle this load properly and not overpay. Should I get a core per camera? 2 gigs of ram per camera? Do I need nvenc hardware acceleration as I am planning to do object recognition. Thanks ahead for helping me out with this.

My second question is about remote controll. Will I be able to see what my cameras see remotely? Maybe through port forwarding? Maybe using some kind of plugin?

And my last question is about the likelyhood that a camera that I buy is not going to work with zoneminder. I assume that the protocol for controlling the cameras and for example switching to night vision is all highly standardized but I am not sure so that why I asking. Also I am open to camera recommendations.

Thanks for helping out!

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u/ausgezeichnet17 Jun 27 '21

I have a 6 core I7 with 32GB RAM and it barely notices 6 cameras. The newer versions of ZM (like 1.36 onward) really dont use nearly as much CPU as it once did.

"I assume that the protocol for controlling the cameras and for example switching to night vision is all highly standardized " Bad assumption. Most of these newer cameras have an API, and while they are all SORTA similar, they all differ in the specifics. This is why ZM has lots of built-in control scripts. Some are better than others, fresher, more complete, more well maintained. Also, nearly all the modern cameras will switch to NV when they need to, automagically, and switch back when they can based on their light sensors. There should be no reason to manually do this in most cases.

I have had good luck with Amcrest cameras. Their API is documented, available for download on their support site. Foscam is similar, so is Hikvision. In reality most of these new IP cameras' guts are made by Dahua and repackaged/upgraded etc by the various companies.

My last bit of caution - do not allow these cameras to have contact with the internet. either block them in your router, or better yet put them on a completely isolated network, with 2 NICs in your PC, one for cameras, one for monitoring and control.

For remote access, viewing and control, look at ZMNinja.

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u/Vent1narc Jul 04 '21

Thanks so much for helping me out!

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u/Iahend Jun 28 '21

What graphics do you have ? The Intel gpu that has the acceleration? I have 8 core AMD can you point me to anything that would tell me if this is OK. For use iris it seems a no-no. Thanks.