Good IP Camera storage calculator

[thomaswde]

What do you guys use for calculating storage capacity requirements?

I'm looking at storing the output of 60 cameras, H.264, 20fps, 7/24 recording, 60 days retention, 720p(1MP).

This is a storage capacity only situation, I'd love to be able to size it within 10TB of what's needed if at all possible. I know there are a lot of unknown variables here so I get it's not possible to nail it. Calculators I've found online have said anything from 22TB to 161TB. I'd rather get a little more precise than that... Tips?

 

[mat200]

What do you guys use for calculating storage capacity requirements?

I'm looking at storing the output of 60 cameras, H.264, 20fps, 7/24 recording, 60 days retention, 720p(1MP).

This is a storage capacity only situation, I'd love to be able to size it within 10TB of what's needed if at all possible. I know there are a lot of unknown variables here so I get it's not possible to nail it. Calculators I've found online have said anything from 22TB to 161TB. I'd rather get a little more precise than that... Tips?

Why not just look at the bandwidth specs on the camera and multiply to determine your needs?

Example Dahua Starlight Turret lists:
Bit Rate H.264: 24~9472Kbps H.265: 14~5632Kbps

example:
Using 9500Kps * 60seconds * 60minutes * 24hours * 60days * 60cameras = Max answer in K

 

[thomaswde]

Yeah, the challenge here is it's currently 46 heterogeneous cameras and the storage project is budgetary, so they can grow into it. They just gave us a baseline of the specs I included and want to size to that. I found Vivotek's camera planning tool, it's free and really powerful. Handled this issue with ease and gives me the privilege of providing a report with a camera brand on it so it doesn't look like I came up with it off the cuff. After I posted this they asked me to size it to MPEG4 instead of H.264 because, I guess they hate money, so then they really are gonna need hella capacity. Gonna toss them a proposal for a NetApp E-Series with 48 8TB drives for about 256 useable TiB. See if they can fill that up. Thanks Mat.