I have an older file server (I'll refer to it as FSPC) that I still use, I just don't have it up and running all the time. It used to be my VMS. I now use an Intel NUC i5 for my VMS and it works great; however, I am entertaining the idea of going back to using FSPC full time as my VMS. The reason is because the NUC seems to choke a bit when I'm trying to search through recorded video. The timeline takes a while to catch up and doesn't appear to fully update all motion events (red indicators on timeline). It's not the end of the world, but searching through recorded video was just smoother when I used my FSPC.
However, while the FSPC is faster at sifting through recorded video than the NUC, it constantly gets strange visual artifacts in the video. See the following two pictures:
The first image is the FSPC. The second is the NUC. They were taken at the same exact time. From my main desktop computer, I had two Smart Clients open simultaneously - one Smart Client was connected to my FSPC VMS and the other Smart Client was connected to my NUC VMS. These two images were taken from a single screenshot of my desktop at the moment the artifacts appeared. Watching the two Smart Client windows open at the same time, the FSPC gets these artifacts while the NUC does not. This issue has always happened on my FSPC VMS - sometimes more than others, but it's typically an ongoing thing. I purchased the NUC to use as a VMS due to the low power consumption but I felt that the FSPC, along with much more storage space, had better over all performance... except for the artifacts.
The following two pictures show the resources of each computer. They're roughly identical. First image is FSPC, second is NUC. I don't see any resource issues. My FSPC VMS has no other workload at this time. I normally just use it to store media and movies, which was more convenient when it was on 24/7. That's another reason I'm considering using it as my VMS.
The FSPC is an AMD Phenom X4 920, 8GB RAM, storage disk is a 4-HDD RAID 5 array, along with a couple other HDDs for additional storage. Issue appears no matter which drive(s) I use for recording.
The NUC is the i5, 8GB RAM, 2TB Seagate HDD.
Both VMS setups have two NICs: one on my main LAN (192.168.1.x) and the other NIC on the camera LAN (192.168.2.x). All NICs are 1Gb connections. All IPv4. IPv6 is disabled on all.
For what it's worth, my main desktop is a z77 chipset i7 3770K, 32GB RAM... but that shouldn't matter for this issue. I've noticed the same artifacts when using a Smart Client on another computer while connected to the FSPC VMS.
Other thoughts:
- The FSPC VMS had this issue when it was 2 cameras and the issue is unchanged with 6 cameras.
- Both the FSPC and NUC VMSs are connected to both LANs the same way.
- Both VMSs have the same XProtect Go setups and version.
- I tried swapping the NICs in the FSPC VMS to see if it was related to a certain NIC. No change.
- Artifacts appear on FSPC on all cameras at random times. They stay on the screen from a fraction of a second to a couple seconds.
Has anyone else experienced these kinds of artifacts? I'm at a loss. At this point, I'm going to keep using my NUC as a VMS.
However, while the FSPC is faster at sifting through recorded video than the NUC, it constantly gets strange visual artifacts in the video. See the following two pictures:
The first image is the FSPC. The second is the NUC. They were taken at the same exact time. From my main desktop computer, I had two Smart Clients open simultaneously - one Smart Client was connected to my FSPC VMS and the other Smart Client was connected to my NUC VMS. These two images were taken from a single screenshot of my desktop at the moment the artifacts appeared. Watching the two Smart Client windows open at the same time, the FSPC gets these artifacts while the NUC does not. This issue has always happened on my FSPC VMS - sometimes more than others, but it's typically an ongoing thing. I purchased the NUC to use as a VMS due to the low power consumption but I felt that the FSPC, along with much more storage space, had better over all performance... except for the artifacts.
The following two pictures show the resources of each computer. They're roughly identical. First image is FSPC, second is NUC. I don't see any resource issues. My FSPC VMS has no other workload at this time. I normally just use it to store media and movies, which was more convenient when it was on 24/7. That's another reason I'm considering using it as my VMS.
The FSPC is an AMD Phenom X4 920, 8GB RAM, storage disk is a 4-HDD RAID 5 array, along with a couple other HDDs for additional storage. Issue appears no matter which drive(s) I use for recording.
The NUC is the i5, 8GB RAM, 2TB Seagate HDD.
Both VMS setups have two NICs: one on my main LAN (192.168.1.x) and the other NIC on the camera LAN (192.168.2.x). All NICs are 1Gb connections. All IPv4. IPv6 is disabled on all.
For what it's worth, my main desktop is a z77 chipset i7 3770K, 32GB RAM... but that shouldn't matter for this issue. I've noticed the same artifacts when using a Smart Client on another computer while connected to the FSPC VMS.
Other thoughts:
- The FSPC VMS had this issue when it was 2 cameras and the issue is unchanged with 6 cameras.
- Both the FSPC and NUC VMSs are connected to both LANs the same way.
- Both VMSs have the same XProtect Go setups and version.
- I tried swapping the NICs in the FSPC VMS to see if it was related to a certain NIC. No change.
- Artifacts appear on FSPC on all cameras at random times. They stay on the screen from a fraction of a second to a couple seconds.
Has anyone else experienced these kinds of artifacts? I'm at a loss. At this point, I'm going to keep using my NUC as a VMS.
