UPS for use with Blue Iris system

concord

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If you look around or know someone who works in an office building with access to "old" equipment you can get some pretty expensive UPS units for dirt cheap. I know of one company that purchases all of their UPS units new and then when battery replacement is due in three or four years they yank the whole unit and replace it with a new one. They're practically new but they dump them for about 1/4 of the original price. Toss in $60 worth of batteries and you're good to go.
That's what I do at work and home, with our Triplite UPSes for workstations. 180.00 for a new one vs 75 for the batteries.
 

looney2ns

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jmhmcse

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Oh it is making some noise...LOL...not as bad as i have ever heard but bad enough to know there is something unhappy in there.....sigh

It was old.....so it is what it is ....I just wish I had thought to backup to another drive like y'all are saying. I had planned to......"when I got a round tuit".
Be careful for what you ask for.... here's a round-tuit for you.

No more excuses.

;)
 

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moparcruiser

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I'll assume the "worst" here but...

Seeing as it was the system drive that fired and wiped everything out.....assume that the db that referenced the almost 4 TB of files in my "new" and "stored" folders are inaccessible to the new install?

In the new install I have the db folder set up on the same drive as "new" and "stored".....on the original install I believe the DB was on the second partition of the system drive.....cause there is not sign of it on F now.

I guess I can just delete all of the old stored footage.....
 

wittaj

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If all the video files are there, the DB will rebuild itself.

Many of us have deleted the DB folder in order to fix something or clean it up.
 

moparcruiser

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Thanks....I realized I also renamed my cameras different than originally....and really there was nothing in the footage needed....so I just cleared out all the video and jpgs prior to the rebuild going back online. Why worry.

The DB had not repaired itself yet and I figured may as well start fresh.

I did save off the reg settings and put them in a couple safe places. ;)
 

wittaj

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OK, yeah if they are not the same names, then nothing to rebuild LOL. Well alert images will still come in, you just cannot see them LOL.
 

moparcruiser

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Soooooooooooooooooooooooo........................

Went to bed right after I posted my last post......all was well.....

Woke up this morning and the PC was hung at the "choose boot device" CMOS screen.

Aaaaaaaand......my brand new SSD system drive was not on that list.

W. T. H.

Powered down manually, powered up and all is fine.

NO IDEA as to why the SSD didint appear.....

The BI log says the unexpected shutdown happened around 1:10am

Can I have a bad SSD? Its a brand new 1 TB Samsung 870 Evo

Brief power outage/brown out last night? I have no evidence of that.....there has been rain in the area, but I heard no thunder etc last night....not enough to wake me at least.

Power supply going bad? It's newish. Corsair CX750M

MOBO starting to get flaky? Dunno.....its an MSI and I have had great experiences with MSI.....thats all I will run......its older, but......

I have that backup platter drive coming...wont be here for a couple days.....hoping nothing else happens before I can backup the system at least.

Computers are fun. <sic>
 

Teken

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Soooooooooooooooooooooooo........................

Went to bed right after I posted my last post......all was well.....

Woke up this morning and the PC was hung at the "choose boot device" CMOS screen.

Aaaaaaaand......my brand new SSD system drive was not on that list.

W. T. H.

Powered down manually, powered up and all is fine.

NO IDEA as to why the SSD didint appear.....

The BI log says the unexpected shutdown happened around 1:10am

Can I have a bad SSD? Its a brand new 1 TB Samsung 870 Evo

Brief power outage/brown out last night? I have no evidence of that.....there has been rain in the area, but I heard no thunder etc last night....not enough to wake me at least.

Power supply going bad? It's newish. Corsair CX750M

MOBO starting to get flaky? Dunno.....its an MSI and I have had great experiences with MSI.....thats all I will run......its older, but......

I have that backup platter drive coming...wont be here for a couple days.....hoping nothing else happens before I can backup the system at least.

Computers are fun.
Whelps, I certainly wouldn’t be short cycling that box until you figure out the root cause! It would never recover and everyone would think that was the cause!

Regardless, this again highlights the importance of stress testing, validation, and on going follow up to all key network appliances.

If a UPS was in place you could have at least ruled out a power blip whether it be a voltage surge / sag.

Generally speaking any MOBO / PSU older than five years old that was tasked for 24.7.365 operations must be suspect and checked / replaced.
 

moparcruiser

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Whelps, I certainly wouldn’t be short cycling that box until you figure out the root cause! It would never recover and everyone would think that was the cause!

Regardless, this again highlights the importance of stress testing, validation, and on going follow up to all key network appliances.

If a UPS was in place you could have at least ruled out a power blip whether it be a voltage surge / sag.

Generally speaking any MOBO / PSU older than five years old that was tasked for 24.7.365 operations must be suspect and checked / replaced.
Yeah I agree.

And at work, this is my exact tact.

But this is a home system so I am trying to be frugal since I do not have a deep budget. ;)

A UPS is on my radar, just have to decide which one I can get under $250 and order it.

I have a backup drive coming so I can clone etc.....

A new MOBO means a whole new plane of effort and expense.......gonna try the UPS route and watch and see I think.

I have run MSI MOBOs for EVER and they are reliable as all get out. Admitdely not on a 24/7 scenario.....just video editing and office use....

So I get it. Doing my best on a budget.
 

moparcruiser

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Ok -- well I ordered the backup platter drive and the UPS......

The platter drive came today.....brand new in a sealed static bag

I have bought a ton of HDDs over the years......ALWAYS shipped in a box with copious bubblewrap if not the factory packaging.

But this one was sent in one of those bubblewrap envelopes, inside a Fedex envelope...

Should I worry for long term reliability? Or if it powers up and formats etc it will be fine?

And before the "thats what you get for $15 comments" start (cause that is what is in my head right now).....I know I know....LOL


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looney2ns

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Ok -- well I ordered the backup platter drive and the UPS......

The platter drive came today.....brand new in a sealed static bag

I have bought a ton of HDDs over the years......ALWAYS shipped in a box with copious bubblewrap if not the factory packaging.

But this one was sent in one of those bubblewrap envelopes, inside a Fedex envelope...

Should I worry for long term reliability? Or if it powers up and formats etc it will be fine?

And before the "thats what you get for $15 comments" start (cause that is what is in my head right now).....I know I know....LOL


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I wouldn't hold my breath, but all you can do is try it, and test it thoroughly with the manufacturers software.
 

Teken

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I don't recall if this HDD was purchased new from a authorized seller and if so would quickly check the serial number to see if its still in warranty. If not whelps it is what it is for $15.XX so really not a huge loss. Regardless, if its still listed as In Warranty you have that to fall back on for sure! :thumb:
 

moparcruiser

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Figured it's only $15. Seller offered a free return but I am trying to get this going....so I stuck her in the box and it seems to work. It's a wd....I can't seem to locate any platter drive utilities on their site...just ssd.

For now windows says it is healthy.

I loaded the free version on macro is and once I figured it out made a clone of my c drive and all of the partitions except the big empty one to it.

Disconnected my ssd main drive and booted from the new cheap platter drive.

It boots up.... eventually.

Sloooooooooooooooooooooow.

As in several minutes slow.

With the ssd drive booting, the thing flies.......BI runs.

With the ssd I had the alerts going to the big empty partition on my main drive. So BI is looking for that....

Guess I just tweak that location.....?

When I installed bi on the new drive it automatically best up folders on it....but I changed to use the big skyhawk drive for everything but alerts.

Looks like all is running....I can still see all the footage that was recorded with the other boot drive.

So I guess it's a success?

Ram and cpu are looking normal so the slow drive must not affect BI.

I guess I'll let this run a bit tonight just to be sure it's stable then swap back to the SSD.

I have seen two cameras of the three lose signal in BI....one is on the power line, but the other is direct to the switch.....seen a couple flickers on the second one as well....

Any chance a slow main drive can cause that?
 
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moparcruiser

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If all the video files are there, the DB will rebuild itself.

Many of us have deleted the DB folder in order to fix something or clean it up.
So I dont have to worry about where the DB file lives?

I ran that platter drive since yesterday and all seemed fine.....switched back to the SSD and since I had teh DB running on C, I am now missing sine the swap yesterday...that will rebuild itself??? Do I have to do anything? Doesnt seem like its rebuilding it yet.......How long does it take and does it show incremental progress during the rebuild or does it just come back all at once?

The platter drive ran fine......so I guess I'll keep it.

Macronis worked great and easy....it was the free version which I guess runs out in a month.

Right now the backup drive is not running.....I pulled the plugs and just have it in the box.....I figure that should be fine....I dont plan on running it 24x7 so as to do backups.....I figure that I will backup after when I do any sort of major changes and once I am sure they work.........cause what is on that platter now works fine......

UPS is on its way...... woohoo!
 

wittaj

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I would keep the DB folder on the same drive that the BI program is on.

Depends on how many clips and files you have - if it was starting new it would be minutes, if you have 200,000 clips it could be hours.

Best bet would be to stop the service and delete the DB folder and reopen BI so that it rebuilds itself.

You can tell it is rebuilding on the left of the BI screen it will not show any clips and will show a % complete as it is rebuilding.
 

moparcruiser

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I would keep the DB folder on the same drive that the BI program is on.

Depends on how many clips and files you have - if it was starting new it would be minutes, if you have 200,000 clips it could be hours.

Best bet would be to stop the service and delete the DB folder and reopen BI so that it rebuilds itself.

You can tell it is rebuilding on the left of the BI screen it will not show any clips and will show a % complete as it is rebuilding.
I saw no progress bar etc as far as rebuilding even after several hours.....and still the black section on my timeline when I was running the backup system drive.....

I changed the time for the auto rebuild so as to start one immediately and it did it per the log..... completed...but still the holes.

So I closed bi, renamed the old DB folder to old db and moved it to inside another new folder named old so I could bring it back if I wanted.....then restarted bi.....

All the clips are gone on the left except the three new ones one for each camera after restart.... but I see nothing as far as a progress bar to indicate any rebuilding bis happening.....what did I do wrong?
 

wittaj

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The one drawback when the DB rebuilds is you lose the prior alert clips, but the BVR file is still there and has the motion saved there for your previous clips. It will start with new alert clips after the DB is rebuilt.

So the question is can you see the older BVR files and about how many days of video did you have or was it all new again and you didn't have anything from say last week?

It sounds like you did it correctly and you must not have had many files and it rebuilt it quickly.
 
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moparcruiser

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The one drawback when the DB rebuilds is you lose the alert clips, but the BVR file is still there and has the motion saved there for your previous clips. It will start with new alert clips after the DB is rebuilt.

So the question is can you see the older BVR files and about how many days of video did you have or was it all new again and you didn't have anything from say last week?
So I went in and did a manual repair/generate (right click on clips window) and just like you said, alerts are gone......but the footage goes back to 5/4 which is when I wiped the Skyhawk clean to rebuild the new system drive.

Not sure why the automatic repair that ran 20 minutes ago didn't do the same thing.....?

Losing the alerts this time wasn't a bad thing I guess.....a gazillion alerts of me cutting the grass.....lol. and I have it set to email me alerts with images so I have already reviewed those....
 

wittaj

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There is a compact/repair and repair/regenerate.

In any event I think you are working now!
 
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