Manual > Surveillance System Construction Guide > Major Function Construction > Video Recorder > Video Recorder System Construction and Operation

Video Recorder Recommended System Configuration

This section describes the recommended configuration for stable operation of the video recorder function.

First, the video recorder is a function that runs on the Panel Browser side, and the recording process is performed on the PC registered as the recorder terminal. Since the recording process of the recorder may place a high CPU load on the Panel Server, we recommend that you configure the recorder terminal PC that performs the recording and the server PC that runs Panel Server as separate PCs as much as possible. In addition, the recorder terminal PC should be prepared separately from other client PCs and dedicated to recording processing. Furthermore, we recommend that you prepare a network drive such as NAS or File server (hereinafter referred to as "NAS drive") as a data store for storing recording data, and that the recorder recording process first saves the data locally on the recorder terminal PC as the recording destination, then transfers it to the NAS drive, and that the reference destination is the NAS drive.

Recommended system configuration

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Components

explanation

Server PC

(Panel Server)

We recommend that you configure the server PC to run only Panel Server and not run a video recorder/video player using Panel Browser.

Panel Server and Panel Browser can run on the same PC, but we recommend running them on separate PCs to ensure that the processing load caused by the recorder's recording process does not affect the various processes performed by Panel Server (communication with PLC, logging, tabulation, alarm monitoring, etc.). However, there is no problem if you are only running Panel Browser on the server PC for the purpose of simply displaying graphic screens (no recording or video playback processes are performed on the server PC).

Recorder terminal PC

(Panel Browser)

The recorder terminal PC for recording will be configured as a dedicated PC for the recorder terminal, separate from the client PC that displays the normal monitoring screen. Also, the Panel Browser running on the recorder terminal PC will run a simple client application that only implements the video recorder screen library, as much as possible, and will not display screens such as graphic screens, alarm monitoring, or trend graphs.

Selection points:

❖Since recording will be done locally, please select a model with a fast disk access speed (5,400 rpm or faster is recommended for HDD).

❖Please select a LAN port with a high communication speed for connecting to the network camera (minimum 100BASE or higher is recommended). If there are many cameras or the camera images are received at a high fps, and the communication load of the camera is high, please consider separating the camera network from other networks.

By using an SSD as the local disk for the recorder terminal PC, you can further stabilize the recording process.

When registering the recorder, set the recording destination to the local disk, transfer to the NAS drive, and view destination to the NAS drive.

Key points:

❖Prepare a folder for recording separately from the project folder on the local disk of the recorder terminal PC.
Example) C:\videorecorder

❖Prepare a KNAS and set it up so that it can connect to the KNAS drive via network sharing. Also, prepare a folder on the drive for recording.
Example) G:\videorecorder - If you define the NAS drive as "G:".

❖When registering the recorder, specify the recording destination as a folder on the local disk rather than a server (C:\videorecorder).

❖Specify a folder on the NAS drive to transfer and view the recorded files (G:\videorecorder).

(Example of recorder registration settings)

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By setting it up like this, when configuring multiple recorder terminal PCs for distribution (such as when connecting many cameras at the same time), each client PC can view the recorded data of all recorders on the same level. With this configuration, when each client PC views the recorded data (plays back the recorded data using a player), the data on the NAS drive is referenced directly, so there is an advantage that no access load is placed on the recorder terminal PC when viewing the recorded data (which can lead to more stable recording processing).

The default settings for registering a recorder are to record to the server, with no transfer settings, and to view on the server. This default setting has the advantage of allowing you to easily try out the video recorder function, but you should set it appropriately according to the system requirements you want to achieve, such as the number of cameras to be connected and the recording quality.

Please pay attention to the number of client licenses. A client license is also required for the Panel Browser running on the recorder terminal PC.

In the recorder settings, it is possible to operate the recorder with the NAS drive directly specified as the recording destination, no transfer settings, and the NAS drive as the viewing destination (in other words, not going through the local disk), but this is not recommended due to the following disadvantages.

Disadvantages of direct export:

❖If the connection to the NAS is temporarily cut off due to a network error, etc., unforeseen situations may occur (such as a writing error to the NAS occurring, or the recording data during the disconnection not being saved, etc.).

❖There is overhead when writing recording files (especially when creating a new file). If the recording fps is high, processing delays may occur and videos may not be recorded at the expected fps.

❖When distributing data across multiple recorder terminal PCs, recording data will be written simultaneously from multiple PCs, resulting in a concentrated load on the NAS.

The bar display on the video recorder screen shows the status of the recording file at the recording destination. For example, if the recording destination is a local disk, the transfer destination is a NAS, and the viewing destination is also a NAS, the bar display on the video recorder screen shows the status of the recording destination file. Therefore, even if a recording file exists on NAS, if the recording file does not exist on the recording destination disk, the bar display will not be displayed.

Client PC

(Panel Browser)

The client PC that displays the graphic screen, etc. should be configured separately from the recorder terminal PC.

Selection points:

❖When displaying live images from a network camera on a split screen (camera monitor), the image is displayed by connecting to the network camera from a client PC. Therefore, select a LAN port with a high communication speed for connecting to the camera (minimum 100BASE or higher is recommended).

❖If you separate the network for connecting to the camera from other networks, make sure that the client PC that will display the live video from the camera also has a LAN port to connect to the camera.

If you have multiple client PCs, pay attention to the number of client licenses. You need as many client licenses as the number of Panel Browsers you want to run simultaneously.

Storage for recorded data (e.g. NAS)

We recommend using NAS or File server as the destination for transferring recording data.

Selection points:

❖Please select a model with a fast disk rotation speed (7,200 rpm or higher) and a fast network connection speed (minimum 100BASE or higher).

❖The amount of data required for NAS varies depending on the number of cameras, storage period, recording fps setting, data resolution on the camera side, etc. In addition, "Recording data file size and disk capacity" lists the reference value of the size of the generated recording data.

❖If you would like to make the recording data redundant with this configuration, please use the NAS functions (such as RAID) to set it up (please also see the description in "Notes for this configuration" below).

Network Devices

The network equipment for connecting to the network camera should be configured so that bottlenecks do not occur. For example, even if you select high-spec models for the LAN port of the recorder terminal PC or NAS device, if the relay device such as HUB is slow, it will become a bottleneck. In addition, since a large amount of data is sent and received during communication with the network camera, the communication load increases. In particular, when connecting many cameras at the same time or connecting to a high-fps camera, consider preparing multiple LAN ports and HUBs for the PC and configuring the network routes for the normal network and the camera connection separately.

Points to note about this configuration

Important points to note

explanation

Users must make the recording data redundant themselves.

If you wish to make the recording data transferred to NAS redundant, you will need to create a mechanism for this yourself (for example, using the NAS functions to create a RAID configuration, or creating a mechanism for backing up the data to a separate drive).

If you are using server duplication and the video recorder function, be careful not to set the recording destination for the recorder registration to the server side. If the recording destination is set to the server side while the server is duplicated, the recorded data will be saved in the server's public folder and will be subject to duplication synchronization processing.The file size of the stored recording data can become very large, which may have a negative impact on the overall server duplication process.Therefore, if you are using a duplicated server configuration, please make sure to set the video recorder's recorded data so that it is not subject to duplication processing. For details on using the video recorder function in a duplicated server configuration, please refer to the description in "When operating a duplicated server configuration".

Be careful about the disk capacity of the recorder PC

In the recording process of this configuration, the recording data is first saved to the local disk of the recorder terminal PC, and then copied to the destination NAS drive. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure sufficient free space not only on the NAS disk capacity, but also on the local disk of the recorder terminal PC. The amount of free space that needs to be secured depends on the maintenance settings (how many days of recording data are to be saved).

For an estimate of the size of recorded data, please refer to "Recorded data file size and disk capacity".

Recording data maintenance settings

In this configuration, the recording data is temporarily saved to the local disk of the recorder terminal PC. Maintenance (automatic deletion) of the recording data on the local disk operates according to the following settings in the recording settings of the camera registration.

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If you select "Automatically delete" above, local files and destination files will be automatically deleted after the same number of days. Therefore, the size of the recording data stored locally must be the same as the NAS drive. If you need to store data for a long period of time, please pay close attention to the remaining disk capacity.

On the other hand, if the above setting is set to "Automatically delete (excluding forwarding destinations)," only files on the local disk will be automatically deleted, and data on the NAS drive will not be subject to automatic maintenance. Therefore, if you are unable to secure sufficient local disk capacity, please set the above retention period to a short number and either manually delete files on the NAS drive or create a separate mechanism of your own to automatically delete files on the NAS drive.

For an estimate of the size of recorded data, please refer to "Recorded data file size and disk capacity".

Other system configuration examples

The recommended system configuration introduced above is a configuration that focuses on stable operation of the video recorder, and is one of the basic concepts. On the other hand, when actually using the video recorder function, various configurations can be considered depending on the required requirements, such as the number of cameras connected simultaneously (many or few), the required quality of the recording (fps or is low image quality acceptable, or is high quality recording required). For example, if you do not need to be particularly particular about the recording quality (for example, if a quality of about one frame per second is sufficient), you can operate it with a minimum configuration of only one PC by tuning the camera body and the recording fps value. Alternatively, if you connect many cameras simultaneously and require high quality recording, you will need to prepare multiple recorder terminal PCs and use a distributed configuration.

For information on system configurations, settings, and tuning methods to meet various needs, please refer to the description in "Introduction of configuration examples for each need."