Storage options

[boneless]

Hi all!

I have a server setup with BI running. Everything is stored on this one server. I am worried that IF someone is to enter the house, the server is likely to disappear too. I would like to hide a NAS somewhere, but unsure where/how. Attic will be too hot/cold the majority of the year (I think), can't think any other location that would be more secure either. Maybe I need to construct a little hidey-hole somewhere.

Wondering how you guys solve this? Two questions.
1. Any recommendations for storage that is separated from my server. Hard-wired NAS?
2. How do you physically secure your footage?

Thank you!

 

[pinko]

I just use a NAS. I'd like to think they secure/hidden, but if they have time they will find them.
If someone manages to grab the NAS, all I have is the SD cards as a redundancy.
This guy has the right idea...

 

[th182]

I have a closet over a stairway so the back wall slants. There is a shelf built over that wall so stuff can be stored there. Makes a nice little hidey-hole. I used to hide my DVR in there before I switched to BI. Worked really well.

Currently I only save to the BI machine which has no prevention from theft. I have a computer in another room I use as a home NAS. I’m tempted to add a drive to that for some redundancy. More for hardware failure than theft.

I’m not too concerned about anyone taking either one but would like to lock them down somehow. I can’t recall the last burglary around here where a computer or large electronic was taken. Unless you are a high profile target most burglars are taking purses, wallets, quick cash stuff. At least that’s my area because they are dirtbag teenagers who have nothing better to do than try car doors at night. Then they find the garage opener and see what’s right inside the house from there.


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[boneless]

Thanks!

So when do you move clip from BI to NAS? You record to HDD in server where BI is running and when event it over you copy to NAS?

Hope I am making sense

 

[th182]

Thanks!

So when do you move clip from BI to NAS? You record to HDD in server where BI is running and when event it over you copy to NAS?

Hope I am making sense

Currently I don’t have any BI stuff going to the NAS. I’d like to but not sure how I’d go about it yet. Ideally it’d be the current live video going to both BI and the NAS. That way if BI goes down The NAS would have video of what happened just before it did.

I think most people have the older video going to a NAS to increase their retention time. So if BI only has space for 2 weeks of video, the older stuff goes to the NAS to make room for the recent stuff. So if you need to review something recent you look at BI and if it’s older than 2 weeks you go to the NAS.

My NAS doesn’t have much storage on it right now, just enough for my documents and such. I’d have to add a larger drive or two if I were to start throwing CCTV video on there.


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[boneless]

Currently I don’t have any BI stuff going to the NAS. I’d like to but not sure how I’d go about it yet. Ideally it’d be the current live video going to both BI and the NAS. That way if BI goes down The NAS would have video of what happened just before it did.

I think most people have the older video going to a NAS to increase their retention time. So if BI only has space for 2 weeks of video, the older stuff goes to the NAS to make room for the recent stuff. So if you need to review something recent you look at BI and if it’s older than 2 weeks you go to the NAS.

My NAS doesn’t have much storage on it right now, just enough for my documents and such. I’d have to add a larger drive or two if I were to start throwing CCTV video on there.


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Thank you, I will check things out

 

[SouthernYankee]

I have a NAS it is sitting on top of a kitchen cabinet out of sight, about 8 ft above the floor. The camera data that is stored on the NAS is recorded direct to disk from clone cameras in BI. The clone cameras are configured to have NO BI processing, just simply write to the NAS. I have about 4TB of nas storage, one disk allocated to BI.

 

[th182]

I have a NAS it is sitting on top of a kitchen cabinet out of sight, about 8 ft above the floor. The camera data that is stored on the NAS is recorded direct to disk from clone cameras in BI. The clone cameras are configured to have NO BI processing, just simply write to the NAS. I have about 4TB of nas storage, one disk allocated to BI.

I always forget about cloned cameras. I like this idea!


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[crw030]

For what it's worth, I know someone that had their house broken into multiple times, and every time it was the XBOX, Playstation, and rummaging through the bedroom looking for money & jewelry type operation. The thief literally walked past multiple gaming computers ($1000+ each) to steal gaming consoles.

I feel like if you put your BI machine in an out-of-the-way place and it isn't actively showing camera feeds of the thief alerting them to the fact they better find and steal it or else they will get caught, it's an unlikely target. You could put SD cards in as a backup option (since the thief isn't going to probably walk around to each to take the cards out) but the extra cost will be something you have to figure since they will "wear out".

 

[mat200]

For what it's worth, I know someone that had their house broken into multiple times, and every time it was the XBOX, Playstation, and rummaging through the bedroom looking for money & jewelry type operation. The thief literally walked past multiple gaming computers ($1000+ each) to steal gaming consoles.

I feel like if you put your BI machine in an out-of-the-way place and it isn't actively showing camera feeds of the thief alerting them to the fact they better find and steal it or else they will get caught, it's an unlikely target. You could put SD cards in as a backup option (since the thief isn't going to probably walk around to each to take the cards out) but the extra cost will be something you have to figure since they will "wear out".

Put a WIndows 98 sticker and a 386 sticker on it...

 

[area651]

Currently I don’t have any BI stuff going to the NAS. I’d like to but not sure how I’d go about it yet. Ideally it’d be the current live video going to both BI and the NAS. That way if BI goes down The NAS would have video of what happened just before it did.

I think most people have the older video going to a NAS to increase their retention time. So if BI only has space for 2 weeks of video, the older stuff goes to the NAS to make room for the recent stuff. So if you need to review something recent you look at BI and if it’s older than 2 weeks you go to the NAS.

My NAS doesn’t have much storage on it right now, just enough for my documents and such. I’d have to add a larger drive or two if I were to start throwing CCTV video on there.


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fwiw, I have EVERYTHING going to the NAS across my gigabit network and it's fine. I have 9 cameras at the moment, most are 4k and continuously streaming smoothly. No network congestion or BI5 problems come to mind. If you need to get more secure (more on that thought in a moment) then you could literally just place the NAS in the top of a closet somewhere away from the computer. All you need is a single (or dual it you want to bond) cable going to it and power. Another idea is to clone the NAS into a cloud service or even a friend's NAS at another location. That's an idea I've considered with a friend but he won't get his shit together and working all at once. He's one of those people who is always buying everything to make changes but they never fully implement it before they start the next phase of a rebuild.

Another thought though is if you have someone unwanted standing in your house, staring at the NAS, (I really doubt they'd look at the NAS anyway like crw030 says) then you really have bigger problems to worry about. Be careful not to OVERbuild your system. I see lots of guys who spend a TON of money to secure literally a couple thousand dollars of stuff. Consider WHAT you're protecting and it's value and then guess who will likely be breaking in. Some setups are created to thwart a 007/Mission Impossible type break in where people are cutting power to the city block, running wifi jammers, intercepting cell transmissions and decoding them. Maybe my case is unique but I don't predict that a squad of elite Russian mercenaries will be swarming my house in a coordinated raid.

 

[crw030]

Maybe my case is unique but I don't predict that a squad of elite Russian mercenaries will be swarming my house in a coordinated raid.

And if this is what you need to protect yourself from better build a panic room and put the systems in there.

 

[boneless]

Thank you all, really appreciate the info.

Couple of things . I think surveillance is a great deterrent, the see couple of camera's outside, might make them consider the next door neighbor. The reason I want to make sure I have my feeds in hand after something happens, is to catch these people. Not so much to get my stuff back, but to make sure they get what they deserve. I am building a wall unit that will have a space for the server too, but server can only be removed from the back. Hopefully that will be enough of a hindrance.

@SouthernYankee and @area651, do you have any recommendations for make/model of NAS. I see there is a lot out there.

 

[area651]

Thank you all, really appreciate the info.

Couple of things . I think surveillance is a great deterrent, the see couple of camera's outside, might make them consider the next door neighbor. The reason I want to make sure I have my feeds in hand after something happens, is to catch these people. Not so much to get my stuff back, but to make sure they get what they deserve. I am building a wall unit that will have a space for the server too, but server can only be removed from the back. Hopefully that will be enough of a hindrance.

@SouthernYankee and @area651, do you have any recommendations for make/model of NAS. I see there is a lot out there.

I agree with the deterrent idea and I definitely like the idea of it all not getting stolen. I'm just speculating that anyone breaking in, won't be looking to pillage a server rack. Your hood could be different than mine though. I'm not in a bad area by any measure but from talking with others, any break ins around here are looking for quick stuff and are by people who wouldn't recognize a $500 NAS from a $20 toaster. Semi related thought would be that we should all keep in mind what the police will do. Hopefully you get a better picture/vid than just a humanoid/sasquatch looking figure committing the crime. Also if you DO get a clear(ish) pic, what will the police do? They'll likely go "yeah...that's a black/white/hispanic male. We don't know his name though so when we do catch them in the act, we can hopefully tie this back to him." Meaning they won't do some CSI themed investigation and determine that it's Paul Hanson who lives at 123 Oak Street and we'll go get him there. I'm not dismissing the idea of doing any of this hobby that we're doing. Just don't lose sight of what may happen and get grandiose ideas of how this will help the police solve a crime wave. Btw, imho, it's fun and hopefully helpful if ever needed so that's why I do it. If it wasn't, there's lots of other places to drop a grand.

Ok, on to the NAS part:
Just my opinion here but I don't buy the idea of getting a nas with high memory or cpu power. I don't offload any real compute needs onto a nas. I just use it for a big storage filing cabinet. At any given time, my NAS bounces from 4-15% CPU usage and stays around 40% memory usage. It's live storing all my BI data as well as storing all my media for the home media server (that's in use by my household, including my sons remotely away at college).
I have a Synology DS418play. If you want to run VMs, then you'd want the next step up but when I need to run those, I have desktops that will do that. (I rarely need to fire up a VM.) I wanted removable drives and I wanted at least 4 (for expansion if I wanted to) and I like how synology does their hybrid raid. The absolute cheapest way to do NAS is to get an old PC (that likely takes more electricity) and just install 4 drives in it and then install OpenNAS and make it all yourself. The same could be said for a car though and it's unlikely that anyone here drives a car they built themselves. (Yes I'm sure someone will say "I built this car myself" but in reality, you put together the parts for a chevrolet all into a chevy chassis. I think you get the drift...)

 

[boneless]

Yes, I totally agree . Currently, the server that runs BI is also running as kind of a file server, it has three HDD's in it at the moment, but I want something dedicated .

The Synology drives have come up on multiple searches, thank you for the recommendation.