Hello, I help a local organization with their Blue Iris camera server and need some advice. The BI server works well with 18x cameras but many more will be added in the future. Today, I have all the cameras communicating on a unique VLAN network with a dedicated 1G NIC. I have a second 1G NIC dedicated for non-camera traffic. Recordings are viewed rarely and usually one user at a time.
The core switch has 2.5G capability. I also have a 2.5G NIC available for the BI server. If I were to add the 2.5G NIC, should I put it on the camera network or the main network? Neither 1Gb NIC is saturated today but they will get busier in the future.
Thank you!
-John
Network Design Question
Re: Network Design Question
I say replace the 1GB NIC with another 2.5GB NIC and make life easier 
If that isn't an option, then I guess it would take a lot of cameras to saturate a 1GB NIC.
If that isn't an option, then I guess it would take a lot of cameras to saturate a 1GB NIC.
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Re: Network Design Question
The bigger the better!
Name brand 10g NIC cards go for abut $90. Off-brans as low as $35.
Dual 10G Network cards are around $100+. Two extra10G networks in one card, for a total of 3! Just thinking of the possibilities gets my geekiness level going.
Name brand 10g NIC cards go for abut $90. Off-brans as low as $35.
Dual 10G Network cards are around $100+. Two extra10G networks in one card, for a total of 3! Just thinking of the possibilities gets my geekiness level going.
Re: Network Design Question
IMHO, this is a huge overkill and unnecessary expense. I have 15 cameras, most are 4K full / 2D or 1080p sub, streaming at 18-20 FPS, and the total bandwidth is 110 Mbps, measured. It means that a gigabit switch can support 142 cameras, as long as they are on Substream + Triggered. If all cameras are on main stream 24/7, that will change the bandwidth, but I suspect that the BI installation itself may need to run on a very powerful machine (my PC is not; but in my observations, BI does not multithread very well and does not take full advantage of multiple cores, as it starts to hiccup even though my CPU never reaches 100%; the I/O is at 90 Mbps to a SSD and also never reaches the full 400Mbps measured bandwidth).
I found that having all cameras and the BI PC on a separate PoE switch is better than having the aggregation switch manage it all on a VLAN (they are all still on a VLAN as far as the network is concerned to firewall them from calling home). Once I added a separate switch (a Cisco 2960, 24x100Mbit ports and 2 gigabit uplink ports), the traffic through my managed switch dropped, even though it has never been an issue. A nice side effect is that if, theoretically, the rest of the network goes down, the Cisco and the BI PC still work fine.
But sure, knowing that you have 20x the capacity you will ever need, is a cool feeling, if you can afford the cost
I found that having all cameras and the BI PC on a separate PoE switch is better than having the aggregation switch manage it all on a VLAN (they are all still on a VLAN as far as the network is concerned to firewall them from calling home). Once I added a separate switch (a Cisco 2960, 24x100Mbit ports and 2 gigabit uplink ports), the traffic through my managed switch dropped, even though it has never been an issue. A nice side effect is that if, theoretically, the rest of the network goes down, the Cisco and the BI PC still work fine.
But sure, knowing that you have 20x the capacity you will ever need, is a cool feeling, if you can afford the cost
Re: Network Design Question
Thank you for the comments everyone. Much appreciated.