Zoneminder on NethServer

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On my list to test in the short term is:

  • Guacamole
  • Zabbix
  • Zammad
  • Wordpress

In the long term i plan to try getting it to work with:

  • Phpmyadmin
  • Zoneminder
  • Moodle

I’m happy to add Meshcentral and GLPI to the list and while I haven’t heard of Matomo before but i’m glad you mentioned it its a great piece of software by the looks of it.

I’m also happy to test against any other tools or webapps anyone would think would be useful obviously provided there is an option in them for SAML or other SSO implementations supported by LemonLDAP_NG.

As my profile mentions i’m home schooling my daughter for which my server is serving multiple purposes (not just multi-rolled :slightly_smiling_face:) first being to serve as the infrastructure for her learning environment and i’m using it to teach her skills for IT class as i believe its one of the most important subjects :smirk: but i’m biased.

Once i’ve had a play around with the settings ill post the steps to get them working

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thanks, its my first time to hear about this Zoneminder, by the looks of things, it looks pretty nice.

Does it mean that i can forego buying an NVR or DVR and just use Zoneminder, and my cameras should work very well? am still trying to understand how to use and setup, though i can see some of its use cases are great. action based triggeres on cctv, cool stuff

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in the process of checking out zoneminder, i also came accross https://medium.com/ozone-security/dont-replace-your-old-nvr-enhance-it-with-ozone-14ab2ebd007d

the software is currently not supported but opensource

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@oneitonitram

Hi Martin

I have used Zoneminder, running it on a Debian Container in Proxmox. It is great and well integrated. It also supports a very lot of cameras out of the box.

As to ozone, I know no one using an old NVR, so why should I use something that supports obsolete systems and concepts?

My 2 cents
Andy

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so @Andy_Wismer i can forego buying an NVR, and just use zoneminder with POE switches connected directly to the cameras?

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@oneitonitram

Hi Martin

We’re hijacking a post here… :frowning:

But yes, you can Zoneminder with POE and cameras.
I had 12 Full-HD Cameras (3 with PTR) pointing tto Zoneminder.

Worked very well, btw…

My 2 cents
Andy

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It was the original deciding factor I made the switch after loosing hope in Zentyal (which i was a user of since it was originally called eBox).

My setup is just some ip cameras hardwired with ethernet and passive poe adapters hocked up to a deep cycle battery works well on the old hpmini 5102 i have running it on.

The server acts as both the NVR and storage and along with some configuration to stop false positives and to flush the recordings after a week its pretty much maintenance free no other hardware needed ive got 5 cameras running

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I tend to agree mainly because Zoneminder works well its stable and along with supporting ONVIF among many other formats and most cameras

Id like to point out my needs dont require constant recording so in an environment whare you need 24hour constant recording my setup would not be ideal

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sorry for hijacking post, thanks @Shane_Treweek and if zoneminder is installed on Nethserver, you could kindly write a howto for the same,

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@oneitonitram

I would NOT install ZoneMinder on NethServer - Zoneminder can have high CPU usage depending on cameras, settings and all.

I’d suggest using a VM or CT (Linux Container). Debian 10 kinda works very well!
-> The install is fairly simple, and is already well documented online…

My 2 cents
Andy

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theres already a how to written userguide:zoneminder [NethServer Wiki]

as for

While I completely agree with the statement I have ran it on a multi role server but i only had about 5 users using the other software (i also had rudimentarily optimised it) its currently running fine on the hpmini.

I would like to mention while it works in my setup it may cause issues i haven’t come across in other setups.

I agree ive mainly used ubuntu in the past but i also use nethserver install to make it more consistent when for teaching my daughter about security configurations not sure she needs to know but im trying to teach her what i know.

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Another alternative to ZoneMinder is Shinobi (born to scratch some itches of a former ZoneMinder user), in case someone wants to try/compare.

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I played with Shinobi at one point, and it’s certainly prettier than Zoneminder, but the dev’s attitude was abrasive, to say the least.

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like the complaints he had some years back about ZM, from what I can recall.
Anyway, I cannot compare them myself as I have no use for (but have tried zoneminder over time and I probably gave a quick peek to shinobi on its early stages).

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Edit: I posted this, not for the sake of the instructions there, but because there’s some interaction with the dev in that thread. Draw your own conclusions.

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Yep, the usual debat.

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These are all very interesting. The NVR can be the one component preventing alot of. People from deploying CCTV as they are quite expensive in Africa for most small business

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@Andy_Wismer the reason why someone would install these tools on the same machine is because of management, ease of deployment and the machine itself. It wouldn’t make sense in my opinion to install a proxmox on a small machine that you only want to do a few things on it.

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@oneitonitram

Morning Martin

It all depends on the “load” produced. For 1-2 cameras, it’s neglishable, but increases fast. 8 HD cams take quite some CPU… Also a lot of IO when recording.

My 2 cents
Andy

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For this kind of setup I wouldn’t myself do with more than 5 cameras, especially with a small computer.