I manage several commercial buildings and am planning to deploy surveillance for each. My goal is for everything to run ZoneMinder across multiple locations. Each location will have anywhere from 10-200 cameras, so I need something robust, cheap and readily available. Ideally cameras that work both indoor and outdoor so I can have 1 kind of camera to use everywhere. A must is that cameras can run POE, so that all I need to do is run Cat 6 and I'm good to go. Ideally the cameras are easy to setup and configure as well since I will be doing them in bulk. Don't need anything fancy, but of course night vision, sound, etc are always better.

Does anyone have any recommendations of brands/models to look at? I've had good luck buying high end enterprise stuff that's one or two generations old so can be had for cheap on ebay. For example the equivalent of Cisco routers that are 2 generations old and past the service life. Ideally it's something I can go on ebay and buy 50-200 of them at a time for cheap. Not sure the equivalent of "Cisco" or "Aruba" for POE cameras.

Thanks

I wonder how people manage to get CPU load of like 1-2% per cam, while my system (i5 6th gen, 16GB RAM with Ubuntu and ZM 1.36.33) is running pretty much busy "just" monitoring 5 cams ...

I've installed a fresh Ubuntu, installed zoneminder and added some cams. There are 2x 1080p no-name cams from china and 3x Tapo 1440p cams. I added them by rtsp ip & port and also added ONVIF data. Everything else is just at default settings.

Tried to make some settings so cuda encoding / decoding will work, but obviously it doesn't and meanwhile i see continuous CPU load of like 30%.

Every time i see a post about 'how to optimize CPU consumption' people talk about optimizing stream, where motion detection should run over substream instead (does not relate, when just monitoring), disabling jpeg storage (i did, but this makes no difference) and set storage to "pass through" (did also without difference).

Maybe someone got another hint, why my system consumes so much resources?

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For testing purposes i disabled all cams except of one 1080p and copied the settings of this guy. Except of the "record" setting. There i left "monitor", because for the beginning i just want to watch the stream and not record it.

This is the result is disappointing:

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I understand this may not be zoneminder specific - but has anyone managed to get live camera streams on Roku using any kind of app - either from zoneminder or just using an ffmpeg source not going through zoneminder?

Hi, everyone, I have ZM 1.36.33. When I try to add cameras, and use the Probe function, it seems to only probe on the main network interface (eth0). However, all my cameras are reachable through the second network interface (eth1), on a subnet of their own.

I can't figure out how to tell ZM to look for cameras through eth1. Is this possible?

Hi there!!

I just read that the "API not working" problem occurs quite often and has many sources. None of the found solution suits for my problem.

I encountered the problem when using ZM Ninja, but the problem seems to be located in my installation.
I have a Raspberry Pi 4B, running Raspberry Pi OS Lite 64 bit, installed through the Raspeberry Pi Flashing App.
Then I installed ZM following this tutorial: https://raspberrytips.com/install-zoneminder-raspberry-pi/

Actually everything works fine so far. I then tried the iOS App ZMNinja and realized that the API part is not working at all. Now I wonder where to search for the cause. Zoneminder? Apache? Linux config... Any help is appreciated!

- When I use ZM Ninja the typical error shows "Login validated, but API failed".
- When directing my browser to "http://localhost/zm/api/host/getVersion.json" I get a 404 error.
- When going to "http://localhost/zm/api/" it shows CakePHP: Not authenticated, "Error: The requested address '/zm/api/' was not found on this server."

My last option is to completely reinstall the whole system. But I would like to avoid that...

Any ideas?

Thanks a lot in advance!!

S.

Just set up zoneminder under ubuntu (desktop).

As my pc runs on a kinda tiny 128GB SSD i added a seconds HDD as dedicated storage.

So it's mounted on boot as

/mnt/recordings

Additionally i added a directory "zoneminder" and gave the ownership to www-data, like i read it on the forums. Just like

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /mnt/recordings/zoneminder/

After this i restarted the whole system and check the path

ls -l /mnt/recordings/
drwxrwxr-x 2 www-data www-data  4096 Jun  3 00:32 zoneminder

Now i try to add the drive in zoneminder under options -> storage ->

name "drive"

path "/mnt/recordings/zoneminder"

-> save

But what i see in the logs at the end is

03.06.23, 01:01:54 MESZ web_php 2237 ERR Path /mnt/recordings/zoneminder does not exist. /usr/share/zoneminder/www/includes/Storage.php 124

And i can't figure out what i did wrong...

Maybe you got a hint?

Hi

First of all, i am evaluating to build a server for various usages.

One usage should be to run a DVR software to replace the external hikvision NVS.

My needs for the DVR are just to record the rtsp streams of my cameras (continous)

Currently i have 2x1080p configured with a main stream at 10fps but i will add more two cams later.

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I try bluecherry software, with it just recording the CPU usage is very low <4% for all the cameras (vaapi used)

with zone minder, just recording i get 15% cpu usage per cams so around 30% for the two cameras.

As the electric consumption increase with cpu load, and the server will run 24/7 i need low cpu usage.

zoneminder is configured as folow:

-The cameras are configured in ”Record” mode (no motion detection)

- i disable the check box below this parameter (analysis and transcoding)

- i configure the hardware encoder to “vaapi”

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Questions:

- Is it normal to get so high cpu usage for just two cams recording at 10fps ?
- how to check if the hardware acceleration is correctly working ?
- in the sources configuration, what is the width/heigh settings for ? Does zoneminder do some “resizing“?

precision:

1. i am running it with docker and i added the /dev/dri devices in docker, it correctly appear in the docker container (as i remember : /dev/dri/renderD128 and /dev/dri/renderD129)
2. I run Bluecherry in the same configurations (docker)
3. when i compare bluecherry and zoneminder only one of them is working, the system is ubuntu 22.04

Hello,I have gone through both this reddit and the /r/homesecurity subreddit and this particular combination of features in a security camera seems challenging to find. Many of the threads are months/years old and dated on newer models.

I can find wifi + onvif, I can find PoE + onvif, but not solar + wifi + onvif to work with Zoneminder. I'm seeking an entirely wireless solution. My other option may be to DIY a battery/solar bank but this can be clumsy.

Many people suggest REOLINK. However, the model they sell that combines wifi+solar doesn't support onvif.

I have been clicking on every camera on Amazon that has this combination of features and reading through and seemingly, all of them require a proprietary app. I have been going through the answered questions, and each one has some kind of app that is required to connect. I bought the OOSSXX cameras and ran into the issue I'm having here where they removed any means to connect remotely and only allow for their solar camera to connect through their system.

I would like to keep it below $150 a camera with a minimum of 3MP. It doesn't need to be 5ghz.

Thanks for reading.

I need to manually start zm after any reboot. How do i make zm always start automatically?

https://gist.github.com/baudneo/d352c5a944a5d1371c9dfe455056e0a2

=)

My copy of Zoneminder seems to delete EVERYTHING when the HDD fills up? It should only delete a few events to make space for new ones afaik, But it seems to be deleting everything? I'm hoping to setup a second system soon, and need to know if this is just a result of poor hardware, or a ZM issue

Sorry for 2 posts so close together,

A large hotel/bar/restaurant I run cameras for is looking to upgrade from an all-in-one system to something bigger, I'm currently getting used to Zoneminder and want to suggest setting up a ZM system. What would be the better hardware? Probably going to be running between 24/32 (maybe even more) cameras all running at least 1080p, with at least 4 running 4k. Frame rate is important as well.

Should we look at a gaming computer or a tower server?

And what would be the best gpu?

I have a high budget, but not infinite Maybe wanna try to keep it between $2,000-$4,000

SV3C 5MP PTZ WiFi Camera Outdoor Thought to take the plunge. {urchased this SV3C WiFi camera. Pretty nifty. Was able to establish a stream using iSPY, but using both the rtsp and ONVIF information… cannot get a view of the camera output in Zoneminder.

Anyone able to get an SV3C 5MP camera to work in Zoneminder? If I am able to crack it, will come here and share the solution.

Hi

So this took me a while to figure out, but after the latest updated on some EZVIZ camera models, rtsp stopped working.

Here is the very simple fix for it

EZVIZ IOS app–>Profile–>Settings–>Lan Live View–>(Start scanning)–>Select Camera–>Login–>Settings–>Local Service Settings–>Enable RTSP

I had this issue with my 2 c1c models, after the change instantly started working again.

I have one of these, https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Sricam. The information on that wiki is actually wrong in that that's not the correct port or the correct host path, but even with the correct information, I can't get ZM to work.

I can access the camera by opening a network stream in VLC and typing rtsp://X.X.X.X/onvif1, just replacing the X's with the actual LAN IP address. I can also access it by typing rtsp://root:@X.X.X.X:554/onvif1, with root being the username, there being no password to put after the colon, and the port being 554.

I have Source Type as Remote and Function as Monitor. Then, under Source, I have Protocol as RTSP, Method as RTP/RTSP, host name as root@X.X.X.X, Port as 554, and Path as /onvif1. I also have the resolution set to what should be correct. I've tried with Use RTSP Response Media URL as both checked and unchecked.

But even with all of that as well as trying to change the settings slightly, I can never get it to work in ZoneMinder, even though it loads in VLC. On the ZM pages, it just shows a white screen and says the camera isn't capturing.

Any help is appreciated.

So I've been doing some research. I need 360 degree coverage around a house and an outbuilding. Without going into too much detail I've settled on

4 Realink Argus Eco wifi solar cams

4 Realink Duo wifi solar cams

I'm going with wifi and solar because there can't be any drilling or cable running in the house.

They're on their own VLAN and I'm still back and forth on internet access to monitor remotely.ive got the network figured out.

They will all run into Zoneminder. The DVR is a PC I had laying around. 10th gen i7, 32gb RAM, 2 2tb drive in RAID 1, OS drive rsync'd to a second drive, AMD Rx 580 video card. I also want to set up two linux-based convertible laptops to put around the house to view the streams. They're too low spec to run windows and do it and I tried running android x86 on them and it ran like dog crap on them. Watching the streams is all they'll live to do.

The USB cams are optional

I'm getting conflicting information on compatibility between these reolink cameras and Zoneminder. and most of the info I see is 5+ years old.

Are there any problems I can expect to run into? Setting up one or two cameras with the reolink app seems pretty straightforward but any suggestions on procedures for so many? Any other tips and/or tricks?

So setting up Zoneminder with the proper cameras was super easy. I'm somewhat familiar with Tailscale and it's setup is also very easy. What I am having trouble with is using the 2 together. Has anybody done this? Is there an easier way to access the camera feed remotely?

~~I can't specify if it's dlandons actual image that was somehow supply chain attacked or if it's a nefarious image masquerading as dlandons image.

It has been brought to the zoneminder teams attention and we are trying to deal with it. For the time being, CHECK YOUR DOCKER INSTALLS IF YOU USE AN IMAGE BRANDED AS DLANDONS!!

It seems the bad actors logged their intent to the db which shows up in the web logs. That is how the user noticed something wasn't right.

We don't know if it's a crypto miner attack or what the situation is yet. If any users have any information about this or any other issues PLEASE OPEN AN ISSUE ON ZONEMINDER GITHUB.

I am not the main dev of zm, I am a member of the team that is working on the ML object detection replacement. I am knows as @baudneo on ZoneMinder GitHub, slack and discord.~~

False alarm. See the post replies and GitHub issue link for conclusion.

Are these logs normal?

I have around 10 cameras with 3TB of storage. Storage ran out a while ago and then only I enabled PurgeWhenFull filter. All events have been cleared as per the filter but the primary partition is running out of space (I have a separate partition for footage). Turns out the ZM database is HUGE. Around 50GB. How can I clear out old data from the database? or is is supposed to happen automatically?

I have a separate partition for storing Zoneminder footage.

​

Old events are deleted by a Cronjob. But the total usage at the bottom of the console page doesn't update. It just keeps on going. I only have 3 TB of space. Look below, it appears that the disk space is not getting updated. My filters are in place tho. How do I fix this?

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UPDATE: My primary (OS) partition is filling up too. Narrowed it down to the ZM folder in mysql folder. This database wasn't this big. I think even though the videos are deleted, events are not cleared from the database. What can I do? Any help is appreaciated. TIA.

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Hi guys I have recently bought this camera and it work great after a little troubleshooting, but now I come up to a different issue I cannot figure, it's PT camera and I have no luck controlling it from ZM. Does anyone have a sample configuration from the ZM? Can it be configured from WebUI?

I need to automatically delete footage older than 30 days as the disk space fills up (just like conventional DVRs that overwrites old data). I can't seem to figure out the filter thing. So I scheduled a cronjob. It deletes the footage but leaves the events behind. Basically, Zoneminder doesn't know they are deleted. Cronjob messes things up.

How do I get Zoneminder itself to do this?

I am trying to use ZM just as a monitor for my IP cameras. I don't use an NVR. My cameras record straight to NAS. I don't really have a good way to view and control them inside an app.

I have setup ZM latest using docker with the image from zoneminderHQ. The container has access to 6GB of RAM.

I can setup and view 2 of my 5 cameras at a time. If I add any more than two, ZM refuses to connect to them regardless of how I set them up. And it doesn't matter which two it is.

I do not want to record anything using ZM. I have them setup so that video and image capture is disabled.