Cameras dropping out

L

LarryL

n3wb
Aug 20, 2014
21
1
I’m running 8 cameras of different types on a server grade machine that should clearly be able to support them. However, I’m getting seemingly random camera drop outs that result in very short clips and gaps in between with the result that critical information is lost.

The server is a dual Xeon with 12GB of memory and I’m storing onto a 3TB external drive. CPU utilization generally runs 25%, or less, to maybe 40%. There are a couple of 1920 cameras, a couple of 640, and some 1080, and although they are all set to record continuously they are also set at 5FPS and with 2-5MB buffers that I just increased to 20MB. Recording is set for 8 hour blocks and 30GB per. No audio.

I’m also noticing that the default folders “New” and “Storage” don’t seem to be performing as I expect in that there are random very old files in New that it seems should not be there, and likewise some files in Storage that appear out of place as being too recent. I thought that the software routinely moved aged files from New to Storage at some interval, but that does not seem to be the case.

I’m sure I’m missing something here. Just can’t figure out what it is. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.

LL
 
What cameras? What version of blue iris?
Sometimes the database becomes corrupt and old files are not deleted. You need to regenerate or repair it.
 
fenderman said:
What cameras? What version of blue iris?
Sometimes the database becomes corrupt and old files are not deleted. You need to regenerate or repair it.
Click to expand...

BI is the most current version since we keep it updated with each launch. BI id run as a service. The program is not kept active. The cameras are a mix including a couple of HooToo PTZ but most of the rest are IPC-HDW3100S. The problem does not seem to be camera related.

How are the DB's regenerated or repaired?
 
LarryL said:
BI is the most current version since we keep it updated with each launch. BI id run as a service. The program is not kept active. The cameras are a mix including a couple of HooToo PTZ but most of the rest are IPC-HDW3100S. The problem does not seem to be camera related.

How are the DB's regenerated or repaired?
Click to expand...
Right click on the clips >database
If that doesnt solve the database issue...simply delete the "db" folder and restart blue iris..it will rebuild the database.
 
fenderman said:
Right click on the clips >database
If that doesnt solve the database issue...simply delete the "db" folder and restart blue iris..it will rebuild the database.
Click to expand...

The right click didn't seem to do anything so I deleted the DB folder and it seems to be rebuilding. Thanks.

About the New v Storage, Is it the case the BI moves files from New to Storage periodically, and it it is supposed to do that, is there a set interval, is it storage capacity driven, or what? And, does it make sense to manually move things that are now out of place? For example I have a few files from March still in the New folder when I would really expect only files from, say, July.
 
LarryL said:
The right click didn't seem to do anything so I deleted the DB folder and it seems to be rebuilding. Thanks.

About the New v Storage, Is it the case the BI moves files from New to Storage periodically, and it it is supposed to do that, is there a set interval, is it storage capacity driven, or what? And, does it make sense to manually move things that are now out of place? For example I have a few files from March still in the New folder when I would really expect only files from, say, July.
Click to expand...
You would need to right click on the clip list on the right side of the screen....But deleting the DB folder is actually the best way.
After the revuild it should eventually move the old data. It will only move the data if you specified the movement.You can set it to move based on time or capacity or both, but capacity is what should be used..why delete footage simply by date if you have more room. If you are storing the data on a single drive, its pretty much pointless to move the clips into a new folder..simply just use the new folder and set it to delete afterwards...
the settings are in blue iris options>clips and archiving.
 
fenderman said:
You would need to right click on the clip list on the right side of the screen....But deleting the DB folder is actually the best way.
After the revuild it should eventually move the old data. It will only move the data if you specified the movement.You can set it to move based on time or capacity or both, but capacity is what should be used..why delete footage simply by date if you have more room. If you are storing the data on a single drive, its pretty much pointless to move the clips into a new folder..simply just use the new folder and set it to delete afterwards...
the settings are in blue iris options>clips and archiving.
Click to expand...

Great. Thanks for the pointers. Circling back to my original topic of short file clips, do you think that problem is related to the DB and file retention problem?
 
LarryL said:
Great. Thanks for the pointers. Circling back to my original topic of short file clips, do you think that problem is related to the DB and file retention problem?
Click to expand...
No the dropouts are not related to the database...its a signal issue..can be the cams, the network, the blue iris pc, blue iris...
 
fenderman said:
No the dropouts are not related to the database...its a signal issue..can be the cams, the network, the blue iris pc, blue iris...
Click to expand...

OK, sounds like more digging is needed. BTW, the DB rebuild did sort out the new/old file issue without any help from me. In checking the clips/archiving settings as you recommended I noticed that the New folder had a size limit of only 29GB. I reset it to 400GB with a 7 day retention. Easy enough since I have 3TB available exclusively to BI. I'll give it some time to see if that has any effect on the drop problem before spending more time on this.

Thanks for the pointers, Very helpful!
 
LarryL said:
OK, sounds like more digging is needed. BTW, the DB rebuild did sort out the new/old file issue without any help from me. In checking the clips/archiving settings as you recommended I noticed that the New folder had a size limit of only 29GB. I reset it to 400GB with a 7 day retention. Easy enough since I have 3TB available exclusively to BI. I'll give it some time to see if that has any effect on the drop problem before spending more time on this.

Thanks for the pointers, Very helpful!
Click to expand...
No problem...I would not use the 7 day retention...why delete clips early if you have the space?
 
fenderman said:
No problem...I would not use the 7 day retention...why delete clips early if you have the space?
Click to expand...

I assumed the 7 day setting applied only to the New folder since that's where this setting is and there's no such setting in Storage. Not so?
 
LarryL said:
I assumed the 7 day setting applied only to the New folder since that's where this setting is and there's no such setting in Storage. Not so?
Click to expand...
Any of the folders, new, storage, alerts, clips..can have a set day limit...the point is, why use it...simply use the folder size as the limitation...why delete clips before you need the space...
 
fenderman said:
Any of the folders, new, storage, alerts, clips..can have a set day limit...the point is, why use it...simply use the folder size as the limitation...why delete clips before you need the space...
Click to expand...

OK, reasonable. I was just truing to keep New to a manageable size given that I have 8 cameras going there. I have recording set to 8 hour blocks meaning 2 blocks per day, times 7 days, times 8 cameras, making finding a given file reasonable easy. Having the size limit at 400GB then makes the 7 day limit trigger transfer to Storage (where they remain until the drive gets full before starting to over-wright), eliminating bumping up to a storage limit as having any possible impact on the drop problem.
 
LarryL said:
OK, reasonable. I was just truing to keep New to a manageable size given that I have 8 cameras going there. I have recording set to 8 hour blocks meaning 2 blocks per day, times 7 days, times 8 cameras, making finding a given file reasonable easy. Having the size limit at 400GB then makes the 7 day limit trigger transfer to Storage (where they remain until the drive gets full before starting to over-wright), eliminating bumping up to a storage limit as having any possible impact on the drop problem.
Click to expand...
If storage is on the same drive as the new, there is no benefit this dual folder setup...might as well leave it all in the new folder...
 
fenderman said:
If storage is on the same drive as the new, there is no benefit this dual folder setup...might as well leave it all in the new folder...
Click to expand...

I understand, and from the perspective of storage capacity you are absolutely correct. My perspective is that when I'm looking to excerpt a segment from the camera files it's most often because of an incident within the past few days, usually withing the past week. And, I'm frequently looking for segments from more than one camera. If I set a 7 day limit on New then I'm only scanning through 1344 files (3per dayX 7days X8 cameras) to find the 1 or 2 files I need. If everything is in a single folder, and remember the target drive is 3TB, then I'm scanning WAY more to find what I need. And, the only way to limit that is to set an overall storage limit, which would seem to defeat the purpose of having tiered storage.
 
LarryL said:
I understand, and from the perspective of storage capacity you are absolutely correct. My perspective is that when I'm looking to excerpt a segment from the camera files it's most often because of an incident within the past few days, usually withing the past week. And, I'm frequently looking for segments from more than one camera. If I set a 7 day limit on New then I'm only scanning through 1344 files (3per dayX 7days X8 cameras) to find the 1 or 2 files I need. If everything is in a single folder, and remember the target drive is 3TB, then I'm scanning WAY more to find what I need. And, the only way to limit that is to set an overall storage limit, which would seem to defeat the purpose of having tiered storage.
Click to expand...
That is what the clips viewer and timeline are for. There is no need to look for the files in their respective folders, unless I'm not understanding what you are doing..
 
fenderman said:
That is what the clips viewer and timeline are for. There is no need to look for the files in their respective folders, unless I'm not understanding what you are doing..
Click to expand...

Maybe we're using different methods for viewing and extracting from old files. Let me give you an example, because it could be that I'm not following the easiest path. A typical scenario for me might be that I need to look at what was recorded two days ago between 3:00 and 4:00 PM on 3 of the 8 cameras. I would go to the New folder, find the files for the cameras I'm interested in, and click to open each in turn. I would then mark out the clips I want and export them. Is there an easier way?
 
LarryL said:
Maybe we're using different methods for viewing and extracting from old files. Let me give you an example, because it could be that I'm not following the easiest path. A typical scenario for me might be that I need to look at what was recorded two days ago between 3:00 and 4:00 PM on 3 of the 8 cameras. I would go to the New folder, find the files for the cameras I'm interested in, and click to open each in turn. I would then mark out the clips I want and export them. Is there an easier way?
Click to expand...
This is how I do it..from the help file.

Bulk Clip Conversion and Export
Select multiple clips in the clips list then right-click and select Convert/Export. The Convert/Export window appears to allow you to make changes to the output folder or output compression format. When you click OK, you will see the clips marked with an export icon in the clips list. As they are converted and exported, you will see these icons turn a sold green. The process occurs as a background task and any errors encountered will be logged to the Status/Messages window.
While clips are waiting to be exported, you may select them and the Convert/Export option to remove them from the queue.
 
OK, Haven't tried that method. Actually I don't have the clips list open in part because I usually have all 8 cams open and that really takes all the screen space in order to be viewable. Thanks again for the poointers.
 
Also also remember that you can hold down ctrl and select multiple clips at once to export

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