Monitor NVR Health... Behind VPN

[Barboots]

I found my NVR had died today. It's only by coincidence I have had a few reasons to review things over a shorter period than I probably would have otherwise. It could easily have gone unnoticed for weeks.

I've started thinking about monitoring the system somehow. I know there are online ping services to routinely check IP equipment and/or services are online, but I don't see them being able to monitor a system behind a VPN.

I'd rather not resort to checking manually. Any suggestions???

Cheers, Steve

 

[c hris527]

This is what i am currently doing



Not sure what kind of firewall you are using but you set up a rule to let your NVR to send you a alert every day at the same time and then close it back up. You did not say what kind of NVR either.

 

[Barboots]

I don't have the NVR up and running to check if it has a suitable option, however I get email event alerts out of the machine so the network side is in order. I'm not sure a daily check-in is enough comfort. Maybe I'll get one of them elves

It's a Dahua 4116HS-4KS2.

 

[c hris527]

I don't have the NVR up and running to check if it has a suitable option, however I get email event alerts out of the machine so the network side is in order. I'm not sure a daily check-in is enough comfort. Maybe I'll get one of them elves

It's a Dahua 4116HS-4KS2.

Sometimes as with NVR's and computers they go stupid on us and need to be rebooted, I have noticed non working cams and after a reboot everything comes back to life. I have my systems reboot once a week. The newer Dahua NVR's are a LOT more stable and without a lot of buggy issues in the firmware. That being said, let us know what happened.

 

[Barboots]

Chris a component close to the 12V power inlet has likely gone short circuit or low resistance. The NVR will not power up even with the HDD etc unplugged. When the external power brick is plugged into the NVR, the brick immediately goes into protection mode. I have tried two different power supplies, and confirmed that they both work on high-drain devices.

The NVR board is on its way for assessment. I suspect the inlet filtering cap.

Cheers, Steve

 

[c hris527]

Chris a component close to the 12V power inlet has likely gone short circuit or low resistance. The NVR will not power up even with the HDD etc unplugged. When the external power brick is plugged into the NVR, the brick immediately goes into protection mode. I have tried two different power supplies, and confirmed that they both work on high-drain devices.

The NVR board is on its way for assessment. I suspect the inlet filtering cap.

Cheers, Steve

Well Ok, how old was the NVR? I have roughly the same model here at the home but with no poe. Mine is 3 years old, can say it works just ok for what I need but can be a little buggy at times, especially with newer cams.

 

[Barboots]

It's an early failure... I think I got it around June. My NVR has no PoE either, I have a Dlink DGS-1100 24P powering the cams.

Aside from dying on me, I've found the little NVR to do all the things I want.

Cheers, Steve

 

[Sean Schearer]

Pinging the device is not always possible (behind a firewall). Also, maybe it responds to pings, but isn't recording or otherwise working.

I am starting a project that could help monitor the health of your NVR. It can login to your device (assuming it is internet accessible) and check for all kinds of parameters, including checking on individual camera status, hard drive status, and correct date/time. I plan on adding many more features, but that's where I'm at now. When my NVR Health Monitor detects a problem, it will trigger alerts. Right now I am notified about any problems, so I can notify you. Future plans are to have the system notify the customer directly about any problems.

Right now I'm in beta stage. It is working with a few manufacturers and SDKs, but not enough to make this publically available yet. Does this sound like something that is needed in the market? I'd love some beta testers to allow me to monitor their systems.

To address the problem of your NVR being behind a firewall or VPN, I have plans for a software application that would run onsite, behind the VPN or Firewall, to communicate directly with the NVR. Then it would send data out to my service to be analyzed. But this is farther down the road after main software is out of beta and it has dozens of manufacturers integrated.

 

[Cee Kay]

Pinging the device is not always possible (behind a firewall). Also, maybe it responds to pings, but isn't recording or otherwise working.

I am starting a project that could help monitor the health of your NVR. It can login to your device (assuming it is internet accessible) and check for all kinds of parameters, including checking on individual camera status, hard drive status, and correct date/time. I plan on adding many more features, but that's where I'm at now. When my NVR Health Monitor detects a problem, it will trigger alerts. Right now I am notified about any problems, so I can notify you. Future plans are to have the system notify the customer directly about any problems.

Right now I'm in beta stage. It is working with a few manufacturers and SDKs, but not enough to make this publically available yet. Does this sound like something that is needed in the market? I'd love some beta testers to allow me to monitor their systems.

To address the problem of your NVR being behind a firewall or VPN, I have plans for a software application that would run onsite, behind the VPN or Firewall, to communicate directly with the NVR. Then it would send data out to my service to be analyzed. But this is farther down the road after main software is out of beta and it has dozens of manufacturers integrated.

Hi Sean, I'm new to this board. I want to know how your software is going? I am very interested in it.
Contact me.
Chris

 

[CheckMyCCTV]

Our CheckMyCCTV solution is used to monitor the Health, Status, and Operation of remote CCTV systems using an IP connection, or if behind a firewall, we have an some software called CheckMyCCTV Connector, which sits on the local network and sends the results out.
You can get more info at www.checkmycctv.com

@Cee Kay I notice you're from Canada, our North American partner is IPX360 Solutions based out of Montreal. Leading Edge Communication and Video Security Product Solutions

Darren