Blue Iris

Hello all. I am new to BI. I have switched over from Ubiquiti NVR software. I am excited to see what BI has to offer, but could use some input/clarification on some initial set up questions.

BI is installed on a Server 2019 vm, on server 2019. Basic hardware specs for the vm are 15gb system memory. 30gb RAM disk. OS is running on nvme. I have dedicated 24 threads for cpu.

My set up on Ubiquiti was record 30 seconds before and after an event/trigger. This essentially meant that it was recording full time, but not saving anything unless there was a trigger. To avoid disk wear, it recorded to a RamDisk constantly, and then when an event happened, it saved that video with the pre and post 30 seconds as well, to a nas. I have looked at the settings under Clip and Archiving. My settings currently are New record to the RamDisk, with a 10gb limit. No day limit. Move to Stored. Stored has a 5 TB limit, no day limit, and points to the NAS. On my camera I’m testing with, I have a 30 pre trigger video buffer, but see no signs of post, which I can live without if it doesn’t exist. I can post pics of any settings pages if that would help.

So does this sound like it will accomplish the same thing as the system I’m coming from or am I misunderstanding the flow here? Thanks for any guidance/clarification any can offer.

To the best of my knowledge, you're the first person to mention RAM disks here. Pretty interesting - I'm not really seeing an option for post triggers either unless maybe you're able to do the motion sensing with the cameras themselves. But as you said, you can probably live without the extra post-trigger especially if your triggers are set appropriately. No need to record nothing.

The best I can follow without having done something like this myself - your setup sounds spot on. I guess you run the risk of losing something in your RamDisk buffer (so to speak) if something happens to the system but if thats acceptable - sounds great and you're right, this would dramatically cut down on disk usage. If the RamDisk is 10GB but you only record on an event - can you estimate how long a video could reside in your buffer to know the risk? For example, I would take less than 2 hours to fill that space but I'm recording 24x7 on all cameras. If I only triggered on motion I'd surmise that would take me a pretty long time (see above - apparently I like recording nothing )

My current system is running just fine but definitely gave me something to think about when the time does come to lifecycle.

Knock on wood, so far I have had zero issues running the RAM disks. I use that tactic for a few different VM’s that have heavy write processes, and they have all run flawlessly for a few years now. This is for a home setup, so while loss of footage is not ideal, as rare as the chance of it happening is, I would like to think it’s even less likely to happen during an event. At this point, I guess I need to play with the initial save directory size. As you mentioned, it seems like it has to fill all 10 gig before it will move any clips. This means there is an extremely prolonged period where footage loss is possible, and also that this footage is not being replicated off site. I will have a new test camera soon to play with and find out what happens if I set the limit on the initial directory to something extremely low. I’m fearful that the video is just going to crap out instead of shifting over to the storage pool on the fly.