I recently stumbled across an open source linux program called Zoneminder for setting up a home/business CCTV security system. The link to the software website is http://www.zoneminder.com/ The software looks great and based on the activity in their forums it looks like it has a huge following.  It seems like this kind of integration would make sense for unraid, has anyone tried it?

 

The wiki page indicates that it works with slackware here is a link to the slackware installation instructions: http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Slackware

Can anyone point me in the right direction to try this?

 

Thanks,

Dan

 

I recently stumbled across an open source linux program called Zoneminder for setting up a home/business CCTV security system. The link to the software website is http://www.zoneminder.com/ The software looks great and based on the activity in their forums it looks like it has a huge following.  It seems like this kind of integration would make sense for unraid, has anyone tried it?

 

The wiki page indicates that it works with slackware here is a link to the slackware installation instructions: http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Slackware

Can anyone point me in the right direction to try this?

 

Thanks,

Dan

 

I've been trying to find pre-compiled packages for zoneminder that would work on the unRAID server... but I've not had a lot of luck so far in getting a pre-compiled ffmpeg program that has its required shared libraries in unRAID (or available somewhere for download)

 

I've compiled zoneminder on an old laptop, but not under slackware.  I'd love to get it running on the unRAID server, but I need to be careful.  It uses a lot of memory for "perl" mySQL, "ffmpeg," and "apache server" and I've only got 512 Meg installed. (Older RAM is too expensive to bother to upgrade, and older Intel MB does not support more than 1 Gig anyway)

 

Keep me informed how you do...  I'm planning on setting up a development Slackware machine, and eventually will just run it there, but so far I've not.

Be aware that unRAID does not have v4l drivers, so only "remote" (network based) cameras will be possible unless you re-compile the kernel.  That is not an issue here, as all my security cameras are network based.

 

Joe L.

Joe,

 

I just discovered zoneminder - so I have not used it.  I get the impression from your response that you have - how well does it work?

 

Dan

Joe,

 

I just discovered zoneminder - so I have not used it.  I get the impression from your response that you have - how well does it work?

 

Dan

From what I've read the newer 1.24 version is still a bit buggy and you need to use the most recent SVN version with all the patches to be successful...  The older 1.23 version is apparently much more stable.  The features are roughly equivalent, the 1.24 version is a complete re-write of the web-pages that manage it...  either will do for most people.  You'll have to browse through the zoneminder forum for more details as to their differences.  I've not used either very much so far.  They both use a lot of memory... and shared memory needs to be set up to allow large amounts to be allocated.

 

Joe L.

 

 

I would definitely be interested in this as well. I plan to install some cameras and use zoneminder as soon as the funds allow...

OK, there hasn't been any update here for some years but I'm still interested in Zoneminder for unRaid. There ist a solution by using VirtualBox but it seems a little bit strange to me running Ubuntu in a virtual machine within unRaid.

Is there any update or version out there?

I'm glad there was a post that brought this thread to the "new posts" list => this definitely looks intriguing.  Just looked at the ZoneMinder website and it definitely looks interesting/worth a try.

 

Joe - are you using this with a dedicated Linux box these days?  I really don't see using this with UnRAID (although it could probably be run on a VM for those using ESXi boxes with enough "horsepower").

 

 

OK, there hasn't been any update here for some years but I'm still interested in Zoneminder for unRaid. There ist a solution by using VirtualBox but it seems a little bit strange to me running Ubuntu in a virtual machine within unRaid.

Is there any update or version out there?

 

Not strange at all, it's actually far better/more secure than running it directly within unRAID. Most motherboards within the last 4 years will allow the use of a Virtual Machine, why not try it 

Agree ... as I noted I see no reason to run this on the UnRAID platform.

 

r.e. running it virtually => I presume that would require using network cameras, as I don't think VMs support dedicated video capture cards like some surveillance camera setups use [although I suppose these would work in ESXi with pass-through].

 

I have used zoneminder in the past just be aware that some of your drives on your unRAID server  if not all of them depending on how you have zoneminder setup will never spin down.  A camera monitoring system like zoneminder will constantly write to your hard drives...  I had mine set to 5 frames per sec unless it detected movement then it went to 30 fps.... that is at least 5 files being written every second to your array..  at least one drive will always be running.  If i was still running ZM I would probably have it on it's own box and have a script set to backup my saved camera files to my unraid every night...

 

 

just my 2 cents.

I have used zoneminder in the past just be aware that some of your drives on your unRAID server  if not all of them depending on how you have zoneminder setup will never spin down.  A camera monitoring system like zoneminder will constantly write to your hard drives...  I had mine set to 5 frames per sec unless it detected movement then it went to 30 fps.... that is at least 5 files being written every second to your array..  at least one drive will always be running.  If i was still running ZM I would probably have it on it's own box and have a script set to backup my saved camera files to my unraid every night...

 

 

just my 2 cents.

 

I simply save to the cache drive, then back it up to the array each night. That's what the cache drive is for 

Check this out.  virtual-machine-appliance

 

http://blog.waldrondigital.com/2012/09/23/zoneminder-virtual-machine-appliance-for-vmware-esxi-workstation-fusion/

I've compiled this (and ffmpeg with the required libraries) under unraid, but never been able to get a camera with the correct drivers to work with unraid (I've got some crappy chinese webcams)

 

I've unfortunately lost the binaries, but I have the patched source code I managed to compile. Can unraid run in a virtual machine so I can recompile it? I don't want to convert my production server to a dev environment for one package.