Cameras went missing in BI, still visible in browser.

[tahoegeek]

Here's a strange situation that I have encountered with my BI server. I've been running this server for more than a year. Over that time I have continually tweaked the settings to improve performance and CPU utilization, thanks to suggestions from BI tech support and this forum.

This past week, something went very wrong with the setup and I can't resolve it on my own. 17 cameras usually operate fine and play nicely with BI. However, with no changes made on the server or to any other components in my surveillance network, most of the cameras no longer show-up in BI. Instead, I get an error message. I can reach each camera through a web browser without a problem, so the cameras are still online and operational.

Curiously, 4 cameras are still working with BI. 3 of those are Dahua, 1 is a Hikvision. I've checked the configuration settings in each camera and nothing has been changed. In fact, aside from the IP addresses, nearly every setting is identical across the cameras.

I have tried deleting a camera and adding it back in and the results are the same. The configuration process in BI finds the camera with no problem or errors, but when it is added I get the same error pane in BI.

Any suggestions?


- Roland

(See the screenshot: image1.JPG)

 

[fenderman]

screen shot did not properly attach

 

[NoloC]

Are the cameras hard wired or wireless?

 

[tahoegeek]

Are the cameras hard wired or wireless?

All of them are hardwired, PoE.

 

[NoloC]

So 17 cams all on the same switch? I'd be looking at network topology, I guess, if not a single switch. Can you tell us a bit more about your setup?

 

[tahoegeek]

So 17 cams all on the same switch? I'd be looking at network topology, I guess, if not a single switch. Can you tell us a bit more about your setup?

Sure, here's the setup...

There is a 5-port unmanaged gigabit switch connected to the router. Other connections to that switch include one to the BlueIris server and another to a 16-port PoE switch. Nearly all of the cameras are connected directly to that PoE switch. There are a few cameras near the edge of the church property. For that run, I turned off the PoE power and use the cable just as a data connection. At the far end of the cable, I installed an 8-port PoE switch with 2 cameras connected to that switch. One of the 2 cameras there is still working fine.

Troubleshooting efforts thus far:

1. Rebooted BI server (multiple times)
2. Rebooted all connected switches
3. Successfully accessed each camera directly via web browser
4. Disconnected the internet connection to the router but left the rest of the camera network intact - I can still access each camera via web browser using the BI server

I have no idea why so many cameras went offline - according to BI (but they are not actually offline as evidenced with #3, above).

I have no idea why 4 cameras have remained online.

 

[NoloC]

Well you've done some smart troubleshooting.

I just noticed in your picture BI is indicating cpu at 39% and ram at 4.53G. That seems like a problem, too much ram. What version of BI? And upon reboot and initial start of BI, how much ram is indicated? There have been some memory leak proplems related to drivers on some Dell machines and others, IIRC.

Other info that could be helpful would be screen shots of a typical (not working) camera config. camera properties>video>configue "Network IP camera configuration" tab.

Maybe @fenderman will take a peak.

 

[tahoegeek]

MYSTERY SOLVED!!!!!

There are still a few unknowns, but here's what caused the problem. In my quest to reduce load on the CPU, I followed the steps in the BI guide. Before turning on the hardware acceleration option, however, I consulted the online Intel product guide to verify that my i7 processor did, indeed, feature QuickSync.

When I saw it on the list, I proceeded to toggle-on that feature within BI. Things worked well initially, but when I returned to the church a few days later to review videos that's when I discovered 13 of the 17 cameras had errors and were not visible in BI.

After spending some 14 hours troubleshooting and eliminating variables, rolling back to previous versions of BI, etc... it finally dawned on me that maybe my well-intentioned efforts to reduce CPU load may have had some unintended consequences. When I turned off hardware acceleration and rebooted the system - things returned to normal. Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions for solving this mystery. Hopefully, my story will help others who run into this situation.

Two final comments...

1. It's not really important, but I still don't know why 4 of the cameras kept functioning when all the others failed. 2 of those working cameras were older 2MP Dahuas... very curious.

2. For unknown reasons, on a bunch of my Dahua cameras when I login to the camera interface, there is a pause and I receive a DNS Error message. I can login to the camera, but I can't see the camera view (it shows up fine in BI, just not while on a web browser in the camera UI). I've tried different variations of DNS... Google's DNS 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4, the ISP's DNS, the router's default gateway (since DNS is loaded in the router). None of these make it work without that error.

Again, several other Dahua cameras with identical settings login just fine with no errors. Any ideas what is happening here?

Thanks, as always!

 

[fenderman]

MYSTERY SOLVED!!!!!

There are still a few unknowns, but here's what caused the problem. In my quest to reduce load on the CPU, I followed the steps in the BI guide. Before turning on the hardware acceleration option, however, I consulted the online Intel product guide to verify that my i7 processor did, indeed, feature QuickSync.

When I saw it on the list, I proceeded to toggle-on that feature within BI. Things worked well initially, but when I returned to the church a few days later to review videos that's when I discovered 13 of the 17 cameras had errors and were not visible in BI.

After spending some 14 hours troubleshooting and eliminating variables, rolling back to previous versions of BI, etc... it finally dawned on me that maybe my well-intentioned efforts to reduce CPU load may have had some unintended consequences. When I turned off hardware acceleration and rebooted the system - things returned to normal. Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions for solving this mystery. Hopefully, my story will help others who run into this situation.

Two final comments...

1. It's not really important, but I still don't know why 4 of the cameras kept functioning when all the others failed. 2 of those working cameras were older 2MP Dahuas... very curious.

2. For unknown reasons, on a bunch of my Dahua cameras when I login to the camera interface, there is a pause and I receive a DNS Error message. I can login to the camera, but I can't see the camera view (it shows up fine in BI, just not while on a web browser in the camera UI). I've tried different variations of DNS... Google's DNS 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4, the ISP's DNS, the router's default gateway (since DNS is loaded in the router). None of these make it work without that error.

Again, several other Dahua cameras with identical settings login just fine with no errors. Any ideas what is happening here?

Thanks, as always!

Are any of the cameras set to h.265?

 

[tahoegeek]

Are any of the cameras set to h.265?

No, none of them. All are H.264H.

 

[fenderman]

No, none of them. All are H.264H.

We're you trying to use a smart codec or h.264+?
Try HA with straight h.264

 

[tahoegeek]

We're you trying to use a smart codec or h.264+?
Try HA with straight h.264

Are you suggesting I first go into each camera's UI and change the setting to H.264 instead of H.264B or H and then switch on HA in BI? Thanks for your advice, btw!

 

[fenderman]

Are you suggesting I first go into each camera's UI and change the setting to H.264 instead of H.264B or H and then switch on HA in BI? Thanks for your advice, btw!

I would try it on one camera to test and see if it makes a difference