BI running 16 Cameras to VM or Not on Windows Server 2012 R2

[HEVNBND]

I have a Windows Server with the following Specs.

I7-5820K
32GB Ram
SSD OS Drive
8TB Hard drive space dedicated to BI.
Server currently is just file server and runs Exchange inside a VM that has 16GB ram allocated to it.

I am looking at hookup up 16 2MP Dahua cameras to the server. Should I install Windows 10 Pro in a VM and run BI there or should I run BI directly from bare metal? Anyone has any thoughts that would be great.

From everything I have read it seems that most say do NOT run BI inside a VM. If I run it from bare metal should I see any issues with 16 cams and my hardware?

 

[Tolting Colt Acres]

Why would you even consider virtualizing the BI server? What could possibly be the upside?

 

[looney2ns]

Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris | IP Cam Talk

 

[aristobrat]

From everything I have read it seems that most say do NOT run BI inside a VM. If I run it from bare metal should I see any issues with 16 cams and my hardware?

BI can lower the processor utilization by pushing some work to the GPU (using Intel's QuickSync feature). In virtual environments, that's usually not possible, even if the processor supports QuickSync.

Having said that, it doesn't look like the i7-5820K processor supports QuickSync in the first place. Def. worth verifying that. If that's the case, then bare metal on that same box prob. won't be much better.

 

[HEVNBND]

Thanks for the information. Any idea if my existing hardware would support 16 2MP Dahua cams even though it does not have QuickSync? If not I will have to buy a i7...

 

[aristobrat]

Do a forum search for your processor. It looks like one person is running 30 4MP cameras and seeing a 65% processor load.

Knowing the quantity of cameras and megapixels of a system isn't the full story, though. It's the total bandwidth being pushed by the cameras. For example (assuming the frame rate is the same), your 16 2MP cameras set for 30 FPS would push the same bandwidth as 32 2MP cameras set for 15 FPS. So when reading about other people's performance, you have to factor that in.

If I were in your situation, if it was possible to install Blue Iris so that it could access the bare metal, I'd do that and see how many cameras I could get on it. If it doesn't scale to all 16, then I'd get another i7 box.

 

[DLONG2]

One upside I can think of is that a VM would allow the BI server and cameras to reside on a different VLAN, for those who have only one hardware machine.

Update: I read the link which looney provided above, and QuickSync does not work on VMs.