ZoneMinder Wiki - User contributions [en]

Modifying ZoneMinder to remember run state names

2020-02-27T21:19:24Z

Asker: Replaced content with "<Home =Deprecated = As of ZoneMinder 1.28.107, this hack is no longer needed. Zon..."

[[Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04|<Home]]

=Deprecated =
As of ZoneMinder 1.28.107, this hack is no longer needed.
ZoneMinder now supports the ability to support remembering and restoring run states
See https://zoneminder.readthedocs.io/en/latest/userguide/gettingstarted.html and search for "run state" in that page

Standalone Zm Frontends

2019-06-30T12:52:37Z

Asker:

== Front Ends ==

====Mobile apps====
[https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmNinja ZmNinja] - open source iPhone/Android/Windows/Mac/Linux app for ZoneMinder

[https://itunes.apple.com/app/surveillance-pro/id1200773811 Surveillance pro] - closed source iPhone app

====Desktop apps====
[https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmNinja ZmNinja] - open source iPhone/Android/Windows/Mac/Linux app for ZoneMinder

====Apps that seem to be discontinued/not maintained ====

[http://html5-clouds.com/?q=node/55 zmView/zmViewPro] zmView]

[[ZM4MS]]<br> - Complete Windows GUI frontend for ZM (requires ZM!) (Please feel free to add to this anyone![James])

[[zm4ms playback|ZM4MS playback with Mandriva 2006 livecd]]

[[xlib_shm]] - allows you to view live streams from zm on local machine with low cpu usage

[http://sourceforge.net/projects/zmviewer ZMviewer] - a cross platform Linux/Win/Mac/*nix client written in Qt(beta)

[http://sourceforge.net/projects/jzmconsole/ JZMconsole] - Java Swing front end for Zoneminder(beata)

[http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13396 Blackberry App]

[http://www.eyezm.com eyeZm] - Native iPhone / iPod touch front-end to view and control ZoneMinder (also see: http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16695)

=== ZM skins for mobile ===

Earlier versions of ZM (1.25/1.26) supported XHTML and mobile skins which you could enable via ?skin=xml and ?skin=mobile
They were meant for application developers to extract information for their apps and run ZM on mobile devices. These skins are no longer maintained
and instead ZM has a [[http://zoneminder.readthedocs.org/en/latest/api.html REST based API ]] to replace the functionality.

As far as mobile skins are concerned, ZM will likely discontinue support for skin=mobile after 1.29. Mobile users can either use one of the front ends above or use the standard web interface of ZM from a mobile device.

Standalone Zm Frontends

2019-06-30T12:51:56Z

Asker:

== Front Ends ==

====Mobile apps====
[https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmNinja ZmNinja] - open source iPhone/Android/Windows/Mac/Linux app for ZoneMinder

[https://itunes.apple.com/app/surveillance-pro/id1200773811 Surveillance pro] - closed source iPhone app

====Desktop apps====
[https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmNinja ZmNinja] - open source iPhone/Android/Windows/Mac/Linux app for ZoneMinder

=====These apps don't seem to be maintained and will likely not work with new ZM versions =====

[http://html5-clouds.com/?q=node/55 zmView/zmViewPro] zmView]

[[ZM4MS]]<br> - Complete Windows GUI frontend for ZM (requires ZM!) (Please feel free to add to this anyone![James])

[[zm4ms playback|ZM4MS playback with Mandriva 2006 livecd]]

[[xlib_shm]] - allows you to view live streams from zm on local machine with low cpu usage

[http://sourceforge.net/projects/zmviewer ZMviewer] - a cross platform Linux/Win/Mac/*nix client written in Qt(beta)

[http://sourceforge.net/projects/jzmconsole/ JZMconsole] - Java Swing front end for Zoneminder(beata)

[http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13396 Blackberry App]

[http://www.eyezm.com eyeZm] - Native iPhone / iPod touch front-end to view and control ZoneMinder (also see: http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16695)

=== ZM skins for mobile ===

Earlier versions of ZM (1.25/1.26) supported XHTML and mobile skins which you could enable via ?skin=xml and ?skin=mobile
They were meant for application developers to extract information for their apps and run ZM on mobile devices. These skins are no longer maintained
and instead ZM has a [[http://zoneminder.readthedocs.org/en/latest/api.html REST based API ]] to replace the functionality.

As far as mobile skins are concerned, ZM will likely discontinue support for skin=mobile after 1.29. Mobile users can either use one of the front ends above or use the standard web interface of ZM from a mobile device.

Standalone Zm Frontends

2019-06-30T12:49:10Z

Asker:

== Front Ends ==

====Mobile apps====
[https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmNinja ZmNinja] - iPhone/Android/Windows/Mac/Linux app for ZoneMinder

====Desktop apps====
[https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmNinja ZmNinja] - iPhone/Android/Windows/Mac/Linux app for ZoneMinder

=====These apps don't seem to be maintained and will likely not work with new ZM versions =====

[http://html5-clouds.com/?q=node/55 zmView/zmViewPro] zmView]
[[ZM4MS]]<br> - Complete Windows GUI frontend for ZM (requires ZM!) (Please feel free to add to this anyone![James])

[[zm4ms playback|ZM4MS playback with Mandriva 2006 livecd]]

[[xlib_shm]] - allows you to view live streams from zm on local machine with low cpu usage

[http://sourceforge.net/projects/zmviewer ZMviewer] - a cross platform Linux/Win/Mac/*nix client written in Qt(beta)

[http://sourceforge.net/projects/jzmconsole/ JZMconsole] - Java Swing front end for Zoneminder(beata)

[http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13396 Blackberry App]

[http://www.eyezm.com eyeZm] - Native iPhone / iPod touch front-end to view and control ZoneMinder (also see: http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16695)

=== ZM skins for mobile ===

Earlier versions of ZM (1.25/1.26) supported XHTML and mobile skins which you could enable via ?skin=xml and ?skin=mobile
They were meant for application developers to extract information for their apps and run ZM on mobile devices. These skins are no longer maintained
and instead ZM has a [[http://zoneminder.readthedocs.org/en/latest/api.html REST based API ]] to replace the functionality.

As far as mobile skins are concerned, ZM will likely discontinue support for skin=mobile after 1.29. Mobile users can either use one of the front ends above or use the standard web interface of ZM from a mobile device.

Standalone Zm Frontends

2019-06-30T12:47:56Z

Asker: /* Mobile apps */

== Front Ends ==

====Mobile apps====
[https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmNinja ZmNinja] - iPhone/Android/Windows/Mac/Linux app for ZoneMinder

<s>[http://html5-clouds.com/?q=node/55 zmView/zmViewPro] (uses xml skin, may not work when ZM deprecates xml skin - planned after 1.29 release]</s>

====Desktop apps====
[https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmNinja ZmNinja] - iPhone/Android/Windows/Mac/Linux app for ZoneMinder

=====These apps don't seem to be maintained and will likely not work with new ZM versions =====
[[ZM4MS]]<br> - Complete Windows GUI frontend for ZM (requires ZM!) (Please feel free to add to this anyone![James])

[[zm4ms playback|ZM4MS playback with Mandriva 2006 livecd]]

[[xlib_shm]] - allows you to view live streams from zm on local machine with low cpu usage

[http://sourceforge.net/projects/zmviewer ZMviewer] - a cross platform Linux/Win/Mac/*nix client written in Qt(beta)

[http://sourceforge.net/projects/jzmconsole/ JZMconsole] - Java Swing front end for Zoneminder(beata)

[http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13396 Blackberry App]

[http://www.eyezm.com eyeZm] - Native iPhone / iPod touch front-end to view and control ZoneMinder (also see: http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16695)

=== ZM skins for mobile ===

Earlier versions of ZM (1.25/1.26) supported XHTML and mobile skins which you could enable via ?skin=xml and ?skin=mobile
They were meant for application developers to extract information for their apps and run ZM on mobile devices. These skins are no longer maintained
and instead ZM has a [[http://zoneminder.readthedocs.org/en/latest/api.html REST based API ]] to replace the functionality.

As far as mobile skins are concerned, ZM will likely discontinue support for skin=mobile after 1.29. Mobile users can either use one of the front ends above or use the standard web interface of ZM from a mobile device.

Doing your best to get rid of smudging in FFMPEG transcoding of RTSP streams

2019-06-30T12:45:42Z

Asker:

[[Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04|<Home]]

=== Deprecation Notice ===

* A lot of things have changed
* As of 2019, don't use Remote, use FFMPEG
* Don't put in any values for Max FPS and Alarm Max FPS - keep it empty. This always causes problems. Change the FPS settings inside the camera UI (not in ZM)
* Use "TCP" as a method inside FFMPEG, that usually takes care of smearing

Most of the other tips/etc may no longer be valid

===Background===

All my cameras are Foscam HD cameras (1280x960) and support RTSP. Further , 4 out of my 5 cameras are connected via WiFi.
Zone minder has many options to capture frames, but for Foscam cameras it boils down to:
* Using the Foscam "snapshot2" URL to capture images instead of live streaming
* Using RTSP URL
* Using MJPEG URL (needs a configuration change to Foscam)

I investigated all 3 options.
* In terms of quality, Option 1 (image snapshot) is the best. No artifacts, no smudging nothing. The downside is there are a high amount of connection drops, even if I dropped the HD stream to 720p.
* Foscam seems to only stream MJPEG as 640x480. That was not acceptable (and the quality of the stream seemed to have a lot of artifacting)
* So really, the only option left was RTSP

===RTSP via FFMPEG/VLC/Remote ===

Now that RTSP was the only viable option, there are 3 methods you can use (well, maybe 4, not sure if Curl supports RTSP - never tried)
* You can use source type as FFMPEG, VLC or (a new addition with ZM 1.28) Remote

====Source Type: Remote====

Based on [https://github.com/ZoneMinder/ZoneMinder/issues/734 this] issue in github, knnniggett writes that starting ZM 1.28, they have built in their own RTSP handler that does not rely on FFMPEG.
This option may or may not work. For you. It works well for me -no smudging. But if this mode does not work for you, read on

====Source Type: libVLC====

VLC is supposed to be a drop in replacement for FFMPEG. It works, but here is the rub:
* With 5 cameras capturing HD streams, using FFMPEG, my CPU consumption always hovered between 12% - 30%
* The moment I changed ONE camera to VLC, my CPU consumption shot up to 67% and stayed there
* The moment I changed TWO cameras to VLC, I'd hit 97% and then I'd start getting spurts of green screens and other errors

So obviously, VLC was a fail for me.

====Source Type: FFMPEG====

FFMPEG worked, but:
* I noticed a lot of smearing and smudging while FFMPEG transcoded RTSP to images. The smearing would be random and quite frequent. The problem was that this made ZM think there were large changes in frames and it would trigger all sorts of alarms

This is what I mean by smearing:

[[File:Smearing_example.jpeg]]

===Strategies to solve smearing===
(credit: PacoLM, source: http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=23031)

So there are a few aspects to addressing this problem, based on various other threads I read, and advice from forum members:
* Make sure RTSP is streaming over TCP not UDP (for whatever reason, there are high packet losses over UDP with Foscam, even within a LAN)
* Make sure you reduce frame rate of the camera directly inside the camera (via its web interface)
* Make sure you send key frame rates more frequently (RTSP reduces bandwidth by sending differential image data. Once it a while it sends "key frames" which is the full frame from the camera to resync)
* <del>Don't mess with FPS inside ZM. Set what you need inside the camera. Apparently, </del> Based on testing done by PacoLM, changing FPS at ZM and having the camera send a different FPS causes problems, so:
* For each camera, I cleared FPS and Alarm FPS inside ZM. <del>Kept them blank</del>. Inside ZM put in an FPS that is greater than the frame rate of the camera. This is important. You don't want ZM to reduce FPS - it causes issues. Instead reduce at camera. The reason I recommend you put in a higher FPS Max in ZM is because when the camera goes offline, ZM takes up max CPU trying to keep connecting to the camera and Max FPS helps curtail this.

Lets take them up one by one:

====RTSP streaming over TCP====

Based on threads I read over at Foscam forums, there is no way to "tell" foscam to stream over TCP if UDP is also available. There are various strategies to work around it, but before you try the various options,
if you set remote method as "RTSP/RTP" in ZoneMinder, ZM forces a TCP connection. You can validate this by checking with netstat while you are streaming. So chances are if you are using this mode, you are already enforcing TCP
(Note: other mechanisms like routing the source host via you external public IP and setting port forwarding to TCP is unnecessary as I said above, ZM is enforcing TCP. Also adding "?tcp" to the URL caused complete havoc in my system - ZM hung up, DB stopped working due to too many connections)

====Reducing Frame Rate & increasing Key frames in-camera====
I directly accessed my camera admin web interface, and reduced FPS to 3 and key frame rate interval to 10, Frankly, for the purpose of capturing motion alarms, I think an FPS of 1,2,3 are perfectly fine

==== Not messing with FPS inside ZM ====
For each camera, I cleared FPS and Alarm FPS inside ZM. <del>Kept them blank</del>. Inside ZM put in an FPS that is greater than the frame rate of the camera. This is important. You don't want ZM to reduce FPS - it causes issues. Instead reduce at camera. The reason I recommend you put in a higher FPS Max in ZM is because when the camera goes offline, ZM takes up max CPU trying to keep connecting to the camera and Max FPS helps curtail this.

===Outcome===
I was at a stage where I was getting smearing once every few minutes. I now reached a stage where I was getting a few smears maybe once in a few hours. BIG IMPROVEMENT

===Further tuning===
To eliminate the spurious alarms generated by the occasional smear, I changed Misc->Alarm Frame count - I put in a minimum number of frames that ZM will count for alarms before actually raising an alarm. I analyzed my alarm stats and noticed that whenever smearing happens, it lasts for a max of 2 frames. So I put in a minimum alarm frame count as 3. This completely eliminated false events due to smearing. Obviously, this value may change based on your in-camera FPS. (credit: user kkroft suggested I use this feature to not record events on Signal loss [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=23036 here], which I thought I could apply for the occasional smear too)

Finally, as of April 2015, I stopped using FFMPEG and switched to native RTSP (only av. in 1.28). If it works, it does not smudge at all. But it may not work for you - it seems temperamental; in which case the tips suggested above may help you with FFMPEG

Best of luck!

Doing your best to get rid of smudging in FFMPEG transcoding of RTSP streams

2019-06-30T12:45:27Z

Asker:

Understanding ZoneMinder's Zoning system for Dummies

2019-06-30T12:41:18Z

Asker:

[[Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04|<Home]]

===Background===

ZoneMinder has a flexible (albeit hard to easily configure) zone detection system using which you can modify how sensitive, precise, accurate your motion alarms are. The official ZM documentation does a good job of describing all the concepts [http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Defining_Zones here]. However, you will see
gobs of posts in the forum about people complaining that ZM logs all sorts of events (ahem, as did I), ZM's detection is rubbish and in-camera is better (ahem, as did I) and what not. But once you get the concept, its incredibly powerful.

So instead of giving you a theoretical explanation, lets walk through a live use-case. (Credit: user kkrofft helped a lot in me getting a hang of things [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=23024 here]. You should also read his earlier explanation [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=22239&p=84476#p84476 here])

===Real object detection===
People often ask if ZM supports "object detection". The ''core'' ZM engine only detects change in pixels (motion), which is what this article is about. That being said, incase you did not know, ZoneMinder now has support for person, object, face recognition. So while you can and should optimize your zones, if your real interest is person detection, you can do that using my [https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmeventnotification event server]. Note that object detection works ''after'' ZM detects motion change, so this article applies either way.

===Some concepts===

Let's take a look at this area below. Lets suppose you want to trigger motion if someone tries to break into your basement. Does it make sense you monitor the full area (pillars/walls/floor)? Probably not. If someone were to break in, they'd break in from some door, some window, or maybe break in from upstairs and climb down the stairs. So doesn't it make more sense to monitor these areas specifically? I think so. So the first 'common sense' logic is delete the default zone that ZM creates for each monitor (which is called All). Monitoring every part of your image may make sense if you are monitoring and outdoor lawn, for example. Not here.

[[File:Nph-zms.jpeg]]

=== Defining the zone areas ===
So given the explanation above, how about we define zones where motion matters? Any zone you define as "active" is what ZoneMinder will analyze for motion. Ignore the 'preclusive for now'. So lets look at the image below. I've defined polygons around places that are the "entry points"

[[File:With_zones.jpg]]

=== Okay, now how do I specify the sensitivity of the zones? ===

ZoneMinder has pre-sets. We live in a world of pre-sets. I bet you want to select "Best and highly sensitive" don't you? DON'T.
Not because that setting is nonsense, but because you should understand some concepts first.

==== Core Concepts ====
The ZM wiki I pointed to earlier does a great job of explaining different methods. At the cost of repeating what has already been said, its important to note:

* ZM does NOT understand objects. It only understands pixel colors. So if you are monitoring a camera that is producing a 1280x960 32bit color depth image, as far as ZM is concerned, it is getting an array of 1280*960*32 bits of data to analyze and compare a previous frame and based on 'color differences' between frame X-1 and X along with some algorithms it applies in addition to color differences, it tries and guesses if objects (in ZM speak, a specific pattern of pixels) have come up that were not there previously.

* ZM has 3 methods of detection: Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs. Here is a visual explanation of their differences

The first image is a 20x20 grid. Let's assume this is a zone. And the black circle is some object in this grid.
The second image shows the next frame of that image, where new 'objects' have appeared, or in ZM's view 'new sets of pixel patterns'

Now let's talk about Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs

[[File:Reference.jpg]]
[[File:Reference next frame.jpg]]

=====Alarmed Pixels=====
Alarmed pixels only deals with pixels changes. If we use the alarmed pixel method and specify a minimum of "5 pixel" changes (lets forget max for now), then
all the new pixels of set A + B + C + D will count as alarmed pixels and the total alarmed pixel count will be A+B+C+D

=====Filtered Pixels=====
Now let's assume we used Filtered pixels and set it to 2x2 pixels. The in addition to computing the alarmed pixels (A+B+C+D), it will also count how many of these sets have at least 2 pixels around them that are also alarmed pixels. This will result in B+C+D (set A will be discarded as they don't have any pixels surrounded by at least 2 pixels that have changed color from the prev. frame)

=====Blob Pixels=====
Now lets assume we used Blob and said a blob needs to be at least 10 pixels. Then what it will do is based on the set computed by Filtered pixels, which is B+C+D it will look for contiguous blobs of 10 pixels and that only means D

So, in Alarmed pixels any of A, B, C or D would raise an alarm
In filtered pixel mode, only B, C or D would raise an alarm
In blob mode only D would raise an alarm

Okay, that was a simple explanation. And I did not cover more details on min/max. But I hope you get the core idea..

===Got the theory. Let's get back to your basement image===

Okay, back to my basement and my 3 zones.
====Which detection type should I use?====
I personally feel to detect "humans", blob is the best. As I described above, it combines Alarm + Filtered + ensures that the pixel differences are contiguous and then does an algorithmic analysis to see if it forms 'blobs'

====Pixels or percents?====
What makes more sense to you? "Raise an alarm if 178 pixels are changed" or "Raise an alarm if more than 20% of my zone has changed?". To some, the latter makes much more sense. However, if you really want more fine grained control, you should use pixels. I used percent when I first started off, but then realized that pixels was more powerful when you are trying to eliminate false alarms.

(Pixels are especially useful if the difference in sizes is small. Example: its not possible to visualize the difference between 10% and 15%)

====Selecting the right values====

=====Using percents=====
(As of 2019, I recommend pixels, but I've kept this here for those who prefer percents)

It helps to think visually here. Let's go back to the zones I drew of my basement and try and visually place how a person and a pet would look in each zone. Here is a take:
[[File:Of_men_and_animals.jpg]]

* '''Zones and Depths:''' One of the learning for me was that don't make zones cover a lot of depth as far as the camera lens goes. Why? Well take a look at the image above. As a person or a pet walks away or towards the camera, it gets significantly bigger or smaller (right, that was not rocket science, but sometimes commonsense 101 helps)

* One of the advantages of using percents is that if you were to change your zone size, the percent settings will likely remain consistent (as they will be percentages of your zone area). In pixel mode, any change to the zone polygon will require updating the other values

* This is what my zone definition for the "stairs area" looks like, using percents:
[[File:Stairs foyer.png]]

=====Using pixels=====
(This is what I ended up using once I got comfortable with zones)
* This was updated Jun 2019, I don't have that basement camera any more, so I am going to use a different image
* I usually start with a Min/Max pixel threshold of 35 (that is, consider pixels alarmed only if the color different between the old pixel and the new one is 35 or more)
* For the min/max alarmed area, I draw a box inside my zone that represents an object size I think is appropriate. In the image below, I am trying to estimate what the size of a person would be in the zone. I use a mac - I simply hit Cmd+Shift+4 - that brings up a screen capture cross hair and as I draw the box, I see its width and height. Once I have a box with the dimension that I think is appropriate, I hit escape and simply fill in Min/Max Area = W*H of that box I used as a visual tool (the image shows a green box, just as a representation). In this case, my box was 42X67 pixels, so I fill in a min area of 2800
* You should also look at filling in a "max" area - this is to avoid sudden "blast of light changes" that raise an alarm. For example, if most of my zone pixels changed, it is unlikely its an object of interest. It is more likely the sun just blasted light on my driveway or a big shadow situation occurred. ZM helpfully tells you your zone area- in this case 92271. You could choose to put in a pixel value that is some large fraction of this value (maybe 90% of it = 83,000 or simply draw another rectangle to represent the largest object that is of interest to you and use that area value)

'''Tip: Don't try to get super precise in your first round: Use less aggressive values to begin with - that is, lesser area values. Keep increasing and testing till you reach a good threshold between bogus detections and real detections. Pixel based detections have a limit.''' You'll never get it perfect. For real object detection as an 'add-on' to motion, look at [https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmeventnotification zmeventnotification], the machine learning based alarm detection extension to ZM

[[File:pixel_area.jpg|800px ]]

* (Note 1: the image is not to scale, so measurements will not tally if you are trying to draw boxes around the example image above)
* (Note 2: when you are measuring sizes, make sure you have not reduced browser scale. If you did, obviously, your pixel markings will be wrong because the image will be scaled)
* I then think about what might be the area inside that rectangle I drew that will have a continuous change in pixels. My guess here was 9x9 which is what I put into the Filter Pixels
* Finally, since I put a value of 2800 in the alarmed pixel area, obviously Min Alarmed Area > Min Filtered Area > Min Blob Area. So I set Min Filtered Area to around 35% of 2800 = 1000 and blob area to around 90% of filtered area (approx 900), the reason being in my estimate blob area should closely match filtered area of contiguous pixels for humans. This is my guess *shrug*

Lets see how ZM will use these values:
'''(While the example below refers to percents, the same logic applies to pixels)'''

* Use the "blob" method to detect movement (which means first use Alarmed pixels, then use Filtered Pixels, then use Blob)

ZM's motion detection algorithm for this zone:

#Set A = full zone pixels
#(Min/Max Pixel Thres) In the *Full* area defined by the zone, check if there are any pixels that have have a 40 count difference in pixel color from a previous. Assign to Set B. If Set B = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Min/Max Alarmed Area) check if Set B is at least 6% of Set A and not more than 75% of Set A. If Set B does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Filter Width/Height) In the set of pixels (Set B) that are different in color value of 40, check if there are pixels that are surrounded by 5 more pixels around them that are also different in color value of 40. Assign to Set C. If Set C = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Filtered Area) check if Set C forms at least 4% of Set A but no more than 75% of Set A. If Set C does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Blob Area) use Blob logic on Set C to figure out how many Blobs are there. A blob that is at least 4% in size of Set A (full pixels) is considered a blob. Assign this to Set D.
#(Min/Max Blobs) - If the # of blobs in Set D is less than 1, don't raise an alarm, don't proceed with rest
#''' Raise Alarm!'''

===Some other optimizations===
There are other optimizations you can do:
* Another setting I found useful is to use "Alarm Frame Count". This is not part of Zones, but part of your monitor definition (Buffers tab). It specifies the minimum amount of alarm frames to trigger an alarm. Most of my cameras are on Wifi and my basement is farthest away from my AP, so I occasionally get smearing. Setting this to 3 reduces almost all smears raising an alarm
* As I wrote earlier, use maximum values in the zone definition to reduce 'change bursts' (significant pixel coloration changes due to spikes of light/shadows)

Understanding ZoneMinder's Zoning system for Dummies

2019-06-30T12:39:39Z

Asker:

[[Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04|<Home]]

===Background===

ZoneMinder has a flexible (albeit hard to easily configure) zone detection system using which you can modify how sensitive, precise, accurate your motion alarms are. The official ZM documentation does a good job of describing all the concepts [http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Defining_Zones here]. However, you will see
gobs of posts in the forum about people complaining that ZM logs all sorts of events (ahem, as did I), ZM's detection is rubbish and in-camera is better (ahem, as did I) and what not. But once you get the concept, its incredibly powerful.

So instead of giving you a theoretical explanation, lets walk through a live use-case. (Credit: user kkrofft helped a lot in me getting a hang of things [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=23024 here]. You should also read his earlier explanation [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=22239&p=84476#p84476 here])

===Real object detection===
People often ask if ZM supports "object detection". The ''core'' ZM engine only detects change in pixels (motion), which is what this article is about. That being said, incase you did not know, ZoneMinder now has support for person, object, face recognition. So while you can and should optimize your zones, if your real interest is person detection, you can do that using my [https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmeventnotification event server]. Note that object detection works ''after'' ZM detects motion change, so this article applies either way.

===Some concepts===

Let's take a look at this area below. Lets suppose you want to trigger motion if someone tries to break into your basement. Does it make sense you monitor the full area (pillars/walls/floor)? Probably not. If someone were to break in, they'd break in from some door, some window, or maybe break in from upstairs and climb down the stairs. So doesn't it make more sense to monitor these areas specifically? I think so. So the first 'common sense' logic is delete the default zone that ZM creates for each monitor (which is called All). Monitoring every part of your image may make sense if you are monitoring and outdoor lawn, for example. Not here.

[[File:Nph-zms.jpeg]]

=== Defining the zone areas ===
So given the explanation above, how about we define zones where motion matters? Any zone you define as "active" is what ZoneMinder will analyze for motion. Ignore the 'preclusive for now'. So lets look at the image below. I've defined polygons around places that are the "entry points"

[[File:With_zones.jpg]]

=== Okay, now how do I specify the sensitivity of the zones? ===

ZoneMinder has pre-sets. We live in a world of pre-sets. I bet you want to select "Best and highly sensitive" don't you? DON'T.
Not because that setting is nonsense, but because you should understand some concepts first.

==== Core Concepts ====
The ZM wiki I pointed to earlier does a great job of explaining different methods. At the cost of repeating what has already been said, its important to note:

* ZM does NOT understand objects. It only understands pixel colors. So if you are monitoring a camera that is producing a 1280x960 32bit color depth image, as far as ZM is concerned, it is getting an array of 1280*960*32 bits of data to analyze and compare a previous frame and based on 'color differences' between frame X-1 and X along with some algorithms it applies in addition to color differences, it tries and guesses if objects (in ZM speak, a specific pattern of pixels) have come up that were not there previously.

* ZM has 3 methods of detection: Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs. Here is a visual explanation of their differences

The first image is a 20x20 grid. Let's assume this is a zone. And the black circle is some object in this grid.
The second image shows the next frame of that image, where new 'objects' have appeared, or in ZM's view 'new sets of pixel patterns'

Now let's talk about Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs

[[File:Reference.jpg]]
[[File:Reference next frame.jpg]]

=====Alarmed Pixels=====
Alarmed pixels only deals with pixels changes. If we use the alarmed pixel method and specify a minimum of "5 pixel" changes (lets forget max for now), then
all the new pixels of set A + B + C + D will count as alarmed pixels and the total alarmed pixel count will be A+B+C+D

=====Filtered Pixels=====
Now let's assume we used Filtered pixels and set it to 2x2 pixels. The in addition to computing the alarmed pixels (A+B+C+D), it will also count how many of these sets have at least 2 pixels around them that are also alarmed pixels. This will result in B+C+D (set A will be discarded as they don't have any pixels surrounded by at least 2 pixels that have changed color from the prev. frame)

=====Blob Pixels=====
Now lets assume we used Blob and said a blob needs to be at least 10 pixels. Then what it will do is based on the set computed by Filtered pixels, which is B+C+D it will look for contiguous blobs of 10 pixels and that only means D

So, in Alarmed pixels any of A, B, C or D would raise an alarm
In filtered pixel mode, only B, C or D would raise an alarm
In blob mode only D would raise an alarm

Okay, that was a simple explanation. And I did not cover more details on min/max. But I hope you get the core idea..

===Got the theory. Let's get back to your basement image===

Okay, back to my basement and my 3 zones.
====Which detection type should I use?====
I personally feel to detect "humans", blob is the best. As I described above, it combines Alarm + Filtered + ensures that the pixel differences are contiguous and then does an algorithmic analysis to see if it forms 'blobs'

====Pixels or percents?====
What makes more sense to you? "Raise an alarm if 178 pixels are changed" or "Raise an alarm if more than 20% of my zone has changed?". To some, the latter makes much more sense. However, if you really want more fine grained control, you should use pixels. I used percent when I first started off, but then realized that pixels was more powerful when you are trying to eliminate false alarms.

(Pixels are especially useful if the difference in sizes is small. Example: its not possible to visualize the difference between 10% and 15%)

====Selecting the right values====

=====Using percents=====
(As of 2019, I recommend pixels, but I've kept this here for those who prefer percents)

It helps to think visually here. Let's go back to the zones I drew of my basement and try and visually place how a person and a pet would look in each zone. Here is a take:
[[File:Of_men_and_animals.jpg]]

* '''Zones and Depths:''' One of the learning for me was that don't make zones cover a lot of depth as far as the camera lens goes. Why? Well take a look at the image above. As a person or a pet walks away or towards the camera, it gets significantly bigger or smaller (right, that was not rocket science, but sometimes commonsense 101 helps)

* One of the advantages of using percents is that if you were to change your zone size, the percent settings will likely remain consistent (as they will be percentages of your zone area). In pixel mode, any change to the zone polygon will require updating the other values

* This is what my zone definition for the "stairs area" looks like, using percents:
[[File:Stairs foyer.png]]

=====Using pixels=====
(This is what I ended up using once I got comfortable with zones)
* This was updated Jun 2019, I don't have that basement camera any more, so I am going to use a different image
* I usually start with a Min/Max pixel threshold of 35 (that is, consider pixels alarmed only if the color different between the old pixel and the new one is 35 or more)
* For the min/max alarmed area, I draw a box inside my zone that represents an object size I think is appropriate. In the image below, I am trying to estimate what the size of a person would be in the zone. I use a mac - I simply hit Cmd+Shift+4 - that brings up a screen capture cross hair and as I draw the box, I see its width and height. Once I have a box with the dimension that I think is appropriate, I hit escape and simply fill in Min/Max Area = W*H of that box I used as a visual tool (the image shows a green box, just as a representation). In this case, my box was 42X67 pixels, so I fill in a min area of 2800
* You should also look at filling in a "max" area - this is to avoid sudden "blast of light changes" that raise an alarm. For example, if most of my zone pixels changed, it is unlikely its an object of interest. It is more likely the sun just blasted light on my driveway or a big shadow situation occurred. ZM helpfully tells you your zone area- in this case 92271. You could choose to put in a pixel value that is some large fraction of this value (maybe 90% of it = 83,000 or simply draw another rectangle to represent the largest object that is of interest to you and use that area value)

'''Tip: Don't try to get super precise in your first round: Use less aggressive values to begin with - that is, lesser area values. Keep increasing and testing till you reach a good threshold between bogus detections and real detections. Pixel based detections have a limit. You'll never get it perfect. For real object detection, look at [https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmeventnotification zmeventnotification], the machine learning based alarm detection extension to ZM'''

[[File:pixel_area.jpg|800px ]]

* (Note 1: the image is not to scale, so measurements will not tally if you are trying to draw boxes around the example image above)
* (Note 2: when you are measuring sizes, make sure you have not reduced browser scale. If you did, obviously, your pixel markings will be wrong because the image will be scaled)
* I then think about what might be the area inside that rectangle I drew that will have a continuous change in pixels. My guess here was 9x9 which is what I put into the Filter Pixels
* Finally, since I put a value of 2800 in the alarmed pixel area, obviously Min Alarmed Area > Min Filtered Area > Min Blob Area. So I set Min Filtered Area to around 35% of 2800 = 1000 and blob area to around 90% of filtered area (approx 900), the reason being in my estimate blob area should closely match filtered area of contiguous pixels for humans. This is my guess *shrug*

Lets see how ZM will use these values:
'''(While the example below refers to percents, the same logic applies to pixels)'''

* Use the "blob" method to detect movement (which means first use Alarmed pixels, then use Filtered Pixels, then use Blob)

ZM's motion detection algorithm for this zone:

#Set A = full zone pixels
#(Min/Max Pixel Thres) In the *Full* area defined by the zone, check if there are any pixels that have have a 40 count difference in pixel color from a previous. Assign to Set B. If Set B = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Min/Max Alarmed Area) check if Set B is at least 6% of Set A and not more than 75% of Set A. If Set B does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Filter Width/Height) In the set of pixels (Set B) that are different in color value of 40, check if there are pixels that are surrounded by 5 more pixels around them that are also different in color value of 40. Assign to Set C. If Set C = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Filtered Area) check if Set C forms at least 4% of Set A but no more than 75% of Set A. If Set C does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Blob Area) use Blob logic on Set C to figure out how many Blobs are there. A blob that is at least 4% in size of Set A (full pixels) is considered a blob. Assign this to Set D.
#(Min/Max Blobs) - If the # of blobs in Set D is less than 1, don't raise an alarm, don't proceed with rest
#''' Raise Alarm!'''

===Some other optimizations===
There are other optimizations you can do:
* Another setting I found useful is to use "Alarm Frame Count". This is not part of Zones, but part of your monitor definition (Buffers tab). It specifies the minimum amount of alarm frames to trigger an alarm. Most of my cameras are on Wifi and my basement is farthest away from my AP, so I occasionally get smearing. Setting this to 3 reduces almost all smears raising an alarm
* As I wrote earlier, use maximum values in the zone definition to reduce 'change bursts' (significant pixel coloration changes due to spikes of light/shadows)

Understanding ZoneMinder's Zoning system for Dummies

2019-06-30T12:30:40Z

Asker:

[[Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04|<Home]]

===Background===

ZoneMinder has a powerful zone detection system using which you can modify how sensitive, precise, accurate your motion alarms are. The official ZM documentation does a good job of describing all the concepts [http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Defining_Zones here]. However, you will see
gobs of posts in the forum about people complaining that ZM logs all sorts of events (ahem, as did I), ZM's detection is rubbish and in-camera is better (ahem, as did I) and what not. But once you get the concept, its incredibly powerful.

So instead of giving you a theoretical explanation, lets walk through a live use-case. (Credit: user kkrofft helped a lot in me getting a hang of things [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=23024 here]. You should also read his earlier explanation [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=22239&p=84476#p84476 here])

===Updated on Apr 2019===

Incase you did not know, ZoneMinder now has support for person, object, face recognition. So while you can and should optimize your zones, if your real interest is person detection, you can do that using my [https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmeventnotification event server]

===Some concepts===

Let's take a look at this area below. Lets suppose you want to trigger motion if someone tries to break into your basement. Does it make sense you monitor the full area (pillars/walls/floor)? Probably not. If someone were to break in, they'd break in from some door, some window, or maybe break in from upstairs and climb down the stairs. So doesn't it make more sense to monitor these areas specifically? I think so. So the first 'common sense' logic is delete the default zone that ZM creates for each monitor (which is called All). Monitoring every part of your image may make sense if you are monitoring and outdoor lawn, for example. Not here

[[File:Nph-zms.jpeg]]

=== Defining the zone areas ===
So given the explanation above, how about we define zones where motion matters? Any zone you define as "active" is what ZoneMinder will analyze for motion. Ignore the 'preclusive for now'. So lets look at the image below. I've defined polygons around places that are the "entry points"

[[File:With_zones.jpg]]

=== Okay, now how do I specify the sensitivity of the zones? ===

ZoneMinder has pre-sets. We live in a world of pre-sets. I bet you want to select "Best and highly sensitive" don't you? DON'T.
Not because that setting is nonsense, but because you should understand some concepts first.

==== Core Concepts ====
The ZM wiki I pointed to earlier does a great job of explaining different methods. At the cost of repeating what has already been said, its important to note:

* ZM does NOT understand objects. It only understands pixel colors. So if you are monitoring a camera that is producing a 1280x960 32bit color depth image, as far as ZM is concerned, it is getting an array of 1280*960*32 bits of data to analyze and compare a previous frame and based on 'color differences' between frame X-1 and X along with some algorithms it applies in addition to color differences, it tries and guesses if objects (in ZM speak, a specific pattern of pixels) have come up that were not there previously.

* ZM has 3 methods of detection: Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs. Here is a visual explanation of their differences

The first image is a 20x20 grid. Let's assume this is a zone. And the black circle is some object in this grid.
The second image shows the next frame of that image, where new 'objects' have appeared, or in ZM's view 'new sets of pixel patterns'

Now let's talk about Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs

[[File:Reference.jpg]]
[[File:Reference next frame.jpg]]

=====Alarmed Pixels=====
Alarmed pixels only deals with pixels changes. If we use the alarmed pixel method and specify a minimum of "5 pixel" changes (lets forget max for now), then
all the new pixels of set A + B + C + D will count as alarmed pixels and the total alarmed pixel count will be A+B+C+D

=====Filtered Pixels=====
Now let's assume we used Filtered pixels and set it to 2x2 pixels. The in addition to computing the alarmed pixels (A+B+C+D), it will also count how many of these sets have at least 2 pixels around them that are also alarmed pixels. This will result in B+C+D (set A will be discarded as they don't have any pixels surrounded by at least 2 pixels that have changed color from the prev. frame)

=====Blob Pixels=====
Now lets assume we used Blob and said a blob needs to be at least 10 pixels. Then what it will do is based on the set computed by Filtered pixels, which is B+C+D it will look for contiguous blobs of 10 pixels and that only means D

So, in Alarmed pixels any of A, B, C or D would raise an alarm
In filtered pixel mode, only B, C or D would raise an alarm
In blob mode only D would raise an alarm

Okay, that was a simple explanation. And I did not cover more details on min/max. But I hope you get the core idea..

===Yawn. Forget the theory. Let's get back to your basement image===

Okay, back to my basement and my 3 zones.
====Which detection type should I use?====
I personally feel to detect "humans", blob is the best. As I described above, it combines Alarm + Filtered + ensures that the pixel differences are contiguous and then does an algorithmic analysis to see if it forms 'blobs'

====Pixels or percents?====
What makes more sense to you? "Raise an alarm if 178 pixels are changed" or "Raise an alarm if more than 20% of my zone has changed?". To some, the latter makes much more sense. However, if you really want more fine grained control, you should use pixels. I used percent when I first started off, but then realized that pixels was more powerful when you are trying to eliminate false alarms.

(Pixels are especially useful if the difference in sizes is small. Example: its not possible to visualize the difference between 10% and 15%)

====Selecting the right values====

=====Using percents=====
It helps to think visually here. Let's go back to the zones I drew of my basement and try and visually place how a person and a pet would look in each zone. Here is a take:
[[File:Of_men_and_animals.jpg]]

* '''Zones and Depths:''' One of the learning for me was that don't make zones cover a lot of depth as far as the camera lens goes. Why? Well take a look at the image above. As a person or a pet walks away or towards the camera, it gets significantly bigger or smaller (right, that was not rocket science, but sometimes commonsense 101 helps)

* '''Percent vs. Pixels:''' Back to my previous point -if you specify alarmed areas in pixels, in addition to being able to visualize better (at least for me) the added advantage is the setting scales as zone sizes changes. For example the % of space the person takes in my far end "Door" zone is quite similar to the % of space the person takes in my couch area (in other words, both the zone and person have scaled up in size, so relative % is still the same)

* So having said all of this, this is what my zone definition for the "stairs area" looks like:
[[File:Stairs foyer.png]]

=====Using pixels=====
(This is what I ended up using once I got comfortable with zones)
* This was updated Jun 2019, I don't have that basement camera any more, so I am going to use a different image
* I usually start with a Min/Max pixel threshold of 35 (that is, consider pixels alarmed only if the color different between the old pixel and the new one is 35 or more)
* For the min/max alarmed area, I draw a box inside my zone that represents an object size I think is appropriate. In the image below, I am trying to estimate what the size of a person would be in the zone. I use a mac - I simply hit Cmd+Shift+4 - that brings up a screen capture cross hair and as I draw the box, I see its width and height. Once I have a box with the dimension that I think is appropriate, I hit escape and simply fill in Min/Max Area = W*H of that box I used as a visual tool (the image shows a green box, just as a representation). In this case, my box was 42X67 pixels, so I fill in a min area of 2800
* You should also look at filling in a "max" area - this is to avoid sudden "blast of light changes" that raise an alarm. For example, if most of my zone pixels changed, it is unlikely its an object of interest. It is more likely the sun just blasted light on my driveway or a big shadow situation occurred. ZM helpfully tells you your zone area- in this case 92271. You could choose to put in a pixel value that is some large fraction of this value (maybe 90% of it = 83,000 or simply draw another rectangle to represent the largest object that is of interest to you and use that area value)

'''Tip: Don't try to get super precise in your first round: Use less aggressive values to begin with - that is, lesser area values. Keep increasing and testing till you reach a good threshold between bogus detections and real detections. Pixel based detections have a limit. You'll never get it perfect. For real object detection, look at zmeventnotification, the machine learning based alarm detection extension to ZM'''

[[File:pixel_area.jpg|800px ]]

* (Note 1: the image is not to scale, so measurements will not tally if you are trying to draw boxes around the example image above)
* (Note 2: when you are measuring sizes, make sure you have not reduced browser scale. If you did, obviously, your pixel markings will be wrong because the image will be scaled)
* I then think about what might be the area inside that rectangle I drew that will have a continuous change in pixels. My guess here was 9x9 which is what I put into the Filter Pixels
* Finally, since I put a value of 2800 in the alarmed pixel area, obviously Min Alarmed Area > Min Filtered Area > Min Blob Area. So I set Min Filtered Area to around 35% of 2800 = 1000 and blob area to around 90% of filtered area (approx 900), the reason being in my estimate blob area should closely match filtered area of contiguous pixels for humans. This is my guess *shrug*

Lets see how ZM will use these values:
'''(While the example below refers to percents, the same logic applies to pixels)'''

* Use the "blob" method to detect movement (which means first use Alarmed pixels, then use Filtered Pixels, then use Blob)

ZM's motion detection algorithm for this zone:

#Set A = full zone pixels
#(Min/Max Pixel Thres) In the *Full* area defined by the zone, check if there are any pixels that have have a 40 count difference in pixel color from a previous. Assign to Set B. If Set B = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Min/Max Alarmed Area) check if Set B is at least 6% of Set A and not more than 75% of Set A. If Set B does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Filter Width/Height) In the set of pixels (Set B) that are different in color value of 40, check if there are pixels that are surrounded by 5 more pixels around them that are also different in color value of 40. Assign to Set C. If Set C = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Filtered Area) check if Set C forms at least 4% of Set A but no more than 75% of Set A. If Set C does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Blob Area) use Blob logic on Set C to figure out how many Blobs are there. A blob that is at least 4% in size of Set A (full pixels) is considered a blob. Assign this to Set D.
#(Min/Max Blobs) - If the # of blobs in Set D is less than 1, don't raise an alarm, don't proceed with rest
#''' Raise Alarm!'''

Note the percentages I describe above seem lesser than the visual percentages when you look at the image. First, my image is not to scale. Second, I guess I could increase the percentages, but these values are working quite well for me, but in reality I guess I could easily increase, say, 6% to 10%. In general, I'd recommend using the least value that is not triggered by small things - keep raising it till you stop getting 90% of spurious alarms, but no further. If you try and eliminate all spurious events, then its likely you will also miss some valid motion (that's a non scientific anecdotal statement, so feel free to challenge me here)

===Some other optimizations===
There are other optimizations you can do:
* Another setting I found useful is to use "Alarm Frame Count". This is not part of Zones, but part of your monitor definition (Buffers tab). It specifies the minimum amount of alarm frames to trigger an alarm. Most of my cameras are on Wifi and my basement is farthest away from my AP, so I occasionally get smearing. Setting this to 3 reduces almost all smears raising an alarm
* As I wrote earlier, use maximum values in the zone definition to reduce 'change bursts' (significant pixel coloration changes due to spikes of light/shadows)

Understanding ZoneMinder's Zoning system for Dummies

2019-06-30T12:28:38Z

Asker:

[[Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04|<Home]]

===Background===

ZoneMinder has a powerful zone detection system using which you can modify how sensitive, precise, accurate your motion alarms are. The official ZM documentation does a good job of describing all the concepts [http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Defining_Zones here]. However, you will see
gobs of posts in the forum about people complaining that ZM logs all sorts of events (ahem, as did I), ZM's detection is rubbish and in-camera is better (ahem, as did I) and what not. But once you get the concept, its incredibly powerful.

So instead of giving you a theoretical explanation, lets walk through a live use-case. (Credit: user kkrofft helped a lot in me getting a hang of things [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=23024 here]. You should also read his earlier explanation [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=22239&p=84476#p84476 here])

===Updated on Apr 2019===

Incase you did not know, ZoneMinder now has support for person, object, face recognition. So while you can and should optimize your zones, if your real interest is person detection, you can do that using my [https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmeventnotification event server]

===Some concepts===

Let's take a look at this area below. Lets suppose you want to trigger motion if someone tries to break into your basement. Does it make sense you monitor the full area (pillars/walls/floor)? Probably not. If someone were to break in, they'd break in from some door, some window, or maybe break in from upstairs and climb down the stairs. So doesn't it make more sense to monitor these areas specifically? I think so. So the first 'common sense' logic is delete the default zone that ZM creates for each monitor (which is called All). Monitoring every part of your image may make sense if you are monitoring and outdoor lawn, for example. Not here

[[File:Nph-zms.jpeg]]

=== Defining the zone areas ===
So given the explanation above, how about we define zones where motion matters? Any zone you define as "active" is what ZoneMinder will analyze for motion. Ignore the 'preclusive for now'. So lets look at the image below. I've defined polygons around places that are the "entry points"

[[File:With_zones.jpg]]

=== Okay, now how do I specify the sensitivity of the zones? ===

ZoneMinder has pre-sets. We live in a world of pre-sets. I bet you want to select "Best and highly sensitive" don't you? DON'T.
Not because that setting is nonsense, but because you should understand some concepts first.

==== Core Concepts ====
The ZM wiki I pointed to earlier does a great job of explaining different methods. At the cost of repeating what has already been said, its important to note:

* ZM does NOT understand objects. It only understands pixel colors. So if you are monitoring a camera that is producing a 1280x960 32bit color depth image, as far as ZM is concerned, it is getting an array of 1280*960*32 bits of data to analyze and compare a previous frame and based on 'color differences' between frame X-1 and X along with some algorithms it applies in addition to color differences, it tries and guesses if objects (in ZM speak, a specific pattern of pixels) have come up that were not there previously.

* ZM has 3 methods of detection: Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs. Here is a visual explanation of their differences

The first image is a 20x20 grid. Let's assume this is a zone. And the black circle is some object in this grid.
The second image shows the next frame of that image, where new 'objects' have appeared, or in ZM's view 'new sets of pixel patterns'

Now let's talk about Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs

[[File:Reference.jpg]]
[[File:Reference next frame.jpg]]

=====Alarmed Pixels=====
Alarmed pixels only deals with pixels changes. If we use the alarmed pixel method and specify a minimum of "5 pixel" changes (lets forget max for now), then
all the new pixels of set A + B + C + D will count as alarmed pixels and the total alarmed pixel count will be A+B+C+D

=====Filtered Pixels=====
Now let's assume we used Filtered pixels and set it to 2x2 pixels. The in addition to computing the alarmed pixels (A+B+C+D), it will also count how many of these sets have at least 2 pixels around them that are also alarmed pixels. This will result in B+C+D (set A will be discarded as they don't have any pixels surrounded by at least 2 pixels that have changed color from the prev. frame)

=====Blob Pixels=====
Now lets assume we used Blob and said a blob needs to be at least 10 pixels. Then what it will do is based on the set computed by Filtered pixels, which is B+C+D it will look for contiguous blobs of 10 pixels and that only means D

So, in Alarmed pixels any of A, B, C or D would raise an alarm
In filtered pixel mode, only B, C or D would raise an alarm
In blob mode only D would raise an alarm

Okay, that was a simple explanation. And I did not cover more details on min/max. But I hope you get the core idea..

===Yawn. Forget the theory. Let's get back to your basement image===

Okay, back to my basement and my 3 zones.
====Which detection type should I use?====
I personally feel to detect "humans", blob is the best. As I described above, it combines Alarm + Filtered + ensures that the pixel differences are contiguous and then does an algorithmic analysis to see if it forms 'blobs'

====Pixels or percents?====
What makes more sense to you? "Raise an alarm if 178 pixels are changed" or "Raise an alarm if more than 20% of my zone has changed?". To some, the latter makes much more sense. However, if you really want more fine grained control, you should use pixels. I used percent when I first started off, but then realized that pixels was more powerful when you are trying to eliminate false alarms.

(Pixels are especially useful if the difference in sizes is small. Example: its not possible to visualize the difference between 10% and 15%)

====Selecting the right values====

=====Using percents=====
It helps to think visually here. Let's go back to the zones I drew of my basement and try and visually place how a person and a pet would look in each zone. Here is a take:
[[File:Of_men_and_animals.jpg]]

* '''Zones and Depths:''' One of the learning for me was that don't make zones cover a lot of depth as far as the camera lens goes. Why? Well take a look at the image above. As a person or a pet walks away or towards the camera, it gets significantly bigger or smaller (right, that was not rocket science, but sometimes commonsense 101 helps)

* '''Percent vs. Pixels:''' Back to my previous point -if you specify alarmed areas in pixels, in addition to being able to visualize better (at least for me) the added advantage is the setting scales as zone sizes changes. For example the % of space the person takes in my far end "Door" zone is quite similar to the % of space the person takes in my couch area (in other words, both the zone and person have scaled up in size, so relative % is still the same)

* So having said all of this, this is what my zone definition for the "stairs area" looks like:
[[File:Stairs foyer.png]]

=====Using pixels=====
(This is what I ended up using once I got comfortable with zones)
* This was updated Jun 2019, I don't have that basement camera any more, so I am going to use a different image
* I usually start with a Min/Max pixel threshold of 35 (that is, consider pixels alarmed only if the color different between the old pixel and the new one is 35 or more)
* For the min/max alarmed area, I draw a box inside my zone that represents an object size I think is appropriate. In the image below, I am trying to estimate what the size of a person would be in the zone. I use a mac - I simply hit Cmd+Shift+4 - that brings up a screen capture cross hair and as I draw the box, I see its width and height. Once I have a box with the dimension that I think is appropriate, I hit escape and simply fill in Min/Max Area = W*H of that box I used as a visual tool (the image shows a green box, just as a representation). In this case, my box was 42X67 pixels, so I fill in a min area of 2800
* You should also look at filling in a "max" area - this is to avoid sudden "blast of light changes" that raise an alarm. For example, if most of my zone pixels changed, it is unlikely its an object of interest. It is more likely the sun just blasted light on my driveway or a big shadow situation occurred. ZM helpfully tells you your zone area- in this case 92271. You could choose to put in a pixel value that is some large fraction of this value (maybe 90% of it = 83,000 or simply draw another rectangle to represent the largest object that is of interest to you and use that area value)

'''Tip: Don't try to get super precise in your first round: Use less aggressive values to begin with - that is, lesser area values. Keep increasing and testing till you reach a good threshold between bogus detections and real detections. Pixel based detections have a limit. You'll never get it perfect. For real object detection, look at zmeventnotification, the machine learning based alarm detection extension to ZM'''

[[File:pixel_area.jpg|800px ]]

* (Note 1: the image is not to scale, so measurements will not tally if you are trying to draw boxes around the example image above)
* (Note 2: when you are measuring sizes, make sure you have not reduced browser scale. If you did, obviously, your pixel markings will be wrong because the image will be scaled)
* I then think about what might be the area inside that rectangle I drew that will have a continuous change in pixels. My guess here was 9x9 which is what I put into the Filter Pixels
* Finally, since I put a value of 2800 in the alarmed pixel area, obviously Min Alarmed Area > Min Filtered Area > Min Blob Area. So I set Min Filtered Area to around 35% of 2800 = 1000 and blob area to around 90% of filtered area (approx 900), the reason being in my estimate blob area should closely match filtered area of contiguous pixels for humans. This is my guess *shrug*

Lets see how ZM will use these values:
'''(While the example below refers to percents, the same logic applies to pixels)'''

* Use the "blob" method to detect movement (which means first use Alarmed pixels, then use Filtered Pixels, then use Blob)

ZM's motion detection algorithm for this zone:

#Set A = full zone pixels
#(Min/Max Pixel Thres) In the *Full* area defined by the zone, check if there are any pixels that have have a 40 count difference in pixel color from a previous. Assign to Set B. If Set B = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Min/Max Alarmed Area) check if Set B is at least 6% of Set A and not more than 75% of Set A. If Set B does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Filter Width/Height) In the set of pixels (Set B) that are different in color value of 40, check if there are pixels that are surrounded by 5 more pixels around them that are also different in color value of 40. Assign to Set C. If Set C = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Filtered Area) check if Set C forms at least 4% of Set A but no more than 75% of Set A. If Set C does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Blob Area) use Blob logic on Set C to figure out how many Blobs are there. A blob that is at least 4% in size of Set A (full pixels) is considered a blob. Assign this to Set D.
#(Min/Max Blobs) - If the # of blobs in Set D is less than 1, don't raise an alarm, don't proceed with rest
#''' Raise Alarm!'''

Note the percentages I describe above seem lesser than the visual percentages when you look at the image. First, my image is not to scale. Second, I guess I could increase the percentages, but these values are working quite well for me, but in reality I guess I could easily increase, say, 6% to 10%. In general, I'd recommend using the least value that is not triggered by small things - keep raising it till you stop getting 90% of spurious alarms, but no further. If you try and eliminate all spurious events, then its likely you will also miss some valid motion (that's a non scientific anecdotal statement, so feel free to challenge me here)

====Door Zone====
Here is my zone setting for the door (Edit note: the max alarmed/filtered area was changed to 70% - the image shows 90%)

[[File:Door.png]]

The logic is similar to the foyer area - plus, I've used the overload frame count -- basically the sun blasts through the blinds and in those cases the % change is very large (around 75+%) which triggers my max % spec and in that case, I tell zoneminder to ignore the next 2 frames so that this excessive lighting condition does not raise lots of alarms. BTW, this is one zone where I still get 4-5 false events in a day. I am fine with it and prefer to live with it.

====Ah, I get it. But hey what's that preclusive zone in your image at the start of this artlce?====
Ah, ZM allows us to specify a zone where should an alarm occur, it suppresses alarms in that zone and all other zones in the monitor. I've set it to cover my recess lights.
So if someone turns our lights on, I won't get an alarm. Does it work? Yep pretty well. Does it always work? Mostly. Heh heh.

===Some other optimizations===
There are other optimizations you can do. Another setting I found useful is to use "Alarm Frame Count". This is not part of Zones, but part of your monitor definition (Buffers tab). It specifies the minimum amount of alarm frames to trigger an alarm. Most of my cameras are on Wifi and my basement is farthest away from my AP, so I occasionally get smearing. Setting this to 3 reduces almost all smears raising an alarm

===You're a dork. None of this mumbo jumbo worked for me. I want my money back===
Life sucks. Take a break. Drink a glass of wine. Or two. Then get back to your settings. And its possible these don't work for you - try different values. Think visually.
Oh, and I'll need a postage paid envelope to email you a $0 cheque. And a $5 cheque from you to pay for gas to drive to the nearest post box. Labor is free because you did not like my article. There is a lifetime return policy, you see.

Understanding ZoneMinder's Zoning system for Dummies

2019-06-30T12:26:20Z

Asker:

[[Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04|<Home]]

===Background===

ZoneMinder has a powerful zone detection system using which you can modify how sensitive, precise, accurate your motion alarms are. The official ZM documentation does a good job of describing all the concepts [http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Defining_Zones here]. However, you will see
gobs of posts in the forum about people complaining that ZM logs all sorts of events (ahem, as did I), ZM's detection is rubbish and in-camera is better (ahem, as did I) and what not. But once you get the concept, its incredibly powerful.

So instead of giving you a theoretical explanation, lets walk through a live use-case. (Credit: user kkrofft helped a lot in me getting a hang of things [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=23024 here]. You should also read his earlier explanation [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=22239&p=84476#p84476 here])

===Updated on Apr 2019===

Incase you did not know, ZoneMinder now has support for person, object, face recognition. So while you can and should optimize your zones, if your real interest is person detection, you can do that using my [https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmeventnotification event server]

===Some concepts===

Let's take a look at this area below. Lets suppose you want to trigger motion if someone tries to break into your basement. Does it make sense you monitor the full area (pillars/walls/floor)? Probably not. If someone were to break in, they'd break in from some door, some window, or maybe break in from upstairs and climb down the stairs. So doesn't it make more sense to monitor these areas specifically? I think so. So the first 'common sense' logic is delete the default zone that ZM creates for each monitor (which is called All). Monitoring every part of your image may make sense if you are monitoring and outdoor lawn, for example. Not here

[[File:Nph-zms.jpeg]]

=== Defining the zone areas ===
So given the explanation above, how about we define zones where motion matters? Any zone you define as "active" is what ZoneMinder will analyze for motion. Ignore the 'preclusive for now'. So lets look at the image below. I've defined polygons around places that are the "entry points"

[[File:With_zones.jpg]]

=== Okay, now how do I specify the sensitivity of the zones? ===

ZoneMinder has pre-sets. We live in a world of pre-sets. I bet you want to select "Best and highly sensitive" don't you? DON'T.
Not because that setting is nonsense, but because you should understand some concepts first.

==== Core Concepts ====
The ZM wiki I pointed to earlier does a great job of explaining different methods. At the cost of repeating what has already been said, its important to note:

* ZM does NOT understand objects. It only understands pixel colors. So if you are monitoring a camera that is producing a 1280x960 32bit color depth image, as far as ZM is concerned, it is getting an array of 1280*960*32 bits of data to analyze and compare a previous frame and based on 'color differences' between frame X-1 and X along with some algorithms it applies in addition to color differences, it tries and guesses if objects (in ZM speak, a specific pattern of pixels) have come up that were not there previously.

* ZM has 3 methods of detection: Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs. Here is a visual explanation of their differences

The first image is a 20x20 grid. Let's assume this is a zone. And the black circle is some object in this grid.
The second image shows the next frame of that image, where new 'objects' have appeared, or in ZM's view 'new sets of pixel patterns'

Now let's talk about Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs

[[File:Reference.jpg]]
[[File:Reference next frame.jpg]]

=====Alarmed Pixels=====
Alarmed pixels only deals with pixels changes. If we use the alarmed pixel method and specify a minimum of "5 pixel" changes (lets forget max for now), then
all the new pixels of set A + B + C + D will count as alarmed pixels and the total alarmed pixel count will be A+B+C+D

=====Filtered Pixels=====
Now let's assume we used Filtered pixels and set it to 2x2 pixels. The in addition to computing the alarmed pixels (A+B+C+D), it will also count how many of these sets have at least 2 pixels around them that are also alarmed pixels. This will result in B+C+D (set A will be discarded as they don't have any pixels surrounded by at least 2 pixels that have changed color from the prev. frame)

=====Blob Pixels=====
Now lets assume we used Blob and said a blob needs to be at least 10 pixels. Then what it will do is based on the set computed by Filtered pixels, which is B+C+D it will look for contiguous blobs of 10 pixels and that only means D

So, in Alarmed pixels any of A, B, C or D would raise an alarm
In filtered pixel mode, only B, C or D would raise an alarm
In blob mode only D would raise an alarm

Okay, that was a simple explanation. And I did not cover more details on min/max. But I hope you get the core idea..

===Yawn. Forget the theory. Let's get back to your basement image===

Okay, back to my basement and my 3 zones.
====Which detection type should I use?====
I personally feel to detect "humans", blob is the best. As I described above, it combines Alarm + Filtered + ensures that the pixel differences are contiguous and then does an algorithmic analysis to see if it forms 'blobs'

====Pixels or percents?====
What makes more sense to you? "Raise an alarm if 178 pixels are changed" or "Raise an alarm if more than 20% of my zone has changed?". To some, the latter makes much more sense. However, if you really want more fine grained control, you should use pixels. I used percent when I first started off, but then realized that pixels was more powerful when you are trying to eliminate false alarms.

(Pixels are especially useful if the difference in sizes is small. Example: its not possible to visualize the difference between 10% and 15%)

====Selecting the right values====

=====Using percents=====
It helps to think visually here. Let's go back to the zones I drew of my basement and try and visually place how a person and a pet would look in each zone. Here is a take:
[[File:Of_men_and_animals.jpg]]

* '''Zones and Depths:''' One of the learning for me was that don't make zones cover a lot of depth as far as the camera lens goes. Why? Well take a look at the image above. As a person or a pet walks away or towards the camera, it gets significantly bigger or smaller (right, that was not rocket science, but sometimes commonsense 101 helps)

* '''Percent vs. Pixels:''' Back to my previous point -if you specify alarmed areas in pixels, in addition to being able to visualize better (at least for me) the added advantage is the setting scales as zone sizes changes. For example the % of space the person takes in my far end "Door" zone is quite similar to the % of space the person takes in my couch area (in other words, both the zone and person have scaled up in size, so relative % is still the same)

* So having said all of this, this is what my zone definition for the "stairs area" looks like:
[[File:Stairs foyer.png]]

=====Using pixels=====
(This is what I ended up using once I got comfortable with zones)
* This was updated Jun 2019, I don't have that basement camera any more, so I am going to use a different image
* I usually start with a Min/Max pixel threshold of 35 (that is, consider pixels alarmed only if the color different between the old pixel and the new one is 35 or more)
* For the min/max alarmed area, I draw a box inside my zone that represents an object size I think is appropriate. In the image below, I am trying to estimate what the size of a person would be in the zone. I use a mac - I simply hit Cmd+Shift+4 - that brings up a screen capture cross hair and as I draw the box, I see its width and height. Once I have a box with the dimension that I think is appropriate, I hit escape and simply fill in Min/Max Area = W*H of that box I used as a visual tool (the image shows a green box, just as a representation). In this case, my box was 42X67 pixels, so I fill in a min area of 2800
* You should also look at filling in a "max" area - this is to avoid sudden "blast of light changes" that raise an alarm. For example, if most of my zone pixels changed, it is unlikely its an object of interest. It is more likely the sun just blasted light on my driveway or a big shadow situation occurred. ZM helpfully tells you your zone area- in this case 92271. You could choose to put in a pixel value that is some large fraction of this value (maybe 90% of it = 83,000 or simply draw another rectangle to represent the largest object that is of interest to you and use that area value)

'''Tip: Don't try to get super precise in your first round: Use less aggressive values to begin with - that is, lesser area values. Keep increasing and testing till you reach a good threshold between bogus detections and real detections. Pixel based detections have a limit. You'll never get it perfect. For real object detection, look at zmeventnotification, the machine learning based alarm detection extension to ZM'''

[[File:pixel_area.jpg]]

* (Note 1: the image is not to scale, so measurements will not tally if you are trying to draw boxes around the example image above)
* (Note 2: when you are measuring sizes, make sure you have not reduced browser scale. If you did, obviously, your pixel markings will be wrong because the image will be scaled)
* I then think about what might be the area inside that rectangle I drew that will have a continuous change in pixels. My guess here was 9x9 which is what I put into the Filter Pixels
* Finally, since I put a value of 2800 in the alarmed pixel area, obviously Min Alarmed Area > Min Filtered Area > Min Blob Area. So I set Min Filtered Area to around 35% of 2800 = 1000 and blob area to around 90% of filtered area (approx 900), the reason being in my estimate blob area should closely match filtered area of contiguous pixels for humans. This is my guess *shrug*

Lets see how ZM will use these values:
'''(While the example below refers to percents, the same logic applies to pixels)'''

* Use the "blob" method to detect movement (which means first use Alarmed pixels, then use Filtered Pixels, then use Blob)

ZM's motion detection algorithm for this zone:

#Set A = full zone pixels
#(Min/Max Pixel Thres) In the *Full* area defined by the zone, check if there are any pixels that have have a 40 count difference in pixel color from a previous. Assign to Set B. If Set B = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Min/Max Alarmed Area) check if Set B is at least 6% of Set A and not more than 75% of Set A. If Set B does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Filter Width/Height) In the set of pixels (Set B) that are different in color value of 40, check if there are pixels that are surrounded by 5 more pixels around them that are also different in color value of 40. Assign to Set C. If Set C = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Filtered Area) check if Set C forms at least 4% of Set A but no more than 75% of Set A. If Set C does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Blob Area) use Blob logic on Set C to figure out how many Blobs are there. A blob that is at least 4% in size of Set A (full pixels) is considered a blob. Assign this to Set D.
#(Min/Max Blobs) - If the # of blobs in Set D is less than 1, don't raise an alarm, don't proceed with rest
#''' Raise Alarm!'''

Note the percentages I describe above seem lesser than the visual percentages when you look at the image. First, my image is not to scale. Second, I guess I could increase the percentages, but these values are working quite well for me, but in reality I guess I could easily increase, say, 6% to 10%. In general, I'd recommend using the least value that is not triggered by small things - keep raising it till you stop getting 90% of spurious alarms, but no further. If you try and eliminate all spurious events, then its likely you will also miss some valid motion (that's a non scientific anecdotal statement, so feel free to challenge me here)

====Door Zone====
Here is my zone setting for the door (Edit note: the max alarmed/filtered area was changed to 70% - the image shows 90%)

[[File:Door.png]]

The logic is similar to the foyer area - plus, I've used the overload frame count -- basically the sun blasts through the blinds and in those cases the % change is very large (around 75+%) which triggers my max % spec and in that case, I tell zoneminder to ignore the next 2 frames so that this excessive lighting condition does not raise lots of alarms. BTW, this is one zone where I still get 4-5 false events in a day. I am fine with it and prefer to live with it.

====Ah, I get it. But hey what's that preclusive zone in your image at the start of this artlce?====
Ah, ZM allows us to specify a zone where should an alarm occur, it suppresses alarms in that zone and all other zones in the monitor. I've set it to cover my recess lights.
So if someone turns our lights on, I won't get an alarm. Does it work? Yep pretty well. Does it always work? Mostly. Heh heh.

===Some other optimizations===
There are other optimizations you can do. Another setting I found useful is to use "Alarm Frame Count". This is not part of Zones, but part of your monitor definition (Buffers tab). It specifies the minimum amount of alarm frames to trigger an alarm. Most of my cameras are on Wifi and my basement is farthest away from my AP, so I occasionally get smearing. Setting this to 3 reduces almost all smears raising an alarm

===You're a dork. None of this mumbo jumbo worked for me. I want my money back===
Life sucks. Take a break. Drink a glass of wine. Or two. Then get back to your settings. And its possible these don't work for you - try different values. Think visually.
Oh, and I'll need a postage paid envelope to email you a $0 cheque. And a $5 cheque from you to pay for gas to drive to the nearest post box. Labor is free because you did not like my article. There is a lifetime return policy, you see.

File:Pixel area.jpg

2019-06-30T12:25:33Z

Asker:

Understanding ZoneMinder's Zoning system for Dummies

2019-06-30T12:21:47Z

Asker:

[[Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04|<Home]]

===Background===

ZoneMinder has a powerful zone detection system using which you can modify how sensitive, precise, accurate your motion alarms are. The official ZM documentation does a good job of describing all the concepts [http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Defining_Zones here]. However, you will see
gobs of posts in the forum about people complaining that ZM logs all sorts of events (ahem, as did I), ZM's detection is rubbish and in-camera is better (ahem, as did I) and what not. But once you get the concept, its incredibly powerful.

So instead of giving you a theoretical explanation, lets walk through a live use-case. (Credit: user kkrofft helped a lot in me getting a hang of things [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=23024 here]. You should also read his earlier explanation [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=22239&p=84476#p84476 here])

===Updated on Apr 2019===

Incase you did not know, ZoneMinder now has support for person, object, face recognition. So while you can and should optimize your zones, if your real interest is person detection, you can do that using my [https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmeventnotification event server]

===Some concepts===

Let's take a look at this area below. Lets suppose you want to trigger motion if someone tries to break into your basement. Does it make sense you monitor the full area (pillars/walls/floor)? Probably not. If someone were to break in, they'd break in from some door, some window, or maybe break in from upstairs and climb down the stairs. So doesn't it make more sense to monitor these areas specifically? I think so. So the first 'common sense' logic is delete the default zone that ZM creates for each monitor (which is called All). Monitoring every part of your image may make sense if you are monitoring and outdoor lawn, for example. Not here

[[File:Nph-zms.jpeg]]

=== Defining the zone areas ===
So given the explanation above, how about we define zones where motion matters? Any zone you define as "active" is what ZoneMinder will analyze for motion. Ignore the 'preclusive for now'. So lets look at the image below. I've defined polygons around places that are the "entry points"

[[File:With_zones.jpg]]

=== Okay, now how do I specify the sensitivity of the zones? ===

ZoneMinder has pre-sets. We live in a world of pre-sets. I bet you want to select "Best and highly sensitive" don't you? DON'T.
Not because that setting is nonsense, but because you should understand some concepts first.

==== Core Concepts ====
The ZM wiki I pointed to earlier does a great job of explaining different methods. At the cost of repeating what has already been said, its important to note:

* ZM does NOT understand objects. It only understands pixel colors. So if you are monitoring a camera that is producing a 1280x960 32bit color depth image, as far as ZM is concerned, it is getting an array of 1280*960*32 bits of data to analyze and compare a previous frame and based on 'color differences' between frame X-1 and X along with some algorithms it applies in addition to color differences, it tries and guesses if objects (in ZM speak, a specific pattern of pixels) have come up that were not there previously.

* ZM has 3 methods of detection: Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs. Here is a visual explanation of their differences

The first image is a 20x20 grid. Let's assume this is a zone. And the black circle is some object in this grid.
The second image shows the next frame of that image, where new 'objects' have appeared, or in ZM's view 'new sets of pixel patterns'

Now let's talk about Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs

[[File:Reference.jpg]]
[[File:Reference next frame.jpg]]

=====Alarmed Pixels=====
Alarmed pixels only deals with pixels changes. If we use the alarmed pixel method and specify a minimum of "5 pixel" changes (lets forget max for now), then
all the new pixels of set A + B + C + D will count as alarmed pixels and the total alarmed pixel count will be A+B+C+D

=====Filtered Pixels=====
Now let's assume we used Filtered pixels and set it to 2x2 pixels. The in addition to computing the alarmed pixels (A+B+C+D), it will also count how many of these sets have at least 2 pixels around them that are also alarmed pixels. This will result in B+C+D (set A will be discarded as they don't have any pixels surrounded by at least 2 pixels that have changed color from the prev. frame)

=====Blob Pixels=====
Now lets assume we used Blob and said a blob needs to be at least 10 pixels. Then what it will do is based on the set computed by Filtered pixels, which is B+C+D it will look for contiguous blobs of 10 pixels and that only means D

So, in Alarmed pixels any of A, B, C or D would raise an alarm
In filtered pixel mode, only B, C or D would raise an alarm
In blob mode only D would raise an alarm

Okay, that was a simple explanation. And I did not cover more details on min/max. But I hope you get the core idea..

===Yawn. Forget the theory. Let's get back to your basement image===

Okay, back to my basement and my 3 zones.
====Which detection type should I use?====
I personally feel to detect "humans", blob is the best. As I described above, it combines Alarm + Filtered + ensures that the pixel differences are contiguous and then does an algorithmic analysis to see if it forms 'blobs'

====Pixels or percents?====
What makes more sense to you? "Raise an alarm if 178 pixels are changed" or "Raise an alarm if more than 20% of my zone has changed?". To some, the latter makes much more sense. However, if you really want more fine grained control, you should use pixels. I used percent when I first started off, but then realized that pixels was more powerful when you are trying to eliminate false alarms.

(Pixels are especially useful if the difference in sizes is small. Example: its not possible to visualize the difference between 10% and 15%)

====Selecting the right values====

=====Using percents=====
It helps to think visually here. Let's go back to the zones I drew of my basement and try and visually place how a person and a pet would look in each zone. Here is a take:
[[File:Of_men_and_animals.jpg]]

* '''Zones and Depths:''' One of the learning for me was that don't make zones cover a lot of depth as far as the camera lens goes. Why? Well take a look at the image above. As a person or a pet walks away or towards the camera, it gets significantly bigger or smaller (right, that was not rocket science, but sometimes commonsense 101 helps)

* '''Percent vs. Pixels:''' Back to my previous point -if you specify alarmed areas in pixels, in addition to being able to visualize better (at least for me) the added advantage is the setting scales as zone sizes changes. For example the % of space the person takes in my far end "Door" zone is quite similar to the % of space the person takes in my couch area (in other words, both the zone and person have scaled up in size, so relative % is still the same)

* So having said all of this, this is what my zone definition for the "stairs area" looks like:
[[File:Stairs foyer.png]]

=====Using pixels=====
(This is what I ended up using once I got comfortable with zones)
* This was updated Jun 2019, I don't have that basement camera any more, so I am going to use a different image
* I usually start with a Min/Max pixel threshold of 35 (that is, consider pixels alarmed only if the color different between the old pixel and the new one is 35 or more)
* For the min/max alarmed area, I draw a box inside my zone that represents an object size I think is appropriate. In the image below, I am trying to estimate what the size of a person would be in the zone. I use a mac - I simply hit Cmd+Shift+4 - that brings up a screen capture cross hair and as I draw the box, I see its width and height. Once I have a box with the dimension that I think is appropriate, I hit escape and simply fill in Min/Max Area = W*H of that box I used as a visual tool (the image shows a green box, just as a representation). In this case, my box was 42X67 pixels, so I fill in a min area of 2800
* You should also look at filling in a "max" area - this is to avoid sudden "blast of light changes" that raise an alarm. For example, if most of my zone pixels changed, it is unlikely its an object of interest. It is more likely the sun just blasted light on my driveway or a big shadow situation occurred. ZM helpfully tells you your zone area- in this case 92271. You could choose to put in a pixel value that is some large fraction of this value (maybe 90% of it = 83,000 or simply draw another rectangle to represent the largest object that is of interest to you and use that area value)

'''Tip: Don't try to get super precise in your first round: Use less aggressive values to begin with - that is, lesser area values. Keep increasing and testing till you reach a good threshold between bogus detections and real detections. Pixel based detections have a limit. You'll never get it perfect. For real object detection, look at zmeventnotification, the machine learning based alarm detection extension to ZM'''

[[File:pixel area.png]]

* (Note 1: the image is not to scale, so measurements will not tally if you are trying to draw boxes around the example image above)
* (Note 2: when you are measuring sizes, make sure you have not reduced browser scale. If you did, obviously, your pixel markings will be wrong because the image will be scaled)
* I then think about what might be the area inside that rectangle I drew that will have a continuous change in pixels. My guess here was 9x9 which is what I put into the Filter Pixels
* Finally, since I put a value of 2800 in the alarmed pixel area, obviously Min Alarmed Area > Min Filtered Area > Min Blob Area. So I set Min Filtered Area to around 35% of 2800 = 1000 and blob area to around 90% of filtered area (approx 900), the reason being in my estimate blob area should closely match filtered area of contiguous pixels for humans. This is my guess *shrug*

Lets see how ZM will use these values:
'''(While the example below refers to percents, the same logic applies to pixels)'''

* Use the "blob" method to detect movement (which means first use Alarmed pixels, then use Filtered Pixels, then use Blob)

ZM's motion detection algorithm for this zone:

#Set A = full zone pixels
#(Min/Max Pixel Thres) In the *Full* area defined by the zone, check if there are any pixels that have have a 40 count difference in pixel color from a previous. Assign to Set B. If Set B = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Min/Max Alarmed Area) check if Set B is at least 6% of Set A and not more than 75% of Set A. If Set B does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Filter Width/Height) In the set of pixels (Set B) that are different in color value of 40, check if there are pixels that are surrounded by 5 more pixels around them that are also different in color value of 40. Assign to Set C. If Set C = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Filtered Area) check if Set C forms at least 4% of Set A but no more than 75% of Set A. If Set C does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Blob Area) use Blob logic on Set C to figure out how many Blobs are there. A blob that is at least 4% in size of Set A (full pixels) is considered a blob. Assign this to Set D.
#(Min/Max Blobs) - If the # of blobs in Set D is less than 1, don't raise an alarm, don't proceed with rest
#''' Raise Alarm!'''

Note the percentages I describe above seem lesser than the visual percentages when you look at the image. First, my image is not to scale. Second, I guess I could increase the percentages, but these values are working quite well for me, but in reality I guess I could easily increase, say, 6% to 10%. In general, I'd recommend using the least value that is not triggered by small things - keep raising it till you stop getting 90% of spurious alarms, but no further. If you try and eliminate all spurious events, then its likely you will also miss some valid motion (that's a non scientific anecdotal statement, so feel free to challenge me here)

====Door Zone====
Here is my zone setting for the door (Edit note: the max alarmed/filtered area was changed to 70% - the image shows 90%)

[[File:Door.png]]

The logic is similar to the foyer area - plus, I've used the overload frame count -- basically the sun blasts through the blinds and in those cases the % change is very large (around 75+%) which triggers my max % spec and in that case, I tell zoneminder to ignore the next 2 frames so that this excessive lighting condition does not raise lots of alarms. BTW, this is one zone where I still get 4-5 false events in a day. I am fine with it and prefer to live with it.

====Ah, I get it. But hey what's that preclusive zone in your image at the start of this artlce?====
Ah, ZM allows us to specify a zone where should an alarm occur, it suppresses alarms in that zone and all other zones in the monitor. I've set it to cover my recess lights.
So if someone turns our lights on, I won't get an alarm. Does it work? Yep pretty well. Does it always work? Mostly. Heh heh.

===Some other optimizations===
There are other optimizations you can do. Another setting I found useful is to use "Alarm Frame Count". This is not part of Zones, but part of your monitor definition (Buffers tab). It specifies the minimum amount of alarm frames to trigger an alarm. Most of my cameras are on Wifi and my basement is farthest away from my AP, so I occasionally get smearing. Setting this to 3 reduces almost all smears raising an alarm

===You're a dork. None of this mumbo jumbo worked for me. I want my money back===
Life sucks. Take a break. Drink a glass of wine. Or two. Then get back to your settings. And its possible these don't work for you - try different values. Think visually.
Oh, and I'll need a postage paid envelope to email you a $0 cheque. And a $5 cheque from you to pay for gas to drive to the nearest post box. Labor is free because you did not like my article. There is a lifetime return policy, you see.

Understanding ZoneMinder's Zoning system for Dummies

2019-06-29T21:40:07Z

Asker: /* Pixels or percents? */

[[Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04|<Home]]

===Background===

ZoneMinder has a powerful zone detection system using which you can modify how sensitive, precise, accurate your motion alarms are. The official ZM documentation does a good job of describing all the concepts [http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Defining_Zones here]. However, you will see
gobs of posts in the forum about people complaining that ZM logs all sorts of events (ahem, as did I), ZM's detection is rubbish and in-camera is better (ahem, as did I) and what not. But once you get the concept, its incredibly powerful.

So instead of giving you a theoretical explanation, lets walk through a live use-case. (Credit: user kkrofft helped a lot in me getting a hang of things [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=23024 here]. You should also read his earlier explanation [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=22239&p=84476#p84476 here])

===Updated on Apr 2019===

Incase you did not know, ZoneMinder now has support for person, object, face recognition. So while you can and should optimize your zones, if your real interest is person detection, you can do that using my [https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmeventnotification event server]

===Some concepts===

Let's take a look at this area below. Lets suppose you want to trigger motion if someone tries to break into your basement. Does it make sense you monitor the full area (pillars/walls/floor)? Probably not. If someone were to break in, they'd break in from some door, some window, or maybe break in from upstairs and climb down the stairs. So doesn't it make more sense to monitor these areas specifically? I think so. So the first 'common sense' logic is delete the default zone that ZM creates for each monitor (which is called All). Monitoring every part of your image may make sense if you are monitoring and outdoor lawn, for example. Not here

[[File:Nph-zms.jpeg]]

=== Defining the zone areas ===
So given the explanation above, how about we define zones where motion matters? Any zone you define as "active" is what ZoneMinder will analyze for motion. Ignore the 'preclusive for now'. So lets look at the image below. I've defined polygons around places that are the "entry points"

[[File:With_zones.jpg]]

=== Okay, now how do I specify the sensitivity of the zones? ===

ZoneMinder has pre-sets. We live in a world of pre-sets. I bet you want to select "Best and highly sensitive" don't you? DON'T.
Not because that setting is nonsense, but because you should understand some concepts first.

==== Core Concepts ====
The ZM wiki I pointed to earlier does a great job of explaining different methods. At the cost of repeating what has already been said, its important to note:

* ZM does NOT understand objects. It only understands pixel colors. So if you are monitoring a camera that is producing a 1280x960 32bit color depth image, as far as ZM is concerned, it is getting an array of 1280*960*32 bits of data to analyze and compare a previous frame and based on 'color differences' between frame X-1 and X along with some algorithms it applies in addition to color differences, it tries and guesses if objects (in ZM speak, a specific pattern of pixels) have come up that were not there previously.

* ZM has 3 methods of detection: Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs. Here is a visual explanation of their differences

The first image is a 20x20 grid. Let's assume this is a zone. And the black circle is some object in this grid.
The second image shows the next frame of that image, where new 'objects' have appeared, or in ZM's view 'new sets of pixel patterns'

Now let's talk about Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs

[[File:Reference.jpg]]
[[File:Reference next frame.jpg]]

=====Alarmed Pixels=====
Alarmed pixels only deals with pixels changes. If we use the alarmed pixel method and specify a minimum of "5 pixel" changes (lets forget max for now), then
all the new pixels of set A + B + C + D will count as alarmed pixels and the total alarmed pixel count will be A+B+C+D

=====Filtered Pixels=====
Now let's assume we used Filtered pixels and set it to 2x2 pixels. The in addition to computing the alarmed pixels (A+B+C+D), it will also count how many of these sets have at least 2 pixels around them that are also alarmed pixels. This will result in B+C+D (set A will be discarded as they don't have any pixels surrounded by at least 2 pixels that have changed color from the prev. frame)

=====Blob Pixels=====
Now lets assume we used Blob and said a blob needs to be at least 10 pixels. Then what it will do is based on the set computed by Filtered pixels, which is B+C+D it will look for contiguous blobs of 10 pixels and that only means D

So, in Alarmed pixels any of A, B, C or D would raise an alarm
In filtered pixel mode, only B, C or D would raise an alarm
In blob mode only D would raise an alarm

Okay, that was a simple explanation. And I did not cover more details on min/max. But I hope you get the core idea..

===Yawn. Forget the theory. Let's get back to your basement image===

Okay, back to my basement and my 3 zones.
====Which detection type should I use?====
I personally feel to detect "humans", blob is the best. As I described above, it combines Alarm + Filtered + ensures that the pixel differences are contiguous and then does an algorithmic analysis to see if it forms 'blobs'

====Pixels or percents?====
What makes more sense to you? "Raise an alarm if 178 pixels are changed" or "Raise an alarm if more than 20% of my zone has changed?". To some, the latter makes much more sense. However, if you really want more fine grained control, you should use pixels. I used percent when I first started off, but then realized that pixels was more powerful when you are trying to eliminate false alarms.

(Pixels are especially useful if the difference in sizes is small. Example: its not possible to visualize the difference between 10% and 15%)

====Right percents. But what values?====

It helps to think visually here. Let's go back to the zones I drew of my basement and try and visually place how a person and a pet would look in each zone. Here is a take:
[[File:Of_men_and_animals.jpg]]

* '''Zones and Depths:''' One of the learning for me was that don't make zones cover a lot of depth as far as the camera lens goes. Why? Well take a look at the image above. As a person or a pet walks away or towards the camera, it gets significantly bigger or smaller (right, that was not rocket science, but sometimes commonsense 101 helps)

* '''Percent vs. Pixels:''' Back to my previous point -if you specify alarmed areas in pixels, in addition to being able to visualize better (at least for me) the added advantage is the setting scales as zone sizes changes. For example the % of space the person takes in my far end "Door" zone is quite similar to the % of space the person takes in my couch area (in other words, both the zone and person have scaled up in size, so relative % is still the same)

* So having said all of this, this is what my zone definition for the "stairs area" looks like:

====Stairs Zone====

[[File:Stairs foyer.png]]

Lets see how ZM will use these values:

* Use the "blob" method to detect movement (which means first use Alarmed pixels, then use Filtered Pixels, then use Blob)

ZM's motion detection algorithm for this zone:

#Set A = full zone pixels
#(Min/Max Pixel Thres) In the *Full* area defined by the zone, check if there are any pixels that have have a 40 count difference in pixel color from a previous. Assign to Set B. If Set B = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Min/Max Alarmed Area) check if Set B is at least 6% of Set A and not more than 75% of Set A. If Set B does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Filter Width/Height) In the set of pixels (Set B) that are different in color value of 40, check if there are pixels that are surrounded by 5 more pixels around them that are also different in color value of 40. Assign to Set C. If Set C = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Filtered Area) check if Set C forms at least 4% of Set A but no more than 75% of Set A. If Set C does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Blob Area) use Blob logic on Set C to figure out how many Blobs are there. A blob that is at least 4% in size of Set A (full pixels) is considered a blob. Assign this to Set D.
#(Min/Max Blobs) - If the # of blobs in Set D is less than 1, don't raise an alarm, don't proceed with rest
#''' Raise Alarm!'''

Note the percentages I describe above seem lesser than the visual percentages when you look at the image. First, my image is not to scale. Second, I guess I could increase the percentages, but these values are working quite well for me, but in reality I guess I could easily increase, say, 6% to 10%. In general, I'd recommend using the least value that is not triggered by small things - keep raising it till you stop getting 90% of spurious alarms, but no further. If you try and eliminate all spurious events, then its likely you will also miss some valid motion (that's a non scientific anecdotal statement, so feel free to challenge me here)

====Door Zone====
Here is my zone setting for the door (Edit note: the max alarmed/filtered area was changed to 70% - the image shows 90%)

[[File:Door.png]]

The logic is similar to the foyer area - plus, I've used the overload frame count -- basically the sun blasts through the blinds and in those cases the % change is very large (around 75+%) which triggers my max % spec and in that case, I tell zoneminder to ignore the next 2 frames so that this excessive lighting condition does not raise lots of alarms. BTW, this is one zone where I still get 4-5 false events in a day. I am fine with it and prefer to live with it.

====Ah, I get it. But hey what's that preclusive zone in your image at the start of this artlce?====
Ah, ZM allows us to specify a zone where should an alarm occur, it suppresses alarms in that zone and all other zones in the monitor. I've set it to cover my recess lights.
So if someone turns our lights on, I won't get an alarm. Does it work? Yep pretty well. Does it always work? Mostly. Heh heh.

===Some other optimizations===
There are other optimizations you can do. Another setting I found useful is to use "Alarm Frame Count". This is not part of Zones, but part of your monitor definition (Buffers tab). It specifies the minimum amount of alarm frames to trigger an alarm. Most of my cameras are on Wifi and my basement is farthest away from my AP, so I occasionally get smearing. Setting this to 3 reduces almost all smears raising an alarm

===You're a dork. None of this mumbo jumbo worked for me. I want my money back===
Life sucks. Take a break. Drink a glass of wine. Or two. Then get back to your settings. And its possible these don't work for you - try different values. Think visually.
Oh, and I'll need a postage paid envelope to email you a $0 cheque. And a $5 cheque from you to pay for gas to drive to the nearest post box. Labor is free because you did not like my article. There is a lifetime return policy, you see.

Understanding ZoneMinder's Zoning system for Dummies

2019-04-11T15:57:18Z

Asker:

[[Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04|<Home]]

===Background===

ZoneMinder has a powerful zone detection system using which you can modify how sensitive, precise, accurate your motion alarms are. The official ZM documentation does a good job of describing all the concepts [http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Defining_Zones here]. However, you will see
gobs of posts in the forum about people complaining that ZM logs all sorts of events (ahem, as did I), ZM's detection is rubbish and in-camera is better (ahem, as did I) and what not. But once you get the concept, its incredibly powerful.

So instead of giving you a theoretical explanation, lets walk through a live use-case. (Credit: user kkrofft helped a lot in me getting a hang of things [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=23024 here]. You should also read his earlier explanation [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=22239&p=84476#p84476 here])

===Updated on Apr 2019===

Incase you did not know, ZoneMinder now has support for person, object, face recognition. So while you can and should optimize your zones, if your real interest is person detection, you can do that using my [https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmeventnotification event server]

===Some concepts===

Let's take a look at this area below. Lets suppose you want to trigger motion if someone tries to break into your basement. Does it make sense you monitor the full area (pillars/walls/floor)? Probably not. If someone were to break in, they'd break in from some door, some window, or maybe break in from upstairs and climb down the stairs. So doesn't it make more sense to monitor these areas specifically? I think so. So the first 'common sense' logic is delete the default zone that ZM creates for each monitor (which is called All). Monitoring every part of your image may make sense if you are monitoring and outdoor lawn, for example. Not here

[[File:Nph-zms.jpeg]]

=== Defining the zone areas ===
So given the explanation above, how about we define zones where motion matters? Any zone you define as "active" is what ZoneMinder will analyze for motion. Ignore the 'preclusive for now'. So lets look at the image below. I've defined polygons around places that are the "entry points"

[[File:With_zones.jpg]]

=== Okay, now how do I specify the sensitivity of the zones? ===

ZoneMinder has pre-sets. We live in a world of pre-sets. I bet you want to select "Best and highly sensitive" don't you? DON'T.
Not because that setting is nonsense, but because you should understand some concepts first.

==== Core Concepts ====
The ZM wiki I pointed to earlier does a great job of explaining different methods. At the cost of repeating what has already been said, its important to note:

* ZM does NOT understand objects. It only understands pixel colors. So if you are monitoring a camera that is producing a 1280x960 32bit color depth image, as far as ZM is concerned, it is getting an array of 1280*960*32 bits of data to analyze and compare a previous frame and based on 'color differences' between frame X-1 and X along with some algorithms it applies in addition to color differences, it tries and guesses if objects (in ZM speak, a specific pattern of pixels) have come up that were not there previously.

* ZM has 3 methods of detection: Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs. Here is a visual explanation of their differences

The first image is a 20x20 grid. Let's assume this is a zone. And the black circle is some object in this grid.
The second image shows the next frame of that image, where new 'objects' have appeared, or in ZM's view 'new sets of pixel patterns'

Now let's talk about Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs

[[File:Reference.jpg]]
[[File:Reference next frame.jpg]]

=====Alarmed Pixels=====
Alarmed pixels only deals with pixels changes. If we use the alarmed pixel method and specify a minimum of "5 pixel" changes (lets forget max for now), then
all the new pixels of set A + B + C + D will count as alarmed pixels and the total alarmed pixel count will be A+B+C+D

=====Filtered Pixels=====
Now let's assume we used Filtered pixels and set it to 2x2 pixels. The in addition to computing the alarmed pixels (A+B+C+D), it will also count how many of these sets have at least 2 pixels around them that are also alarmed pixels. This will result in B+C+D (set A will be discarded as they don't have any pixels surrounded by at least 2 pixels that have changed color from the prev. frame)

=====Blob Pixels=====
Now lets assume we used Blob and said a blob needs to be at least 10 pixels. Then what it will do is based on the set computed by Filtered pixels, which is B+C+D it will look for contiguous blobs of 10 pixels and that only means D

So, in Alarmed pixels any of A, B, C or D would raise an alarm
In filtered pixel mode, only B, C or D would raise an alarm
In blob mode only D would raise an alarm

Okay, that was a simple explanation. And I did not cover more details on min/max. But I hope you get the core idea..

===Yawn. Forget the theory. Let's get back to your basement image===

Okay, back to my basement and my 3 zones.
====Which detection type should I use?====
I personally feel to detect "humans", blob is the best. As I described above, it combines Alarm + Filtered + ensures that the pixel differences are contiguous and then does an algorithmic analysis to see if it forms 'blobs'

====Pixels or percents?====
What makes more sense to you? "Raise an alarm if 178 pixels are changed" or "Raise an alarm if more than 20% of my zone has changed?". To me, the latter makes much more sense.
So I've always used percents
(Updated in 2019: Given a lot of people seem to refer to this article, in some cases, it does make more sense to use pixels, especially if the difference in sizes is small. Example: its not possible to visualize the difference between 10% and 15%)

====Right percents. But what values?====

It helps to think visually here. Let's go back to the zones I drew of my basement and try and visually place how a person and a pet would look in each zone. Here is a take:
[[File:Of_men_and_animals.jpg]]

* '''Zones and Depths:''' One of the learning for me was that don't make zones cover a lot of depth as far as the camera lens goes. Why? Well take a look at the image above. As a person or a pet walks away or towards the camera, it gets significantly bigger or smaller (right, that was not rocket science, but sometimes commonsense 101 helps)

* '''Percent vs. Pixels:''' Back to my previous point -if you specify alarmed areas in pixels, in addition to being able to visualize better (at least for me) the added advantage is the setting scales as zone sizes changes. For example the % of space the person takes in my far end "Door" zone is quite similar to the % of space the person takes in my couch area (in other words, both the zone and person have scaled up in size, so relative % is still the same)

* So having said all of this, this is what my zone definition for the "stairs area" looks like:

====Stairs Zone====

[[File:Stairs foyer.png]]

Lets see how ZM will use these values:

* Use the "blob" method to detect movement (which means first use Alarmed pixels, then use Filtered Pixels, then use Blob)

ZM's motion detection algorithm for this zone:

#Set A = full zone pixels
#(Min/Max Pixel Thres) In the *Full* area defined by the zone, check if there are any pixels that have have a 40 count difference in pixel color from a previous. Assign to Set B. If Set B = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Min/Max Alarmed Area) check if Set B is at least 6% of Set A and not more than 75% of Set A. If Set B does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Filter Width/Height) In the set of pixels (Set B) that are different in color value of 40, check if there are pixels that are surrounded by 5 more pixels around them that are also different in color value of 40. Assign to Set C. If Set C = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Filtered Area) check if Set C forms at least 4% of Set A but no more than 75% of Set A. If Set C does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Blob Area) use Blob logic on Set C to figure out how many Blobs are there. A blob that is at least 4% in size of Set A (full pixels) is considered a blob. Assign this to Set D.
#(Min/Max Blobs) - If the # of blobs in Set D is less than 1, don't raise an alarm, don't proceed with rest
#''' Raise Alarm!'''

Note the percentages I describe above seem lesser than the visual percentages when you look at the image. First, my image is not to scale. Second, I guess I could increase the percentages, but these values are working quite well for me, but in reality I guess I could easily increase, say, 6% to 10%. In general, I'd recommend using the least value that is not triggered by small things - keep raising it till you stop getting 90% of spurious alarms, but no further. If you try and eliminate all spurious events, then its likely you will also miss some valid motion (that's a non scientific anecdotal statement, so feel free to challenge me here)

====Door Zone====
Here is my zone setting for the door (Edit note: the max alarmed/filtered area was changed to 70% - the image shows 90%)

[[File:Door.png]]

The logic is similar to the foyer area - plus, I've used the overload frame count -- basically the sun blasts through the blinds and in those cases the % change is very large (around 75+%) which triggers my max % spec and in that case, I tell zoneminder to ignore the next 2 frames so that this excessive lighting condition does not raise lots of alarms. BTW, this is one zone where I still get 4-5 false events in a day. I am fine with it and prefer to live with it.

====Ah, I get it. But hey what's that preclusive zone in your image at the start of this artlce?====
Ah, ZM allows us to specify a zone where should an alarm occur, it suppresses alarms in that zone and all other zones in the monitor. I've set it to cover my recess lights.
So if someone turns our lights on, I won't get an alarm. Does it work? Yep pretty well. Does it always work? Mostly. Heh heh.

===Some other optimizations===
There are other optimizations you can do. Another setting I found useful is to use "Alarm Frame Count". This is not part of Zones, but part of your monitor definition (Buffers tab). It specifies the minimum amount of alarm frames to trigger an alarm. Most of my cameras are on Wifi and my basement is farthest away from my AP, so I occasionally get smearing. Setting this to 3 reduces almost all smears raising an alarm

===You're a dork. None of this mumbo jumbo worked for me. I want my money back===
Life sucks. Take a break. Drink a glass of wine. Or two. Then get back to your settings. And its possible these don't work for you - try different values. Think visually.
Oh, and I'll need a postage paid envelope to email you a $0 cheque. And a $5 cheque from you to pay for gas to drive to the nearest post box. Labor is free because you did not like my article. There is a lifetime return policy, you see.

Ubuntu Server 18.04 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.30.4 the easy way

2019-03-18T21:20:33Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

'''Ubuntu 18.04 with Zoneminder 1.30.4 Install Procedure'''

__TOC__

'''

'''23JAN19 I have gone over these procedures and made corrections as needed. Tested/verified as long as the download server stays online. ''''''

===Ubuntu 18.04 AMD64 with LAMP and Zoneminder 1.30.4 Shell Script===

This will install Zoneminder by using a shell script with one basic command (how easy is that!).

You will need a Ubuntu 18.04 install with LAMP (Apache, MySQL and PHP) installed desktop or server. As an alternate you may use Mariadb in lieu of MySQL

Shell script file contents:

#!/bin/sh
clear
read -p "This script installs Zoneminder 1.30.4 on Ubuntu 18.04 AMD64 with LAMP (MySQL) installed...
Press Enter to continue or Ctrl + c to quit" nothing
clear
read -p "You must be logged in as root using sudo su ...
Press Enter to continue or Ctrl + c to quit" nothing
clear
read -p "Next secure MySQL server by entering requested information. Press enter to continue" nothing
mysql_secure_installation
read -p "Next we will download the Zoneminder install package and install it.
Press enter to continue" nothing
wget --no-check-certificate https://173.163.189.225/zoneminder-1.30.4-bionic-amd64.deb -P /tmp/
ls /tmp/zoneminder*
read -p "Check above to be sure the file downloaded. Should be:
/tmp/zoneminder-1.30.4-bionic-amd64.deb (5686708)
Press Enter to continue or Ctrl + c to quit" nothing
clear
awk '$0="date.timezone = "$0' /etc/timezone >> /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini
echo "[mysqld]" >> /etc/mysql/my.cnf
echo "init_connect = 'SET @@sql_mode = CASE CURRENT_USER() WHEN \'zmuser@localhost\' THEN \'NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION\' ELSE @@sql_mode END;'" >> /etc/mysql/my.cnf
systemctl restart mysql
apt-get -y install /tmp/zoneminder-1.30.4-bionic-amd64.deb
systemctl enable zoneminder
service zoneminder start
adduser www-data video
a2enmod cgi
a2enconf zoneminder
a2enmod rewrite
chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/
service apache2 reload
clear
read -p "Open Zoneminder in a web browser (http://server-ip/zm).
Click on Options - Paths and change PATH_ZMS to /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms
Click the Save button.
Press enter to continue" nothing
clear

Copy the contents of the script, open a terminal and run:

nano zm-install

Paste the contents of the script into Nano

Then:

Ctrl + o
Ctrl + x

Next run:

chmod 755 zm-install

Start the script by entering:

./zm-install

Follow the prompts. Things are pretty simple. The timezone will be detected from the OS and added to the php.ini.

Good Luck!

While this script worked for me I can't be responsible if you loose data when you run this. It is intended for a new install not an upgrade.

===Ubuntu 18.04 AMD64 with LAMP and Zoneminder 1.30.4 Manual Install===

''25APR18 - Zoneminder has been removed from the Ubuntu 18.04, Bionic, repository. PHP updates to version 7.2 also caused some problems which have been resolved (I hope!). This procedure uses a patched install from Zesty along with cakephp and crud updates to work with PHP7.2 ''

'''Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic installed with LAMP and OpenSSH Server 64 BIT Ubuntu only!
'''

To better manage the MySQL server I recommend you copy the sample config file and replace the default my.cnf symbolic link.

This removes the current symbolic link

rm /etc/mysql/my.cnf

This moves the MYSQL Configuration file

cp /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf

To change MySQL settings:

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

In the [mysqld] section add the following

sql_mode = NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

Note: if you are installing on an existing database server you can use the folowing as an alternate (Thanks to "bodom" for this alternate):

init_connect = 'SET @@sql_mode = CASE CURRENT_USER() WHEN \'zmuser@localhost\' THEN \'NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION\' ELSE @@sql_mode END;'

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart MySQL

systemctl restart mysql

Secure MySQL and set root password. Do not install the password validation plugin as the default Zoneminder password is not strong.

mysql_secure_installation

Dowmload the Zoneminder install package:

wget --no-check-certificate https://173.163.189.225/zoneminder-1.30.4-bionic-amd64.deb -P /tmp/

Install Zoneminder

apt install /tmp/zoneminder-1.30.4-bionic-amd64.deb

Enable Zoneminder service to start at boot

systemctl enable zoneminder.service

Add www-data to the sudo group (to enable use of local video devices)

adduser www-data video

Start Zoneminder

systemctl start zoneminder.service

Enable CGI and Zoneminder configuration in Apache.

a2enmod cgi

a2enmod rewrite

a2enconf zoneminder

Add timezone to PHP

nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone. Be sure to remove the ; before date.timezone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Change permissions in /usr/share/zoneminder/

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Restart Apache

service apache2 restart

IMPORTANT FINAL STEP: Open Zoneminder in a web browser (http://server-ip/zm). Click on Options - Paths and change PATH_ZMS to /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms

===Ubuntu 18.04 LEMP (NGNIX, Mariadb, PHP)===

Start with a basic Ubuntu 18.04 install. You can use a server or desktop install. Do not install LAMP!

Become root

sudo su

Install Ngnix, Mariadb and PHP components

apt install nginx mariadb-server php-fpm php-mysql fcgiwrap

Secure the Mariadb server

mysql_secure_installation

Restart Mariadb

systemctl restart mysql

Edit the php.ini file

nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini

Locate (Ctrl+w) cgi.fix_pathinfo=1 and change to

cgi.fix_pathinfo=0

Remember to remove the leading ;

Also fix date. Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone. Make sure to remove the ; from the front of date.timezone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart php-fpm

systemctl restart php7.2-fpm

Download the Zoneminder install package. This may take a minute to connect

wget --no-check-certificate https://173.163.189.225/zoneminder-1.30.4-bionic-amd64.deb -P /tmp/

Install Zoneminder

apt install /tmp/zoneminder-1.30.4-bionic-amd64.deb

Create a new user

adduser www-data video

Fix Permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Enable and start Zoneminder

systemctl enable zoneminder

service zoneminder start

Edit the Ngnix default configuration.

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Locate the line "index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;" and add index.php

index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Create a Zoneminder conf file

nano /etc/nginx/zoneminder.conf

Enter the following into the zoneminder.conf file (This file was improved by databoy2k)

location /zm/cgi-bin {
gzip off;
alias /usr/lib/zoneminder/cgi-bin;

include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/fcgiwrap.socket;
}

location /zm {
# if ($scheme ~ ^http:){
# rewrite ^(.*)$ https://$host$1 permanent;
# }

gzip off;
alias /usr/share/zoneminder/www;
index index.php;

location ~ \.php$ {
if (!-f $request_filename) { return 404; }
expires epoch;
include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
}

location ~ \.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico)$ {
access_log off;
expires 33d;
}

location /zm/api/ {
alias /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api;
rewrite ^/zm/api(.+)$ /zm/api/index.php?p=$1 last;
}
}

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Edit the default sites enabled

nano /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

In the "server" section after listen [::] :80 default_Server; add

include /etc/nginx/zoneminder.conf;

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Ngnix

service nginx restart

Note: If Nginx gives you an error on restart go back one step and re-enter include /etc/ngnix/zoneminder.conf;

IMPORTANT FINAL STEP: Open Zoneminder in a web browser (http://server-ip/zm). Click on Options - Paths and change PATH_ZMS to /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms

Note: 29JUL18 Thanks to Tiver for this suggestion that seems to work with the fcgiwrap issue.

If it does not exist create

nano /etc/default/fcgiwrap

and insert (with the number of children -c equal to the number of cameras)

DAEMON_OPTS=-c 10

then restart the fcgiwrap service.

systemctl restart fcgiwrap

Ubuntu Server 16.04 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.30.4 the easy way

2019-03-18T21:20:20Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

===Temporary install for Zoneminder 1.30.4 on Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit only===

The following is a shell script to install Zoneminder 1.30.4 on Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit.

==Note: if you had Zoneminder installed you can omit the following two commands from the script==

This entry appends the timezone to the php.ini

awk '$0="date.timezone = "$0' /etc/timezone >> /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini

These add entries to the my.cnf

echo "[mysqld]" >> /etc/mysql/my.cnf
echo "init_connect = 'SET @@sql_mode = CASE CURRENT_USER() WHEN \'zmuser@localhost\' THEN \'NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION\' ELSE @@sql_mode END;'" >> /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Create a file:

nano install-zm

Copy and paste the following contents into the file

#!/bin/sh
clear
read -p "This script installs Zoneminder 1.30.4 on Ubuntu 16.04 AMD64 with LAMP (MySQL) installed. This uses install packages that were downloaded from the Zoneminder PPA...
Press Enter to continue or Ctrl + c to quit" nothing
clear
read -p "You must be logged in as root using sudo su ...
Press Enter to continue or Ctrl + c to quit" nothing
clear
read -p "Next we will download the Zoneminder install packages, configure MySQL and PHP and install the downloaded packages.
Press enter to continue" nothing
wget --no-check-certificate https://173.163.189.225/php-apcu-bc_1.0.3-2xenial2_amd64.deb -P /tmp/
wget --no-check-certificate https://173.163.189.225/zoneminder-doc_1.30.4-xenial1_all.deb -P /tmp/
wget --no-check-certificate https://173.163.189.225/zoneminder_1.30.4-xenial1_amd64.deb -P /tmp/
clear
awk '$0="date.timezone = "$0' /etc/timezone >> /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini
echo "[mysqld]" >> /etc/mysql/my.cnf
echo "init_connect = 'SET @@sql_mode = CASE CURRENT_USER() WHEN \'zmuser@localhost\' THEN \'NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION\' ELSE @@sql_mode END;'" >> /etc/mysql/my.cnf
systemctl restart mysql
apt-get -y install /tmp/php-apcu-bc_1.0.3-2xenial2_amd64.deb
apt-get -y install /tmp/zoneminder-doc_1.30.4-xenial1_all.deb
apt-get -y install /tmp/zoneminder_1.30.4-xenial1_amd64.deb
systemctl enable zoneminder
service zoneminder start
adduser www-data video
a2enmod cgi
a2enconf zoneminder
a2enmod rewrite
chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/
service apache2 reload
clear
read -p "Open Zoneminder in a web browser (http://server-ip/zm).
Click on Options - Paths and change PATH_ZMS to /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms
Click the Save button.
Press enter to continue" nothing
clear

Save the file
ctrl + o
ctrl + x

Chmod permissions

chmod 755 install-zm

run the file

./install-zm

Ubuntu Server 14.04 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.30.4 the easy way

2019-03-18T21:20:08Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

'''Zoneminder 1.30.4 on Ubuntu Server 14.04.5'''

Install Basic Server (if you used the mini.iso), OpenSSH Server, and LAMP Server

Log in then become root:

sudo su

Make sure you are up to date

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

Add Repository (if you get an error run: apt-get install software-properties-common)

add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder

Update Sources

apt-get update

Install Zoneminder and php5-apc

apt-get install zoneminder php5-apc

You may be prompted to set up Nulmailer. You may accept the defaults and set this up later if you want to use it.

Add delay to allow MySQL to start before Zoneminder

nano /etc/init.d/zoneminder

Add sleep 15 after the existing "start() {" as shown:

start() {
sleep 15
echo -n "Starting $prog: "

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Create a new user

adduser www-data video

Enable CGI, Zoneminder and rewrite configuration in Apache.

a2enmod cgi

a2enconf zoneminder

a2enmod rewrite

Start Zoneminder if needed (If you get an error Zoneminder is likely running already)

service zoneminder start

Add timezone to PHP

nano /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Apache

service apache2 reload

Open Zoneminder in a web browser (http://server-ip/zm).

Click on Options - Paths Change PATH_ZMS to /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms
'''(Caution: make sure you enter only /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms with no space at the end or your video will not work!)'''

Reboot your server to set the tmp directories for API.

Verified to work as written 14APR17

Ubuntu Server 17.10 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.30.4 the easy way

2019-03-18T21:19:55Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

__TOC__

===Ubuntu 17.10 with LAMP===

This is an interim procedure to install Zoneminder 1.30.4 on Ubuntu 17.10

'''Note: There have been several reports of things, like the API, not working with Zoneminder and Ubuntu 17.10. You are better off to use Ubuntu 16.04!'''

'''Note - installing Zoneminder this way will not prevent it from being overwritten when you do "apt upgrade" To prevent Zoneminder from being upgraded enter "sudo apt-mark hold zoneminder"'''

There are some issues with the Zoneminder package provided with Ubuntu 17.10. This is an alternate install procedure that uses the install package from the iconnor PPA for Zesty (Ubuntu 17.04)

This assumes you have installed Ubuntu 17.10 with LAMP.

You will need to make a settings change to MySQL as follows:

This removes the current symbolic link

rm /etc/mysql/my.cnf

This moves the MYSQL Configuration file

cp /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf

To change MySQL settings:

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

In the [mysqld] section add the following

sql_mode = NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

Note: if you are installing on an existing database server you can use the following as an alternate (Thanks to "bodom" for this alternate):

init_connect = 'SET @@sql_mode = CASE CURRENT_USER() WHEN \'zmuser@localhost\' THEN \'NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION\' ELSE @@sql_mode END;'

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart MySQL

systemctl restart mysql

Download the Zoneminder install package from the iconnor PPA. Note this is for the 64 bit version.

wget https://launchpad.net/~iconnor/+archive/ubuntu/zoneminder/+build/12557069/+files/zoneminder_1.30.4-zesty1_amd64.deb

Install Zoneminder - Note: Change (user) to the user in the home directory on your system

apt install vlc-plugin-base /home/(user)/zoneminder_1.30.4-zesty1_amd64.deb

'''Note - installing Zoneminder this way will not prevent it from being overwritten when you do "apt upgrade" To prevent Zoneminder from being upgraded enter "sudo apt-mark hold zoneminder"'''

Create a new user

adduser www-data video

Enable CGI, Zoneminder and rewrite configuration in Apache.

a2enmod cgi

a2enconf zoneminder

a2enmod rewrite

Fix Permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Enable and start Zoneminder

systemctl enable zoneminder

service zoneminder start

Add timezone to PHP

nano /etc/php/7.1/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone. Make sure to remove the ; from the front of date.timezone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Apache

service apache2 reload

IMPORTANT FINAL STEP: Open Zoneminder in a web browser (http://server-ip/zm). Click on Options - Paths and change PATH_ZMS to /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms

===Ubuntu 17.10 with LEMP (NGINX, Mariadb and PHP)===

Ubuntu 17.10 Nginx Mariadb PHP Zoneminder 1.30.4

'''Note - installing Zoneminder this way will not prevent it from being overwritten when you do "apt upgrade" To prevent Zoneminder from being upgraded enter "sudo apt-mark hold zoneminder"'''

Start with an install of Ubuntu 17.10, server, desktop or bare bones basic. Do not install LAMP!

Become root

sudo su

Install Nginx and Mariadb

apt install nginx

apt install mariadb-server

Secure Mariadb

mysql_secure_installation

Remove the symbolic link for Mariadb

rm /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Copy a basic config file to replace the symbolic link

cp /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Edit the Mariadb config file

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Locate entries like the following and replace them

character-set-server = latin1
collation-server = latin1_swedish_ci

Note: The above settings are actually the Mariadb default. Changing back to default is necessary to avoid errors when logging into Zoneminder. This was added on 01APR17 but is not an April Fool! It may be necessary to align these settings with your regional language.

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Mariadb

systemctl restart mysql

Install PHP components

apt install php-fpm php-mysql fcgiwrap

Edit the PHP ini file

nano /etc/php/7.1/fpm/php.ini

Locate (Ctrl+w) cgi.fix_pathinfo=1 and change to

cgi.fix_pathinfo=0

Also fix date. Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone. Make sure to remove the ; from the front of date.timezone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart php-fm

systemctl restart php7.1-fpm

Download the Zoneminder .deb file from the iconnor repository

wget https://launchpad.net/~iconnor/+archive/ubuntu/zoneminder/+build/12557069/+files/zoneminder_1.30.4-zesty1_amd64.deb

Install Zoneminder. Change (user) as shown below to your user name on your Ubuntu install

apt install vlc-plugin-base /home/(user)/zoneminder_1.30.4-zesty1_amd64.deb

'''Note - installing Zoneminder this way will not prevent it from being overwritten when you do "apt upgrade" To prevent Zoneminder from being upgraded enter "sudo apt-mark hold zoneminder"'''

Add a user to enable local cameras

adduser www-data video

Change permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Enable and start Zoneminder

systemctl enable zoneminder
service zoneminder start

Edit the Nginx default config file

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Locate the line "index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;" and add "index.php"

index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;

Ctrl+o Enter to save

Somewhere in the "server" section add

include /etc/nginx/zoneminder.conf;

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Create a Zoneminder config file

nano /etc/nginx/zoneminder.conf

Copy the following into it

location /zm/cgi-bin {
gzip off;
alias /usr/lib/zoneminder/cgi-bin;

include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/fcgiwrap.socket;
}

location /zm {
# if ($scheme ~ ^http:){
# rewrite ^(.*)$ https://$host$1 permanent;
# }

gzip off;
alias /usr/share/zoneminder/www;
index index.php;

location ~ \.php$ {
if (!-f $request_filename) { return 404; }
expires epoch;
include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock;
}

location ~ \.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico)$ {
access_log off;
expires 33d;
}

location /zm/api/ {
alias /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api;
rewrite ^/zm/api(.+)$ /zm/api/index.php?p=$1 last;
}
}

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Nginx

service nginx restart

IMPORTANT FINAL STEP: Open Zoneminder in a web browser (http://server-ip/zm). Click on Options - Paths and change PATH_ZMS to /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms

Note: To avoid problems with feeds from multiple cameras "fcgiwrap" should be configured to start at least as many processes as there are cameras. It can be done by adjusting DAEMON_OPTS in "/etc/default/fcgiwrap".

nano /etc/default/fcgiwrap

Enter (change the 1 to the number of cameras)

DAEMON_OPTS="-f -c 1"

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Ubuntu Server 17.04 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.30.4 the easy way

2019-03-18T21:19:42Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

Ubuntu Server 17.04 with Zoneminder 1.30.4

Use the instructions for Ubuntu 16.04 with Zoneminder 1.30.4

https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Ubuntu_Server_16.04_64-bit_with_Zoneminder_1.30.4_the_easy_way

Ubuntu Server 17.04 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.30.0 the easy way

2019-03-18T21:19:26Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

Use the procedure for Ubuntu 16.10

[[Ubuntu Server 16.10 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.30.0 the easy way]]

Note: PATH_ZMS is already set to /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms

Ubuntu Server 14.10 64-bit server with Zoneminder to use systemd

2019-03-18T21:19:09Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

This is a how-to for setting up Ubuntu 14.10 server with Zoneminder to use systemd.

'''Note (25APR15): It has been reported that this procedure will work to get ZM 1.28.1 running on Ubuntu 15.04'''

By default, init is enabled in Ubuntu 14.10. You may install and run Zoneminder without making any changes to how programs are started. However,

Ubuntu will, in time, move to systemd. So it is a good idea to know how to make Zoneminder work!

1. Install Ubuntu 14.10 server including LAMP Server and OpenSSH Server.

2. Install Zoneminder. You may use either the install procedures for any of the supported versions but we did this with ZM 1.28.0 from the iconnor

PPA. http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu_Server_14.04_64-bit_with_Zoneminder_1.28.0_the_easy_way

Note: We will explore installing Zoneminder on a system already running systemd as time permits and post the results in this WIKI.

3. Log into Ubuntu and become root

sudo su

4. Install additional systemd components

apt-get install systemd-sysv

5. Re-boot the server. Log back in as root

6. Check that systemd is running

ps -p 1 -o comm= should return systemd

7. Create a file called zoneminder.service

nano /lib/systemd/system/zoneminder.service

Paste or enter the following:

# ZoneMinder systemd unit file
# This file is intended to work with all Linux distributions
[Unit]
Description=ZoneMinder CCTV recording and security system
After=network.target mysql.service apache2.service
Requires=mysql.service apache2.service
[Service]
User=www-data
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/bin/zmpkg.pl start
ExecReload=/usr/bin/zmpkg.pl restart
ExecStop=/usr/bin/zmpkg.pl stop
PIDFile="/run/zm/zm.pid"
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

CTRL+o to save the file
CTRL+x to exit nano

8. Create a file called zoneminder.conf

nano /etc/tmpfiles.d/zoneminder.conf

Paste or enter the following

d /var/run/zm 0755 www-data www-data

CTRL+o to save the file

CTRL+x to exit nano

'''IMPORTANT:''' If ZoneMinder complains on startup that the /var/run/zm folder is missing, that means you have skipped this step!

9. Change permissions on the file

chmod 755 /etc/tmpfiles.d/zoneminder.conf

'''IMPORTANT:''' At this point the /var/run/zm directory has not been created. You may restart the PC which will create the directory or create it manually with the command "mkdir /var/run/zm"

10. Enable Zoneminder

systemctl enable zoneminder.service

11. Start Zoneminder

systemctl start zoneminder.service

12. Check to see that Zoneminder is running

systemctl status zoneminder.service

Thanks to Isaac Connor, Andrew Bauer and Carla Schroder for the pieces that allowed this puzzle to go together.

Ubuntu Server 14.04 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.28.1 the easy way

2019-03-18T21:18:53Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

'''As of 05FEB16 this guide is obsolete. Please use the install instruction for Zoneminder 1.29.0'''

https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Ubuntu_Server_14.04_64-bit_with_Zoneminder_1.29.0_the_easy_way

Zoneminder 1.28.1 on Ubuntu 14.04. Should also works on Ubuntu 14.10 running init.

22OCT15 Returned this to original version as 1.28.1 has been returned to the iconnor PPA

I did this install on a 64 BIT server but it should work on 32 BIT. As of 20FEB15 I have tested this with a local USB camera and a remote h.264 camera with Ffmpeg and Libvlc.

If you install from CD install Ubuntu Server, OpenSSH Server, and LAMP Server (LAMP installs Apache2, PHP, and MySQL server)

If you use the minimum ISO CD install Basic Server, OpenSSH Server, and LAMP Server (LAMP installs Apache2, PHP, and MySQL server)

Log in then become root:

sudo su

If you used the server install CD

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

Optional: Set static IP address

nano /etc/network/interfaces

Make changes similar to this:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.10
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1
dns-nameservers 192.168.1.1

Note: for Ubuntu 14.04 the resolv.conf is dynamically assigned. The "dns-servers" entry in the interfaces file will set the DNS Multiple DNS server entries can be used.

Reboot server

Log in and become root

sudo su

Suggested changes to MySQL

For most of you Zoneminder will run just fine with the default MySQL settings. There are a couple of settings that may, in time, provide beneficial especially if you have a number of cameras and many events with a lot of files. One setting I recommend is the "innodb_file_per_table" This will be a default setting in MySQL 5.6 but should be added in MySQL 5.5 which comes with Ubuntu 14.04. A description can be found here: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/innodb-multiple-tablespaces.html

To add "innodb_file_per_table" edit the my.cnf file:

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Under [mysqld] add

innodb_file_per_table

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart MySQL

service mysql restart

As you add cameras to your system and the events build up you may need to increase the size of the "innodb_buffer_pool_size" when this setting runs out of space your system may act like it is out of disk space. One way to check this is to install mysqltuner and run it from the command line. When the results are shown you can edit the my.cnf file and change the buffer size. The default "innodb_buffer_pool_size" is 128M. In the ZM forum I have found a recommended setting of 256M. My production server required a setting greater than 410M. Install and run mysqltuner to determine the recommended size for your system. Be sure to restart MySQL after making changes.

Add Repository

add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder

apt-get update

Install Zoneminder

apt-get install zoneminder

Note: a couple of package configurations will open up. These are to configure Nullmailer. You can just OK them and come back to configure them later.

Add delay to allow MySQL to start before Zoneminder

nano /etc/init.d/zoneminder

Add sleep 15 as shown:

start() {
sleep 15
echo -n "Starting $prog: "

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Create a symbolic links

ln -s /etc/zm/apache.conf /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/zoneminder.conf

Create a new user

adduser www-data video

CGI is not enabled in Ubuntu 14.04 by default. Enable it this way:

a2enmod cgi

Restart Apache

/etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload

or

service apache2 restart

Install Cambozola (needed if you use Internet Explorer)

cd /usr/src && wget http://www.andywilcock.com/code/cambozola/cambozola-latest.tar.gz

tar -xzvf cambozola-latest.tar.gz

replace 936 with cambozola version downloaded

cp cambozola-0.936/dist/cambozola.jar /usr/share/zoneminder

You should now be able to access the web server using https://servername

NTP Daily Sync

nano /etc/cron.daily/ntpdate

Copy the following into nano

!/bin/sh ntpdate ntp.ubuntu.com

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

chmod 755 /etc/cron.daily/ntpdate

Open Zoneminder in web browser

http://serverip/zm

Click Options

Uncheck: Check with zoneminder.com for updated versions (?) click Save

Click Images tab

check Is the (optional) cambozola java streaming client installed (?) Click Save

Ubuntu Server 19.04 Zoneminder 1.32.3

2019-03-18T21:18:28Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

'''This procedure is obsolete. Please see:
http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu#Guides_for_Ubuntu_Server

The Zoneminder ppa contains version 1.28.107 as of 15OCT15

Zoneminder 1.28.1 on Ubuntu 14.04. Also works on Ubuntu 14.10 running init.

I did this install on a 64 BIT server but it should work on 32 BIT. As of 20OCT14 I have tested this with a local USB camera and a remote h.264 camera with Ffmpeg and Libvlc.

If you install from CD install Ubuntu Server, OpenSSH Server, and LAMP Server (LAMP installs Apache2, PHP, and MySQL server)

If you use the minimum ISO CD install Basic Server, OpenSSH Server, and LAMP Server (LAMP installs Apache2, PHP, and MySQL server)

Log in then become root:

sudo su

If you used the server install CD
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

Optional: Set static IP address

nano /etc/network/interfaces

Make changes similar to this:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.10
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1
dns-nameservers 192.168.1.1

Note: for Ubuntu 14.04 the resolv.conf is dynamically assigned. The "dns-servers" entry in the interfaces file will set the DNS Multiple DNS server entries can be used.

Reboot server

Log in and become root

sudo su

Suggested changes to MySQL

For most of you Zoneminder will run just fine with the default MySQL settings. There are a couple of settings that may, in time, provide beneficial especially if you have a number of cameras and many events with a lot of files. One setting I recommend is the "innodb_file_per_table" This will be a default setting in MySQL 5.6 but should be added in MySQL 5.5 which comes with Ubuntu 14.04. A description can be found here: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/innodb-multiple-tablespaces.html

To add "innodb_file_per_table" edit the my.cnf file:

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Under [mysqld] add

innodb_file_per_table

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart MySQL

service mysql restart

As you add cameras to your system and the events build up you may need to increase the size of the "innodb_buffer_pool_size" when this setting runs out of space your system may act like it is out of disk space. One way to check this is to install mysqltuner and run it from the command line. When the results are shown you can edit the my.cnf file and change the buffer size. The default "innodb_buffer_pool_size" is 128M. In the ZM forum I have found a recommended setting of 256M. My production server required a setting greater than 410M. Install and run mysqltuner to determine the recommended size for your system. Be sure to restart MySQL after making changes.

CGI is not enabled in Ubuntu 14.04 by default. Enable it this way:

a2enmod cgi

Restart Apache

/etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload

or

service apache2 restart

Add Repository

apt-get install software-properties-common python-software-properties
add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder
apt-get update

Install Zoneminder

apt-get install zoneminder

Note: a couple of package configurations will open up. These are to configure Nullmailer. You can just OK them and come back to configure them later.

You will need to install "extra" VLC components torun Libvlc (verified 20OCT14)

apt-get install libvlc-dev libvlccore-dev vlc

Add delay to allow MySQL to start before Zoneminder

nano /etc/init.d/zoneminder

Add sleep 15 as shown:

start() {
sleep 15
echo -n "Starting $prog: "

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Create a symbolic link to zoneminder's apache config file. Since Ubuntu includes tools to enable/disable conf files,
do so the 'Ubuntu way'

ln -s /etc/zm/apache.conf /etc/apache2/conf-available/zoneminder.conf

Now, enable the zoneminder apache config file:

a2enconf zoneminder

Create a new user

adduser www-data video

Restart Apache

/etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload

or

service apache2 restart

Install Cambozola (needed if you use Internet Explorer)

cd /usr/src && wget http://www.andywilcock.com/code/cambozola/cambozola-latest.tar.gz

tar -xzvf cambozola-latest.tar.gz

replace 935 in the next line with cambozola version downloaded

cp cambozola-0.935/dist/cambozola.jar /usr/share/zoneminder

You should now be able to access the web server using https://servername

NTP Daily Sync

nano /etc/cron.daily/ntpdate

Copy the following into nano

!/bin/sh
ntpdate ntp.ubuntu.com

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

chmod 755 /etc/cron.daily/ntpdate

Open Zoneminder in web browser

http://serverip/zm

Click Options

Uncheck: Check with zoneminder.com for updated versions (?) click Save

Click Images tab

check Is the (optional) cambozola java streaming client installed (?) Click Save

Ubuntu Server or Desktop Zoneminder 1.36.x

2019-03-18T21:18:07Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

I have tested Zoneminder under the Ubuntu 12.04 and 13.04 64-bit versions. My reason for doing this was to be able to install a remote control package, such as Teamviewer, to access the PC behind firewalls where I was unable to set up dynamic DNS or port forwarding. I was able to connect to the PC, open Firefox and work with all functions of Zoneminder including viewing events.

Install Zoneminder from the desktop CD or DVD or a USB thumbdrive (see http://www.pendrivelinux.com/)

Open the terminal

become root

sudo su

install tasksel

apt-get install tasksel

Start tasksel

tasksel

Check the option to install LAMP

Follow the instructions at:

[[Ubuntu Server 12.04 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.25.0 the easy way]]

Start at Install Zoneminder

or

[[Ubuntu Server 12.04 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.26.5 the easy way]]

Start at: Install PPA Repository for Zoneminder

When Zoneminder is installed, open Firefox and enter: http://localhost/zm
to configure Zoneminder.

Install the remote control package of your choice to access your PC from the internet.

Ubuntu Server or Desktop Zoneminder 1.38.x

2019-03-18T21:17:48Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

'''This readme file is for the Zoneminder 1.30.0/Lubuntu 16.04 Live DVD/USB system.'''

There is a 64 BIT version of the system. File names:

live-cd.iso
live-cd-readme.txt

Direct download the .iso file: https://1drv.ms/f/s!ApMZyp0q7cregdQO8OI_rIIaS-GTBQ

You can burn the files to DVD, start a PC from the DVD and run/install the system.

You can also make a bootable USB. I recommend using Unetbootin (http://unetbootin.github.io/). This is what I used to
make a bootable USB. Other programs may work but have not been tested.

When you boot the system Lubuntu will open to the desktop. Should a login page come up enter the user enter "ubuntu" and leave the password blank.
You must log into Lubuntu to run the installer! This version contains Network Manager to manage network connections.

Apache, Mariadb Server and Zoneminder 1.30.0 will run on startup.

To access Zoneminder open Firefox and enter http://localhost/zm
You can also access Zoneminder from another PC using the IP-Address of the system: http://IP-Address/zm

If your install does not get the DNS servers via DHCP it is likely that a symbolic link is missing. You can set a static IP address with nameservers or create the symbolic link with this entry:

sudo ln -s /run/resolvconf/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf

Zoneminder is configured with one monitor set to a public camera and, if the system has internet access, should be viewable. You may reconfigure this camera to one of your own.

This system contains an installer which you can use to install this fully functioning Lubuntu/Zoneminder system to your hard drive. When installed to your hard drive you can access Zoneminder using Firefox or a web browser from another PC.
I've had an issue where the installer will crash and not finish the install. A work around is to run the installer with root privileges from a terminal.

Open a terminal - System Tools - LXTerminal and enter

sudo sh -c 'ubiquity gtk_ui'

and press Enter. Do not check any options when the 'Preparing to install Ubuntu' screen appears.

Time Zone: you may have to edit the php.ini to correct the time zone entry. See the WIKI for instructions on editing this file.

nano /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini

Updates: As this is a minimal Lubuntu install the software updater is not provided. To update the installation open a terminal and run:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt dist-upgrade

About the system:

Install was from Ubuntu 16.04 Minimal CD with Lubuntu Minimal, LAMP with Mariadb Server and OpenSSL.

The root password for MySQL is "Passwordzm" Recommend you change the password after you install to hard drive:
(http://www.liquidweb.com/kb/change-a-password-for-mysql-on-linux-via-command-line/)

Zoneminder was installed using: https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Ubuntu_Server_16.04_64-bit_with_Zoneminder_1.30.0_the_easy_way

Lubuntu Minimal Desktop was installed with Forefox and network manager added afterwards.

Ubuntu Server 18.04 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.32.x the easy way

2019-03-18T21:17:00Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

__TOC__

===Things to check before installing Zoneminder on Bionic!===

'''We recommend you read the release notes to see what has changed in this version. The release notes can be found here: https://github.com/ZoneMinder/zoneminder/releases'''

'''There have been some reports of the install failing. We feel this is due to missing repositories in the sources.list. You can check this by running

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Look for the universe repositories of which there should be three, bionic universe, bionic-updates universe and bionic-security universe

See: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/CommandLine'''

===Install Zoneminder on Ubuntu 18.04 with shell script===

This will install Zoneminder by using a shell script with one basic command (how easy is that!).

You will need a Ubuntu 18.04 install with LAMP (Apache, MySQL and PHP) installed desktop or server. As an alternate you may use Mariadb in lieu of MySQL

Shell script file contents:

#!/bin/sh
clear
read -p "This script installs Zoneminder 1.32.x on Ubuntu 18.04 AMD64 with LAMP (MySQL) installed...
Press Enter to continue or Ctrl + c to quit" nothing
clear
read -p "You must be logged in as root using sudo su ...
Press Enter to continue or Ctrl + c to quit" nothing
clear
read -p "Next we will add the PPA repository, install and configure the system to run Zoneminder.
Press enter to continue" nothing
apt install -y software-properties-common
clear
add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder-1.32
apt update
clear
awk '$0="date.timezone = "$0' /etc/timezone >> /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini
clear
apt install -y zoneminder
systemctl enable zoneminder
service zoneminder start
adduser www-data video
a2enconf zoneminder
a2enmod rewrite
chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/
service apache2 reload
clear
read -p "Install complete.Press enter to continue" nothing
clear

Copy the contents of the script, open a terminal and run:

nano zm-install

Paste the contents of the script into Nano

Then:

Ctrl + o
Ctrl + x

Next run:

chmod 755 zm-install

Start the script by entering:

./zm-install

Follow the prompts. Things are pretty simple. The timezone will be detected from the OS and added to the php.ini.

Good Luck!

While this script worked for me I can't be responsible if you loose data when you run this. It is intended for a new install not an upgrade.

===Install Apache2, Mariadb, PHP and Zoneminder on Ubuntu 18.04 with shell script===

I created this to install Zoneminder on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ 64 BIT version of Bionic. Should work with other flavors of Bionic

See above for use

#!/bin/sh
clear
read -p "This script installs Apache2, Mariadb Server, PHP and Zoneminder 1.32.x on Ubuntu 18.04 ...
Press Enter to continue or Ctrl + c to quit" nothing
clear
read -p "You must be logged in as root using sudo su ...
Press Enter to continue or Ctrl + c to quit" nothing
apt install -y apache2 php mariadb-server php-mysql libapache2-mod-php7.2
clear
read -p "Next secure MySQL server by entering requested information. Press enter to continue" nothing
mysql_secure_installation
clear
read -p "Next we will add the PPA repository, install and configure the system to run Zoneminder.
Press enter to continue" nothing
apt install -y software-properties-common
clear
add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder-1.32
apt update
clear
awk '$0="date.timezone = "$0' /etc/timezone >> /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini
clear
apt install -y zoneminder
systemctl enable zoneminder
service zoneminder start
adduser www-data video
a2enconf zoneminder
a2enmod rewrite
chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/
service apache2 reload
clear
read -p "Install complete.Press enter to continue" nothing
clear

===Ubuntu 18.04 LEMP (NGNIX, Mariadb, PHP)===

Thanks to "terdinglage" for the input to get this to work!

Start with a basic Ubuntu 18.04 install. You can use a server or desktop install. Do not install LAMP!

Become root

sudo su

Install Ngnix, Mariadb and PHP components

apt install nginx mariadb-server php-fpm php-mysql fcgiwrap

Secure the Mariadb server

mysql_secure_installation

Restart Mariadb

systemctl restart mysql

Edit the php.ini file

nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini

Locate (Ctrl+w) cgi.fix_pathinfo=1 and change to

cgi.fix_pathinfo=0

Remember to remove the leading ;

Also fix date. Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone. Make sure to remove the ; from the front of date.timezone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart php-fpm

systemctl restart php7.2-fpm

Add Repository

NOTE:You may need to run: "apt install software-properties-common" if you did the minimal net install of Ubuntu.

add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder-1.32

Install Zoneminder

apt install zoneminder

Create a new user if you plan to use local (USB or capture card) cameras.

adduser www-data video

Fix Permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Change the ZM_PATH_ZMS in the 01-system-paths.conf file to /cgi-bin/nph-zms by dropping the /zm/

nano /etc/zm/conf.d/01-system-paths.conf

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Enable and start Zoneminder

systemctl enable zoneminder

service zoneminder start

Edit the Ngnix default configuration.

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Locate the line "index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;" and add index.php

index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;

In the "server" section after listen [::] :80 default_Server; add

include /etc/nginx/zoneminder.conf;

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Create a Zoneminder conf file

nano /etc/nginx/zoneminder.conf

Enter the following into the zoneminder.conf file (This file was improved by databoy2k)

location /cgi-bin {
auth_basic off;
alias /usr/lib/zoneminder/cgi-bin;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
fastcgi_param HTTP_PROXY "";
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/fcgiwrap.socket;
}
location /zm/cache {
auth_basic off;
alias /var/cache/zoneminder/cache;
}
location ~ /zm/api/(css|img|ico) {
auth_basic off;
rewrite ^/zm/api(.+)$ /api/app/webroot/$1 break;
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
location /zm {
auth_basic off;
alias /usr/share/zoneminder/www;
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args =404;
location /zm/api {
auth_basic off;
rewrite ^/zm/api(.+)$ /zm/api/app/webroot/index.php?p=$1 last;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
auth_basic off;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
fastcgi_param HTTP_PROXY "";
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
}
}

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Ngnix

service nginx restart

Note: If Nginx gives you an error on restart go back one step and re-enter include /etc/ngnix/zoneminder.conf;

Note: 29JUL18 Thanks to Tiver for this suggestion that seems to work with the fcgiwrap issue.

If it does not exist create

nano /etc/default/fcgiwrap

and insert (with the number of children -c equal to the number of cameras)

DAEMON_OPTS=-c 10

then restart the fcgiwrap service.

systemctl restart fcgiwrap

Ubuntu Server 16.04 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.32.x the easy way

2019-03-18T21:16:22Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

__TOC__

===02OCT18 A new version, 1.32.1 is released.===

'''We recommend you read the release notes to see what has changed in this version. The release notes can be found here: https://github.com/ZoneMinder/zoneminder/releases'''

===Install Zoneminder on Ubuntu 16.04 with shell script===

This will install Zoneminder by using a shell script with one basic command (how easy is that!).

You will need a Ubuntu 16.04 install with LAMP (Apache, MySQL and PHP) installed desktop or server. As an alternate you may use Mariadb in lieu of MySQL

Shell script file contents:

#!/bin/sh
clear
read -p "This script installs Zoneminder 1.32.x on Ubuntu 16.04 AMD64 with LAMP (MySQL) installed...
Press Enter to continue or Ctrl + c to quit" nothing
clear
read -p "You must be logged in as root using sudo su ...
Press Enter to continue or Ctrl + c to quit" nothing
clear
read -p "Next we will add the PPA repository, install and configure the system to run Zoneminder. You will have to press enter twice to load two PPA repositories.
Press enter to continue" nothing
apt install -y software-properties-common
clear
add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder
add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder-1.32
apt update
clear
awk '$0="date.timezone = "$0' /etc/timezone >> /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini
clear
apt install -y zoneminder
systemctl enable zoneminder
service zoneminder start
adduser www-data video
a2enconf zoneminder
a2enmod rewrite
chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/
service apache2 reload
clear
read -p "Install complete.Press enter to continue" nothing
clear

Copy the contents of the script, open a terminal and run:

nano zm-install

Paste the contents of the script into Nano

Then:

Ctrl + o
Ctrl + x

Next run:

chmod 755 zm-install

Start the script by entering:

./zm-install

Follow the prompts. Things are pretty simple. The timezone will be detected from the OS and added to the php.ini.

Good Luck!

While this script worked for me I can't be responsible if you loose data when you run this. It is intended for a new install not an upgrade.

===Ubuntu 16.04 LEMP (NGNIX, Mariadb, PHP)===

This is not quite ready to use. Figuring out why video does not display... 09JAN19

Thanks to "terdinglage" for the input to get this to work!

Start with a basic Ubuntu 18.04 install. You can use a server or desktop install. Do not install LAMP!

Become root

sudo su

Install Ngnix, Mariadb and PHP components

apt install nginx mariadb-server php-fpm php-mysql fcgiwrap

Secure the Mariadb server

mysql_secure_installation

Restart Mariadb

systemctl restart mysql

Edit the php.ini file

nano /etc/php/7.0/fpm/php.ini

Locate (Ctrl+w) cgi.fix_pathinfo=1 and change to

cgi.fix_pathinfo=0

Remember to remove the leading ;

Also fix date. Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone. Make sure to remove the ; from the front of date.timezone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart php-fpm

systemctl restart php7.0-fpm

Add two iconnor/Zoneminder Repository's (to pick up dependencies)

NOTE:You may need to run: "apt install software-properties-common" if you did the minimal net install of Ubuntu.

add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder-1.32
add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder

apt update

Install Zoneminder

apt install zoneminder

Create a new user if you plan to use local (USB or capture card) cameras.

adduser www-data video

Fix Permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Change the ZM_PATH_ZMS in the 01-system-paths.conf file to /cgi-bin/nph-zms by dropping the /zm/

nano /etc/zm/conf.d/01-system-paths.conf

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Enable and start Zoneminder

systemctl enable zoneminder

service zoneminder start

Edit the Ngnix default configuration.

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Locate the line "index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;" and add index.php

index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;

In the "server" section after listen [::] :80 default_Server; add

include /etc/nginx/zoneminder.conf;

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Create a Zoneminder conf file

nano /etc/nginx/zoneminder.conf

Enter the following into the zoneminder.conf file (This file was improved by databoy2k)

location /cgi-bin {
auth_basic off;
alias /usr/lib/zoneminder/cgi-bin;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
fastcgi_param HTTP_PROXY "";
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/fcgiwrap.socket;
}
location /zm/cache {
auth_basic off;
alias /var/cache/zoneminder/cache;
}
location ~ /zm/api/(css|img|ico) {
auth_basic off;
rewrite ^/zm/api(.+)$ /api/app/webroot/$1 break;
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
location /zm {
auth_basic off;
alias /usr/share/zoneminder/www;
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args =404;
location /zm/api {
auth_basic off;
rewrite ^/zm/api(.+)$ /zm/api/app/webroot/index.php?p=$1 last;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
auth_basic off;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
fastcgi_param HTTP_PROXY "";
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;
}
}

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Ngnix

service nginx restart

Note: If Nginx gives you an error on restart go back one step and re-enter include /etc/ngnix/zoneminder.conf;

Note: 29JUL18 Thanks to Tiver for this suggestion that seems to work with the fcgiwrap issue.

If it does not exist create

nano /etc/default/fcgiwrap

and insert (with the number of children -c equal to the number of cameras)

DAEMON_OPTS=-c 10

then restart the fcgiwrap service.

systemctl restart fcgiwrap

Ubuntu Server or Desktop Zoneminder 1.34.x

2019-03-18T21:15:43Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

Zoneminder 1.30.4 made it into the "official" Ubuntu 18.10 repositories. You will need to install LAMP then secure MySQL before installing Zoneminder. I use a very minimum install from the 18.10 mini.iso.

Here are the basic commands you will need. As always start from a root (sudo su) prompt.

Secure MySQL or Mariadb

mysql_secure_installation

Add entry into my.cnf

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Add the following to the end of the file

[mysqld]
sql_mode = NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

CTRL + o
CTRL +x

Restart MySQL

systemctl restart mysql

Install Zoneminder

apt install zoneminder

The database is not created automatically. Create the database with

mysql -uroot -p < /usr/share/zoneminder/db/zm_create.sql

mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

mysqladmin -uroot -p reload

Fix permissions

chmod 740 /etc/zm/zm.conf

chown root:www-data /etc/zm/zm.conf

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Enable Zoneminder service

systemctl enable zoneminder.service

Add a user for local cameras

adduser www-data video

Enable Apache Features

a2enmod cgi

a2enmod rewrite

a2enconf zoneminder

Add timezone to PHP

nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Apache

service apache2 reload

Zoneminder should work! Open Zoneminder in a web browser (http://server-ip/zm).

Ubuntu Server 14.04 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.32.x the easy way

2019-03-18T21:15:28Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

===02OCT18 A new version, 1.32.1 is released.===

'''Zoneminder 1.32.1 on Ubuntu Server 14.04'''

'''We recommend you read the release notes to see what has changed in this version. The release notes can be found here: https://github.com/ZoneMinder/zoneminder/releases'''

Install Basic Server (if you used the mini.iso), OpenSSH Server, and LAMP Server

Log in then become root:

sudo su

Make sure you are up to date

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

Add Repository (if you get an error run: apt-get install software-properties-common)

add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder-1.32

Update Sources

apt-get update

Install Zoneminder

apt-get install zoneminder

You may be prompted to set up Nulmailer. You may accept the defaults and set this up later if you want to use it.

Add delay to allow MySQL to start before Zoneminder

nano /etc/init.d/zoneminder

Add sleep 15 after the existing "start() {" as shown:

start() {
sleep 15
echo -n "Starting $prog: "

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Create a new user

adduser www-data video

Enable CGI, Zoneminder and rewrite configuration in Apache.

a2enmod cgi

a2enconf zoneminder

a2enmod rewrite

Start Zoneminder if needed (If you get an error Zoneminder is likely running already)

service zoneminder start

Add timezone to PHP

nano /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Apache

service apache2 reload

Open Zoneminder in a web browser (http://server-ip/zm).

Common Issues with Zoneminder Installation on Ubuntu

2019-03-18T21:15:09Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

08AUG16

With some changes “in-the-works” for Ubuntu installs by the hard working volunteers who keep Zoneminder up-to-date, it was recommended that we post fixes/instructions for some issues that continue to surface. This document will likely grow over time but may become obsolete as procedures become better documented.

The upgrade procedures to 1.30.0 have not been fully tested for Ubuntu 15x but have been written with the knowledge of the behavior of the 1.30.0 install package. Post concerns or failures on the forum.

'''Zoneminder "Master" PPA''' This is to remind you that software installed from the iconnor zoneminder-master PPA is BETA software and NOT recommended for production systems! BETA software may have some features that do not work correctly!

__TOC__

==Zoneminder Database==
See Database Tips and Tricks for more topics: http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/General_Notes#Database_Tricks.2FTips

===Enable and convert MySQL to innodb_file_per_table for Zoneminder===

Note: You may wish to convert MyISAM tables to InnoDB tables before you proceed. Upgrading Zoneminder to 1.26 or newer should do this for you.

innodb_file_per_table is by default ON Mysql 5.6.6 and onwards. There is plenty of stuff on Google about pros & cons of innodb_file_per_table.
This post details how to enable innodb_file_per_table on an existing database. Because innodb_file_per_table affects new tables only, created after innodb_file_per_table is enabled, we need to recreate old databases to force innodb_file_per_table on old tables and reclaim some disk space.

Become root

sudo su

Backup First
Create a dir to take backups:

cd ~

Note: I found it helpful to create a file which contained the MySQL user and password. Otherwise you will have to enter the user and password for every operation.

nano .my.cnf

Enter this content

[client]
user=root
password=mysqlpass

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Make backup directory
mkdir backup

cd backup

Copy MySQL data files (raw)
(If all goes well, we will not need this)

Stop Zoneminder

service zoneminder stop

If you have other services that use MySQL you will want to stop them and possibly Apache.

service mysql stop && cp -ra /var/lib/mysql mysqldata && service mysql start

Take mysqldump
As soon as above line completes, take a mysqldump of all databases

mysqldump --routines --events --flush-privileges --all-databases > all-db.sql

Drop Databases
Create a sql file to drop all databases EXCEPT mysql database

mysql -e "SELECT DISTINCT CONCAT ('DROP DATABASE ',TABLE_SCHEMA,' ;') FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA <> 'mysql' AND TABLE_SCHEMA <> 'information_schema';" | tail -n+2 > drop.sql

Verify if drop.sql has correct database names and then execute drop.sql queries.

mysql < drop.sql

Verify all InnoDB tables gone

SELECT table_name, table_schema, engine FROM information_schema.tables WHERE engine = 'InnoDB';

Remove InnoDB files
Stop mysql server first

service mysql stop

Then

rm /var/lib/mysql/ibdata1 && rm /var/lib/mysql/ib_logfile0 && rm /var/lib/mysql/ib_logfile1

At this point most likely you will have only /var/lib/mysql/mysql directory only.

Enable innodb_file_per_table

Open my.cnf file

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Add following line after [mysqld]

innodb_file_per_table

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Time to import from mysqldump
Start mysql server now

service mysql start

Run mysql import

mysql < all-db.sql

Force mysql_upgrade (to generate performance_schema)

mysql_upgrade --force

That’s All!

Restart Zoneminder (and any other services you have stopped)

service zoneminder start

Check for proper operation and that all your events are present.

When you are satisfied that all is worling well remove the backup directory and password filr=e

cd ~

rm -r backup

rm .my.cnf

You are finished!

This procedure has been adopted from https://rtcamp.com/tutorials/mysql/enable-innodb-file-per-table. Thanks to Rahul Bansal!

===Adding Permissions to allow Database Upgrade===
Versions of Zoneminder up to and including 1.28.1 in Ubuntu would automatically add the zm database to MySQL. Beginning about August
2015 the development version from the iconnor-master PPA omitted this step becoming like the Debian install process. Manually adding the
database to MySQL will be necessary.

To install the zm database (after doing apt-get install zoneminder)

Create Zoneminder database in MySQL (Note: this also creates the default Zoneminder user and permissions in MySQL)

This next step creates a file which contained the MySQL user and password. Otherwise you will have to enter the user and password on the
command line which is not secure!

Go to the root directory

cd ~

Create a hidden password file

nano .my.cnf

Enter this content (but use your MySQL root password!)

[client]
user=root
password=(mysqlpass)

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Create database permissions

mysql -e "grant select,insert,update,delete,create,alter,lock tables on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

Remove password file

rm .my.cnf

Continue with the Zoneminder installation

==Upgrades==
===Ubuntu 14.04 with MySQL 5.6 and Zoneminder from PPA===

This procedure starts with Ubuntu Server 14.04-3 with LAMP added. Zoneminder is not installed. It is possible to upgrade a system running Zoneminder but it is not covered in this procedure.

Become root

sudo su

Stop MySQL

service mysql stop

Remove MySQL

apt-get purge mysql

Install MySQL 5.6 (will upgrade the MySQL client)

apt-get install mysql-server-5.6

Note: You may need to edit my.cnf and change the value: sql_mode= to sql_mode=NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

Follow the install instructions: https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Ubuntu_Server_14.04_64-bit_with_Zoneminder_1.29.0_the_easy_way

===Ubuntu 14.04 - ZM 1.26.5 or later to 1.30.x or the latest PPA version===

Note: this has been tested with ZM 1.30.2 RC1 11FEB17 using the repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder-master

Become root

sudo su

Add Repository

Note: if you need to remove a repository use: add-apt-repository --remove ppa:iconnor/zoneminder

add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder

apt-get update

Stop Zoneminder

service zoneminder stop

Upgrade the installation

apt-get upgrade (may return nothing to upgrade)

apt-get dist-upgrade

You will be asked if you want to replace /etc/init.d/zoneminder. Choose "Y"

With ZM 1.30.3 the database will automatically upgrade.

Add back the delay to allow MySQL to start before Zoneminder

nano /etc/init.d/zoneminder

Add sleep 15 as shown:

start() {
sleep 15
echo -n "Starting $prog: "

And add the following after mkdir -p "$TMPDIR" && chown www-data:www-data "$TMPDIR" to allow the API to work

mkdir /tmp/zm/cache
mkdir /tmp/zm/cache/models
mkdir /tmp/zm/cache/persistent
chown -R www-data:www-data /tmp/zm/cache

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Remove symbolic link

rm /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/zoneminder.conf

Set permissions of /etc/zm/zm.conf to root:www-data 740

chmod 740 /etc/zm/zm.conf

chown root:www-data /etc/zm/zm.conf

Enable Zoneminder and rewrite

a2enconf zoneminder

a2enmod rewrite

Start Zoneminder (Note: Zoneminder may have started automatically after the dist-upgrade)

service zoneminder start

Add timezone to PHP

nano /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] and make changes as follows for your time zone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Apache

service apache2 restart

Open Zoneminder. Click on Options - Paths

Change PATH_ZMS to /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms

Reboot the server to set the API tmp directories.

===Ubuntu 16.04 - ZM 1.30.x Upgrade===
Ubuntu 16.04 contains Zoneminder 1.29.0.

Note: 31MAR17 This was tested with ZM 1.30.2 from ppa:iconnor/zoneminder

To upgrade to Zoneminder 1.30.2

Become root

sudo su

Add Repository. Note:You may need to run: "apt install software-properties-common" if you did the minimal net install of Ubuntu.

add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder

Update package list

apt update

Stop Zoneminder

systemctl stop zoneminder.service

Note: It may be a good idea to backup your database. This procedure was tested with MySQL 5.7 but should work with Mariadb 10.

Upgrade the installation (Zoneminder will upgrade with the "apt upgrade" command. Your database will automatically be upgraded.

apt upgrade

apt dist-upgrade

Start Zoneminder if necessary

systemctl start zoneminder.service

====Ubuntu 14.04 with ZM 1.29.0 from the PPA to Ubuntu 16.04====

02MAY16 This upgrade procedure has been tested successfully! It may not be necessary to take a dump of your zm database but I did it just-in-case MySQL messed something up.

Make sure your install is up to date!

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Reboot if needed

Login to a console and stop Zoneminder

sudo service zoneminder stop

Take a dump of the Zoneminder (zm) database (the zm.sql will be saved in your "home" directory)

mysqldump -u root -p zm > zm.sql

Drop the "zm" database

mysqladmin -uroot -p drop zm

Run the Ubuntu upgrade (note: the "-d" is required until Ubuntu 16.04-1 is released)

sudo do-release-upgrade -d

When prompted, overwrite the zoneminder configuration with the package maintainers version.

My upgrade informed me MySQL server upgrade failed. I had to continue and reboot (Ctrl+Alt+Del) the server manually.

Log in and become root

sudo su

Clean up packages that were not removed when the upgrade failed (may not be needed in the future)

apt-get autoremove

Install PHP7

apt-get install php php-gd libapache2-mod-php php7.0-mysql

Secure MySQL

mysql_secure_installation

Create Zoneminder (zm) database in MySQL

mysqladmin -uroot -p create zm

Import the zm database

mysql -uroot -p zm < zm.sql

Set permissions

mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

To better manage the MySQL server I recommend you copy the sample config file and replace the default my.cnf symbolic link.

rm /etc/mysql/my.cnf (this removes the current symbolic link)

cp /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf

To change MySQL settings:

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

In the [mysqld] section add the following

sql_mode = NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart MySQL

systemctl restart mysql

Set the Timezone on PHP7

nano /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Fix Permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Fix to allow API to work

nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Change "AllowOverride None" to "AllowOverride All" two places as shown below

<Directory /usr/share>
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>

<Directory /var/www/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>

Enable and start Zoneminder

systemctl enable zoneminder

service zoneminder start

Restart Apache

service apache2 reload

You should be able to connect to Zoneminder in your web browser!

====Ubuntu with ZM 1.28.1 or Earlier Upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04====

Upgrade Ubuntu running Zoneminder 1.28.1 or earlier.

05MAY16 This has been run on Ubuntu 14.04 with Zoneminder 1.26.5 and Ubuntu 15.10 with Zoneminder 1.28.1. You have two database options: (1)MySQL 5.7 or (2)Mariadb 10.1. Switching to Mariadb Server is a good thing as it seems to work smoother than MySQL 5.7.

Make sure your install is up to date!

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Reboot if needed

Login to a console and stop Zoneminder

sudo service zoneminder stop

Take a dump of the Zoneminder (zm) database (the zm.sql will be saved in your "home" directory)You will need this if you choose Mariadb or if something goes wrong with the upgrade.

mysqldump -u root -p zm > zm.sql

Run the Ubuntu upgrade (note: the "-d" is required until Ubuntu 16.04-1 is released)

sudo do-release-upgrade -d

When prompted, overwrite the zoneminder configuration with the package maintainers version.

If, for some reason, you get an error message that MySQL did not upgrade, continue to reboot, manually if needed, and run on restart

apt-get autoremove

Log in and become root

sudo su

Install PHP7

apt-get install php php-gd libapache2-mod-php php7.0-mysql

'''Use the default MySQL 5.7'''

To allow the database upgrade to work you will need to edit one sql file

nano /usr/share/zoneminder/db/zm_update-1.28.99.sql

Search for [ALTER IGNORE TABLE] (Ctrl + w then type ALTER IGNORE TABLE and press Enter. Remove IGNORE then

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

To better manage the MySQL server I recommend you copy the sample config file and replace the default my.cnf symbolic link.

rm /etc/mysql/my.cnf (this removes the current symbolic link)

cp /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf

To change MySQL settings:

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

In the [mysqld] section add the following

sql_mode = NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart MySQL

systemctl restart mysql

Recommended: Secure MySQL.

mysql_secure_installation

Scroll down to Continue Installation and skip Mariadb

'''Replace MySQL 5.7 with Mariadb 10'''

apt-get install mariadb-server

Secure Mariadb (set root password in Mariadb and etc.)

mysql_secure_installation

Create Zoneminder (zm) database in MySQL

mysqladmin -uroot -p create zm

Import the zm database

mysql -uroot -p zm < zm.sql

Set permissions

mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

Run the database upgrade

/usr/bin/zmupdate.pl

To better manage the MySQL server I recommend you copy the sample config file and replace the default my.cnf symbolic link.

rm /etc/mysql/my.cnf (this removes the current symbolic link)

cp /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf

When you want to change MySQL settings:

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

'''Continue Installation'''

Set permissions

mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

Run the database upgrade

/usr/bin/zmupdate.pl

Set the Timezone on PHP7

nano /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Fix Permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Fix to allow API to work

nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Change "AllowOverride None" to "AllowOverride All" two places as shown below

<Directory /usr/share>
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>

<Directory /var/www/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>

Enable and start Zoneminder

systemctl enable zoneminder

service zoneminder start

Restart Apache

service apache2 reload

Connect to Zoneminder in your web browser, open Options and set PATH_ZMS to /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms

===Ubuntu 16.04 with ZM 1.30.4 Upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 with ZM 1.30.4===
20APR18
As of this writing Zoneminder is not included in Ubuntu Bionic 18.04 and there is not a Bionic version of Zoneminder 1.30.4 in the PPA. I have repackaged a Zoneminder install for AMD64 processors that contains updates to work with PHP 7.2.

Do a release upgrade (do-release-upgrade -d) to upgrade your 16.04 to 18.04. Make sure your system is up to date first!
Accept all defaults especially keeping the existing database my.cnf.
Upon reboot Zoneminder should start but you will not be able to access it via the web gui.

Here is a link to a script that will do the upgrade process for you:

https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Shell_script_zm-install-bionic#Script_to_patch_upgrade_from_Ubuntu_16.04_to_18.04._Works_with_MySQL_or_Mariadb_.28MySQL.29

Copy the contents to a file and make it executable then run it.

Or, follow these steps.

Become root

sudo su

Enable PHP 7.2

a2enmod php7.2

Add timezone to PHP

nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone. Be sure to remove the ; before date.timezone

[Date]

Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
http://php.net/date.timezone

date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Apache

systemctl restart apache2

At this point you can access the Zoneminder web gui. However, the API will not function. To correct this you will need to download and install a patched version of Zoneminder

Download Zoneminder;

wget --no-check-certificate 'https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1bZhVcBnlW46SwCnSnZ0sdZzwtOcCiisX' -O /tmp/zoneminder-1.30.4-bionic-amd64.deb

Install Zoneminder

apt install /tmp/zoneminder-1.30.4-bionic-amd64.deb

Make sure Zoneminder is enabled and start it:

systemctl enable zoneminder

service zoneminder start

Make sure Zoneminder is enabled in Apache

a2enconf zoneminder

Check permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Restart Apache

service apache2 reload

===Ubuntu 17.10 with ZM 1.30.4 Upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 with ZM 1.30.4===

I started with Ubuntu 17.10 and installed Zoneminder 1.30.4 per the WIKI instructions with the Zesty Zoneminder install package.

Become root

sudo su

Mark-hold the installed Zoneminder else it will be removed when the Ubuntu upgrade runs

apt-mark hold zoneminder

Upgrade Ubuntu

do-release-upgrade -d

Accept the defaults especially keep the installed my.cnf!

After reboot become root

sudo su

Disable PHP7.1 and enable PHP7.2

a2dismod php7.1

a2enmod php7.2

systemctl restart apache2

Add timezone to PHP

nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone. '''Make sure to remove the ; from the front of date.timezone
'''
[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

systemctl restart apache2

At this point Zoneminder will work accept for the API functions. Download and install the patched Zoneminder install for Bionic

wget --no-check-certificate 'https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1bZhVcBnlW46SwCnSnZ0sdZzwtOcCiisX' -O /tmp/zoneminder-1.30.4-bionic-amd64.deb

Install (downgrade) Zoneminder. Don't worry, you will not lose events

apt install /tmp/zoneminder-1.30.4-bionic-amd64.deb

That's it! Everything should now work!

===Ubuntu upgrade Zonminder version prior to 1.32.x===

'''We recommend you read the release notes to see what has changed in this version. The release notes can be found here: https://github.com/ZoneMinder/zoneminder/releases'''

Limited testing has been done upgrading Zoneminder 1.30.4 to the "Beta" version of 1.32.x on Ubuntu 14.04, 16.04 and 18.04. While there were no issues noted with the Beta version I will wait for the PPA to be populated with Zoneminder 1.32.x to write more. READ THE RELEASE NOTES before you upgrade! If you have a lot of events expect the database upgrade to take a while.
See the Forum for mor information or to ask for help: https://forums.zoneminder.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=27502

==18SEP18 Modify MySQL my.cnf==
Versions of Zoneminder 1.30.4 and earlier that use MySQL required an entry to the my.cnf file. there were two recommended settings:

sql_mode = NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

and

init_connect = 'SET @@sql_mode = CASE CURRENT_USER() WHEN \'zmuser@localhost\' THEN \'NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION\' ELSE @@sql_mode END;'
either in the [mysqld]section.

Remove this entry for Zoneminder 1.32.x

==Ubuntu Swap File==
I have been puzzled for some time as to why Ubuntu will write to the swap file when there is plenty of RAM installed. I've discovered that writing to the swap file is controlled by the "swappiness" setting! By default, Ubuntu uses a swappiness value of 60 which means that when 40% of memory is used, the system will start swapping data from memory to the swap file.
Here is some info you can use to check and/or change swappiness:

To check the swappiness value

cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

To change the swappiness value A temporary change (lost on reboot) with a swappiness value of 10 can be made with

sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10

To make a change permanent, edit the configuration file with your favorite editor:

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

Search for vm.swappiness and change its value as desired. If vm.swappiness does not exist, add it to the end of the file like so:

vm.swappiness=10

The more RAM your system has the lower the swappiness value can be. Possibly even "0" My production system with 16 GIG of RAM works well with a value of "10"

Save the file and reboot.

==Use Systemd to Mount Internal Drive or NAS==
Mount units with Systemd Ubuntu 16.xx or newer.

Thanks to knnniggett for the effort to make this work!

Background
One of the first steps the end user must perform after installing ZoneMinder is to dedicate an entire partition, drive, or network share for ZoneMinder's event storage. The reason being, ZoneMinder will, by design, fill up your hard disk, and you don't want to do that to your root volume! The traditional method for accomplishing this is documented here, and that method continues to work well.

However, due to the mass adoption of Systemd we now have a new way to accomplish this, which happens to give us something the former method did not. Read on to learn more!

Systemd natively integrates all sorts of system admin functions that the legacy sys v init didn't have anything to do with. One of those functions is the ability to create mount points, much in the same way one would create a service (a.k.a. unit) file.

Note: This is especially easy on a new system. Just create your mount (/var/cache/zoneminder for Ubuntu) then install Zoneminder. How easy is that?

Collect Information
We need to know the following before we get started:

Find the ZoneMinder events and images folders on your filesystem
Determine the name of the web account user
For local volumes, determine the device name of the volume
For local volumes, determine the uuid of the volume
For remote volumes, determine the sharing protocol to be used e.g. nfs, smb, etc
For remote volumes, determine the share name

The location of the events and images folder will vary by Linux distro. You are looking for an actual folder, NOT a symlink! Debian (Ubuntu) distros prefer /var/cache/zoneminder. These folder locations are chosen by each distros' packaging guidelines.

On most Linux distros, you can view the uuid of each of your drives like so:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid

On my system with two hard drives, the items above are as follows:

/var/cache/zoneminder
www-data
/dev/sdb1
7ec50da2-fc67-4ade-89c7-6047710afae2

Your configuration will be different. Options to connect to a network share will be noted herein.

Migrate existing data
I'm not going to get into the details of this since the necessary steps will vary with each system. What you need to do is migrate whatever happens to be in the ZoneMinder events and images folders over to the new partition, disk, or network share. You do this by mounting the target from the command line via the normal fashion to a temporary folder, issue the appropriate move commands, and finally unmount the target.

This procedure has been modified for Ubuntu 16.xx and later

Log in and become root

sudo su

Stop Zoneminder

service zoneminder stop

Note: The next step will remove the Zoneminder events and images directories! This is safe to do if your system is new and you have not added cameras that have recorded events.

Remove or events and images directories

rm -r /var/cache/zoneminder/events
rm -r /var/cache/zoneminder/images

If you have an operational system you may rename the directories (mv /home/user/oldname /home/user/newname) then move the data to the new drive directories.

mv /var/cache/zoneminder/events /var/cache/zoneminder/oldevents
mv /var/cache/zoneminder/images /var/cache/zoneminder/oldimages

Create the first Systemd Mount Unit
You will be creating a total of three mount units. The first mount unit mounts the drive or partition to your system. To do that create a new folder. I prefer to put mount points under /mnt and give the name of the subfolder the same name as the device or share. In my case, that would be sdb1.

mkdir /mnt/sdb1

When creating mount units with systemd, the filename describing the mount point has to be named in a specific manner. Since the folder I just created is at /mnt/sdb1, one has to name the mount unit mnt-sdb1.mount. Create that file in the /etc/systemd/system folder.

nano /etc/systemd/system/mnt-sdb1.mount

Note: the next step you use is dependent upon the use of an internal drive or a network drive. Read carefully!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal drive: add the following contents, changing the path and uuid to match that of your system:

# systemd mount unit for ZoneMinder event storage

[Unit]
Description=systemd mount unit for ZoneMinder event storage
Before=zoneminder

[Mount]
What=/dev/disk/by-uuid/7ec50da2-fc67-4ade-89c7-6047710afae2
Where=/mnt/sdb1
Type=ext4
Options=defaults,noatime,commit=120,data=writeback

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save and close the editor.

Go to *Next

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Network drive/NAS SMB or CIFS Mount

Note: your network share must recognize symbolic links
Add the following contents, changing the What= and Options= to match that of your system:

# systemd mount unit for ZoneMinder event storage

[Unit]
Description=systemd mount unit for ZoneMinder event storage
After=networking.service
Before=zoneminder

[Mount]
What=//192.168.50.4/zm
Where=/mnt/sdb1
Type=
Options=credentials=/root/.smbcredentials,uid=33,gid=33,rw

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save and close the editor.

Install smbclient if you are mounting a Windows or SMB share

apt install smbclient cifs-utils

Create a file for your remote servers logon credential, This is the user and password you would use to access the Windows share and is located in the /root directory.

nano ~/.smbcredentials

Enter your Windows username, password and workgroup or domain in the file:

username=msusername
password=mspassword
domain=workgroup

Save the file, exit the editor.

Change the permissions of the file to prevent unwanted access to your credentials:

chmod 600 ~/.smbcredentials
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Next

Now enable and start the unit:

systemctl enable mnt-sdb1.mount
systemctl start mnt-sdb1.mount

Make and Set Folder Permissions
We've created our primary mount point, but we aren't done yet. First, let's create some folders and set the correct permissions:

mkdir -p /mnt/sdb1/zoneminder/events
mkdir -p /mnt/sdb1/zoneminder/images
chown -R www-data:www-data /mnt/sdb1/zoneminder

Remember that, if you are not running a Ubuntu distro, the web user account might be named something other than www-data on your system.

Create two Systemd Bind Mount Units
With the events and images folders created, we want to create two mount units, which bind mount those folders into the desired places.

Create the file /etc/systemd/system/var-cache-zoneminder-events.mount

nano /etc/systemd/system/var-cache-zoneminder-events.mount

Next add the following content to it:

# systemd bind mount unit for ZoneMinder event storage

[Unit]
Description=systemd bind mount unit for ZoneMinder event storage
After=mnt-sdb1.mount
Requires=mnt-sdb1.mount

[Mount]
What=/mnt/sdb1/zoneminder/events
Where=/var/cache/zoneminder/events
Type=none
Options=bind

[Install]
WantedBy=local-fs.target

Save and close the editor.

Now enable and start the unit:

systemctl enable var-cache-zoneminder-events.mount
systemctl start var-cache-zoneminder-events.mount

We now need to do the same thing to the images folder. Create the file /etc/systemd/system/var-lib-zoneminder-images.mount

nano /etc/systemd/system/var-cache-zoneminder-images.mount

Next add the following content to it:

# systemd bind mount unit for ZoneMinder image storage

[Unit]
Description=systemd bind mount unit for ZoneMinder image storage
After=mnt-sdb1.mount
Requires=mnt-sdb1.mount

[Mount]
What=/mnt/sdb1/zoneminder/images
Where=/var/cache/zoneminder/images
Type=none
Options=bind

[Install]
WantedBy=local-fs.target

Save and close the editor.

Now enable and start the unit:

systemctl enable var-cache-zoneminder-images.mount
systemctl start var-cache-zoneminder-images.mount

Now reboot and verify all three mount points were successful:

Bonus Points. Leverage the Power of Systemd
If you recall, I mentioned that using systemd to manage your mount points has an advantage over the previous method. With your mount points configured with systemd, you can easily prevent ZoneMinder from starting, should the mount point fail for any reason. Anyone who has ever started ZoneMinder without realizing there was a problem reading from the events folder can tell you what happens when this occurs. You lose all your events, and yes this is by design.

To prevent that from happening we need to modify our zoneminder service file. But first make a copy just in case..

cp /lib/systemd/system/zoneminder.service /lib/systemd/system/zoneminder.service.sav

nano /lib/systemd/system/zoneminder.service

Add entries to the After= and Requires=

# ZoneMinder systemd unit file
# This file is intended to work with Debian distributions

[Unit]
Description=ZoneMinder CCTV recording and surveillance system
After=network.target mysql.service mnt-sdb1.mount var-cache-zoneminder-images.mount var-cache-zoneminder-events.mount
# Remarked out so that it will start ZM on machines that don't have mysql installed
#Requires=mysql.service
Requires=mnt-sdb1.mount var-cache-zoneminder-images.mount var-cache-zoneminder-events.mount

[Service]
#User=www-data
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/bin/zmpkg.pl start
ExecReload=/usr/bin/zmpkg.pl restart
ExecStop=/usr/bin/zmpkg.pl stop
PIDFile=/var/run/zm/zm.pid
Restart=on-abnormal

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save and close the editor.

Now issue a daemon reload to tell systemd to pick up the change:

systemctl daemon-reload

Should the mount point fail during startup, systemd will prevent the ZoneMinder service from starting with a message stating a failed dependency. Your events are saved from deletion!

Oh, restart Zoneminder

service zoneminder start

==Zoneminder Multi Server on Ubuntu==

10MAY18 - Tested this procedure with Ubuntu Bionic 18.04 with Zoneminder 1.30.4, Mariadb, Apache2 and PHP 7.2 installed per the WIKI instructions with the shell script.

I developed this procedure using two Ubuntu 16.04 servers set up with Zoneminder 1.30.4 per the instructions in the WIKI (https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Ubuntu_Server_16.04_64-bit_with_Zoneminder_1.30.4_the_easy_way). I used the default MySQL server but Mariadb can also be used with a couple of modifications.

For this procedure my servers were:

Name - u2 IP address 192.168.50.2 This is the storage and database server

Name - u3 IP address 192.168.50.3 This is the remote zoneminder server

It is possible to use a separate database server and a seperate storage server. Your storage server does need to have a Linux file system on it as Zoneminder uses symbolic links and a Windows (NTFS, FAT32) does not know about symbolic links. You can also use Samba to mount the storage drive but this is written to use NFS.

"Official" Multi Server Install is at: http://zoneminder.readthedocs.io/en/stable/installationguide/multiserver.html

I use Putty from a Windows PC to connect to the servers as I can copy the commands from this web page and paste them into Putty. This is the easy way for me!

Database and Storage Server

Stop the Zoneminder service

service zoneminder stop

Edit the my.conf. Change bind-address to: bind-address = 0.0.0.0

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart MySQL

systemctl restart mysql

Grant remote user access (Note: for additional remote servers add them using their IP address)

mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@192.168.50.2 identified by 'zmpass';"

mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@192.168.50.3 identified by 'zmpass';"

Install the NFS server

apt install nfs-kernel-server

Add the export directory

nano /etc/exports

Add to the end of the file (Note: for additional remote servers add additional lines using their IP address)

/var/cache/zoneminder/events 192.168.50.3(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart the NFS server

systemctl restart nfs-kernel-server

Edit the Zoneminder config file

nano /etc/zm/zm.conf

Change these two lines

ZM_DB_HOST=192.168.50.2

ZM_SERVER_HOST=u2

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Start Zoneminder service

service zoneminder start

Local Zoneminder Server(s)

If you have more than one remote server repeat this procedure on each one adjusting the host name for each.

Stop Zoneminder

service zoneminder stop

Edit the Zoneminder config file

nano /etc/zm/zm.conf

Change these two lines

ZM_DB_HOST=192.168.50.2

ZM_SERVER_HOST=u3

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Install NFS client

apt install nfs-client

modprobe nfs

echo NFS | tee -a /etc/modules

Create a systemd file for the mount

nano /etc/systemd/system/var-cache-zoneminder-events.mount

Copy and paste everything between the lines into the systemd file

-----------------------------------------------------------
# systemd mount unit for ZoneMinder event storage

[Unit]
Description=systemd mount unit for ZoneMinder event storage
After=network.target
Before=zoneminder

[Mount]
What=192.168.50.2:/var/cache/zoneminder/events
Where=/var/cache/zoneminder/events
Type=nfs

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
-----------------------------------------------------------

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Save and start the mount

systemctl enable var-cache-zoneminder-events.mount

systemctl start var-cache-zoneminder-events.mount

Start the Zoneminder service

service zoneminder start

In a web browser open Zoneminder on one of the servers. (Note: you may want to check all your servers to insure Zoneminder is started on each. You may have to reboot each server to get Zoneminder to start)

Click on Options - Servers - Add New Server

In the Name block add a name of one of your servers. In my example the first server name is u2.

In the Hostname block enter the IP address of the first server. In my example it is 192.168.50.2

Click Save

Add the rest of your servers in the same way. Close the Options window when your servers have been added.

When you add a camera make sure you select a server you want to add it to (Source - General - Server dropdown)
All of your cameras can be managed and viewed from one server Zoneminder screen.

Ubuntu Server 16.04 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.29.0 the easy way

2019-03-18T21:14:46Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

'''Ubuntu 16.04 is released and I have verified the Zoneminder install with the default LAMP!'''
__TOC__

===Ubuntu 16.04 with LAMP===

This procedure can be used to install Zoneminder on a basic Ubuntu install, a server install or a desktop install.

Ubuntu basic install can be done from the net install CD (https://www.ubuntu.com/download/alternative-downloads) This is creates a CD from the file mini.iso. When prompted (tasksel) install standard system utilities, OpenSSH Server, and LAMP Server. This is the minimum that is required to set up and run Zoneminder and does not load other apps that are not needed.

Ubuntu Server Install: When prompted by Tasksel install OpenSSH Server, and LAMP Server.

Ubuntu Desktop: You will have to install tasksel in a terminal (sudo apt-get install tasksel) then run tasksel to install OpenSSH Server, and LAMP Server.

If you get a blank screen after installing Ubuntu 16.04 minimal install or server, press Alt + F1 to open a console.

Log in then become root:

sudo su

Make sure you are up to date

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

At this point you should have Ubuntu 16.04 installed with LAMP which includes the default MySQL 5.7. You have the option to use Mariadb Server 10.0 which will replace MySQL 5.7 (Click on Options link in Contents above) or continue with MySQL 5.7..

You may want to set the system swap file usage. See: https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Common_Issues_with_Zoneminder_Installation_on_Ubuntu#Ubuntu_Swap_File

You will need to make a settings change to MySQL as follows:

Note: The MySQL default configuration file (/etc/mysql/mysql.cnf)is read through several symbolic links beginning with /etc/mysql/my.cnf as follows:
/etc/mysql/my.cnf -> /etc/alternatives/my.cnf
/etc/alternatives/my.cnf -> /etc/mysql/mysql.cnf

/etc/mysql/mysql.cnf is a basic file

To better manage the MySQL server I recommend you copy the sample config file and replace the default my.cnf symbolic link.

rm /etc/mysql/my.cnf (this removes the current symbolic link)

cp /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf

To change MySQL settings:

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

In the [mysqld] section add the following

sql_mode = NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart MySQL

systemctl restart mysql

Recommended: Secure MySQL.

mysql_secure_installation

Optional: A tool that you may want to install is mysqltuner. This is handy to see what database parameters need to be adjusted as your ZM system builds up events.

apt-get install mysqltuner

Once installed, run mysqltuner from a command prompt as root (sudo). Review recommended changes. Edit the configuration file (my.cnf) and make the recommended changes. Stop zoneminder, restart the database server then start zoneminder.

===Install Zoneminder===

apt-get install zoneminder php-gd

Create Zoneminder database in MySQL (Note: this also creates the default Zoneminder user and permissions in MySQL)

mysql -uroot -p < /usr/share/zoneminder/db/zm_create.sql

mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

mysqladmin -uroot -p reload

Set permissions of /etc/zm/zm.conf to root:www-data 740

chmod 740 /etc/zm/zm.conf

chown root:www-data /etc/zm/zm.conf

Create a new user

adduser www-data video

Enable CGI, Zoneminder and rewrite configuration in Apache.

a2enmod cgi

a2enconf zoneminder

a2enmod rewrite

Fix Permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Edit zoneminder.conf

nano /etc/apache2/conf-available/zoneminder.conf

Add a - before Indexes and a + before FollowSymLinks

<Directory /usr/share/zoneminder/www>
Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks

Make sure the following is at the bottom of the file

<Directory /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api>
AllowOverride All
</Directory>

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Enable and start Zoneminder

systemctl enable zoneminder

service zoneminder start

Add timezone to PHP

nano /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone. Make sure to remove the ; from the front of date.timezone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Apache

service apache2 reload

Open Zoneminder in a web browser (http://server-ip/zm).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

===Optional Upgrade to MariaDB Server 10.0. before installing Zoneminder===

MariaDB has some enhanced features which do not exist in MySQL and thus migration back to MySQL might not always work.

'''Note: This procedure is to upgrade to Mariadb before installing Zoneminder!'''

Upgrade the LAMP installed MySQL 5.7 to Mariadb with the command:

apt-get install mariadb-server

Secure Mariadb, create root password et. al.

mysql_secure_installation

Note: The MySQL/MariaDB configuration file is located at: /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf To better manage the MariaDB server I recommend you move the config file and replace the default my.cnf symbolic link (this also works for MySQL 5.6).

rm /etc/mysql/my.cnf (this removes the current symbolic link)

cp /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf

To change Mariadb settings:

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

A tool that you may want to install is mysqltuner. This is handy to see what database paramaters need to be adjusted as your ZM system builds up events.

apt-get install mysqltuner

Continue installing Zoneminder: https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Ubuntu_Server_16.04_64-bit_with_Zoneminder_1.29.0_the_easy_way#Install_Zoneminder

Here is a link to manually install LAMP with Mariadb server [[Install MariaDB Server 10.0]]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

===Optional Upgrade to MariaDB Server 10.0. with Zoneminder (or other databases) installed===

Note: This procedure is concerned with backing up and recreating the Zoneminder database. You can use the same commands, with other database names, if your system has other databases running in MySQL.

Stop Zoneminder

service zoneminder stop

Backup Zoneminder database (or other databases)

mysqldump -uroot -p zm > zm.sql

Upgrade the LAMP installed MySQL 5.7 to Mariadb with the command:

apt-get install mariadb-server

Secure Mariadb, create root password et. al.

mysql_secure_installation

Note: The MySQL/MariaDB configuration file is located at: /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf To better manage the MariaDB server I recommend you move the config file and replace the default my.cnf symbolic link.

Remove the current symbolic link

rm /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Create new my.cnf

cp /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf

To change Mariadb settings:

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Create new empty zm database

mysql -uroot -p

You are now in the Mariadb console

CREATE DATABASE zm;

Quit Mariadb console

\q

Restore zm database from backup

mysql -uroot -p zm < zm.sql

Set permissions

mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

Start Zoneminder

service zoneminder start

You should now be running Mariadb server!

Ubuntu Any Version 12.04+ 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.28.1 the Docker way (two commands)

2019-03-18T21:14:28Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

= Introduction =

'''If you grabbed this image prior to 6-18-15 I suggest you repull it to have it work properly with the following command, otherwise continue with the real introduction'''

docker pull hrwebasst/docker-zoneminder

== Real Introduction ==

Docker is amazing, with this you will set up two different "containers" (you can think of these as chroots on steroids or VMs without the VM ;) )

So why docker? Well did you want to deal with dependency issues or weird setup problems? Or did you want to deploy without an internet connection, or possibly download an exact working image at work/home then deploy off-site without internet? '''No problem'''

= Install Docker =

You can get full instructions [https://docs.docker.com/installation/ here] or this command should work for you.

wget -qO- https://get.docker.com/ | sh

= Quick and dirty ZM 1.28.x install =

sudo docker run -d -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=uberpass -e MYSQL_DATABASE=zm -e MYSQL_USER=zm -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=my-secret-pass --name=zm-mysql mysql
sudo docker run -d --name=zoneminder --link=zm-mysql:mysql -p 443:443 --privileged=true hrwebasst/docker-zoneminder

'''How hard was that? Now you can browse to https://SERVER/zm'''
Notice that we don't need to give the zoneminder docker any information as the ENV vars are passed to it through the link.

= Advanced information =

In those above two commands the Environment Vars with the '-e' flag are creating database and connecting with those so you can modify them to your hearts content before running the commands.

Here is how I run the servers:

sudo docker run -d --restart=always --name=mysql -v /var/local/mysql:/var/lib/mysql -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=uberpass -e MYSQL_DATABASE=zm -e MYSQL_USER=zm -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=uberpass mysql
sudo docker run -d --restart=always --name=zoneminder -v /var/local/zm/images:/usr/share/zoneminder/images -v /var/local/zm/events:/usr/share/zoneminder/events --link=mysql:mysql -p 443:443 --privileged=true hrwebasst/docker-zoneminder

We've now passed a few folders into the containers and told them to always restart. The -v flags pass in local directories to destination folders in the containers. We are also telling them to always restart.

If you want to take the containers with you to do remote deploys you can. This gives you a tar of the entire container as created and you can deploy it without internet access on a machine with Docker installed. This is also handy for very slow internet connections.

docker pull mysql
docker pull hrwebasst/docker-zoneminder
docker export mysql > mysql.tar.gz && docker export hrwebasst/docker-zoneminder > zoneminder.tar.gz

then you can import them with:
cat mysql.tar.gz | sudo docker import - mysql
cat zoneminder.tar.gz | sudo docker import - zoneminder

== Troubleshooting ==

'''If you get something like: FATA[0000] Error response from daemon: Conflict, The name zoneminder is already assigned to 0eb19f019a4f it means that your for some reason stopped your docker container and can't reuse the name "zoneminder" to run another container. if this is the case then you should be able to just run "docker start zoneminder" and have it start back up.''' If for some reason it's broken and not starting you can run the following.

docker rm zoneminder
docker pull hrwebasst/docker-zoneminder:latest

and then rerun the above run command for zoneminder

Ubuntu Server 14.04 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.26.5 the easy way

2019-03-18T21:14:12Z

Asker:

[[Ubuntu|<Home]]

If you are not experienced with Linux and would like a quick way to get Zoneminder running for you, consider Zoneminder on a stick, a per-configured Lubuntu 14.04 with Zoneminder 1.29.0. See: https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Lubuntu_14.04_with_Zoneminder_1.29.0_pre-configured_CD_or_USB

Zoneminder 1.26.5-1 on Ubuntu 14.04 64 BIT and 32 BIT

Note: This procedure is what I got to work after doing an upgrade from Ubuntu 12.04 with ZM 1.25.0 to Ubuntu 14.04 with the Ubuntu ZM package version 1.26.5. I compared the differences in the /etc/apache2 directory's and the only difference I could find was the successful setup had a zoneminder.conf in /etc/apache2/conf.d. That and enabling the CGI got ZM to work. This was modified on 20APR14 to use a second symbolic link instead of a zoneminder.conf file. Granted, there may be other ways to do this and I welcome input on the ZM forum.

Install Ubuntu Server

Install Basic Server (if you used the mini.iso), OpenSSH Server, and LAMP Server (LAMP installs Apache2, PHP, and MySQL server)

Log in then become root:

sudo su

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

Optional: Set static IP address

nano /etc/network/interfaces

Make changes similar to this:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.10
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1
dns-nameservers 192.168.1.1

Note: for Ubuntu 14.04 the resolv.conf is dynamically assigned.
The "dns-servers" entry in the interfaces file will set the DNS
Multiple DNS server entries can be used.

Reboot server

Install Zoneminder

apt-get install zoneminder

Add delay to allow MySQL to start before Zoneminder

nano /etc/init.d/zoneminder

Add sleep 15 as shown:

start() {
sleep 15
echo -n "Starting $prog: "

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Create a directory in apache2

mkdir /etc/apache2/conf.d

Create two symbolic links

ln -s /etc/zm/apache.conf /etc/apache2/conf-available/zoneminder.conf

ln -s /etc/apache2/conf-available/zoneminder.conf /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/zoneminder.conf

CGI is not enabled in Ubuntu 14.04 by default. Enable it this way:

a2enmod cgi

Create a new user

adduser www-data video

Restart Apache

/etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload

or

service apache2 restart

Install Cambozola

cd /usr/src && wget http://www.andywilcock.com/code/cambozola/cambozola-latest.tar.gz

tar -xzvf cambozola-latest.tar.gz

replace 935 with cambozola version downloaded

cp cambozola-0.935/dist/cambozola.jar /usr/share/zoneminder

NTP Daily Sync

nano /etc/cron.daily/ntpdate

Copy the following into nano

!/bin/sh
ntpdate ntp.ubuntu.com

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

chmod 755 /etc/cron.daily/ntpdate

Open Zoneminder in web browser

http://serverip/zm

Click Options

Uncheck: Check with zoneminder.com for updated versions (?) click Save

Click Images tab

check Is the (optional) cambozola java streaming client installed (?)
Click Save

Reboot server to insure Zoneminder starts on boot.

Understanding ZoneMinder's Zoning system for Dummies

2019-03-11T17:05:01Z

Asker: /* Pixels or percents? */

[[Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04|<Home]]

===Background===

ZoneMinder has a powerful zone detection system using which you can modify how sensitive, precise, accurate your motion alarms are. The official ZM documentation does a good job of describing all the concepts [http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Defining_Zones here]. However, you will see
gobs of posts in the forum about people complaining that ZM logs all sorts of events (ahem, as did I), ZM's detection is rubbish and in-camera is better (ahem, as did I) and what not. But once you get the concept, its incredibly powerful.

So instead of giving you a theoretical explanation, lets walk through a live use-case. (Credit: user kkrofft helped a lot in me getting a hang of things [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=23024 here]. You should also read his earlier explanation [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=22239&p=84476#p84476 here])

===Some concepts===

Let's take a look at this area below. Lets suppose you want to trigger motion if someone tries to break into your basement. Does it make sense you monitor the full area (pillars/walls/floor)? Probably not. If someone were to break in, they'd break in from some door, some window, or maybe break in from upstairs and climb down the stairs. So doesn't it make more sense to monitor these areas specifically? I think so. So the first 'common sense' logic is delete the default zone that ZM creates for each monitor (which is called All). Monitoring every part of your image may make sense if you are monitoring and outdoor lawn, for example. Not here

[[File:Nph-zms.jpeg]]

=== Defining the zone areas ===
So given the explanation above, how about we define zones where motion matters? Any zone you define as "active" is what ZoneMinder will analyze for motion. Ignore the 'preclusive for now'. So lets look at the image below. I've defined polygons around places that are the "entry points"

[[File:With_zones.jpg]]

=== Okay, now how do I specify the sensitivity of the zones? ===

ZoneMinder has pre-sets. We live in a world of pre-sets. I bet you want to select "Best and highly sensitive" don't you? DON'T.
Not because that setting is nonsense, but because you should understand some concepts first.

==== Core Concepts ====
The ZM wiki I pointed to earlier does a great job of explaining different methods. At the cost of repeating what has already been said, its important to note:

* ZM does NOT understand objects. It only understands pixel colors. So if you are monitoring a camera that is producing a 1280x960 32bit color depth image, as far as ZM is concerned, it is getting an array of 1280*960*32 bits of data to analyze and compare a previous frame and based on 'color differences' between frame X-1 and X along with some algorithms it applies in addition to color differences, it tries and guesses if objects (in ZM speak, a specific pattern of pixels) have come up that were not there previously.

* ZM has 3 methods of detection: Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs. Here is a visual explanation of their differences

The first image is a 20x20 grid. Let's assume this is a zone. And the black circle is some object in this grid.
The second image shows the next frame of that image, where new 'objects' have appeared, or in ZM's view 'new sets of pixel patterns'

Now let's talk about Alarmed Pixels, Filtered Pixels and Blobs

[[File:Reference.jpg]]
[[File:Reference next frame.jpg]]

=====Alarmed Pixels=====
Alarmed pixels only deals with pixels changes. If we use the alarmed pixel method and specify a minimum of "5 pixel" changes (lets forget max for now), then
all the new pixels of set A + B + C + D will count as alarmed pixels and the total alarmed pixel count will be A+B+C+D

=====Filtered Pixels=====
Now let's assume we used Filtered pixels and set it to 2x2 pixels. The in addition to computing the alarmed pixels (A+B+C+D), it will also count how many of these sets have at least 2 pixels around them that are also alarmed pixels. This will result in B+C+D (set A will be discarded as they don't have any pixels surrounded by at least 2 pixels that have changed color from the prev. frame)

=====Blob Pixels=====
Now lets assume we used Blob and said a blob needs to be at least 10 pixels. Then what it will do is based on the set computed by Filtered pixels, which is B+C+D it will look for contiguous blobs of 10 pixels and that only means D

So, in Alarmed pixels any of A, B, C or D would raise an alarm
In filtered pixel mode, only B, C or D would raise an alarm
In blob mode only D would raise an alarm

Okay, that was a simple explanation. And I did not cover more details on min/max. But I hope you get the core idea..

===Yawn. Forget the theory. Let's get back to your basement image===

Okay, back to my basement and my 3 zones.
====Which detection type should I use?====
I personally feel to detect "humans", blob is the best. As I described above, it combines Alarm + Filtered + ensures that the pixel differences are contiguous and then does an algorithmic analysis to see if it forms 'blobs'

====Pixels or percents?====
What makes more sense to you? "Raise an alarm if 178 pixels are changed" or "Raise an alarm if more than 20% of my zone has changed?". To me, the latter makes much more sense.
So I've always used percents
(Updated in 2019: Given a lot of people seem to refer to this article, in some cases, it does make more sense to use pixels, especially if the difference in sizes is small. Example: its not possible to visualize the difference between 10% and 15%)

====Right percents. But what values?====

It helps to think visually here. Let's go back to the zones I drew of my basement and try and visually place how a person and a pet would look in each zone. Here is a take:
[[File:Of_men_and_animals.jpg]]

* '''Zones and Depths:''' One of the learning for me was that don't make zones cover a lot of depth as far as the camera lens goes. Why? Well take a look at the image above. As a person or a pet walks away or towards the camera, it gets significantly bigger or smaller (right, that was not rocket science, but sometimes commonsense 101 helps)

* '''Percent vs. Pixels:''' Back to my previous point -if you specify alarmed areas in pixels, in addition to being able to visualize better (at least for me) the added advantage is the setting scales as zone sizes changes. For example the % of space the person takes in my far end "Door" zone is quite similar to the % of space the person takes in my couch area (in other words, both the zone and person have scaled up in size, so relative % is still the same)

* So having said all of this, this is what my zone definition for the "stairs area" looks like:

====Stairs Zone====

[[File:Stairs foyer.png]]

Lets see how ZM will use these values:

* Use the "blob" method to detect movement (which means first use Alarmed pixels, then use Filtered Pixels, then use Blob)

ZM's motion detection algorithm for this zone:

#Set A = full zone pixels
#(Min/Max Pixel Thres) In the *Full* area defined by the zone, check if there are any pixels that have have a 40 count difference in pixel color from a previous. Assign to Set B. If Set B = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Min/Max Alarmed Area) check if Set B is at least 6% of Set A and not more than 75% of Set A. If Set B does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest.
#(Filter Width/Height) In the set of pixels (Set B) that are different in color value of 40, check if there are pixels that are surrounded by 5 more pixels around them that are also different in color value of 40. Assign to Set C. If Set C = null, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Filtered Area) check if Set C forms at least 4% of Set A but no more than 75% of Set A. If Set C does not fall in this range, don't raise alarm, don't proceed with rest
#(Min/Max Blob Area) use Blob logic on Set C to figure out how many Blobs are there. A blob that is at least 4% in size of Set A (full pixels) is considered a blob. Assign this to Set D.
#(Min/Max Blobs) - If the # of blobs in Set D is less than 1, don't raise an alarm, don't proceed with rest
#''' Raise Alarm!'''

Note the percentages I describe above seem lesser than the visual percentages when you look at the image. First, my image is not to scale. Second, I guess I could increase the percentages, but these values are working quite well for me, but in reality I guess I could easily increase, say, 6% to 10%. In general, I'd recommend using the least value that is not triggered by small things - keep raising it till you stop getting 90% of spurious alarms, but no further. If you try and eliminate all spurious events, then its likely you will also miss some valid motion (that's a non scientific anecdotal statement, so feel free to challenge me here)

====Door Zone====
Here is my zone setting for the door (Edit note: the max alarmed/filtered area was changed to 70% - the image shows 90%)

[[File:Door.png]]

The logic is similar to the foyer area - plus, I've used the overload frame count -- basically the sun blasts through the blinds and in those cases the % change is very large (around 75+%) which triggers my max % spec and in that case, I tell zoneminder to ignore the next 2 frames so that this excessive lighting condition does not raise lots of alarms. BTW, this is one zone where I still get 4-5 false events in a day. I am fine with it and prefer to live with it.

====Ah, I get it. But hey what's that preclusive zone in your image at the start of this artlce?====
Ah, ZM allows us to specify a zone where should an alarm occur, it suppresses alarms in that zone and all other zones in the monitor. I've set it to cover my recess lights.
So if someone turns our lights on, I won't get an alarm. Does it work? Yep pretty well. Does it always work? Mostly. Heh heh.

===Some other optimizations===
There are other optimizations you can do. Another setting I found useful is to use "Alarm Frame Count". This is not part of Zones, but part of your monitor definition (Buffers tab). It specifies the minimum amount of alarm frames to trigger an alarm. Most of my cameras are on Wifi and my basement is farthest away from my AP, so I occasionally get smearing. Setting this to 3 reduces almost all smears raising an alarm

===You're a dork. None of this mumbo jumbo worked for me. I want my money back===
Life sucks. Take a break. Drink a glass of wine. Or two. Then get back to your settings. And its possible these don't work for you - try different values. Think visually.
Oh, and I'll need a postage paid envelope to email you a $0 cheque. And a $5 cheque from you to pay for gas to drive to the nearest post box. Labor is free because you did not like my article. There is a lifetime return policy, you see.

Various ZM thoughts

2018-10-26T15:03:05Z

Asker: /* Topics */

Most of these were written when I first discovered ZoneMinder in 2015. ZM 1.28 was the stable release then.

<[[Contents]]

==Topics==

[https://medium.com/zmninja/inside-the-hood-machine-learning-enhanced-real-time-alarms-with-zoneminder-e26c34fe354c ZoneMinder with Machine Learning]

[[Understanding ZoneMinder's Zoning system for Dummies]] (Illustrated)

[[Ubuntu Server or Ubuntu Desktop?]]

[[How to get ssmtp working with Zoneminder]]

[[Doing your best to get rid of smudging in FFMPEG transcoding of RTSP streams]]

[[How to use your external camera's motion detection with ZM]] (and a basic explanation of ZM's trigger architecture)

[[Math for Memory - knowing how much memory you need and how to optimize]]

[[Estimating how much HDD space you need for recording]]

[[How to control your Foscam HD cameras - PTZ]]

[[Using your iPhone's location to start ZM recording]]

<strike>[[Modifying ZoneMinder to remember run state names]] (and why that is very useful)</strike>

[[How to use ZoneMinder with cameras it may not directly support]] (but you have some way to extract images from it)

[[Mobile companion apps]]

[[Exporting images to Video]]

How to use your external camera's motion detection with ZM

2018-08-06T18:40:31Z

Asker: /* Source code */

[[Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04|<Home]]

===Background===
Zone minder has an awesome 'trigger' architecture which allows any external event to trigger a recording on ZoneMinder. This section explains the basic architecture and then goes on to describe how you can use your own camera's HW motion detection to trigger a recording on ZM. You can replace this 'trigger' with any other event - such as, for example, triggering your ZM recording when say your Nest thermostat goes to Away mode. The options are limitless

=== Core Trigger Architecture===

<nowiki>
+-----------------+
| zmtrigger.pl | record on/off
|listening on port| directives over TCP (and other IPC mechanisms)
| 6802 |<------+
| | | polling or notification x
+-+---------------+ | - depends on device / \
| | capabilities / \
| | +---------------> |
| | | \ /
| | | \ /
+----------------+ | record | +---------+ |
| | | | | my own | | device
| Rest of Zone | | +-------| script |<--------------+
| Minder <------+ +---------+
| |
+----------------+
</nowiki>

If you enable OPT_TRIGGERS in Options->System, then ZoneMinder starts a process called "zmtrigger.pl" (/usr/bin/zmtrigger.pl). This is a perl script that basically offers an easy to use interface for anyone to send it commands to its default TCP port (6802) to initiate/stop recordings. Note that zmtrigger also offers other means of IPC - I just found the TCP channel easy and reliable.

zmtrigger does not care what caused the event. All it is waiting for is a simple text instruction from anyone capable of sending a command to port 6802. So what that means is I can write any program that monitors anything, and when my program thinks something happened which warrants a recording, all I need to tell zmtrigger is "please record monitor 3" (and optionally specify more parameters)

===Requirements for Triggering===
* OPT_TRIGGERS need to be enabled
* Prior to ZoneMinder v1.30.2, the monitor mode MUST be set to Nodect (ZM won't initiate recordings if in any other mode).

(To combine both ZM normal recording, and say external triggers, with ZoneMinder prior to v1.30.2 you can always add two monitors pointing to the same camera - one in say modect and the other in nodect and use the latter one for external triggers)

===Quick test===
Lets assume you have a monitor id of 1. As a quick test, just try this
<nowiki>
telnet zm_ip 6802
</nowiki>
And when connected via telnet simply type in
<nowiki>
1|on+20|1|External Motion|External Motion
</nowiki>

You should see ZM create a new recording for Monitor ID=1 for 20 seconds with a name and cause of "External Motion"

===Implementation Strategy===

* Foscam's [http://foscam.us/forum/cgi-sdk-for-hd-camera-t6045.html CGI document] shows that if the camera's motion detection is enabled, then when it detects motion, you can use the getDevState command - if the value of XML tag <motionDetectAlarm> is 2 then motion is detected. It resets back to 1 if there is no motion detect
* Unfortunately, Foscam does not support posting events/callbacks when motion is detected. Note that there are cameras that support web hooks for motion notifications, like Axis cameras.
* so I need to poll it once every few seconds and check this value
* If this value == 2, send a record request to zmtrigger (and thanks to ZM's ring buffer, I won't miss the image that caused the alarm)

===Source code===
Here is the code to do just that (and some other checks for optimization)
It loops through all my cameras and sends triggers when motion is detected

https://github.com/pliablepixels/ZoneMinderFoscamHDTrigger/blob/master/arc_zm_foscamHDmotion.pl
uh-oh, looks like I deleted that repo by mistake. I don't have a copy. But looks like someone else took that code and improved it - see his repo here https://github.com/jshank/ZoneMinderHikvisionTrigger

===Notes===
* Your imagination is the limit here - you can create triggers for any thing you want - ZM doesn't care what the trigger is. As long as your script tells zmtrigger to start/stop recording and for which monitor, that is all ZM needs
* I initially used my camera's HW motion detection for a few weeks, after getting frustrated trying to configure ZM's own zone system, but when I understood how to use ZM's own zone detection, it was better
* If you are worried if this constant pinging of the foscam may slow it down, it does not. I used it for weeks without any problem

===References I found useful===
http://www.sparxeng.com/blog/software/zoneminder-network-triggering

How to control your Foscam HD cameras - PTZ

2018-07-27T19:29:57Z

Asker:

[[Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04|<Home]]

=== Making PTZ work for Foscam HD cameras (9831W, but should work on all others)===
Zone minder already comes with a control script called FI9821W_Y2k.pm by Christophe Dapremont that does all the hard work.
I only had to trivially modify it. the key change I made was that the script hardcodes an authentication login/password in the script.
I removed it, and made it so that you can use the "Control Device" field of ZM to specify the password

I also noticed he did not add cruise mode - I might do that myself when I have the inclination (which I currently don't as I never use PTZ within ZM).

=== The updated PTZ script ===
You can find it here: https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmhacks/blob/master/FI9831W_arc.pm

=== How to set up ZM to recognize the script ===

==== Quick and Dirty way ====
If you are trivially modifying an existing script, you don't need any of the below - you can just modify the script and be done
I could have just modified the _y2k script since my changes were very small, but I preferred to do a new script and not mess
with the original

==== The proper way ====
* Copy to /usr/share/perl5/ZoneMinder/Control
* Make sure OPT_CONTROL is checked in Options->System of ZM
* You also need to make sure you create a new control in ZM. To do this
** Click on any monitor "source" column. That will bring up your configuration screen for that monitor
** Click on "Edit" next to Control Type. This brings up a big list of existing controls (you won't see your new script here)
** Click on "Add New Control"
*** Main Tab
****Name: Foscam 9831W
****Type: FFmpeg
****Protocol:FI9831W_arc (IMPORTANT: needs to be exactly the same as the .pm file you just copied, except the .pm extension)
****Check "Can Reset" leave the rest unchecked
***Move Tab
**** Check CAN MOVE, CAN MOVE DIAGONALLY, CAN MOVE CONTINUOUS
***Pan Tab
****Check CAN PAN, min pan range =0, max pan range = 360, min pan step = 0, max pan step = 360
****Check HAS PAN SPEED, min pan speed =0, max pan speed = 4
***Tilt Tab
****Check CAN TILT, and min tilt range=0, max tilt range=90; min tilt step=0, min tilt step=90
****Check HAS TILT SPEED, min speed = 0, max speed = 4
***Zoom, Focus, White, Iris Tabs -- leave unchecked (though I think it has WB)
***Preset Tab
****Check HAS PRESETS, NUM PRESETS=16, Check HAS HOME PRESET and CAN SET PRESETS

=== How to associate a camera to your new control ===
* Click on the "source" column of your monitor
* Click on Control Tab
* Check "Controllable"
* Control Type: Your new Control (FI9831W_arc) should now be in this list. If not, reboot ZM once, or restart it and it should show up. If not, you messed up something. Review previous section
* In Control Device type in
<nowiki>
usr=xxxxx&pwd=xxxxxx
</nowiki>
replace xxxx with your foscam login and password. IMPORTANT: Remember its "usr" not "user" and "pwd" not "password"
* In Control Address type in
<nowiki>
ip:port
</nowiki>
of your camera

I also put in a value of 1 in auto stop timeout (I don't think it matters)

That's all, click and save

=== How to test ===
* First off, monitor your logs while testing - it can tell you a lot if things don't work (I just do tail -f /var/log/syslog)
* Click on the Name column of your monitor to which you just added PTZ control
* Click on the "Control" link at the top of the new window showing your live stream
* Control away (don't get impatient, ZM sometimes takes some time to process your control commands)

=== More fine tuning ===
Foscam has released its CGI User Manual - all PTZ controls are listed there. It's pretty easy to modify your script to make it more accurate and feature rich (example Cruise control)
You can read the CGI document [http://foscam.us/forum/cgi-sdk-for-hd-camera-t6045.html here]. I'd strongly recommend you read it if you want to tinker.

MobileDevices

2018-01-25T20:07:53Z

Asker: /* Mobile apps */

You can opt to use the standard ZoneMinder web console on your mobile devices using mobile browsers. Alternately, there are mobile apps available you can use:

====Mobile apps====
[http://pliablepixels.github.io/ ZmNinja] - iPhone/Android/Windows/Mac/Linux app for ZoneMinder

[http://html5-clouds.com/?q=node/55 zmView/zmViewPro] - iPhone/Android app for ZoneMinder

[https://itunes.apple.com/app/surveillance-pro/id1200773811 Surveillance Pro] - IOS App, iPhone, iPod and iPad

Zoneminder, starting with stable version 1.29 (and development snapshot version 1.28.107) support a REST based API. mobile and XHTML skins
are no longer actively maintained and will be discontinued after 1.29. Any mobile clients not using the API and relying on the skins will stop working.
Mobile app authors who are still maintaining their code are encouraged to use the new API.

Using your iPhone's location to start ZM recording

2017-12-23T18:31:50Z

Asker: /* Implementation */

[[Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04|<Home]]

===Why do we need it?===

Your life doesn't always follow a schedule, does it? So how can you expect your camera to follow the same schedule every day? In this day of Connected Devices, most of us carry our phones with us all the time.
So wouldn't it be cool if despite whatever you have in cron, there is a way to check if your smart phone is at home or away and depending on its location, you enable/disable recording?

===Gotchas===
Ah. super useful. But what's the big deal?
* How about I just allocate a permanent lan IP to my phone and ping it every 5 minutes?
** Great idea. Except it doesn't work with phones. When phones go to sleep mode, they don't respond to ICMP. (Apparently Blackberries do respond - how cute)
* Hmm, how about I arping or arpscan?
** Now you are getting closer. Unfortunately, that doesn't work for iPhones - at least for 5. It gives random results - and I can't seem to use it reliably
** If your phone does respond reliably to arping or arpscan, check out Christo's shell script here: http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=23026

===Solution for iPhone===
The only way I found out to reliably know if your iPhone is in or out of your home is to use the iCloud find my iPhone service and get your phone's location.
But how do you get to iCloud? Apple does not expose its APIs to non iOS environments (so far). Well, enter pyicloud: https://github.com/picklepete/pyicloud

This is a 3rd party library that provides you iCloud access. Obviously, it can break in future if Apple decided to change its URL formats. But works great for now.

====Strategy====
* I check the location of my phone every hour using a script (that uses pyicloud). The reason for this is pyicloud logs into iCloud using its web interface and I don't want Apple taking any security measures on my account if it detects too many logins. You can try other intervals
* That script writes the word 'in' or 'out' to a text file
* I check the status of that script as a cron job and switch ZM state forcibly if I find it conflicting with ZM's current run state (I tie this hack into my other hack where I modified ZM to remember run state names - you don't have to)

====Implementation====
Here are the files:
*python file to check for location: https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmhacks/blob/master/arc_zm_iphone.py
*Cron file to run the location checker every 1 hr, and check generated file status as well: https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmhacks/blob/master/cronfile
*Other utility scripts that I refer to - https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmhacks

Foscam C1

2016-09-16T11:34:29Z

Asker:

'''General'''
* Source Type: FFmpeg

'''Source'''
* Source Path: rtsp://<user>:<password>@<ip>/videoMain
* Remote Method: RTP/RTSP
* Target Colorspace: 32 bit
* Capture Width: 1280
* Capture Height: 720
* Deinterlacing: Disabled

'''Control'''
* Controllable: No

Foscam C1

2016-09-16T11:33:16Z

Asker:

Foscam C1

2016-09-16T11:32:32Z

Asker: Created page with "'''General''' Source Type: FFmpeg '''Source''' Source Path: rtsp://<user>:<password>@<ip>/videoMain Remote Method: RTP/RTSP Target Colorspace: 32 bit Capture Width: 1280 Capt..."

'''General'''
Source Type: FFmpeg

'''Source'''
Source Path: rtsp://<user>:<password>@<ip>/videoMain
Remote Method: RTP/RTSP
Target Colorspace: 32 bit
Capture Width: 1280
Capture Height: 720
Deinterlacing: Disabled

Foscam

2016-09-16T11:29:54Z

Asker: /* Model specific wikis */

==Model specific wikis==

[[Foscam_FI9831W|Foscam FI9831W Pan/Tilt Camera]]

[[Foscam_FI8918W|Foscam FI8918W Pan/Tilt Camera]]

[[Foscam_FI8910W|Foscam FI8910W Pan/Tilt Camera]]

[[Foscam FI8904W|Foscam FI8904W Outdoor IP camera]]

[[Foscam FI8905W|Foscam FI8905W Outdoor IP camera]]

[[Foscam FI8602W|Foscam FI8602W Outdoor IP camera]]

[[Foscam_FI9801/2W|Foscam FI9801/2W Outdoor IP camera]]

[[Foscam_FI9805W|Foscam FI9805W Megapixel Outdoor IP camera]]

[[Foscam_FI9851P|Foscam FI9851P H.264 HD Wireless Indoor IP camera]]

[[Foscam_FI9803EP|Foscam FI9803EP POE Outdoor IP Camera]]

[[Foscam FI9903P |Foscam FI9903P Outdoor IP Camara]]

[[Foscam FI8921P|Foscam FI8921P Pan/Tilt Camera]]

[[Foscam FI9821W V2|Foscam FI9821W v2 Pan/Tilt Camera]]

[[Foscam C1]]

[[Foscam Clones]]

[[Wanscam|Wanscam FR4020A2 (Foscam clone)]]

==General Foscam directions==

(This was very helpful for me, but instead of 'videostream' below I believe
it should be 'snapshot'. Using videostream my wifi, using iptraf to monitor
it, was fluctuating wildly from zero to 5 mbps and lots of events were missed.
Now that I'm using the snapshot cgi (/snapshot.cgi?user=mine&pwd=mine)
iptraf shows a steady stream that behaves as expected, jumps up when alarmed,
am getting the performance from zoneminder other are, where using the
videostream as below got nothing but furstration... Best to y'all, gsx)

'''Foscam FI8908W IP Camera with PT (no Z) Working in ZM 1.24.2'''

Firmware 11_14_2_28 with presets working. --[[User:Lowbayer|Lowbayer]] 21:39, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

(This also works with the Foscam FI8918W camera. No sound though.)

See here for detail on [[Foscam_FI8918W]] with presets working. [[User:Hdurdle|Hdurdle]] 23:18, 26 February 2011 (UTC)

Just thought this might be useful for anybody using the Foscam IP FI8908W Cameras.

They can be bought on eBay for around £50 and for that money they are a great buy. (Beware of fakes, see here: http://www.gadgetvictims.com/2009/09/yet-another-firmware-for-foscam-fi8908w.html)

A firmware upgrade can be performed to allow Server Push Mode, for FireFox etc.

See here for a instructions and a link to the firmware file:
http://www.gadgetvictims.com/2009/07/foscam-ip-camera-part-two.html

I recommend firmware V11.14.1.42 and Web UI V2.4.8.11

Once that is done you can proceed to add the camera into ZoneMinder with the following settings:

;General:
:Name: x
:Source Type: Remote
:Function: Modect (up to you though)
:Enabled: Tick
:Maximum FPS: Empty (I had some issues with it lagging when I used values here)
:Alarm Maximum FPS: Empty
;Source
:Remote Protocol: HTTP
:Remote Method: Simple
:Remote Host Name: x.x.x.x (The IP of the camera)
:Remote Host Port: 80
:Remote Host Path: /videostream.cgi?user=admin&pwd= (assuming you have an admin user on the cam with no password)
:Remote Image Colours: 24 bit colour
:Capture Width: 320 (You could use 640 x 480, I found 320 to be better)
:Capture Height: 240

----
{|border="1"
|Video Stream Url and Parameter
|-
|http://<IP-CAM>/||videostream.cgi?||user=A&||pwd=B&||resolution=C||&rate=D
|-
| || || User || Password || 8 => 320x240|| 0 => maxframe
|-
| || || || || 32 => 640x480|| 1 => 20 fps
|-
| || || || || || 3 => 15 fps
|-
| || || || || || 6 => 10 fps
|-
| || || || || || 11 => 5 fps
|-
| || || || || || 12 => 4 fps
|-
| || || || || || 15 => 3 fps
|-
| || || || || || 14 => 2 fps
|-
| || || || || || 15 => 1 fps
|-
| || || || || || 17 => 1 fps/2s
|-
| || || || || || 19 => 1 fps/3s
|-
| || || || || || 21 => 1 fps/4s
|-
| || || || || || 23 => 1 fps/5s
|}

;Example
:http://<ip-webcam>/videostream.cgi?user=admin&pwd=geheim&resolution=32&rate=6
--[[User:Lowbayer|Lowbayer]] 08:05, 11 April 2011 (UTC)
----

The other settings are for personal preference only – so I haven’t listed them.

I modified an existing camera control file to create this file which will allow you to pan and tilt the camera from the web interface (working in ZM V1.24.2)

Save the following in the same location as the other .pm files. You can search for “PanasonicIP.pm” on your machine and see where that is. In my case it is:

/usr/share/perl/5.10/ZoneMinder/Control

From a terminal window run:

sudo gedit

Which will open up your text editor in admin mode. Then paste the following between the +++ (excluding the +++) into the text editor:

+++

# ==========================================================================
#
# ZoneMinder Foscam FI8908W IP Control Protocol Module, $Date: 2009-11-25 09:20:00 +0000 (Wed, 04 Nov 2009) $, $Revision: 0001 $
# Copyright (C) 2001-2008 Philip Coombes
# Modified for use with Foscam FI8908W IP Camera by Dave Harris
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
# as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
# of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
#
# ==========================================================================
#
# This module contains the implementation of the Foscam FI8908W IP camera control
# protocol
#
package ZoneMinder::Control::FoscamFI8908W;

use 5.006;
use strict;
use warnings;

require ZoneMinder::Base;
require ZoneMinder::Control;

our @ISA = qw(ZoneMinder::Control);

our $VERSION = $ZoneMinder::Base::VERSION;

# ==========================================================================
#
# Foscam FI8908W IP Control Protocol
#
# ==========================================================================

use ZoneMinder::Debug qw(:all);
use ZoneMinder::Config qw(:all);

use Time::HiRes qw( usleep );

sub new
{

my $class = shift;
my $id = shift;
my $self = ZoneMinder::Control->new( $id );
my $logindetails = "";
bless( $self, $class );
srand( time() );
return $self;
}

our $AUTOLOAD;

sub AUTOLOAD
{
my $self = shift;
my $class = ref($self) || croak( "$self not object" );
my $name = $AUTOLOAD;
$name =~ s/.*://;
if ( exists($self->{$name}) )
{
return( $self->{$name} );
}
Fatal( "Can't access $name member of object of class $class" );
}
our $stop_command;

sub open
{
my $self = shift;

$self->loadMonitor();

use LWP::UserAgent;
$self->{ua} = LWP::UserAgent->new;
$self->{ua}->agent( "ZoneMinder Control Agent/".ZM_VERSION );

$self->{state} = 'open';
}

sub close
{
my $self = shift;
$self->{state} = 'closed';
}

sub printMsg
{
my $self = shift;
my $msg = shift;
my $msg_len = length($msg);

Debug( $msg."[".$msg_len."]" );
}

sub sendCmd
{
my $self = shift;
my $cmd = shift;
my $result = undef;
printMsg( $cmd, "Tx" );

my $req = HTTP::Request->new( GET=>"http://".$self->{Monitor}->{ControlAddress}."/$cmd" );
my $res = $self->{ua}->request($req);

if ( $res->is_success )
{
$result = !undef;
}
else
{
Error( "Error check failed:'".$res->status_line()."'" );
}

return( $result );
}

sub reset
{
my $self = shift;
Debug( "Camera Reset" );
my $cmd = "reboot.cgi?user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Up Arrow
sub moveConUp
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Up" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=0&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Down Arrow
sub moveConDown
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Down" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=2&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Left Arrow
sub moveConLeft
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Left" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=4&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Right Arrow
sub moveConRight
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Right" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=6&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Diagonally Up Right Arrow
sub moveConUpRight
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Diagonally Up Right" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=91&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Diagonally Down Right Arrow
sub moveConDownRight
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Diagonally Down Right" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=93&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Diagonally Up Left Arrow
sub moveConUpLeft
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Diagonally Up Left" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=90&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Diagonally Down Left Arrow
sub moveConDownLeft
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Diagonally Down Left" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=92&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Stop
sub moveStop
{
my $self = shift;
Debug( "Move Stop" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?user=admin&pwd=&command=1";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Move Camera to Home Position
sub presetHome
{
my $self = shift;
Debug( "Home Preset" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=25&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

1;

+++

Now save that as ‘FoscamFI8908W.pm’ in the same location where you found the PanasonicIP.pm file.

(This file also assumes there is a user with the name admin and no password. If your setup is different, you will need to change this file). This is a first draft working version, I’ll tidy it up once ive learnt a bit more about perl 

Next you need to add the Control Type.

Click on edit and add a new control with these details:

Main:
Name: Foscam FI8908W
Type: Remote
Protocol: FoscamFI8908W (No space in there)
Move:
Can Move: Tick
Can Move Diagonally: Tick
Can Move Continuous: Tick
Pan:
Can Pan: Tick
Tilt:
Can Tilt: Tick
Presets:
Has Presets: Tick
Num Presets: 0
Has Home Presets: Tick

Add the IP address of the camera to the '''Control Address''' field in the '''Control''' tab of camera settings

Save all that and you should be up and running.

----

;Here a list of more feature from decoder_control.cgi with the Firmware 11.14.2.28 (found: http://www.gadgetvictims.com/2010/10/fi8908w-old-and-new.html) --[[User:Lowbayer|Lowbayer]] 21:39, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

Example: http://<IP_CAM>/decoder_control.cgi?command=30&user=<user>&pwd=<pass> = Set the preset 0

Parameters value

:0 up
:1 Stop up
:2 down
:3 Stop down
:4 left
:5 Stop left
:6 right
:7 Stop right
: ... Reserved
:25 center
:26 Vertical patrol
:27 Stop vertical patrol
:28 Horizon patrol
:29 Stop horizon patrol
:30 Set preset 0
:31 Go preset 0
:32 Set preset 1
:33 Go preset 1
:34 Set preset 2
:35 Go preset 2
: ....
:62 Set preset 16
:63 Go preset 16
:And the list goes further until preset 16
:94 IO output high
:95 IO output low

----

A few more notes that I found useful:

Turning off the annoying green LED: (where x.x.x.x is the IP of your camera)

http://x.x.x.x/set_misc.cgi?led_mode=2&user=admin&pwd=

:led_mode=0 - the green led blinks only once connected.
:led_mode=1 - the green led blinks while searching for a connection and when connected.
:led_mode=2 - the green led is always off.

Stop the camera moving around when you reboot it:

http://x.x.x.x/set_misc.cgi?ptz_center_onstart=0&user=admin&pwd=

I initially had some issues with no images displaying in ZM. I found this to be a shared memory issue, see here:

http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php -> FAQ#What_does_a_.27Can.27t_shmget:_Invalid_argument.27_error_in_my_logs_mean.3F_and_my_cameras_won.27t_display_video_at_higher_resolutions.

;Here a list of interesting feature: --[[User:Lowbayer|Lowbayer]] 21:39, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

http://[ipcam]/get_misc.cgi ->Returns all the current values for the functions above.

http://[ipcam]/get_log.cgi -> Displays the visits log

http://[ipcam]/get_params.cgi ->Returns the complete configuration of the camera.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B-yhhBvC0DSlNWExZDU0NTQtMDlmZi00YzkzLWFkNDAtMGU4MTA1MDg2YjMz&hl=en

The feature list from the IPCAM CGI SDK V1.7

http://www.notesco.net/download/ipcamcgisdk21.pdf

The feature list from the IPCAM CGI SDK V2.1

----

I found this guide useful for getting ZM 1.24.2 installed in the first place on my ubuntu box:

http://www.howtoforge.com/video_surveillance_zoneminder_ubuntu

I replaced:

ftp://www.northern-ridge.com.au/zoneminder/ubuntu/dapper/zoneminder_1.22.3-8_i386.deb

with

ftp://www.northern-ridge.com.au/zoneminder/1.24/ubuntu/jaunty/zoneminder_1.24.2-1_i386.deb

I have also heard of people replacing the existing lens in the Foscam Camera (it simply unscrews) with a 160° Wide Angle lens to give a better view. (Search eBay for ‘2.1mm CCTV Lens’). I haven’t tried this myself yet, but will at some point in the future.

On more thing to add. Since upgrading to 1.24.2 (I was originally on 1.23) I have had a few issues with apache locking up. I followed the recommended fix in this thread:

http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=51045

Which has helped a little but I’m still having a few issues. I have to run this command:

sudo apache2ctl restart

every now and then on the box (which I VNC into from my windows box) to restart apache.

Hope this is useful to some people.

Cheers,

DAVE.

PS - As I'm not always on the forum, I tend to update my blog first (and the forum later - sorry!), it's here: http://dave.harris.net/foscam-fi8908w-ip-camera-with-pt-no-z-working-in-zoneminder/ :)

;Wireless Setup
How to setup IP camera wirelessly
http://foscam.us/forum/post15934.html#p15934

;Test and Tweak IP Camera Setup and Configuration
Make sure your IP Camera is functioning at peak ability
http://foscam.us/forum/post34164.html#p34164

;Links;
* http://www.foscam.com
* [http://foscam.us/forum/free-generic-browser-interface-for-foscam-ip-mjpeg-cameras-t2522.html#p10970 MJPEG Based Foscam Camera Generic Browser Based Interface Example]
* [http://foscam.us/forum/free-generic-browser-interface-for-foscam-fi9821w-cameras-t4341.html#p20338 H.264 Based Foscam Camera Generic Browser Based Interface Example]

Foscam

2016-09-16T11:29:42Z

Asker: /* Model specific wikis */

==Model specific wikis==

[[Foscam_FI9831W|Foscam FI9831W Pan/Tilt Camera]]

[[Foscam_FI8918W|Foscam FI8918W Pan/Tilt Camera]]

[[Foscam_FI8910W|Foscam FI8910W Pan/Tilt Camera]]

[[Foscam FI8904W|Foscam FI8904W Outdoor IP camera]]

[[Foscam FI8905W|Foscam FI8905W Outdoor IP camera]]

[[Foscam FI8602W|Foscam FI8602W Outdoor IP camera]]

[[Foscam_FI9801/2W|Foscam FI9801/2W Outdoor IP camera]]

[[Foscam_FI9805W|Foscam FI9805W Megapixel Outdoor IP camera]]

[[Foscam_FI9851P|Foscam FI9851P H.264 HD Wireless Indoor IP camera]]

[[Foscam_FI9803EP|Foscam FI9803EP POE Outdoor IP Camera]]

[[Foscam FI9903P |Foscam FI9903P Outdoor IP Camara]]

[[Foscam FI8921P|Foscam FI8921P Pan/Tilt Camera]]

[[Foscam FI9821W V2|Foscam FI9821W v2 Pan/Tilt Camera]]
[[Foscam C1]]

[[Foscam Clones]]

[[Wanscam|Wanscam FR4020A2 (Foscam clone)]]

==General Foscam directions==

(This was very helpful for me, but instead of 'videostream' below I believe
it should be 'snapshot'. Using videostream my wifi, using iptraf to monitor
it, was fluctuating wildly from zero to 5 mbps and lots of events were missed.
Now that I'm using the snapshot cgi (/snapshot.cgi?user=mine&pwd=mine)
iptraf shows a steady stream that behaves as expected, jumps up when alarmed,
am getting the performance from zoneminder other are, where using the
videostream as below got nothing but furstration... Best to y'all, gsx)

'''Foscam FI8908W IP Camera with PT (no Z) Working in ZM 1.24.2'''

Firmware 11_14_2_28 with presets working. --[[User:Lowbayer|Lowbayer]] 21:39, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

(This also works with the Foscam FI8918W camera. No sound though.)

See here for detail on [[Foscam_FI8918W]] with presets working. [[User:Hdurdle|Hdurdle]] 23:18, 26 February 2011 (UTC)

Just thought this might be useful for anybody using the Foscam IP FI8908W Cameras.

They can be bought on eBay for around £50 and for that money they are a great buy. (Beware of fakes, see here: http://www.gadgetvictims.com/2009/09/yet-another-firmware-for-foscam-fi8908w.html)

A firmware upgrade can be performed to allow Server Push Mode, for FireFox etc.

See here for a instructions and a link to the firmware file:
http://www.gadgetvictims.com/2009/07/foscam-ip-camera-part-two.html

I recommend firmware V11.14.1.42 and Web UI V2.4.8.11

Once that is done you can proceed to add the camera into ZoneMinder with the following settings:

;General:
:Name: x
:Source Type: Remote
:Function: Modect (up to you though)
:Enabled: Tick
:Maximum FPS: Empty (I had some issues with it lagging when I used values here)
:Alarm Maximum FPS: Empty
;Source
:Remote Protocol: HTTP
:Remote Method: Simple
:Remote Host Name: x.x.x.x (The IP of the camera)
:Remote Host Port: 80
:Remote Host Path: /videostream.cgi?user=admin&pwd= (assuming you have an admin user on the cam with no password)
:Remote Image Colours: 24 bit colour
:Capture Width: 320 (You could use 640 x 480, I found 320 to be better)
:Capture Height: 240

----
{|border="1"
|Video Stream Url and Parameter
|-
|http://<IP-CAM>/||videostream.cgi?||user=A&||pwd=B&||resolution=C||&rate=D
|-
| || || User || Password || 8 => 320x240|| 0 => maxframe
|-
| || || || || 32 => 640x480|| 1 => 20 fps
|-
| || || || || || 3 => 15 fps
|-
| || || || || || 6 => 10 fps
|-
| || || || || || 11 => 5 fps
|-
| || || || || || 12 => 4 fps
|-
| || || || || || 15 => 3 fps
|-
| || || || || || 14 => 2 fps
|-
| || || || || || 15 => 1 fps
|-
| || || || || || 17 => 1 fps/2s
|-
| || || || || || 19 => 1 fps/3s
|-
| || || || || || 21 => 1 fps/4s
|-
| || || || || || 23 => 1 fps/5s
|}

;Example
:http://<ip-webcam>/videostream.cgi?user=admin&pwd=geheim&resolution=32&rate=6
--[[User:Lowbayer|Lowbayer]] 08:05, 11 April 2011 (UTC)
----

The other settings are for personal preference only – so I haven’t listed them.

I modified an existing camera control file to create this file which will allow you to pan and tilt the camera from the web interface (working in ZM V1.24.2)

Save the following in the same location as the other .pm files. You can search for “PanasonicIP.pm” on your machine and see where that is. In my case it is:

/usr/share/perl/5.10/ZoneMinder/Control

From a terminal window run:

sudo gedit

Which will open up your text editor in admin mode. Then paste the following between the +++ (excluding the +++) into the text editor:

+++

# ==========================================================================
#
# ZoneMinder Foscam FI8908W IP Control Protocol Module, $Date: 2009-11-25 09:20:00 +0000 (Wed, 04 Nov 2009) $, $Revision: 0001 $
# Copyright (C) 2001-2008 Philip Coombes
# Modified for use with Foscam FI8908W IP Camera by Dave Harris
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
# as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
# of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
#
# ==========================================================================
#
# This module contains the implementation of the Foscam FI8908W IP camera control
# protocol
#
package ZoneMinder::Control::FoscamFI8908W;

use 5.006;
use strict;
use warnings;

require ZoneMinder::Base;
require ZoneMinder::Control;

our @ISA = qw(ZoneMinder::Control);

our $VERSION = $ZoneMinder::Base::VERSION;

# ==========================================================================
#
# Foscam FI8908W IP Control Protocol
#
# ==========================================================================

use ZoneMinder::Debug qw(:all);
use ZoneMinder::Config qw(:all);

use Time::HiRes qw( usleep );

sub new
{

my $class = shift;
my $id = shift;
my $self = ZoneMinder::Control->new( $id );
my $logindetails = "";
bless( $self, $class );
srand( time() );
return $self;
}

our $AUTOLOAD;

sub AUTOLOAD
{
my $self = shift;
my $class = ref($self) || croak( "$self not object" );
my $name = $AUTOLOAD;
$name =~ s/.*://;
if ( exists($self->{$name}) )
{
return( $self->{$name} );
}
Fatal( "Can't access $name member of object of class $class" );
}
our $stop_command;

sub open
{
my $self = shift;

$self->loadMonitor();

use LWP::UserAgent;
$self->{ua} = LWP::UserAgent->new;
$self->{ua}->agent( "ZoneMinder Control Agent/".ZM_VERSION );

$self->{state} = 'open';
}

sub close
{
my $self = shift;
$self->{state} = 'closed';
}

sub printMsg
{
my $self = shift;
my $msg = shift;
my $msg_len = length($msg);

Debug( $msg."[".$msg_len."]" );
}

sub sendCmd
{
my $self = shift;
my $cmd = shift;
my $result = undef;
printMsg( $cmd, "Tx" );

my $req = HTTP::Request->new( GET=>"http://".$self->{Monitor}->{ControlAddress}."/$cmd" );
my $res = $self->{ua}->request($req);

if ( $res->is_success )
{
$result = !undef;
}
else
{
Error( "Error check failed:'".$res->status_line()."'" );
}

return( $result );
}

sub reset
{
my $self = shift;
Debug( "Camera Reset" );
my $cmd = "reboot.cgi?user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Up Arrow
sub moveConUp
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Up" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=0&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Down Arrow
sub moveConDown
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Down" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=2&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Left Arrow
sub moveConLeft
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Left" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=4&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Right Arrow
sub moveConRight
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Right" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=6&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Diagonally Up Right Arrow
sub moveConUpRight
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Diagonally Up Right" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=91&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Diagonally Down Right Arrow
sub moveConDownRight
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Diagonally Down Right" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=93&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Diagonally Up Left Arrow
sub moveConUpLeft
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Diagonally Up Left" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=90&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Diagonally Down Left Arrow
sub moveConDownLeft
{
my $self = shift;
$stop_command = "1";
Debug( "Move Diagonally Down Left" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=92&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Stop
sub moveStop
{
my $self = shift;
Debug( "Move Stop" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?user=admin&pwd=&command=1";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

#Move Camera to Home Position
sub presetHome
{
my $self = shift;
Debug( "Home Preset" );
my $cmd = "decoder_control.cgi?command=25&user=admin&pwd=";
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
}

1;

+++

Now save that as ‘FoscamFI8908W.pm’ in the same location where you found the PanasonicIP.pm file.

(This file also assumes there is a user with the name admin and no password. If your setup is different, you will need to change this file). This is a first draft working version, I’ll tidy it up once ive learnt a bit more about perl 

Next you need to add the Control Type.

Click on edit and add a new control with these details:

Main:
Name: Foscam FI8908W
Type: Remote
Protocol: FoscamFI8908W (No space in there)
Move:
Can Move: Tick
Can Move Diagonally: Tick
Can Move Continuous: Tick
Pan:
Can Pan: Tick
Tilt:
Can Tilt: Tick
Presets:
Has Presets: Tick
Num Presets: 0
Has Home Presets: Tick

Add the IP address of the camera to the '''Control Address''' field in the '''Control''' tab of camera settings

Save all that and you should be up and running.

----

;Here a list of more feature from decoder_control.cgi with the Firmware 11.14.2.28 (found: http://www.gadgetvictims.com/2010/10/fi8908w-old-and-new.html) --[[User:Lowbayer|Lowbayer]] 21:39, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

Example: http://<IP_CAM>/decoder_control.cgi?command=30&user=<user>&pwd=<pass> = Set the preset 0

Parameters value

:0 up
:1 Stop up
:2 down
:3 Stop down
:4 left
:5 Stop left
:6 right
:7 Stop right
: ... Reserved
:25 center
:26 Vertical patrol
:27 Stop vertical patrol
:28 Horizon patrol
:29 Stop horizon patrol
:30 Set preset 0
:31 Go preset 0
:32 Set preset 1
:33 Go preset 1
:34 Set preset 2
:35 Go preset 2
: ....
:62 Set preset 16
:63 Go preset 16
:And the list goes further until preset 16
:94 IO output high
:95 IO output low

----

A few more notes that I found useful:

Turning off the annoying green LED: (where x.x.x.x is the IP of your camera)

http://x.x.x.x/set_misc.cgi?led_mode=2&user=admin&pwd=

:led_mode=0 - the green led blinks only once connected.
:led_mode=1 - the green led blinks while searching for a connection and when connected.
:led_mode=2 - the green led is always off.

Stop the camera moving around when you reboot it:

http://x.x.x.x/set_misc.cgi?ptz_center_onstart=0&user=admin&pwd=

I initially had some issues with no images displaying in ZM. I found this to be a shared memory issue, see here:

http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php -> FAQ#What_does_a_.27Can.27t_shmget:_Invalid_argument.27_error_in_my_logs_mean.3F_and_my_cameras_won.27t_display_video_at_higher_resolutions.

;Here a list of interesting feature: --[[User:Lowbayer|Lowbayer]] 21:39, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

http://[ipcam]/get_misc.cgi ->Returns all the current values for the functions above.

http://[ipcam]/get_log.cgi -> Displays the visits log

http://[ipcam]/get_params.cgi ->Returns the complete configuration of the camera.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B-yhhBvC0DSlNWExZDU0NTQtMDlmZi00YzkzLWFkNDAtMGU4MTA1MDg2YjMz&hl=en

The feature list from the IPCAM CGI SDK V1.7

http://www.notesco.net/download/ipcamcgisdk21.pdf

The feature list from the IPCAM CGI SDK V2.1

----

I found this guide useful for getting ZM 1.24.2 installed in the first place on my ubuntu box:

http://www.howtoforge.com/video_surveillance_zoneminder_ubuntu

I replaced:

ftp://www.northern-ridge.com.au/zoneminder/ubuntu/dapper/zoneminder_1.22.3-8_i386.deb

with

ftp://www.northern-ridge.com.au/zoneminder/1.24/ubuntu/jaunty/zoneminder_1.24.2-1_i386.deb

I have also heard of people replacing the existing lens in the Foscam Camera (it simply unscrews) with a 160° Wide Angle lens to give a better view. (Search eBay for ‘2.1mm CCTV Lens’). I haven’t tried this myself yet, but will at some point in the future.

On more thing to add. Since upgrading to 1.24.2 (I was originally on 1.23) I have had a few issues with apache locking up. I followed the recommended fix in this thread:

http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=51045

Which has helped a little but I’m still having a few issues. I have to run this command:

sudo apache2ctl restart

every now and then on the box (which I VNC into from my windows box) to restart apache.

Hope this is useful to some people.

Cheers,

DAVE.

PS - As I'm not always on the forum, I tend to update my blog first (and the forum later - sorry!), it's here: http://dave.harris.net/foscam-fi8908w-ip-camera-with-pt-no-z-working-in-zoneminder/ :)

;Wireless Setup
How to setup IP camera wirelessly
http://foscam.us/forum/post15934.html#p15934

;Test and Tweak IP Camera Setup and Configuration
Make sure your IP Camera is functioning at peak ability
http://foscam.us/forum/post34164.html#p34164

;Links;
* http://www.foscam.com
* [http://foscam.us/forum/free-generic-browser-interface-for-foscam-ip-mjpeg-cameras-t2522.html#p10970 MJPEG Based Foscam Camera Generic Browser Based Interface Example]
* [http://foscam.us/forum/free-generic-browser-interface-for-foscam-fi9821w-cameras-t4341.html#p20338 H.264 Based Foscam Camera Generic Browser Based Interface Example]

ZM2 Architecture Discussion

2016-07-17T20:36:48Z

Asker:

=== Update: See http://ozone.network for more recent updates ===

This page is an initial discussion of the proposed new architecture for ZoneMinder version 2 (ZM2).

The ZM2 architecture will not be purely targetted at providing specific ZM binaries but will form the basis of a framework allowing other more specialised applications to be created.

The key components of the ZoneMinder Framework (ZMFW) can be summarised as follows

; Frame : A frame is a piece of information that can be passed around the framework. This may represent video, audio or any other type of information. At it's simplest it contains nothing other than an id, a timestamp and a block of data. Specific frame types can include additional information, e.g. a video frame would include dimensions and a video format, an audio frame would include a duration, format and possibly sample rate etc.
; Provider : A provider is simply an entity that can 'provide' other system components with frames. Examples might be analog camera video providers, or GPIO port status providers.
; Consumer : A consumer is an entity that expects to receive frames from a provider. A local file consumer might receive video frames from a video provider and write them to local file storage.

Some key points about providers and consumers.

# In order to receive frames consumers register with a provider (or a provider can register with a consumer).
# Once a consumer has registered the provider will distribute frames to a consumer. In the general case this is unconditional but it can be made conditional on certain conditions.
# A consumer has a frame queue allowing a number of frames to be lined up for processing.
# A provider can distribute frames to many consumers.
# A consumer can receive frames from many providers, though the normal case would tend towards only one.
# A frame contains a reference to the provider from which it originated.
# Providers and consumers are generally represented by threads and so run autonomously.
# The ZMFW defines only a very limited interface and set of functionality. Specific providers and consumers need to extend this to suit their own specific needs.
# Combined providers and consumers are supported. So an ZMFW object can both consume frames from one provider and thence distribute them to other consumers. This allows sequences of providers and consumers to form chains or even more complex structures such as mesh types. Owing to the conditional aspects of providing and consuming frames may take a variety of paths between entities.
# As frames are passed around, they retain a history of their passage and record which providers they have traversed. Consumers may alter the data contained within a frame, but if they do so, the frame accepts new data but also maintains the original form. This allows consumers to examine or process both unaltered and processed data if both are available.

These simple rules allow some quite complex architectures to be created. For example the zmc process in the current architecture could be represented by the following ZMFW structure

LocalCameraInput(P) -> MappedMemoryOutput(C)

where (P) represents a provider and (C) is a consumer. Obviously, the LocalCameraInput could alternately be a RemoteCameraInput etc. Likewise the current zma would end up being something like,

MappedMemoryInput(P) -> SignalChecker(PC) -> MotionDetector(PC) -> EventHandler(C)

and the streams would be

MappedMemoryInput(P) -> H264Streaming(C)

and so. In fact all those elements could now be in a single monolithic process if required, or a simple relay process could be formed of a capture input and a streaming output and so on.

The intention of the ZMFW is twofold. The first, and principal, reasons is to allow ZM components to be constructed in a more modular fashion, which also would allow additional entities to be added in from thrid parties using a defined API. So specialised I/O components can be built in, or ANPR type functionality without massively affecting the rest of the system. The second reason is to allow new components and even newapplications to arise from the framework to perform specific, perhaps currently unthought of, tasks outside the scope of the existing system.

This is just an initial brain dump. I will shortly be opening up a new forum for interested parties where anyone will be invited to contribute to discussions about the ZMFW and make suggestions and ultimately contribute to the generation of code.

Various ZM thoughts

2016-07-16T15:27:42Z

Asker:

Most of these were written when I first discovered ZoneMinder in 2015. ZM 1.28 was the stable release then.

<[[Contents]]

==Topics==

[[Understanding ZoneMinder's Zoning system for Dummies]] (Illustrated)

[[Ubuntu Server or Ubuntu Desktop?]]

[[How to get ssmtp working with Zoneminder]]

[[Doing your best to get rid of smudging in FFMPEG transcoding of RTSP streams]]

[[How to use your external camera's motion detection with ZM]] (and a basic explanation of ZM's trigger architecture)

[[Math for Memory - knowing how much memory you need and how to optimize]]

[[Estimating how much HDD space you need for recording]]

[[How to control your Foscam HD cameras - PTZ]]

[[Using your iPhone's location to start ZM recording]]

<strike>[[Modifying ZoneMinder to remember run state names]] (and why that is very useful)</strike>

[[How to use ZoneMinder with cameras it may not directly support]] (but you have some way to extract images from it)

[[Mobile companion apps]]

[[Exporting images to Video]]

Various ZM thoughts

2016-07-15T00:04:14Z

Asker:

This page contain's various learnings related to ZoneMinder. I'll be adding many sub pages for various tips and tricks. Hope toy find it useful. You can contact me by searching for user 'asker' on the ZoneMinder forums. I don't claim to be a ZM expert, so feel free to correct my observations. A lot of these tips come from other Zoneminder forum members. I'll attribute credits where I remember.

Note that I am not putting this under the "distribution specific guides" as a lot of what I will document don't only map to Ubuntu.

<[[Contents]]

==Topics==

[[Understanding ZoneMinder's Zoning system for Dummies]] (Illustrated)

[[Ubuntu Server or Ubuntu Desktop?]]

[[How to get ssmtp working with Zoneminder]]

[[Doing your best to get rid of smudging in FFMPEG transcoding of RTSP streams]]

[[How to use your external camera's motion detection with ZM]] (and a basic explanation of ZM's trigger architecture)

[[Math for Memory - knowing how much memory you need and how to optimize]]

[[Estimating how much HDD space you need for recording]]

[[How to control your Foscam HD cameras - PTZ]]

[[Using your iPhone's location to start ZM recording]]

<strike>[[Modifying ZoneMinder to remember run state names]] (and why that is very useful)</strike>

[[How to use ZoneMinder with cameras it may not directly support]] (but you have some way to extract images from it)

[[Mobile companion apps]]

[[Exporting images to Video]]

Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04

2016-07-15T00:03:42Z

Asker: Asker moved page Various Learnings from getting Zomeminder 1.28.1 working well on Ubuntu Server 14.04 to Various ZM thoughts: Various ZM learnings

#REDIRECT [[Various ZM thoughts]]