New Install with 5 Cams on X5670 under 30% load

[Sam71]

Hi all,

I am posting this as I am feeling I have not configured something correctly.

I have just setup BI (running as a Service) with 5 Reolink RLC-522 5MP cameras running on a Wiindows 10 PC (running as a server) with a Xeon X5670 (old I know), 12GB ram, SSD and multiple HDDs. This is our main home server running Plex and a pFsense VM

Cams running @ 2560x1920 20FPS Continuous recording (Direct to Disc) No Nvidia decoding at this point however I have a GTX 1050 TI spare which I may install.

With all cams running the system stays pretty much under 30% cpu load, this drops to around 20% or under for a good part of time.

From my research prior to setting up I was expecting that the system would be running flat out. I am not installing all of the cams until the world gets back to a bit more normality and I can get someone in to run some more cable for me. I was prepared to re purpose some of the other PCs I have here or even buy something.

So my question is have I missed something or is my system actually going to be ok? If it is ok I may even up the FPS even though it is probably overkill.

[Matts1984]

That does seem pretty good and I believe it... always nice to have happy surprises. Can you share your Blue Iris Status > Cameras tab (including the totals at the bottom). That really I'd say has the most information in one spot to determine if anything is wrong OR if you done good.

I'd be willing to bet there are actually some optimizations that you could do to get it even better. Every bit you lower it the cooler your system will run and the less electricity. Its obviously your system but I wouldn't suggest bumping the FPS any. TBH anything above 24 FPS is barely (if at all) noticeable to the human eye - which is why most movies are shot at that rate. Yes video games can go MUCH higher, 60 or 90+, but unless you're recording a live action battle royale with your cameras - I think you're fine. Your CPU is running great but if anything I'd actually suggest, just for the sake of trying, reducing it to 15 and see how much that impacts the CPU and if the reduction in frames is that significant to you (I run at 10fps and it's fine... I mean it's security camera footage but its quite reasonable).

I've read enough (not tested personally) of growing pains when trying to do Nvidia decoding and how there tends to be a higher risk of drawbacks/stability issues/etc than it's worth. If you have it I totally get the desire to give it a shot. I'd be more than happy to take the card off your hands for you though


On a separate note, how do you like pfSense? What made you chose that vs another? Do you have it as a VM on your Windows Host... and then in turn the pfSense VM is the default gateway for your network? Sorry - this is waaay off topic.

[Sam71]

That does seem pretty good and I believe it... always nice to have happy surprises. Can you share your Blue Iris Status > Cameras tab (including the totals at the bottom). That really I'd say has the most information in one spot to determine if anything is wrong OR if you done good.

I'd be willing to bet there are actually some optimizations that you could do to get it even better. Every bit you lower it the cooler your system will run and the less electricity. Its obviously your system but I wouldn't suggest bumping the FPS any. TBH anything above 24 FPS is barely (if at all) noticeable to the human eye - which is why most movies are shot at that rate. Yes video games can go MUCH higher, 60 or 90+, but unless you're recording a live action battle royale with your cameras - I think you're fine. Your CPU is running great but if anything I'd actually suggest, just for the sake of trying, reducing it to 15 and see how much that impacts the CPU and if the reduction in frames is that significant to you (I run at 10fps and it's fine... I mean it's security camera footage but its quite reasonable).

I've read enough (not tested personally) of growing pains when trying to do Nvidia decoding and how there tends to be a higher risk of drawbacks/stability issues/etc than it's worth. If you have it I totally get the desire to give it a shot. I'd be more than happy to take the card off your hands for you though


On a separate note, how do you like pfSense? What made you chose that vs another? Do you have it as a VM on your Windows Host... and then in turn the pfSense VM is the default gateway for your network? Sorry - this is waaay off topic.

Thank Matts

4 Cams are running at 750 - 790 kB/s and one is at 300 - 340 (might be just where I have it testing)
Totals (approx) 3400 kB/s - 490 MP/s

I will reduce the FPS tomorrow as it is late here!

Yeah I know gaming is a different beast... I play COD @ 120FPS/1440P and that's not fast enough, limited to my Oled though

My Son's PC has the 1050 TI as I chucked it in after his GTX 970 packed it in, my other rig has another 970 which will go into my son's PC, freeing up the 1050

I have been running pfSense for years and I find it good. Ran IPcop prior to that. I had pfSense running on it's own PC and then decided to run it as a VM (hyper-v) on the system I call the server even though it'e win 10 pro to eliminate one PC running in the cupboard. It has it's drawbacks as I can't reboot without losing our internet connection. I am looking into whether I put it back to it's own PC again. Depending on what it it allowing through to how much resources it requires. And yes it is the default gateway!

I was thinking of creating a separate network for the cams as they are hooked to their own POE switch. I was just going to use the spare NIC in the server on a different sub net rather than trying to muck around with pfSense doing it with VLANS etc. I still want to be able to use the BI client on the other PCs. The cams won't have a default gateway. Not sure if this is a correct way to do it, but what is these days.....

[louyo]

FWIIW: we are running on an old Optiplex, with I7-3770. 11 cameras, recording full time, direct to disk, with motion sensing on all cameras for alerts. All cameras set to 1080, 15 FPS. While viewing via the Web Server (2 to 3 people logged in), the CPU runs between 25-30%. Rarely connect to the BI GUI itself. Only connect via SSL-VPN.

[Sam71]

FWIIW: we are running on an old Optiplex, with I7-3770. 11 cameras, recording full time, direct to disk, with motion sensing on all cameras for alerts. All cameras set to 1080, 15 FPS. While viewing via the Web Server (2 to 3 people logged in), the CPU runs between 25-30%. Rarely connect to the BI GUI itself. Only connect via SSL-VPN.

My backup plan was to use an i7 3770 or 3770K OCed (would have to build a new PC for son though). The thought of setting the server up again is too much though....

[Sam71]

Update:

I have installed the 1050 TI into the server and set up the cams to use it. I also upped the FPS to 25 just to try.

The CPU usage for BI is under 30% (system is just over 30%) with it just running as a service and recording only.

When using the web client and viewing recorded vid it goes up to around 50% (system)

[Matts1984]

Sounds pretty good. Are you using substreams by any chance? Glad the addition of the card seems to be working for you. My BI server is a VMware vm running in an older rack mount ProLiant chassis so I'm not sure that I could add one myself (certainly don't have the GPU power connectors as standard).

Interesting setup for the firewall. I get the hardware reduction but yeah you run into the power cycle/reboot issue. Hopefully not too often though. I've tried a lot of different products and have always come back to using Sophos UTM Home edition which is a free license. Probably been on it for almost 10 years (though formerly known as Astaro). The only real restriction is that it's limited to 50 IPs behind it and I recently ended up deploying a second firewall behind it to bury (or Hide NAT) all my IoT devices and not impact my license. We could probably compare notes all day but anyway, yes I'd recommend a dedicated subnet for the cameras and then give your BI server a second NIC on that network (otherwise you'll be filtering a LOT of unnecessary traffic on a very continuous stream).

[Sam71]

No I am not using sub streams! I got advised to use them by BI support but if my system can handle it I am not going down that path... I will put an X5690 or W in first or even upgrade before I do that.

I tried Sophos UTM ages ago and didn't like it!

My preference would be to use a proper server however they are just too load for my situation. I have been in and out of IT for over 25yrs but I am still learning!

[Matts1984]

Fair enough. I didn't use them at first (sub streams) but to the best of my knowledge there is no downside to using them other than a slight up-tick in network load. With gigabit networks - and cameras are generally only 100Mb... it's still FAR under any actual limitations. Recordings still use your normal high quality stream - BI just uses the low quality stream when you're not viewing videos and to do motion detection since it really doesn't need it.

To each their own though, if you're happy - we're happy...... actually I'm fairly happy either way - but this is good.

[Sam71]

Fair enough. I didn't use them at first (sub streams) but to the best of my knowledge there is no downside to using them other than a slight up-tick in network load. With gigabit networks - and cameras are generally only 100Mb... it's still FAR under any actual limitations. Recordings still use your normal high quality stream - BI just uses the low quality stream when you're not viewing videos and to do motion detection since it really doesn't need it.

To each their own though, if you're happy - we're happy...... actually I'm fairly happy either way - but this is good.

I am still waiting for some gear to turn up so I can get at least two of the cams set up. We are in lock down so everything is taking ages to ship.

I have turned BI off for the time being as where I have the cameras is on a poe switch which is attached to the switch that my son's and my gaming rigs run off, 5 cameras and two PC's gaming all going from that switch to my main switch via an old cat 5e cable. it didn't seem to lag but then again I don't like dying when gaming either lol.

Once I can get BI running with the cameras running on their own dedicated network i will start stuffing around. My partner is a teacher and she is doing her teaching from home atm so I can't even go into the room where my server is during the day.