New Server Build & Cameras

[eptesicus]

In this thread, I'll be asking for some advice on building a surveillance server, cameras, and a pair of switches. I already got advice on fiber to connect two buildings, here.

The goal is to connect fiber between two buildings, a house, and a garage that's 500 ft. away. The server, 16-24 port switch, and at least 6 cameras will be in the house. A switch and at least 3 cameras will be in the garage.

For the server, I'm looking at the following components:

CPU: i7 6700 3.4 GHz
Mobo: ASUS Z170M-E D3 1151 mATX
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1x 8GB
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
RAID: Used IBM M5015 (ebay)
HHDs: WD Purple 4x 4TB (RAID 5)
Chassis: Supermicro CSE-825TQ-563LPB 2U 560W

I'd like to do true server/workstation grade components, but I wanted to keep the cost down. I'm open to suggestions here. I'm also going between Milestone and Blue Iris for the surveillance software.


For the switches, I'm looking at the following switches.

HP 1920-24G-PoE+ JG925A for the house. I can't seem to find any 12-16 port switches with POE and SFP connectors. HP 1920-8G-PoE+ JG922A for the garage. I'll also need SFP transceivers for fiber to connect to the switches.


For the cameras, I'm looking at Hikvision DS-2CD2142FWD-IS-4MM, which are 4MP 4MM cameras. Avis were just too expensive. Is it true that Hikvision cameras can only record to small, 100 GB, partitions? If so, why is this, and is there a way to still retain 30 days worth of data on the RAID 5 array on 4x 4TB drives?

Again, if you all have any suggestions on this setup, I'm open to suggestions or any helpful information. I have no problem building PCs, but I've never worked with cameras or a server who's role is to run camera/surveillance software.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[ToddW2]

IF you're not against used server/enterprise grade gear then you can likely build one for the same or less.

 

[Deleted member 126051]

Yeah. Why are you going to throw a top of the line 6700 at a video server?

And if you're going 4 disk RAID, go RAID-10, not RAID-5. Better performance and better able to handle disk failures in the array.

 

[eptesicus]

IF you're not against used server/enterprise grade gear then you can likely build one for the same or less.

I had thought about this. Do you have any good resources to find said used gear?

Yeah. Why are you going to throw a top of the line 6700 at a video server?

And if you're going 4 disk RAID, go RAID-10, not RAID-5. Better performance and better able to handle disk failures in the array.

It was my understanding that the CPU needs to have plenty of power for encoding. Is this not the case?

I had thought about R10, but the performance of R5 with those cameras should be sufficient. If not, I can easily switch it to R10.

 

[Deleted member 126051]

It was my understanding that the CPU needs to have plenty of power for encoding. Is this not the case?

Depends on how many cameras you're using, and the resolution/quality settings you're using

I had thought about R10, but the performance of R5 with those cameras should be sufficient. If not, I can easily switch it to R10.

I wasn't thinking, primarily, about performance but about array durability and the stresses of rebuilding said array with the loss of a disk.

Plus there's the fact that the RAID-5 can lose a single disk from the array, where a RAID-10 can (conditionally) lose two.

 

[eptesicus]

Depends on how many cameras you're using, and the resolution/quality settings you're using

Minimum of 9 cameras, but maybe more. We'll use the highest quality settings, getting the max resolution, framerate, etc. Maybe only 1 or two cameras will be recording constantly, the rest will only record from being motion activated.

 

[Deleted member 126051]

I think you'd it'd be better to tune for all cameras active at the same time.

Because you don't want to tune performance for 2-4 and then bury the system if the other 4-5 go active.

Because, with most camera systems, if you outstrip the server, their only answer is "get another server".

 

[eptesicus]

I think you'd it'd be better to tune for all cameras active at the same time.

Because you don't want to tune performance for 2-4 and then bury the system if the other 4-5 go active.

Because, with most camera systems, if you outstrip the server, their only answer is "get another server".

Correct. That's the plan. Now, we'll still be able to watch all 9 cameras live, but if I were to record 9 cameras constantly, at high resolution, then that would equate to roughly 70TB of storage space to be used in 30 days. Setting it up to only have a couple cameras record constantly, and then the rest record when there's motion (should I really waste space recording nothing?), would be ideal... Me thinks.

Does anyone have advice on the chosen cameras or the software? I still can't get a confirmation on Hikvision's storage limits, whether it be within the Hikvision software, if that's what you choose to use, or using any software.