Restoring BlueIris to Prior Configuration

[Craig Conrad]

Hi,
I've been trying for over two years to get BI working with all my cameras without freezing up, crashing, or creating tens of thousands of 0-byte recordings. For a long time, the issues were infrequent (e.g. BI would continue recording for a week or more before failing), but the 0-byte recordings were annoying. For the past 15 months or so, I've been working on enabling subsets of the cameras to find a totally stable point. I found that omitting a few cameras would allow it to stay stable for a month or more. My conclusion was that I just was asking too much of BI, ie, too many cameras or too high a bit-rate, etc.

That conclusion led me to adjust the frame rates downwards on cameras reporting the highest bit rates. I also re-enabled the broadcasting of one of the cameras for which I had disabled broadcasting. Now the system is unstable again and doesn't stay up more than an hour (stops recording and view freezes).

I am on v4.5.0.0 w32 (I probably should try the 64-bit version again, but long ago that was one of the things I had to change to get it more stable, and I haven't gone back). I am down to 7 cameras (leaving 4 disabled), by the way.

Anyway, I have tried re-adjusting the frame rates and/or max bit rates, but I can't get it stable again. Frankly, I don't recall exactly what the parms were on each camera.

What I'd like to do is restore the configuration to what it was before all this, but I don't know what files to restore to accomplish this. Can anyone tell me?

Thanks,

 

[smiticans]

What are the specs of the computer you're running BI on? Processor, RAM, operating system etc. Is the operating system installed on a HDD or SSD? What kind of storage device are you saving the BI recordings to?

What cameras do you have? Make/model etc.

 

[Craig Conrad]

What are the specs of the computer you're running BI on? Processor, RAM, operating system etc. Is the operating system installed on a HDD or SSD? What kind of storage device are you saving the BI recordings to?

What cameras do you have? Make/model etc.

Hi smiticans! Thanks for asking, and my apologies for the delay as I wanted to be sure I gathered what I thought would be useful:

SYSTEM ==> CPU: Intel i7-3770; RAM: 16GB; OS: Windows 2008R2 (*not* setup as Domain Controller). The OS is installed on SSD (very fast!), and the log/recordings go to 5TB HDD (without pulling out my records, I believe these are Hitachi "Enterprise" 7200rpm). The SSD and HDD are in pairs for RAID mirroring.

BlueIris ==> v4.5.0.0 w32 (I'd be glad to move to w64, but I had a lot more issues with w64 than w32 a couple years ago, so stayed on w32)

CAMERAS (I am omitting the ones I have "disabled", as BI isn't stable even without those running):
Line 1 has the "name", brand/model, and my video tab setting (size and max rate).
Line 2 has the recording tab settings (triggered or periodic, frame rate, etc).
Line 3 has a sample moment as reported in the "Status" box.

1. FrontYard Vivotek SD8363 1920x1080 30.0fps
Trigger 5fps, 0.5sec Pre-trig
This camera is Broken, working sparadically, showing "No signal" most of the time
2. FrontYard2 Acti E77 1920x1080 17.0fps
Trigger 5fps, 0 Pre-trig
3.40fps, 292kB/s
3. Driveway Acti E77 1920x1080 17.0fps
Trigger 5fps, 0.5sec Pre-trig
4.00fps, no bitrate
4. SideYard Acti E77 1920x1080 17.5fps
Trigger 5fps, 0.5sec Pre-trig
3.50fps, no bitrate
5. BackYard1 Vivotek SD8362 1920x1080 31.0fps
Trigger 5fps, 0.5sec Pre-trig
26.40fps, 239kB/s
6. BackYard2 Acti E77 1920x1080 27.5fps
Trigger 5fps, 0.5sec Pre-trig
3.00fps, no bitrate
7. COTW 1280x720 30 secs
Periodic, 1min for 1sec
0.10fps, 2.7kB/s
This camera is a web camera on public site ... I grab its jpg image once a minute
8. Cellar Vivotek PZ7131 640x480 12.5fps
Trigger 5fps, 0.5sec Pre-trig
9.40fps, 41.4kB/s

I really would appreciate any help in getting this working.

Thanks, Craig

 

[smiticans]

Hi smiticans! Thanks for asking, and my apologies for the delay as I wanted to be sure I gathered what I thought would be useful:

SYSTEM ==> CPU: Intel i7-3770; RAM: 16GB; OS: Windows 2008R2 (*not* setup as Domain Controller). The OS is installed on SSD (very fast!), and the log/recordings go to 5TB HDD (without pulling out my records, I believe these are Hitachi "Enterprise" 7200rpm). The SSD and HDD are in pairs for RAID mirroring.

BlueIris ==> v4.5.0.0 w32 (I'd be glad to move to w64, but I had a lot more issues with w64 than w32 a couple years ago, so stayed on w32)

CAMERAS (I am omitting the ones I have "disabled", as BI isn't stable even without those running):
Line 1 has the "name", brand/model, and my video tab setting (size and max rate).
Line 2 has the recording tab settings (triggered or periodic, frame rate, etc).
Line 3 has a sample moment as reported in the "Status" box.

1. FrontYard Vivotek SD8363 1920x1080 30.0fps
Trigger 5fps, 0.5sec Pre-trig
This camera is Broken, working sparadically, showing "No signal" most of the time
2. FrontYard2 Acti E77 1920x1080 17.0fps
Trigger 5fps, 0 Pre-trig
3.40fps, 292kB/s
3. Driveway Acti E77 1920x1080 17.0fps
Trigger 5fps, 0.5sec Pre-trig
4.00fps, no bitrate
4. SideYard Acti E77 1920x1080 17.5fps
Trigger 5fps, 0.5sec Pre-trig
3.50fps, no bitrate
5. BackYard1 Vivotek SD8362 1920x1080 31.0fps
Trigger 5fps, 0.5sec Pre-trig
26.40fps, 239kB/s
6. BackYard2 Acti E77 1920x1080 27.5fps
Trigger 5fps, 0.5sec Pre-trig
3.00fps, no bitrate
7. COTW 1280x720 30 secs
Periodic, 1min for 1sec
0.10fps, 2.7kB/s
This camera is a web camera on public site ... I grab its jpg image once a minute
8. Cellar Vivotek PZ7131 640x480 12.5fps
Trigger 5fps, 0.5sec Pre-trig
9.40fps, 41.4kB/s

I really would appreciate any help in getting this working.

Thanks, Craig

Is this computer being used for anything else other than Blue Iris?

Whats your CPU usage with BI running? Is BI running as a service?

Windows 2008R2 is not a good operating system to have BI installed on. It's not compatible with BI running as a service and having hardware acceleration enabled at the same time. You should strongly consider upgrading to either Windows 8.1 pro or Windows 10 Pro.

You should probably disable RAID Mirroring until we can get these issued fixed.


If I were you, I would start fresh with a clean installation of Windows 10 pro 64bit (without RAID mirroring). Download and install all of the latest drivers for the motherboard and make sure all of the Windows updates are installed. Install BI 64bit and enable running as a service and hardware acceleration then add and configure each camera one at a time.

 

[Craig Conrad]

With deep apologies for the long delay in responding, let me try to answer your questions:
1. Yes, I do use the server for other things, including as a home media server (e.g. Plex) and home email server. There are only three of us living at our home, and BI fails even when any media servers are stopped. The email server is always on, but processes fewer than 25 emails an hour (most are rejected as SPAM), and has low CPU utilization.

2. After starting BI and waiting a minute for it to stabilize, I monitored the CPU utilization for a full minute. The sample rates ranged from 8 to 24 *most* of the time, though there were a few that were below 8, and a few above 28 (the highest was 48), but each of these peaks went back below 28 (or much lower) within two beats.

3. Yes, I am running BI as a service. If you think that is contributing, should I merely stop running it as a service? Would upgrading to 64bit help (as I noted earlier, when I first tried 64, it was less stable for me than 32, but that was when 64 was first released, I think)? It is not an option to "upgrade" to a non-Server version (E.g. Windows 10). It *might* be an option to upgrade to Win 2012, but that's a cost I'm not able to bear at the moment. Would 2012 make a difference?

4. I'm curious as to why you think RAID would be contributing. It is implemented in the firmware/hardware, not the OS, and should be totally transparent to the applications.

Although I love BI function, etc, and have been frustrated with its instability (for me, anyway), my greater frustration is that I had it stable (with fewer cameras than I want to run, but some are better than none) and running for a few months. Then I tried to adjust some of the values (with an aim to reduce bandwidth load on it) and now I can't keep it running more than a couple of hours. And my attempts to figure out what the prior settings were are failing to get it stable again.

I am grateful for your assistance.