Not understandable excessively high CPU usage

[zGuy]

Hello,

I have been running BI (registered, please note) for several months now. At some point, doing regular updates, CPU usage became very high. I have updated BI several times since hoping the problem would be solved. To no avail apparently.

During that same time, I also upgraded my cams, going from 3 low res analog cams to 9 HD analog cameras, 8 of them on a Lorex DVR + an IP based HD Foscam.

All the while, CPU usage has been thru the roof, 100% 24/7.

I perused the forum, saw many posts about this with suggestions to improve the performance. Applied most of these suggestions, even though some were disabling features I needed like overlay. Made sure I was using BI .bvr format with "direct to disk" with no re-encoding. Etc... Basically no results. Still 100% CPU usage.

So I started more basic troubleshooting and here are the results:

BI runs in a VM so I need to use RDP to connect to it. RPD uses less than 5% CPU on average with peaks to 10%. The CPU usage figures below includes RDP. BI is running as a service. And the CPU usages below includes also BI Admin running.

- All (9) cams enabled: CPU 100%
- 7 cams disabled, 2 cams up: CPU down to 95%
- all but 1 cam disabled: CPU down to 90%
- all cams disabled: CPU down to 55% to 60%
- BlueIris admin stopped: CPU down to 55% to 60%
- BlueIris service stopped: CPU idle 0 to 3%
- Restart BlueIris service: CPU back up to 50%
- BlueIsis admin restarted: CPU up to 55% to 65%
- Disabled the web server: No changes

I also use a home automation software called HomeSeer for which I have a BlueIris plugin that gives me cams status in the software. Even with that disabled, CPU usage does not change.

Can someone explain why, with no cameras enabled, no web server enabled or other CPU intensive features enabled, basically doing nothing in my book, BI is using 50% to 65% CPU????

Some info on what BI is running on. It's not like I'm running this on a cheap PC:

- Host is a Dell PowerEdge 2950 server, 2 CPUs, 4 cores Xeon x5460 3.2 GHz, 32 gigs RAM, 6 Cheetah 15K SAS 146Gigs 15000 RPM drives in RAID 5. It's running VMware vSphere 6. There are 4 VMs running on it, 3 of them tiny, not resources hungry. The only one that needs some power is the BlueIris one.

- BlueIris VM has 4 vCPUs (cores), 4 gigs RAM (40% used), 40 gigs HD space (75% used), running Windows 2012 R2 Standard server. BI is the ONLY software installed on top of the OS.

- BI current version: 4.6.1.2 x64

I've thrown the 8 cores available on the host to the VM and shut down all other (3) VMs. With cams enabled, no change on CPU usage, roofed to 100%.

I'm at a loss to figure out what's happening. With no cams enabled, this thing should be idling. I hope someone can offer some insight into this.

 

[fenderman]

Hello,

I have been running BI (registered, please note) for several months now. At some point, doing regular updates, CPU usage became very high. I have updated BI several times since hoping the problem would be solved. To no avail apparently.

During that same time, I also upgraded my cams, going from 3 low res analog cams to 9 HD analog cameras, 8 of them on a Lorex DVR + an IP based HD Foscam.

All the while, CPU usage has been thru the roof, 100% 24/7.

I perused the forum, saw many posts about this with suggestions to improve the performance. Applied most of these suggestions, even though some were disabling features I needed like overlay. Made sure I was using BI .bvr format with "direct to disk" with no re-encoding. Etc... Basically no results. Still 100% CPU usage.

So I started more basic troubleshooting and here are the results:

BI runs in a VM so I need to use RDP to connect to it. RPD uses less than 5% CPU on average with peaks to 10%. The CPU usage figures below includes RDP. BI is running as a service. And the CPU usages below includes also BI Admin running.

- All (9) cams enabled: CPU 100%
- 7 cams disabled, 2 cams up: CPU down to 95%
- all but 1 cam disabled: CPU down to 90%
- all cams disabled: CPU down to 55% to 60%
- BlueIris admin stopped: CPU down to 55% to 60%
- BlueIris service stopped: CPU idle 0 to 3%
- Restart BlueIris service: CPU back up to 50%
- BlueIsis admin restarted: CPU up to 55% to 65%
- Disabled the web server: No changes

I also use a home automation software called HomeSeer for which I have a BlueIris plugin that gives me cams status in the software. Even with that disabled, CPU usage does not change.

Can someone explain why, with no cameras enabled, no web server enabled or other CPU intensive features enabled, basically doing nothing in my book, BI is using 50% to 65% CPU????

Some info on what BI is running on. It's not like I'm running this on a cheap PC:

- Host is a Dell PowerEdge 2950 server, 2 CPUs, 4 cores Xeon x5460 3.2 GHz, 32 gigs RAM, 6 Cheetah 15K SAS 146Gigs 15000 RPM drives in RAID 5. It's running VMware vSphere 6. There are 4 VMs running on it, 3 of them tiny, not resources hungry. The only one that needs some power is the BlueIris one.

- BlueIris VM has 4 vCPUs (cores), 4 gigs RAM (40% used), 40 gigs HD space (75% used), running Windows 2012 R2 Standard server. BI is the ONLY software installed on top of the OS.

- BI current version: 4.6.1.2 x64

I've thrown the 8 cores available on the host to the VM and shut down all other (3) VMs. With cams enabled, no change on CPU usage, roofed to 100%.

I'm at a loss to figure out what's happening. With no cams enabled, this thing should be idling. I hope someone can offer some insight into this.

ensure you dont have any hidden cameras that are running...
bottom line is your system is an old powerhog...you are much better of with a more modern i5 that supports intel hd with quicksync, 3rd gen and above...150-300 dollars and it will pay for itself in energy savings...

 

[zGuy]

ensure you dont have any hidden cameras that are running...
bottom line is your system is an old powerhog...you are much better of with a more modern i5 that supports intel hd with quicksync, 3rd gen and above...150-300 dollars and it will pay for itself in energy savings...

There are no hidden cams.

Agreed the box is old. But with 0 cams, over 50% CPU usage is not normal nor acceptable, no matter the system you're using.

Also note that the same system was running BI with several cams with a (I would say normal) less than 10% CPU usage with 3 cams.

An update broke it at some point.

 

[fenderman]

There are no hidden cams.

Agreed the box is old. But with 0 cams, over 50% CPU usage is not normal nor acceptable, no matter the system you're using.

Also note that the same system was running BI with several cams with a (I would say normal) less than 10% CPU usage with 3 cams.

An update broke it at some point.

yes, that is not normal..its not blue iris (no one else has this problem)..its likely something else you have going on there...
a vms should be run on a bare metal clean machine...
The number of cams is irrelevant...its the resolution and frame rates that matter..

 

[zGuy]

yes, that is not normal..its not blue iris (no one else has this problem)..its likely something else you have going on there...
a vms should be run on a bare metal clean machine...
The number of cams is irrelevant...its the resolution and frame rates that matter..

I'm not sure I understand what you mean.
The resolution of the cams is 1920x1080. and I've set the frame rate at 15.
But with the cameras disabled, I don't see why it would matter.

 

[fenderman]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean.
The resolution of the cams is 1920x1080. and I've set the frame rate at 15.
But with the cameras disabled, I don't see why it would matter.

it shouldnt...there is something going on with your system...its not blue iris...it does not do this on a properly running system...
as far as numbers of camera, you initially stated you moved from sd to hd..big difference..

 

[looney2ns]

Fenderman will correct if I'm wrong, but I don't think direct to disc works in a VM.

If you are at 50%, with everything shut down, what does Task Manager show as using the cycles?

 

[zGuy]

Fenderman will correct if I'm wrong, but I don't think direct to disc works in a VM.

If you are at 50%, with everything shut down, what does Task Manager show as using the cycles?

I wasn't before, precisely because I'm running it on a VM. I changed it based on posts I saw here. Didn't make much of a difference.

With all cams and web service disabled, the BI services hovers 45 to 50% , BlueIrisService.exe is at 0 but the other BlueIris.exe process is taking it all. And the admin between 1 and 5% when running.

 

[fenderman]

I wasn't before, precisely because I'm running it on a VM. I changed it based on posts I saw here. Didn't make much of a difference.

With all cams and web service disabled, the BI services hovers 45 to 50% , BlueIrisService.exe is at 0 but the other BlueIris.exe process is taking it all. And the admin between 1 and 5% when running.

attach a monitor and see if you get that usage without rdp...there is something wrong with your install...wipe it and start clean.

 

[zGuy]

attach a monitor and see if you get that usage without rdp...there is something wrong with your install...wipe it and start clean.

Attaching a monitor on the VMware host only gives access to the host Linux based OS, not the VMs. But using the vSphere console viewer instead of RDP doesn't change the BI CPU usage.

Is running BI on a VM actually supported? What about using Hyper-V instead?

 

[fenderman]

Attaching a monitor on the VMware host only gives access to the host Linux based OS, not the VMs. But using the vSphere console viewer instead of RDP doesn't change the BI CPU usage.

Is running BI on a VM actually supported? What about using Hyper-V instead?

a vm should not need support...but the vm cannot use intel hd however you dont have that anyway...point is this is the wrong hardware...

 

[zGuy]

a vm should not need support...but the vm cannot use intel hd however you dont have that anyway...point is this is the wrong hardware...

What are the minimum requirements then, say, for up to 15 HD cams?

 

[looney2ns]

Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris | IP Cam Talk

 

[NoloC]

Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris | IP Cam Talk

Somehow I knew that was coming...

 

[looney2ns]

Somehow I knew that was coming...

, well if the Wiki fits....

 

[fenderman]

What are the minimum requirements then, say, for up to 15 HD cams?

HD is a vague term...