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October 2010 |
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When you create a VMFS datastore on your VMware ESX servers many
administrators select the default 1MB block size without knowing when or
why to change it. The block size determines the minimum amount of disk
space that any file will take up on VMFS datastores. So an 18KB log file
will actually take up 1MB of disk space (1 block) and a 1.3MB file will
take up 2MB of disk space (2 blocks). But the block size also
determines the maximum size that any file can be, if you select a 1MB
block size on your data store the maximum file size is limited to 256GB.
So when you create a VM you cannot assign it a single virtual disk
greater then 256GB. There is also no way to change the block size after
you set it without deleting the datastore and re-creating it, which will
wipe out any data on the datastore.
Because of this you should choose your block size carefully when
creating VMFS datastores. The VMFS datastores mainly contain larger
virtual disk files so increasing the block size will not use all that
much more disk space over the default 1MB size. You have the following
choices when creating a datastore:
• 1MB block size – 256GB maximum file size
• 2MB block size – 512GB maximum file size
• 4MB block size – 1024GB maximum file size
• 8MB block size – 2048GB maximum file size
Besides having smaller files use slightly more disk space on your
datastore there are no other downsides to using larger block sizes.
There is no noticeable I/O performance difference by using a larger
block size. When you create your datastore, make sure you choose your
block size carefully. 1MB should be fine if you have a smaller datastore
(less than 500GB) and never plan on using virtual disks greater then
256GB. If you have a medium (500GB – 1TB) datastore and there is a
chance that you may need a VM with a larger disk then go with a 2MB or
4MB block size. For larger datastores (1TB – 2TB) go with a 4MB or 8MB
block size. In most cases you will not be creating virtual disks equal
to the maximum size of your datastore (2TB) so you will usually not need
a 8MB block size.
So remember, choose carefully, once you create your datastore there is no changing it later.
Source: http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/virtualization-pro/choosing-a-block-size-when-creating-vmfs-datastores/
Update:
VMFS3 uses sub blocks for directories and small files with size smaller than 1 MB. When the VMFS uses all the sub block (4096 sub blocks of 64 KB each), file blocks will be used. For files of 1 MB or higher, file blocks are used. The size of the file block depends on the block size you selected when the Datastore was created.
VMware KB: Block size limitations of a VMFS datastore:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003565
VMware KB: Increasing block size of local storage in ESX 4.x:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1012683
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October 2010 |
Please check the ACTi website http://www.acti.com/support/Products_Resource_Matrix.asp to confirm whether the information below is still current. The table is retrieved from the ACTi NVR Enterprise software manual v2.2.57.
Apply the following as a guideline and adjust to real life requirements.
Not more than..
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8
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16
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32
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48 |
64 channels
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CPU
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C3-530 |
C5-750 |
C5-750 |
C5-750 |
C7-870 |
| Memory |
2GB
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4GB |
6GB |
8GB |
8GB |
| VGA |
G 210
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GT 220
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GT 240 |
GT 250
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GT 250
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| HDD |
2* 1TB
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2* 2TB |
4* 2TB |
6* 2TB
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6* 2TB
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| Case |
Mid |
Mid |
Full |
Full |
Full |
For our reference, the graphics card performance (in general gaming) is in this order:
G210 < 9500GT < GT 220 < GT 240 < 9800GT < GTS 250
The ACTi NVR server uses the GPU for video decoding on demand when users are using the Live View monitoring mode.
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October 2010 |
Introduction
Following this guide you will be able to stream media over your local network or the internet. This can be used to extend the functionality of IP cameras as usually there can only be 1 or 2 connections to a camera at a time. If you want to stream stored video instead of a live camera feed all you need to do is change the input in the VLC configuration file which is explained below.
Setting up this streaming server means you can have as many connections as your network/server can support. Please note that this solution has parts that do not run as services and would require a user to be logged in at all times to work.
Requirements
You will need the following hardware and software components:
-IP Camera with RTSP support.
-Server with Windows OS (Preferably with dual network ports).
-Switch or crossover cable to connect camera/s to the server.
-Wowza Streaming Media Server latest version
-Flowplayer Free Edition latest version as well as the Flowplayer RTMP package.
-Windows 2K3 Resource Kit (adds the sleep command which is needed)
-Java JDK 6
-VLC v1.0.5 (Built in RTMP support dropped after this version)
Layout
There are two key areas in the deployed system and they are:
1) Web page loading (top): Main Server (containing Flowplayer flash program and webpage pointing to stream server, which is loaded and run on the client), Flowplayer and webpage in the Client browser.
2) Video Streaming (bottom): Camera, Video Streaming on the Server (Wowza, VLC), Flowplayer in the Client browser.
Preliminary Setup and Installations
1) Install IIS, you can do this from the server manager in 2K3 and 2K8. To install it on XP you will need to add it from ‘Add or Remove Programs’ in the Control Panel and ‘Programs and Features’ in Vista/7; you may need to insert the OS installation CD to install IIS for these.
2) Install JDK, Wowza, VLC and the 2K3 RK using the default settings (you may get warnings for the resource kit when installing it on Vista/7/2K8).
3) In the main folder of the Flowplayer download you will see sub-folder ‘example’, move the files from there into the main folder. Move the RTMP package to the main folder as well. Copy all these files to the default site home directory for IIS, this should be something similar to ‘C:\inetpub\wwwroot’.
4) Connect the IP camera to the server and enter its web interface. Change the Video Settings streaming method to RTP over UDP and make a note of the RTSP port (in this example it will be 7070).
5) You may need to configure the router and server firewall to allow web access to the server depending on your network layout.
6) Download these configuration files, the .zip contains batch/configuration files we will use for VLC,Wowza and the webpage.
Setup Part 1 - VLC
VLC is used to encode the video stream using the h264 codec; it creates a stream descriptor file that is moved to a location where Wowza can use it. It is also restarted daily to prevent memory leakage causing the system to lock-up.
From the supplied .zip copy the 'Scripts' folder to the C:\ directory, if you wish to put them some place else you will need to edit the files to point to the new location. In the folder you will see:
run.bat
- This starts/restarts VLC daily and copies the descriptor file into place for Wowza to use.
-The Resource Kit and VLC paths will need to be changed for server XP/2K3.
-The Wowza version will need to be changed to the version you are using.
- You may need to increase the sleep time from 5 seconds if VLC isn’t
getting enough time to create the descriptor file due to low system
performance.
background.png
- Image file for the backdrop when using a multi-camera grid.
vlc_encoder.conf
- This is specified by run.bat to configure VLC when starting it.
- ‘rtsp://admin:123456@192.168.0.100:7070’ will need to be changed to your
camera settings ‘rtsp://[username]:[password]@[ip_address]:[rtsp_port]’
- There are three types: Single Camera, Single Local Video and 2x2 Video Grid. Note that you can mix local video and live video feeds in the 2x2 grid, also you can create a large grid with more video inputs by altering the configuration file.
Setup Part 2 - Wowza
Wowza is used to stream the encoded video to the network; it is used along side IIS with IIS publishing the webpage and Wowza publishing the video stream used in the webpage.
1) Go to the Wowza directory (typically: C:\Program Files\Wowza Media Systems\Wowza Media Server 2.1.2)
2) Create a folder ‘rtplive’ in the ‘Application’ sub-directory and leave empty.
3) Create a second ‘rtplive’ folder in the ‘Conf’ sub-directory, copy ‘Application.xml’ from the .zip into this new folder, you can change the following setting if you wish to:
<streamtype>: rtp-live or rtp-live-lowlatency. rtp-live-lowlatency requires more processing but it is more responsive than rtp-live.
Setup Part 3 - Flowplayer
Flowplayer is what ties the whole thing together together: it is the part of webpage which is published by IIS that plays the video stream published by Wowza. During the preliminary setup you copied the Flowplayer files to the IIS default site home directory, in this folder you should have (ignoring different version numbers):
index.html
flowplayer-3.2.4.min.js
flowplayer-3.2.4.swf
flowplayer.controls-3.2.3.swf
flowplayer.rtmp-3.2.1.swf
index.html is the webpage that will be used, replace it with the one from the .zip:
- Be sure to change the Flowplayer version numbers and server IP address.
- This makes a very basic webpage with just Flowplayer showing; if you wish to add streaming video to a more complex or existing webpage all you need to do it copy the bold sections to the appropriate places in the new webpage.
<html>
<head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<script type="text/javascript" src="flowplayer-3.2.4.min.js"></script>
<title>Minimal Flowplayer setup</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="page">
<a href="link" style="display:block;width:640px;height:480px"id="player"> </a>
<script type="text/javascript">
flowplayer("player", "./flowplayer-3.2.4.swf",
{
clip: {
url: 'stream.sdp',
provider: 'rtmp'
},
plugins: {
rtmp: {
url: './flowplayer.rtmp-3.2.3.swf',
netConnectionUrl: 'rtmp://192.168.1.55/rtplive'
}
}
}
);
</script>
</body>
</html>
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Setup Part 4 - Starting it all up
1) Start the run.bat file from C:\Scripts, you will need to leave the command window open for the daily restart cycle to function. The first time you run the batch file you should get the following output if successful:
2) Start Wowza from the desktop or start menu shortcuts, again you need to leave this window open for Wowza to function.
3) Connect to the server from another computer on the network using its IP address. The video feed should start playing after a few seconds of loading. The Wowza console should show something similar to this during a successfuly streaming connection:
If there are any issues it is most likely a case of incorrect addresses, version numbers, etc in one of the configured files.
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October 2010 |
Adaptec has the latest solution for building and managing High-Performance Hybrid Arrays (HPHA) – storage arrays that use both solid-state drives (SSD) and hard disk drives (HDD) – delivering up to 8 times the I/O performance, up to 70 percent savings in capital and operating expenses, and a drastic reduction in power consumption over HDD-only arrays.
Using SSD/HDD hybrid arrays, the new Adaptec SSD caching performance solution allows I/O intensive applications such as VMware, Terminal Server, Database Servers and File-Servers to convert industry-standard servers into cost-effective, high-performance, scale-out storage appliances.
Neil Cameron is a Field Application Engineer based in Sydney serving the Asia Pacific. We can find him talking there: http://storageadvisors.adaptec.com/ and in this session.
Presentation: 2010-09 CPD adaptec technologies.pptx (1.35MB)
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October 2010 |
Central Management System (CMS) is a piece of software that runs in a PC under Microsoft Windows. It provides views of camera footages captured by all DVR units connected to the PC.
CMS does come with a price (USD500 + GST).
The investment in CMS can be justified if you are running a large site with many low cost analogue cameras. Please read a white paper entitled "Low Cost Large Video Surveillance Systems" for more idea. You will find the white paper on www.cnz.co.nz under IP Video Surveillance White Paper.
Attached herewith is the user manual of the software.
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