RAM usage after HDD full

D

Daryl McLeod

n3wb
May 24, 2019
8
4
Alberta Canada
Hi folks, having an issue with one of my BI5 deployments. When the storage HDD isn’t full, everything is good but when it is at max allocation and is set to delete/overwrite files, the memory usage increases until full and system will eventually crash. I see really high disk utilization as well but only when overwriting.
Settings same as other deployments, single disk, single folder and set to delete. Using direct to disc recording and have 2 5MP, 2 8MP and 5 2MP. Can’t seem to figure out what is causing the issue. Latest BI version and compared settings to 3 other deployments which have been working just fine 24/7.

Disk writes normally when not full and set to 80% allocation. Have run disk tests using HDD sentinel and all is fine.

i7-6700, 8GB Ram. Uses around 10% CPU and roughly 1GB ram when operating normally, not using quick sync.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!
 
It certainly sounds like it is going beyond the allocated space and/or something else is taking up storage that it isn't showing. I had a similar instance and it was something to do with the drive holding space for system restore points or something like that. I made that drive zero for the restore point storage allocation and everything started working.
 
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maybe share your BI Status.

Screenshot 2022-06-18 002740.png
 
Have you checked/tested the hard disk, maybe when using up most of the allocation it’s hitting a bad sector on the disk. If it is then also check your Windows event logs as any retries should be logged there.
 
Thanks for the replies.

HDD appears fine when tested with HD Sentinel.
Decreasing storage allocation to around 85% seemed to delete/overwrite without hiccup. Have increased allocation back to ~90% and will see what happens when it fills up and starts to overwrite.
Odd situation just on this one machine, I though HDD failure was most likely as well. I have 3 other BI5 deployments all of which are 98-99% HDD allocation and have been running flawlessly since deployment. Also updated to the recent stable version of BI5 today, hopefully issue doesn't reappear. If so, will gather screenshots, error logs, event logs and post here.

Thanks again!
 
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provide the screen shot of the Blue Iris status clip storage as requested.

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My Standard allocation post.

1) Do not use time (limit clip age)to determine when BI video files are moved or deleted, only use space. Using time wastes disk space.
2) If New and stored are on the same disk drive do not used stored, set the stored size to zero, set the new folder to delete, not move. All it does is waste CPU time and increase the number of disk writes. You can leave the stored folder on the drive just do not use it.
3) Never allocate over 90% of the total disk drive to BI.
4) if using continuous recording on the BI camera settings, record tab, set the combine and cut video to 1 hour or 3 GB. Really big files are difficult to transfer.
5) it is recommend to NOT store video on an SSD (the C: drive).
6) Do not run the disk defragmenter on the video storage disk drives.
7) Do not run virus scanners on BI folders
8) an alternate way to allocate space on multiple drives is to assign different cameras to different drives, so there is no file movement between new and stored.
9) Never use an External USB drive for the NEW folder. Never use a network drive for the NEW folder.
10) for performance do not put more than about 10,000 files in a folder, the search and adding files will eat CPU and disk performance. Look at using a sub folder per camera (see &CAM in bi help)


Advanced storage:
If you are using a complete disk for large video file storage (BVR) continuous recording, I recommend formatting the disk, with a windows cluster size of 1024K (1 Megabyte). This is a increase from the 4K default. This will reduce the physical number of disk write, decrease the disk fragmentation, speed up access.
Hint:
On the Blue iris status (lighting bolt graph) clip storage tab, if there is any red on the bars you have a allocation problem. If there is no Green, you have no free space, this is bad.
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As said before post up your disk stats, this is from my system, the D: drive is a 6Tb drive and I leave around 20% free. My 8 cams are split across my 2 drives.

Remember the fuller the hard drive the more Windows will struggle which could account for the issues you are seeing.

IMG_9636.png
 
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And check what I mentioned in Post 4.

No real reason for a video HDD to have system restore points and that was "saving" storage that would not show up looking at the properties, so if that particular disc is 80% full and it is saving 20% for system restore points, it will not use that 20% for use in overwriting, thus being a potential reason for your issue.

An update or anything could have turned this on.

1655870069855.png
 
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Just realised I posted duff info re my disk setup

D: drive is setup with around 5% free, E: is setup with around 20% free. I used to run the D: drive with only 50Gb free but found access to the drive sluggish so doubled it to 106Gb.
 
I have the same problem, excessive ram usage to the point of sever system issues. Mine seems to nearly 100 instances of Python. I know that's what's used for Deepstack.

Harddrive isn't full when this is happening. No idea why it's doing it. It happens about 15min after rebooting.

Capture.PNG
 
Seemed to be Intel hardware decoding turned back on. I've disabled it on all cameras and it's back to normal. Was maxing 16GB of ram lol
 
What version of BI are you running? I have had a similar experience with anything newer than 5.5.7.11. Versions after that depreciated DeepStack and added SenseAI instead and that's when the number of python instances skyrocketed. I just sent an email to BI support regarding this and I'd suggest anyone experiencing it to do the same.
 
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Is there advantages?

I was very happy with Deepstack. Never any missed notifications and maybe only like 2% false triggers
 
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