Linux on VMS

Mikentosh2017 said:
I think Linux will be more difficult to configure but Linux is supposed to be more robust. Fenderman has mentioned 2 of these but I'm wondering about the other 2.

Wavestore
exacqVision Professional
DW Spectrum® IPVMS
Nx Witness

What say you?
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linux is not anymore "robust" than windows...there are many top high end vms that run on windows only....
bluecherry runs on linux but does not have a mobile client....making it unusable for most folks...

fyi, nxwitness and dw are one and the same...dw is the north american reseller...the nice thing is that they offer FREE lifetime upgrades to all new versions...that is something no one else (that I know of) offers...
 
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I haven't used any of those to comment on the installation process, though it all depends how the devs packaged things up. One not mentioned in your list that I use, Bluecherry, is easy to install as it's all handled by a PPA on an Ubuntu machine. It's a one time thing to install, and as time progresses in the future it automatically updates itself as part of your regular system updates. Reason I bring this up is that's the typical behavior of PPAs, so if any of these provide a Linux installer for the VMS via PPA, then any updates they publish to the PPA will be obtained automatically the next time you run updates. If installer packages are provided in .deb format, then it behaves quite similarly to that of an .exe for Windows, as you obtain the installer and must run it to effectively upgrade that software (of course some have built-in update features, but I'm ignoring those as support for them varies from software to software).

I have not used exacqVision but I hear about it a lot. I seem to recall something about their licensing structure that can bite you if you don't opt in to semi consistent (annual?) costs. Might not be exacqVision but something tells me it was... I tried to get the download for exacqVision to confirm but it prompts me for a login, so I was never able to see if it routed me to PPA instructions or a downloadable .deb package.

Also, my understanding is DW Spectrum and Nx Witness are the same thing, but marketed under different names to different areas of the world. I emailed them a few months ago and they confirmed that. Digital Watchdog is evidently the name of it in North America while Nx Witness is the name everywhere else. The features list looks amazing, but for my 8 cameras I would have to spend 1,200 for licensing. I'll let you do the math. :)

Typically if you receive a package that is a compressed tarball with build scripts and make files inside, then yeah, it'll be more difficult as you'll have to compile the software to run. A lot of software in its young days start this way before maturing into the long-since-modern era of Linux, i.e. that of .deb packages, PPAs, etc., which are very much double-click-and-install.
 
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fenderman said:
@jasauders
DW licenses are only 70 dollars each...with FREE lifetime upgrades...
Camera Licenses | B&H Photo Video
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Good catch. Their response to me was from January and quite lengthy, and as I re-read the full message I notice that they emphasize heavily that not only does the name vary depending on your location, but the price heavily varies too. They specified that Nx Witness comes in at $150 per camera, and then go on to suggest that the cost may vary in different areas.

I wonder if that stands to reason that Nx Witness is somewhat "standardized" @ $150 everywhere else, while DW (within the US as that's the US branch of Nx Witness) can be considerably less. Total speculation on my part, but perhaps there's some degree of accuracy on that given their support flat out gave me that $150 price in the support email, but gave no price for DW and simply cited "it varies."
 
jasauders said:
Good catch. Their response to me was from January and quite lengthy, and as I re-read the full message I notice that they emphasize heavily that not only does the name vary depending on your location, but the price heavily varies too. They specified that Nx Witness comes in at $150 per camera, and then go on to suggest that the cost may vary in different areas.

I wonder if that stands to reason that Nx Witness is somewhat "standardized" @ $150 everywhere else, while DW (within the US as that's the US branch of Nx Witness) can be considerably less. Total speculation on my part, but perhaps there's some degree of accuracy on that given their support flat out gave me that $150 price in the support email, but gave no price for DW and simply cited "it varies."
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Not sure, but at 70 dollars with free upgrades, its actually the most competitive professional grade vms on the market...yes other big names offer 50 dollar licenses but they are very limited....
 
fenderman said:
Not sure, but at 70 dollars with free upgrades, its actually the most competitive professional grade vms on the market...yes other big names offer 50 dollar licenses but they are very limited....
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I hear you. At $150, I felt that was pretty salty. But just south of the $70 mark... that would bring it into view for me if I was after a professional grade kit for a larger environment. Not to mention that's 70 for life... some are nearly that per camera + per year. Youch...

P.S. - Something I haven't tinkered with much in the past was the web portal of Bluecherry. It just dawned on me that that's a thing. I just never use it with having a dedicated desktop app and forgot it was there. Works fine on mobile and in fact looks rather mobile-centric. Past video playback and all. :p I know it's not a native app but it does provide some niceties as the modern looking mobile UI of the page fits well. Figured I'd mention it.

But anyway, bit off topic. Mike - hope the mentions above of the dev packaging helped, as the ease of installation really begins and ends with how the devs build things up.
 
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fenderman said:
linux is not anymore "robust" than windows...
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Perhaps "robust" was not the correct word.

n0fx said:
There are much malware issues these days, you probably want to patch it asap and if the patch causes issues with VMS software, probably need to troubleshoot it or wait for VMS to fix/patch the issue.
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I guess I'm concerned with attacks to Windows 10, ex; viruses, malware and hacking, etc., that will require more attention.
 
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Mikentosh2017 said:
Perhaps "robust" was not the correct word.



I guess I'm concerned with attacks to Windows 10, ex viruses, malware and hacking, etc., that will require more attention.
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First windows 10 is just as secure as linux when used as a vms...you should not be surfing the web with this pc...second, its should be on a vpn, which wont allow any outside access...
 
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an i7-6700k is overkill for 4 cams....way overkill...but if you are only using 4 cams and prefer linux, then I would consider something like dw....wont be a big layout and you get tons of cool features....
 
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fenderman said:
an i7-6700k is overkill for 4 cams....way overkill...but if you are only using 4 cams and prefer linux, then I would consider something like dw....wont be a big layout and you get tons of cool features....
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Oh, no, no, no. My i7 Hackintosh with Dell's U3415W is the surfing machine. I plan on getting a Skylake i5, used PC MT for the VMS. I will spend more time reading about DW.
 
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fenderman said:
He obviously wants a better feature set than an nvr...as far as being secured, if exposed to the net standalone nvr is the worst...
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I'd agree there. Any OS that doesn't have a consistent flow of updates and patches is by default a bad choice if security is a concern (I don't consider a bi-monthly firmware upgrade to be a consistent roll of updates and patches either). It's the same reason all of these IoT devices are getting the negative rep that they deserve. Even as a huge Linux fan, Linux-based NVRs and most (not exactly all) IoT devices out there these days (which are almost entirely Linux based) still make me cringe a bit when putting security at the forefront of my mind. Just because it's Linux does not make it secure -- what makes an OS of any type secure is the maintenance throughout the passing days and weeks. That's a pretty defining factor.

It's important to emphasize something here. It's not to say NVRs are *bad*, you just have to understand what you are getting and come to terms with a realistic set of goals. An NVR can be fantastic for some people, but the security of the NVR comes into play with how you design the environment it's in. If it's closed off and you exclusively use VPN to access it from outside your network, that's a pretty decent compromise. If you poke holes in your firewall far and wide to make it easier to connect, well...... :P
 
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