Blue Iris And Synology

[bigkap]

Hi,

Is there a Idiots Guide to setting up, sending backup alert videos to a Synology Nas Drive?

I have FTP set up as that's the only way I can figure it out.
But, every time a file is sent, it creates a new directory.
I have tried to use "Clips and Archiving" but within the drop down window(windows 10), it will not show the network options.
If I click on Network, nothing happens!

The cameras have been cloned for Back Up purposes and are hidden when I "Run as Administrator"

I would like to place each camera alert in their own respective folder on the Nas drive.

In Clips and Archiving, I have created Aux1 with the Nas base folder and set up Queue For Back Up.

Also I noticed within the Clips and Archiving folder, the the options for the "Alerts Folder", which gets stored to the local drive, the "Move To Folder", the only options I have, apart from the aux folders, are using "Stored or New".
There is no option to use the local "Alerts Folder"!!

Finally, if the computer restarts, I have to allow BI administrator to run!
What can I do so it starts automatically?
I do have Run as a Windows Service set up but will the video alert files still be sent to the Nas drive?
If so, then I don't have to worry about Run As Administrator?

Thanks
Steve

 

[kklee]

Please read through the built in documentation, there's a good description of how BI folders work.

There are also lots of posts on the forum regarding how to use folders, but I'll give you a summary anyways.

I'm using a Synology NAS for Archiving BI clips using the Stored folder definition in BI. No need for FTP, it works fine over SMB, assuming you have it set up correctly. If you can access files shares on it from your BI system ,then you're good to go. Just make sure you have the correct user permissions defined on the Synology for the Windows user account that BI is running under. Refer to the Synology web site if you need help, they have lots of useful FAQ's.

You mention alerts and alert videos, note that there are Alert images and Alert videos. Alerts are snapshots captured by a triggering event. I'm assuming you mean motion triggered clips when you said alert videos.

In General, when you configure each camera, you configure which folder to record to. Then you define Archiving for each folder at a global level.

Here's what I have configured.

Each camera that has motion trigger configured, saves clips to the same "New" folder on a local drive.

Each camera that has motion trigger defined on it is also configured to save an alert image (checkbox in the Trigger tab), these are sent to the "Alerts" folder (local drive), which as far as I can tell is hard coded and not configurable.

If you want to save Alert images in separate folders, you could configure a snapshot to be saved when triggered in the Record tab, this provides a way to record an alert image to different directories for each camera.

My "Stored" folder is configured to point to a directory on the Synology. You have to type in the UNC path for the folder in BI, lots of apps can't see the Synology NAS via Network in the directory browser (Windows 'feature'). For example, \\NASName\Directory.

My "New" and "Alerts" folders are both configured to move files to the Stored folder when files hit 2 days old. Some people prefer to do this based on storage threshold, depends on what your requirements are.

Not sure what you are asking about with regards to the "Alerts" folder, your description sounds like you're trying to configure it to move to itself???

I'm running BI as a service, files are sent to the Synology without issue. As I mentioned above, make sure that the account that is being used for the BI service has permissions to the directory on the Synology.

 

[bigkap]

Hi Kklee,

Great stuff and thanks

I will let you know how I got on.

Steve

 

[bigkap]

Hi Kklee,

I carried out the above and it work so that I have the option now to add the files to the Synology via the drop down menus.
Excellent.
I have all camera cloned so that if they are triggered, they to to the Nas.
Under Clips and Archiving I have set up the Queue for backup.
When I trigger each camera the video goes to the Nas drive but creates its own folder!!!
So that's a start.

But to work, I still need to use FTP setting!!
Under each camera properties, I have set up "Post files to a folder" to store to the Nas in the folder I created.

Any idea what I did wrong?

Thanks

Steve

 

[Tro]

Hi there,

Do you need to clone the cameras?
what are they doing differently that you want 2 versions?

Have you mapped the network drive your trying to use? (are the BI and server machines on the same network? - home/work group)

There are about 10 folder options (clips and archiving), how many cameras do you have?
Queue for back-up is interesting, never used it myself

Personally I have files moved to my server and that has raid redundancy
Also WIN10 does this local

Tro

 

[bigkap]

Hi Tro,

Thanks for getting back.

I was advised some time ago that if I want to save files to the Nas drive, it would be best to clone the cameras.
And regarding security, not to Map the network drive!
With Windows now you cant create a Homegroup which I had a long time ago.
The way to combat that was to set up SMB which I did.

I have 4 cameras and I tried to create, under each aux, a separate command for each camera but it wouldn't work.
The queue for backup, I think, is mainly for used for FTP!
But thats how they are working for now till I sort this out.

Thanks Tro.

Steve

 

[Tro]

Hi Tro,

Thanks for getting back.

I was advised some time ago that if I want to save files to the Nas drive, it would be best to clone the cameras.
And regarding security, not to Map the network drive!
With Windows now you cant create a Homegroup which I had a long time ago.
The way to combat that was to set up SMB which I did.

I have 4 cameras and I tried to create, under each aux, a separate command for each camera but it wouldn't work.
The queue for backup, I think, is mainly for used for FTP!
But thats how they are working for now till I sort this out.

Thanks Tro.

Steve

Interesting,
I am certainly no expert, but I have my gear behind a firewall etc never had an issue, both PC's are dedicated to BI and don't get used for anything else
If they are on the same network, similar exposure?
cloning is simply another copy - helpful only if you want to save 2 copies or have different set ups (i.e. 1 recording 24/7 and other recording before/after alerts for a quick view or 2nd to monitor a particular area only etc) but i do see the FTP queue which you need for now

I have all my cameras going to "new" - all alerts going to "new alerts"
once allocated space has been used - they go so respective folders on the server
I only view the files via BI, and it sorts them out perfectly - so I don't need different folders

All different ideas - unsure what is best but this has worked for me for years

Tro

 

[Holbs]

I ran 15 cameras, continuous recording to my Synology NAS. Didn't have to clone any cameras for that. Took up quite a bit of network bandwidth which caused some alerts/clips to delay showing up by 5-10 seconds at times. They delay could of been caused by something else but I suspect it was the congestion.
You are running motion only. Should have better results than I

 

[bigkap]

Thanks Trio and Holbs,

Obviously the simpler the better.
And less to go wrong.
I will be trying some methods out over the next few days to see if I really need the clone cameras and get off FTP.

Thanks

Steve

 

[kklee]

Glad to hear you're on your way to sorting things out. Great advice from the other posters.

Keeping it simple makes it much easier.

If everything's on a local network behind a firewall and you have antivirus running on Windows, you should be pretty safe, no need for FTP, it adds unnecessary complexity.

I did have BI recording direct to NAS at one point, but ran into connectivity issues. The NAS is used for multiple purposes and caused issues with BI recording to it. The best solution was recording to a local drive first and then configuring BI to archive to the NAS, this solution has been working beautifully.

As Tro mention, you only need cameras clones if you need different functions on a camera. In my case, I wanted separate motion trigger clips and continuous recording clips.

I have 5 cameras configured for motion trigger clips, these are the "Master" cameras. The clips get archived to NAS based on age.

There are 4 clones of the 5 cameras that record continuously to a local folder, the folder is configured with a storage threshold, so the oldest are deleted when it hits that threshold.

 

[bigkap]

Hi Kkee,

Gonna take a few days to sort out.

So thank you all for your help.

Steve

 

[austwhite]

Hi Kkee,

Gonna take a few days to sort out.

So thank you all for your help.

Steve

Did you get this working okay in the end?
( I know this was almost a year ago)