Blue Iris Server Questions

[thestapler]

Ok, So I have 20 cameras, most are Speco 1920x1080, capable of 30fps (the other cameras are capable of the same as well).

The current computer I am using, I can't do more than 10fps on the cameras, and the cpu is spiked at 90%+ no matter what I do, and the cameras are set to record direct to disk, with the BI file format.

I want to record all cameras, 24x7... at at least 15fps (if not 20). I am looking at building an i7-4790K, with an Asus Motherboard, and 32G ram. The mobo has 8 sata (6 handled by the Z87 chipset, and raid capable, and the other 2 by asus something or other). Also, looking at adding more cameras later... or building another server

I was looking at the WD Purple drives, possibly the 8TB ones, but I need to figure out how much space the streams will take, and how much to keep for long term storage (looking for about 1 week worth of storage).

Should I use 1 drive for the OS, 1 for the "new", and then set up a raid array for "storage"? that would be a 6 drive array.

Would it be better off using an actual raid card? What kind of raid should I use?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated

 

[Q™]

Use an SSD as the system drive. IMO placing the BI generated video on a REAID array isn't going to help you at all, except if you want to achieve redundancy; forget about the RAID unless you have redundancy as a requirement. It's a waste of money IMO.

 

[thestapler]

OK. so, I've been doing some tests, I've seen 10 min files at 100MB, and 300MB... so, if I take a HUGE ball park, and make 10 minutes at 500MB, that would be upwards of 70GB per day, per camera..

20 cameras, would be 1.4TB per day.
So, if I were to store the last 2 hours, on the "new" drive, I could use a 2 or 3TB drive.
Then, I can move to an 8TB drive, and when that is at about 7TB full, move them off to another 8TB drive, and from there, when it gets to about 7TB full, i can delete them. Or if I need to keep them longer, move again to another 8TB drive...

I know that would be a lot of I/O moving files off to storage(s), but would it be worth while?

Also, wouldn't using an SSD fail prematurely? Since the database is typically stored on the "fast" drive, being it SSD, would have a lot of writes?

SO... What do you think? Am I over thinking things, and this is just overkill?

Would I just be better off making something like an unRAID server, fill that with a bunch of drives, and keep "storage" on that?

 

[fenderman]

You are not calculating this properly. Record time per gb is dependent on only one factor. BITRATE. As you adjust it you can increase or decrease recording time.

 

[thestapler]

Do you have a better "estimate", and yes, I understand that it would be variable, but worst case scenario?

 

[fenderman]

Do you have a better "estimate", and yes, I understand that it would be variable, but worst case scenario?

Assume a 4096 bitrate and use an online calculator.