Recommendations for storing security footage

[GiantZack]

I am attempting to build a system to have 46 NVRs send backup footage to a NAS server located at our main office. Each NVR is going to have 4 1080p cameras attached to it. I am a bit of a beginner when it comes to a NAS and having that large amount of data streaming to it remotely. I am not sure as to how powerful of a processor and RAM I will need to sufficiently process this amount of footage. The system will most likely need 48TB or 64TB of storage.

 

[Johnny Fartpants]

Things to think about first are how the NVRs are connected to the network i.e 1Gb LAN? What sharing protocol are you going to be using or better still do the NVRs support i.e SMB, NFS etc. What speed can one of the NVRs write at i.e. can they saturate a 1Gb link or not? On this network I assume its all local but do you have 10Gb switches to plug your NAS into or is it only 1Gb?

Answer those questions first and then we can start thinking about CPUs, RAM and pool layouts.

 

[GiantZack]

The NVRs are going into stores located across the US, and will be sending information via FTP to the FreeNAS server. Then we will be viewing the footage from the NAS locally at our main office via 1 or 2 computers almost constantly as well as possibly having a couple of more people viewing them sporadically.

 

[Johnny Fartpants]

Ah, ok . Good luck with that .

I would be less concerned with CPU and RAM at this stage and more concerned about Security and Network throughput.

 

[Chris Moore]

I am not sure as to how powerful of a processor and RAM I will need to sufficiently process this amount of footage.

FreeNAS would not be 'processing' the video as video, it would only be storing it as a file, unless you are intending to setup Plex and use FreeNAS to stream the video to "Smart TVs"... The problem is that video files can be huge.

The NVRs are going into stores located across the US

Forty-six stores with four cameras each (184 cameras) all at 1080p. Have you done the math to figure out how much data you will be moving on a daily basis? Getting the data from the stores to your server, what Johnny said about network capacity is spot on, that is going to be the biggest problem I see.

That and securing FTP so you don't get hacked. You will likely need to setup a VPN between each store and the central office so you can send the video back over an encrypted tunnel so it isn't exposed to the open internet.

 

[Chris Moore]

I did some google searching and it depends on the quality of the video, but that number of cameras could be sending you around 13 TB of video daily. Will your network support that amount of traffic? Is this something you were doing or a new idea from management?

 

[GiantZack]

There are 46 stores, so one NVR per store, that will handle all the processing of the video and encoding it in H.265. About 6Tb of footage would be sent to the server as a backup per 24hr. I do not know if that footage is going to be uploaded as it's recorded on the NVR or if it will send the recorded footage at the end of the day. We want to keep about 7 days of footage at a time, and we want to be able to view the footage of all stores sort of in real time, but that might be better handled with the software that is used with the NVRs. I haven't figured out if viewing from the NAS is going to be too much on the system

 

[GiantZack]

We have a system by ADT, at the moment, but it is very basic. We want to be able to possibly view all of the stores at one computer, and ADT does not support that.

 

[Chris Moore]

About 6Tb of footage would be sent to the server as a backup per 24hr.

6TB total or per store?

I do not know if that footage is going to be uploaded as it's recorded on the NVR or if it will send the recorded footage at the end of the day.

You would slam the network if you tried to do it all at once. Incremental would likely be more manageable. You need to find out more about what options are available on the recorders. As for the NAS, it wouldn't be difficult to build a FreeNAS system that could ingest this amount of data on a daily basis. the concern I have is how to get it from the stores to your server. Transferring that amount of data over a local network would be tough, but sending it over the internet would take a significant investment in connectivity.

 

[GiantZack]

6Tb total per day, well, 5244Mb to be exact. 114Gb per store per day. I am waiting to hear back from the company that makes the NVR to let me know how often it will send information to the NAS.

 

[Chris Moore]

6Tb total per day, well, 5244Mb to be exact. 114Gb per store per day.

There is a big difference between Mb and MB, Mega bits vs Mega Bytes. Same with Gb vs GB. It is an order of magnitude.
The numbers you are providing are not making any sense.

 

[GiantZack]

Sorry, that was my fault. It was 5244 Gigabytes.

 

[GiantZack]

I can configure the NVR to back up snapshots to the NAS at scheduled times throughout the day. So, I would probably have the NVRs back up every hour. We only plan on keeping a weeks worth of footage in the NAS at a time.

 

[garm]

Please provide more details, the math dosent add up.. 184 cameras producing 6 TB of data per 24 hours is 2.72 kbps per camera.. or to put it another way, 1/20th of a 56k modem bandwidth. 3 Mbps.

(Units..)

 

[GiantZack]

The Bit Rate for these cameras is 32 Kbps ~ 8Mbps, and the video is being compressed using H.265

 

[cobrakiller58]

I just checked some video one my computer that is 1080p and h.265 compression and it averaged at 2194 kilobits per second, based on that 6 terabytes a day doesn't seem unreasonable.