Looking for a stable camera setup/DIY NVR

[exomic]

Hello guys!

I'm trying to decide on a good setup for my house's surveillance system.

First here's my hardware:
pfSense router running on a dedicated Dell R210ii server with a VPN access when I'm on the road.
A FreeNAS VM running on my ESXI server (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1230 v3 @ 3.30GHz, 32Go RAM total but FreeNAS has allocated 12Go at the moment) HDD are not bought yet but I'm think about 2x 4Tb WD Purple in Stripe mode)
6x Reolink RLC-410-5MP connected via POE to my Network switch (I'm planning to use VLan for that surveillance network and block internet access)
1x Dahua VTO2111D-WP-S1 Doorbell

The first thing I noticed is that CPU usage is higher than I expected. I'm a newbie in this field so I was thinking at first running a VM with ZoneMinder and being able to record fulltime all my cameras 24/7 at 30Fps and Full 5mp Resolution with Motion detection (to help finding events in the 24/7 recordings). After attempting it I realized that first HDD usage will be a concern with only 8Tb and that the CPU usage was trough the roof.

Then I tried using the FTP recording option within the Reolink cameras to save directly from the camera to the FTP server on FreeNAS. I was surprised that worked flawlessly and without really any CPU using on my server. That method is not ideal as I cannot find events in a UI for 24/7 recording and if I used the motion only options then I may miss some event if the detection is not to point. The Reolink app have a notification option so that could help me get notified when something happened but I'm sure you guys have way better options than that.

Is 30Fps possible or is the standards in this world like 10fps?
Would it be an idea in ZoneMinder (or BlueIris) to enable 24/7 Record using the h264Preview_01_sub set at 10fps/5mp and use the h264Preview_01_main for motion recording only at 30fps/5mp ?

What would you do in my case?

I''m open to all your inputs and experience

 

[sebastiantombs]

I'd suggest the first thing to do is read the Cliff Notes in the Wiki at the top of the page, in the blue title bar. Do that on a real computer rather than a phone/tablet. 30fps is nice if you're making a Hollyweird Epoch, but for surveillance camera use, unless in a casino for example, 15fps or even 10fps is plenty. Most people here run Blue Iris on a standalone machine. The standalone machine is to improve stability rather than using a VM, plus there are problems when trying to use hardware acceleration with a VM that don't happen on bare metal. Given that you have Reolink cameras, hardware acceleration won't work anyway. Their video stream just isn't up to snuff for that. You can certainly use different streams for different recording purposes in BI, but it isn't really necessary.

 

[mat200]

...

What would you do in my case?

I''m open to all your inputs and experience

Welcome @exomic

Many of our members prefer to run Blue Iris on a dedicated Windows PC ( not VM )
A used business class newer gen-4+ i5/i7 PCs are typically what most pickup, and add a WD purple or Seagate Skyhawk HDD for video storage.

 

[fenderman]

Welcome @exomic

Many of our members prefer to run Blue Iris on a dedicated Windows PC ( not VM )
A used business class newer gen-4+ i5/i7 PCs are typically what most pickup, and add a WD purple or Seagate Skyhawk HDD for video storage.

I would add that now that hardware acceleration is supported for h.265, the ideal system should be a sixth gen and up intel. 8th gen i5/i7 is ideal as the 8th gen saw a huge performance increase. 8th gen i5-8500 is more powerful than a 7th gen i7-7700.

 

[exomic]

I would add that now that hardware acceleration is supported for h.265, the ideal system should be a sixth gen and up intel. 8th gen i5/i7 is ideal as the 8th gen saw a huge performance increase. 8th gen i5-8500 is more powerful than a 7th gen i7-7700.

But since I'm owning only Reolink cameras, hardware acceleration won't work correct?

 

[fenderman]

But since I'm owning only Reolink cameras, hardware acceleration won't work correct?

This appears to be the case for now. Whether he will be able to fix it later probably depends on the scum that is reolink.