Best hard drive setup for Blue Iris?

[Sir V Lance]

Especially since it is known how fragile the DB is in BI, adding complexity to your layout increases the risk of DB corruption.

Thanks wittaj.

As I mentioned to Mike A. - I am a little confused about what the BI database is. It seems like it is recommended to have it live on the C:\ drive with BI, yet you are saying it is fragile and can be corrupted. How likely is this? If/when it becomes corrupted, what is the recovery process? Does it mess up the C:\ drive bad enough to require a refresh of Windows, or just a reinstall of BI? It seems like the primary goal is to preserve the OS boot drive integrity and consider the secondary storage drive somewhat "expendable" since that's where all the heavy writing occurs. Although I'm sure losing that drive and all the stored video is not going to be a day of puppy dogs and roses either. Does the database see a lot of write cycles too, and should I be concerned using a NVMe SSD for the OS and BI drive? Seems like there is less concern now about having the Windows page file live on a SSD than there was in the past - perhaps because of the recent reliability increase in the technologies.

 

[wittaj]

The DB does not store any video - it is simply a database that tells BI where to go and look for the video.

@bp2008, the creator of UI3, can speak more on the delicacy of the database, but it can get corrupt easily and isn't a very stable DB protocol being used, or something to that nature. Or as he said "Blue Iris's database will get corrupted if you look funny at it."

Corruption isn't a "big deal" in the sense that you don't lose any video.

Rather, the issue is you have to delete the DB folder and let BI rebuild the database, and in doing so, all the thumbnail pointers to triggered events are gone - all of the video is still there, but you can't go to a date/time prior to the rebuild and see when the triggers were - you have to scrub the video to find them.

And that can be pain if you need to review older video.

 

[samplenhold]

Don't fret about the database and corruption. I have 22 cams writing to three WD 10TB Purple drives and have had BI running since 2018 and never had a DB issue.

My 'C' drive is an Intel M.2 760P 256GB PCI-E drive. On it is the OS, the BI executable, and the BI database. The BI DB is actually a folder: C:/Blueiris/db and contains a bunch of files that indexes all of the video files. There is a file in there called clips.dat which is the thumbnails for every video clip.

I have the cams specifically divided up between the three 10 TB purple drives (drives E, F, and G). This gives me redundant coverage on different drives such that if a drive goes down, I still have video form at least one cam in that area. I do the same with POE switches. Cams are divided up among the POE switches so that if a switch goes down, I still have some coverage in each area. I do this as we are out quite a bit.

I have a 'D' drive which is a WD Blue 500GB SSD which has the Alerts and other JPGs and converted video to MPG for use elsewhere.

 

[Sir V Lance]

I have the cams specifically divided up between the three 10 TB purple drives (drives E, F, and G). This gives me redundant coverage on different drives such that if a drive goes down, I still have video form at least one cam in that area. I do the same with POE switches. Cams are divided up among the POE switches so that if a switch goes down, I still have some coverage in each area. I do this as we are out quite a bit.

Thanks for the info samplenhold. That's an impressive and well designed setup you have. I like the redundancy. I don't anticipate my system ever reaching that level. But I am a believer that anything worth doing is worth doing in excess.

 

[Sir V Lance]

Being able to record Cont+triggers is the best of both worlds - you get 24/7 recording of the substream and then mainstream for the triggers. This uses a lot less storage space than 24/7 mainstream.

Sorry to rewind to this post wittaj, but I was reading the IP Cam Talk Wiki Blue Iris Software Sub Stream Guide and I became confused about something. You point out that recording the sub stream saves storage space, and that makes perfect sense to me. The Wiki states that the Main Stream is used for direct to disk recording and Sub Streams are for reducing CPU usage. Is this just a generic or default setting for Blue Iris? I assume the software lets me select a sub stream instead of the main stream for direct to disk recording if I choose to give up some recorded resolution to reduce my storage consumption, correct? I suppose every situation is a little different and it always comes down to optimizing CPU usage and storage consumption.

 

[wittaj]

Sorry to rewind to this post wittaj, but I was reading the IP Cam Talk Wiki Blue Iris Software Sub Stream Guide and I became confused about something. You point out that recording the sub stream saves storage space, and that makes perfect sense to me. The Wiki states that the Main Stream is used for direct to disk recording and Sub Streams are for reducing CPU usage. Is this just a generic or default setting for Blue Iris? I assume the software lets me select a sub stream instead of the main stream for direct to disk recording if I choose to give up some recorded resolution to reduce my storage consumption, correct? I suppose every situation is a little different and it always comes down to optimizing CPU usage and storage consumption.

By default BI does not use substreams. You have to enable substreams in BI. They are both saved direct to disk unless the person intentionally changes it to something else, which isn't recommended.

 

[Sir V Lance]

They are both saved direct to disk unless the person intentionally changes it to something else, which isn't recommended.

I apologize for being slow to grasp this sub stream concept, but now I am confused with your "isn't recommended" point.

You previously said:
"Being able to record Cont+triggers is the best of both worlds - you get 24/7 recording of the substream and then mainstream for the triggers. This uses a lot less storage space than 24/7 mainstream."

I think I am hearing that "the best of both worlds" is not necessarily a "recommended" configuration, but surely I misunderstand.

If the main stream and the sub stream are both saved to disk continuously, then it does not follow that this would reduce storage space consumption. Are you describing a setup where the lower resolution sub steam is recorded continuously to disk (24/7) and only brief clips are recorded at the main resolution as a result of triggers?

 

[wittaj]

"Isn't recommended" means saving as anything other than direct to disk .bvr file.

Saving cont+triggers means it is recording substream with no triggers (less storage space needed) but then records main stream (needs more storage) during triggered events.

So maybe you have 23 hours of substream recording and 1 hour of mainstream, which will take a lot less storage than 24 hours of mainstream. Or whatever the breakdown is.

 

[looney2ns]

See the sub stream topic in the wiki.
Substreams definitely recommended.
You're over thinking it.

 

[Sir V Lance]

"Isn't recommended" means saving as anything other than direct to disk .bvr file.

Saving cont+triggers means it is recording substream with no triggers (less storage space needed) but then records main stream (needs more storage) during triggered events.

So maybe you have 23 hours of substream recording and 1 hour of mainstream, which will take a lot less storage than 24 hours of mainstream. Or whatever the breakdown is.

OK. That's what I thought was meant. Thank you for clarifying.

I guess it makes sense that BI would recommend recording full resolution 24/7, but not all circumstances require it or support it.

Obviously, you can't get resolution back later if you didn't record it in the first place.

 

[Sir V Lance]

See the sub stream topic in the wiki.
Substreams definitely recommended.
You're over thinking it.

The wiki is what got me confused...
The main stream is used for:
-direct-to-disc recording
The sub stream is used for everything else:

If I wanted to reduce disk storage use, I asked if it was possible to record just a sub stream direct to disk 24/7 instead of the main stream. I think this was confirmed by wittaj.

 

[Sachi]

Saving cont+triggers means it is recording substream with no triggers (less storage space needed) but then records main stream (needs more storage) during triggered events.

Anyone have a simple (for me) explanation of the difference between cont+triggers v cont+alerts?
I chose cont+alerts but I don't understand to terms or how they record differently and which is the better.

 

[wittaj]

Anyone have a simple (for me) explanation of the difference between cont+triggers v cont+alerts?
I chose cont+alerts but I don't understand to terms or how they record differently and which is the better.

Cont+triggers will record mainstream for any triggers and substream the rest of the time

Cont+alerts will record mainstream only for CodeProject alerts and substream the rest of the time

It is better to record triggers as CodeProject could miss and then you don't get mainstream for what triggered and AI didn't confirm.

 

[Sachi]

Cont+triggers will record mainstream for any triggers and substream the rest of the time

Cont+alerts will record mainstream only for CodeProject alerts and substream the rest of the time

It is better to record triggers as CodeProject could miss and then you don't get mainstream for what triggered and AI didn't confirm.

Sweet, thanks for clearing that up, I'll change to Cont+triggers