Solving some NFS issues on Hikvision cameras

alastairstevenson

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When the set up seemed complete, we tested with the Hikvision web browser under the HDD settings, it appears it automatically created a datadir0 through datadir34. Under each file was various empty video files. We didn't see any actual video being recorded.
The Hikvision NetHDD configuration / 'format' creates a fixed set of placeholder folders and files, and some indexes to the content held within these files.
Even when video is being recorded, you will not see any additional or deleted .mp4 files, but the content within will have changed, as will the index that keeps track of what is where.
I am using HIkvision's web browswer (See attached screenshot) to confirm the live view and the motion events are configured properly,
Your screenshots do not show the storage schedule and event configurations for the camera.

Please help. What am I doing wrong?
Unless you use a 3rd-party tool to extract the video via the index files that track them - you need to use the camera's own 'mini NVR' facilities under the Playback menu.
Depending on whether you have configured the camera to do continuous or event-driven recording, you will see either a continuous blue line, or periodic red markers for motion / event recording.

I hope that makes sense.
 

snickels

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Thanks so much for your quick response. Here's additional screenshots of my set up. In other IP camera manufactures, you can easily set up FTP to be the storage container and it would be set to send video's on motion triggered events. If a person is detected in the camera and moving for 30min, I would have multiple video files being stored in sequence until the motion is no longer detected by the camera. I want to be able to use the NAS to drop those files into since I can't use FTP.

I'm still not clear how to set this up properly, of if I need a mini-NVR to a NAS to complete this task?
 

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alastairstevenson

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That configuration looks ok for motion only, assuming the linkage method is activated.
What does the playback screen look like?
 

alastairstevenson

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Now I'm not sure I understand the question.
The motion videos are being stored on the NAS already.
Do you want to extract / export video clips to store them separately?
 

snickels

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I don't see them being recorded on the NAS while testing. The motion configuration is set up and the NAS appears to be set up. I was able to get it to store randomly for a short time because I can see the mp4 files updated time stamps, but I can't get it to consistently store the recorded files to the NAS.
 

alastairstevenson

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The proof of the video being recorded would be the ability to play it back via the Playback menu, or even to download the files via the download button, or to see the list of files via the download button.
I'm assuming you don't have an SD card installed.
 

scheka

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Why would you do it like so? Use the QNAP Surveillance Station! It records perfectly fine 4 of my cameras when they issue an alarm. I do not see why would I save directly from 4 or less cameras to QNAP if it comes with decent program doing the job for up to 4 cameras for free and I can watch and search all my cameras on two TVs via HDMI?

I do not know if anyhting changes with different fw versions of the cameras, but I have described in detail how things work perfectly well without formatting disks in the post Solving some NFS issues on Hikvision cameras. For me, nothing changed in last 2 years.

I have used that same method for saving to my current NAS which is QNAP TS-253A as I described for Asustor NAS.. On QNAP - Made a folder: /Kamere/Balkon (all my cameras are recorded in the folder /Kamere, each has its own subfolder and user), create the user Balkon with 30 gb quota, create the network share /23Balkon (pointing it to /Kamere/Balkon) and give rw rights to the user Balkon (and others as needed). Then on the camera (e.g. Web interface), point it to NAS IP address, folder /23Balkon (entering / and not \), SMB/CIFS, test, save, change to the previous tab, select your new disk (you may see entire disk capacty now but should see 30gb and Unformatted), format, you will now see 30 gb, and save. And that is it. If not, delete contents of /23Balkon and repeat the process.

I use this method only for cameras over my QNAP 4 free licence limit. I have been test saving to folders at USB3 disk connected to my giga router (but that should never be done in normal usage as it is quite likely this data will get lost).
you are right, i could it and i have tested it, that is fine application,
but i have planed for the future to buy 3 more cams

according your discription, i have try it with differend size of space, and i could every time see and connect to the nas, but i can not Format it, i get "error device"

how pointed from alastairstevenson, may be it depends on Firmware update, Need to check it
 

consort

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has anyone gotten any Windows 10* based NFS share simulation to work with their hikvision cube cameras?
i really don't want to invest hundreds of dollars in a Linux (share size limiting) NAS until i see it working first.

so far I've tried Allegro NFS 6.3.3, but i don't know enough about Linux and NFS to be sure i configured it right.
because of the long timeout during "Test", I'm sure the cube sees my pc's ip and path, and i know to make the
NFS read/write for "everyone" (no credentials needed) but the "Test" on the cube continues to "Testing Failed".

sadly I already use a WD MyCloud but the entire WD line lacks the ability to define a <500gb share volume, so
I'll have to sell the WD (my DTV DVR) and get a Synology or QNAP type models known to work with hikvision,
but I really don't want to go to all that costly reconfiguration trouble before i see it working - first hand.

it would be wonderful if someone hikvision/nfs/nas savvy could try adding an Allegro NFS share to their PC
then see if they can get a cam to write to it and post what "server" perimeters you used to make it all work.

*I'm using Pro (don't need enterprise anymore for NFS) with NFS enabled, I have a separate 500gb HDD installed.
my cube cam has the latest 5.4.5 firmware. i tested if my (private network but discoverable) pc would host
R+W anonymous users to a folder share and it worked on both my win10 notebook pc and my android 7 phone.
haneWIN NFS Server is another simulator i found, but can't make heads or tails out of implementing in win 10.



 
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alastairstevenson

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has anyone gotten any Windows 10* based NFS share simulation to work with their hikvision cube cameras?
Have you tried using a native Windows CIFS/SMB share?
because of the long timeout during "Test", I'm sure the cube sees my pc's ip and path,
A long timeout suggests it didn't.
In the NFS config - did you define the allowed host by the needed IP address or a hostname ? (looks like the latter)
 

consort

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thanks alastairs,

but if you manage to get it working (a win10 nfs server so your hikvision can nas to it) then post your settings.
going back and forth with you guessing what i may have done or not would be a colossal waste of both our time.
 
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alastairstevenson

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going back and forth with you guessing what i may have done or not would be a colossal waste of both our time.
Methinks you exaggerate somewhat. Nothing colossal about it.

OK, so I grabbed a spare DS-2CD2332-i with the 5.4.5 firmware and spun up a Windows 7 VM. I don't have Windows 10 - managed to avoid it so far, doing well.

First a Windows SMB/CIFS share, straightforward, works OK.
SampleShareSMB_1.jpg SampleShareSMB_2.jpg

Then I downloaded and installed and configured the Allegro NFS program.
SampleNFS_config.jpg
Then I configured the NFS destination and 'formatted' it.
SampleShareNFS_2.jpg

And checked that the recordings could be played back
.SampleShareNFS_1.jpg

My guess as to what you are missing?
Unlike when you enable a Windows share, I'd guess that Allegro isn't smart enough to configure the Windows firewall inbound rules so as to allow external devices in to the NFS service. The long timeout is a clue there.
So maybe you didn't check / change the firewall settings.
 

consort

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alastairs, thanks for taking the time to try it. disabling the firewall completely was done early in the game.
could you please post the HDD Management screen showing the share capacity and format availability? thank you.

at least now i (and others) see this working, and have a free way to nfs test their cam before investing in a nas.

alastairs, would you mind checking the following tab defaults before you uninstall Allegro;
User lists:everyone, Hosts lists:your pc lan IPv4 (no / subnet or : port), Global: auto, Logging&Debug disabled.
I'm just wondering if maybe there was some extra setting you made that I'm not aware of.

oh, some things i'm curious about - your share is on the C: drive yet hikvision would have had to format it for the cam to write,
so what exactly is on your local c:\SampleNFS directory now? some sort of img file? i assume it didn't reformat your win7 boot.
also, does the used/capacity shown on the hikvision HDD Management page nearly match your total C: partition on your win7?
if it's some widely divergent number, then why would you suppose that is?

now that you've proven it works, i'll have to try other things... like doing this wired and disabling my router firewalls too,
just long enough to reverse engineer where the failure lay - i just have to time it when nobody is home using the internet.
 
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pila

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you are right, i could it and i have tested it, that is fine application,
but i have planed for the future to buy 3 more cams
This model allows for 4 free licences and I have it recording 4 cameras fullHD with no problem.

according your discription, i have try it with differend size of space, and i could every time see and connect to the nas, but i can not Format it, i get "error device"
I described entire process for this particular NAS, did you tried following that? If it wrks for me, it must work for you. THese things are not liekly dependant on the firmware versions as it is simply file access. I did not got NTF to work.
 

alastairstevenson

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could you please post the HDD Management screen showing the share capacity and format availability?
No can do, sorry, I reverted the Win7 VM to the snapshot I took before messing with it.
But it showed normal status, showed the entire volume size, with almost all the space available.

User lists:everyone, Hosts lists:your pc lan IPv4 (no / subnet or : port), Global: auto, Logging&Debug disabled.
I'm just wondering if maybe there was some extra setting you made that I'm not aware of.
Yes, that's the way it was.

your share is on the C: drive yet hikvision would have had to format it for the cam to write,
so what exactly is on your local c:\SampleNFS directory now?
The Hikvision 'format' operation simply writes to the share a set of placeholder files and folders that will hold the recorded video, images, indexes and other metadata used to manage what's stored.
i assume it didn't reformat your win7 boot.
It's not that kid of format - it just populates the share with files. 'Format' is a fairly generic term in computing.
does the used/capacity shown on the hikvision HDD Management page nearly match your total C: partition on your win7?
The capacity was a match to the share size - the used value was low as there were only a few recordings made in the experiment.
disabling my router firewalls too,
Don't do that - it's main purpose is to block inbound from the internet, not relevant to this topic.

Suggestion:
I suspect the PC might be blocking inbound access to the NFS service.
From another PC on the same LAN, see if you can access the NFS service as follows:
telnet <PC_IP_address> 2049
If 'connected' it's OK.
If it times out, it's not, so check the firewall inbound rules, any anti-virus network access protection etc.
 

consort

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i'm not sure exactly how, but after uninstalling and reinstalling everything a few times, and following a few anonymous user faqs,
i finally got the cube to see the Allegro NFS that's running on my Win10 pc, however now that it sees it and recognizes it's capacity
it now won't format/write to it even though everyone/anonymous all have read/write permissions :banghead:

 
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man at oze

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Hi

Here is a SMB/CIFS solution it works for me on my PC win10.

if you was wondering to record when basic/smart events occurs and if you PC is on window you have to:
  • (windows)create a new partition (less than 250Gb), format it
  • (windows) create a directory and share it
  • (camera web interface) in Storage, storage management, Net HDD create the HDDno :
Server Adress = IP of the machine
File Path = \name of the share
Type = NAS
Mounting type = SMB/CIFS
end user name and passwd.

Save then test with the test button. if you got the "testing succeeded" message then its OK
 
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