ZoneMinder Wiki - User contributions [en]

MySQL

2026-04-20T01:56:51Z

Burger: /* Disable Logging via cli */

==Setup==

MySQL (or MariaDB) creates a db named zm after ZoneMinder is installed.
<pre>
$ mysql -u root -p
>
>use zm;
>show tables;
>select * from Monitors\G
</pre>

There are some .sql setup scripts. And typically, permissions are granted for zmuser to access the zm database. This may or may not be done manually depending on what install guide you follow. It is recommended to use the guides here: [[Debian]] or [[Ubuntu]]. Sometimes things break, and you will need to rebuild the database, so for reference the steps are kept below (example from Debian):

mysql -u root -p < /usr/share/zoneminder/db/zm_create.sql
mysql -u root -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"
mysqladmin -u root -p reload

==Backup==

There are two options: 1) Backup the full database (with events). 2) Backup only the configuration.

For 1), It does not backup any videos or images. So you will have a copy of all metadata referring to events, yet the video files on the filesystem will not be saved. If it's necessary to have an offsite backup, you may want to consider a VPS as storage. Amazon S3FS support is built into Zoneminder and that is one option. Though it can be as simple as rsync-ing videos to a network share. See [https://forums.zoneminder.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=23815 link on the forums]

For 2), the config saved will allow you to restore all the camera configuration, zones, filters, runstates, etc... It will not, however save any event data, nor will it save any videos. If you have a hardware failure, you will lose all camera footage, and event data. For less critical installations, this is acceptable. Since most events are exported shortly after they happen, most users will want to use option 2.

If the database is restored from a config /usr/bin/zmaudit.pl must be run to remove the old video files from the filesystem.

===Full Backup===
This may take a while. It is recommended to stop the Zoneminder service while this backup is running. [https://forums.zoneminder.com/viewtopic.php?p=138526#p138526 *]
su - root
mysqldump -u root zm > zmdb.sql
'''Restore'''
mysql -u root zm < zmdb.sql

===Backup config only===
This will run quickly: usually less than a second. The Zoneminder service does not usually need to be stopped.
<pre>DATE="$(date +%F)"
mysqldump -u root zm --ignore-table=zm.Events --ignore-table=zm.Frames --ignore-table=zm.Logs --ignore-table=zm.Stats --ignore-table=zm.Events_Day --ignore-table=zm.Events_Hour --ignore-table=zm.Events_Month --ignore-table=zm.Events_Week --ignore-table=zm.Event_Summaries > zmdb_configonly_$DATE.sql
</pre>
'''Restore from config only or Recreate db'''

As mentioned above, if restoring to a new machine and starting from scratch, you will need to add permissions for zmuser to mysql. You will also need to recreate the db.
mysql -u root -e "drop database zm;"
mysql -u root -e "create database zm;"
mysql -u root zm < /usr/share/zoneminder/db/zm_create.sql
mysql -u root zm < zmdb.sql
mysql -u root -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"
zmaudit.pl

You may also want to run zmupdate.pl -f to make sure the database is updated properly.
From the forum:
To update db structure:
sudo zmupdate.pl
Tp update the contents of the configuration table:
sudo zmupdate.pl -f

===Regular Backups===
You should use cron to do regular backups (where mysql_config_backup.sh is the script above, with chmod +x) . You may also want to keep copies offsite, in case of catastrophic hard drive failure.
in /etc/crontab
0 12 1 * * root cd /home/user/zmbackups && /home/user/mysql_config_backup.sh

==Example Queries==
Here are a number of MySQL queries that may be useful for Zoneminder. Often, accessing the database from the terminal will be faster than using the web gui.

Here is an example of how you can change a parameter in the ZM database by logging into MySQL:
su - root
mysql -u root zm
> show tables;
> select * from Users\G
> update Users set MaxBandwidth = 'Low' where Username = 'user1';

Here is a one line command for changing a parameter without logging into MySQL.
mysql -u root zm -e "update Monitors set DecoderHWAccelName = 'NULL' where DecoderHWAccelName = 'vaapi';"

A full list of db columns can be found in the [https://www.github.com/zoneminder/zoneminder/ source code] under the db folder. If any of these queries fail, review the field names. Things change in the db from time to time.

===Change Storage Area for Multiple Cameras===
If you have multiple cameras set to a storage area. It would be tedious to manually update each one.

Storage Area is the key StorageID in Monitors (1.32.3), therefore

use tmux to view mysql
select * from Monitors LIMIT 1\G #review fields
select StorageId from Monitors \G #see current settings
use ctrl-b pageup pagedn to navigate and review fields.

press q to exit this view.
update Monitors set StorageId = 2 where StorageId = 0;

In practice you would probably set specific monitors, not all of them.

===Set all Cameras to Use H264 Encode===
Per previous example: (1.32.3 tested, review your tables for changes)

update Monitors set VideoWriter = 1 where VideoWriter = 0;

In 1.36 you should also set the following, otherwise HEVC aka H265 will be used (H265 support in 2024 is still limited in browsers and not recommended).

update Monitors set OutputCodec = 27;
update Monitors set Encoder = "libx264";

You may also want to disable JPEG encoding.

update Monitors set SaveJPEGs = 0 where SaveJPEGs = 3;

Though, you may want to use passthrough instead of encode when possible. This example is more of an example of ZM SQL administration, not a recommendation for Zoneminder settings.

===Set all cameras to limit zma to 2 FPS===
Framerate in the analysis (previously zma) can be limited to lower CPU use.

'''1.30.4 or older:'''
update Monitors set AnalysisFPS="2.00" where AnalysisFPS="0";

'''1.34 or newer:'''

Analysisfps cell in zm.Monitors table has changed, therefore:
instead of = 0.00 or = null we must do is null

update Monitors set AnalysisFPSLimit="2.00" where AnalysisFPSLimit is NULL;

===Change All Cameras to Have mm/dd/yy Instead of dd/mm/yy in Timestamp===
(1.34)
UPDATE Monitors SET LabelFormat ="%N - %m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S %z";

===Change All Cameras to Have mm/dd/yy and 12 hour / AM/PM in Timestamp===
(1.34)
UPDATE Monitors SET LabelFormat ="%N - %m/%d/%Y %l:%M:%S %p"

You can review the existing Timestamps with:
select LabelFormat from Monitors\G

Zoneminder must be restarted for changes to take effect.

'''Note''' that for fail2ban, you may want to use the '''DATETIME_OVERRIDE_PATTERN''' in options. See [[ZMNinja]].

===Change All Cameras to Have Sun Sep 15 07:06:05 2015 Format===

This benefits from having the day of the week in the string. Not necessary for legal use, but is useful if you review videos between two days of the week.

UPDATE Monitors SET LabelFormat ="%N - %c";

The day of the week is either %a (shorthand) or %A. For more details see http://strftime.org and http://zoneminder.readthedocs.io

===Check Value of AUTH_RELAY===
If you set Auth relay to none, then it's possible to access cameras from wan via a direct monitor link. So check any WAN accessible installations.

cd zoneminder
grep -ri auth_relay
select * from Config where Name = "ZM_AUTH_RELAY"\G

This also means that you can get direct video URLs from a secure LAN without authentication, if desired.

https://forums.zoneminder.com/viewtopic.php?t=28144&p=117900#p117900

===Add API/Mobile User with View Permissions===
mysql -u zmuser -p
use zm;
INSERT INTO Users(Username,Password,Language,Enabled,Stream,Events,Monitors,APIEnabled) VALUES("testguy",Password("somepass"),"en_us","1","View","View","View","1");
\q
zmupdate.pl -f
(-f will 'freshen' up the db, encrypting password with bcrypt, handled by perl in zmupdate.pl.in)
Note: If you add a user and don't specify APIEnabled or not, it will default to enabled.


===Delete User===
<pre>
select * from Users where Username="Defunct User"\G
delete from Users where Username="Defunct User";
</pre>

===Estimate RAM usage from Monitors===
<pre>select x.Id, x.Width, x.Height, x.ImageBufferCount, x.Colours, x.BufferSpace as BufferMB, 1.2*sum(x.BufferSpace) over (Order by Id) as RunningTotalMB_w_OH from (select Id, Width,Height,ImageBufferCount,Colours,(Width*Height*ImageBufferCount*Colours/1024/1024) as BufferSpace from Monitors order by Id) x;
</pre>
results:
<pre>
+----+-------+--------+------------------+---------+---------------+---------------------+
| Id | Width | Height | ImageBufferCount | Colours | BufferMB | RunningTotalMB_w_OH |
+----+-------+--------+------------------+---------+---------------+---------------------+
| 1 | 1920 | 1080 | 100 | 3 | 593.26171875 | 711.914062500 |
| 2 | 1920 | 1080 | 50 | 3 | 296.63085938 | 1067.871093756 |
| 5 | 1920 | 1080 | 40 | 3 | 237.30468750 | 1352.636718756 |
| 6 | 704 | 480 | 20 | 3 | 19.33593750 | 1375.839843756 |
| 7 | 704 | 480 | 20 | 3 | 19.33593750 | 1399.042968756 |
| 8 | 1920 | 1080 | 20 | 3 | 118.65234375 | 1541.425781256 |
| 9 | 704 | 480 | 20 | 3 | 19.33593750 | 1564.628906256 |
| 10 | 704 | 480 | 20 | 3 | 19.33593750 | 1587.832031256 |
| 11 | 640 | 480 | 20 | 1 | 5.85937500 | 1594.863281256 |
| 12 | 480 | 360 | 20 | 1 | 3.29589844 | 1598.818359384 |
| 13 | 2560 | 1920 | 110 | 4 | 2062.50000000 | 4073.818359384 |
| 14 | 2560 | 1920 | 121 | 4 | 2268.75000000 | 6796.318359384 |
| 15 | 640 | 480 | 20 | 4 | 23.43750000 | 6824.443359384 |
+----+-------+--------+------------------+---------+---------------+---------------------+
13 rows in set (3.46 sec)
</pre>
http://forums.zoneminder.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&p=119899&sid=c115f6a9443d70e8a4cb00c5e04883f8#p119899

===Disable Logging via cli===
Here is an example where mysql is scripted from the shell.
<pre>
#!/bin/bash
echo "Disabling logging by setting to -5 (1 for debug, -5 for nothing)"
mysql -u root zm -e "Update Config set Value = '-5' where Name = 'ZM_LOG_LEVEL_SYSLOG';"
mysql -u root zm -e "Update Config set Value = '-5' where Name = 'ZM_LOG_LEVEL_FILE';"
mysql -u root zm -e "Update Config set Value = '-5' where Name = 'ZM_LOG_LEVEL_DATABASE';"
mysql -u root zm -e "Update Config set Value = '-5' where Name = 'ZM_LOG_LEVEL_WEBLOG';"
</pre>
And restart zm. I would recommend setting this in a crontab on a zm server, just so you don't accidentally leave logging on at some point.

===Set all video lengths to be 1 hour===
UPDATE Monitors SET SectionLength = "3600" where SectionLength = "600";
When in record/mocord, this can be useful for smaller setups, or where you want to limit the number of videos created. It can, however
make finding motion events more difficult, so it is not ideal for all scenarios. You might do this in a situation where you have two monitors for a camera, one with modect, and one with record (in a small setup), with the record camera having 1 hour videos.

===Set AlarmMaxFrame to 3===
From [[Understanding_ZoneMinder%27s_Zoning_system_for_Dummies]]:
update zm.Monitors set AlarmFrameCount="3" where AlarmFrameCount="1";

The default value is 1. This may avoid glitches causing alarms (camera feed errors can cause a blank screen for 1 frame).
===Search the Config table for an Option===
All items in the 'Option' menu of the website are stored in the config table. This table has over two hundred entries. It's not easy to find a particular setting. While you can run MySQL from shell and export to a file, here's a way to do it within SQL. Say for example you wanted to search for the timezone setting (reference:https://forums.zoneminder.com/posting.php?t=33626)
select * from Config where Name like '%time%'\G
Here the percentage sign serves as a wildcard, meaning that the string (not case sensitive) time will appear somewhere within the Name field.
===Update Zone Count on the Console if Zone Count is Incorrect===
Update Monitors set ZoneCount=(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Zones WHERE MonitorId=Monitors.Id);
This is a good demonstration of updating one field in SQL from the count of the rows of another table.

From: https://forums.zoneminder.com/viewtopic.php?p=137027

===Update Events Count on the Console if Event Count is Incorrect===

<pre>
for i in {1..100}
do
mysql -u root zm -e "update Event_Summaries set TotalEvents= (Select count(*) from Events where MonitorID='$i') where MonitorID='$i';"
mysql -u root zm -e "update Event_Summaries set HourEvents= (Select count(*) from Events_Hour where MonitorID='$i') where MonitorID='$i';"
mysql -u root zm -e "update Event_Summaries set DayEvents= (Select count(*) from Events_Day where MonitorID='$i') where MonitorID='$i';"
mysql -u root zm -e "update Event_Summaries set WeekEvents= (Select count(*) from Events_Week where MonitorID='$i') where MonitorID='$i';"
mysql -u root zm -e "update Event_Summaries set MonthEvents= (Select count(*) from Events_Month where MonitorID='$i') where MonitorID='$i';"
mysql -u root zm -e "update Event_Summaries set ArchivedEvents= (Select count(*) from Events_Archived where MonitorID='$i') where MonitorID='$i';"

mysql -u root zm -e "update Event_Summaries set TotalEventDiskSpace= (Select Sum(DiskSpace) from Events where MonitorID='$i') where MonitorID='$i';"
mysql -u root zm -e "update Event_Summaries set HourEventDiskSpace= (Select Sum(DiskSpace) from Events_Hour where MonitorID='$i') where MonitorID='$i';"
mysql -u root zm -e "update Event_Summaries set DayEventDiskSpace= (Select Sum(DiskSpace) from Events_Day where MonitorID='$i') where MonitorID='$i';"
mysql -u root zm -e "update Event_Summaries set WeekEventDiskSpace= (Select Sum(DiskSpace) from Events_Week where MonitorID='$i') where MonitorID='$i';"
mysql -u root zm -e "update Event_Summaries set MonthEventDiskSpace= (Select Sum(DiskSpace) from Events_Month where MonitorID='$i') where MonitorID='$i';"
mysql -u root zm -e "update Event_Summaries set ArchivedEventDiskSpace= (Select Sum(DiskSpace) from Events_Archived where MonitorID='$i') where MonitorID='$i';"
done
</pre>
Tested in 1.36.

===Print the Last 50 Times from a Given Monitor's Recordings===
mysql -u root zm -e "select StartDateTime from Events_Week where MonitorID="1" Order by StartDateTime Desc Limit 50\G" | grep -v row | cut -c 15-40
This might be used in e.g. a weekly email to make sure that your camera is not dropping out. Adjust MonitorID and Limit as needed. Tested in 1.36. (You could also use something like Zabbix, or some other monitoring solution).

==Optimization==

===MySQLTuner===
<pre>
mysqltuner
</pre>

Then read the output, and perform any recommended database tweaks.

===Other===
<pre>
mysqlcheck -u root -p --optimize --databases zm
</pre>
This will attempt to optimize your databases. Functions are limited with InnoDB format, however.
mytop
Will list active connections, similar to top or htop. ? will list options. Of particular interest, is V to display all mysql/mariadb variables.

==Troubleshooting==
===API Can't Connect===

If you change the DB password from the default, the API CakePHP config files will need
to have their password changed as well.

===IBData files Large===

In ZoneMinder 1.28, I had an issue with the ibdata1 file in /var/lib/mysql/ growing too large. It includes some database information and in my 10GB root partition, was taking up 8GB. This was because the DB was not in InnoDB format. Zoneminder 1.32 and newer, defaults to InnoDB, and this section can be ignored.

The solutions I found were:

* ''backup zm database, delete zm db, delete ibdata file, then restore database'' [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3456159/how-to-shrink-purge-ibdata1-file-in-mysql How to Shrink/Purge Ibdata1 file]

OR

* ''Move the ibdata file to another partition''

OR

* ''Change DB type to InnoDB (requires backup, deletion, and restoring db, per first solution)''

Changing the database type to have an innodb file per each table as mentioned in the "how to shrink purge ibdata1 file in mysql" link will keep less data used in the ibdata1 file in the future, allowing the former to be deleted when not needed. On the other hand the ibdata file by default, will not shrink, ever. This may not be an issue in MariaDB.

Looking for the least invasive procedure, I went with moving /var/lib/mysql, and adding the optional my.cnf parameter. This required the following tricks (may only apply to Ubuntu 14.04).

There are a number of guides on moving Mysql, yet many of them omit adding the alias to apparmors settings. This is required. Failing to do so will result in "Job failed to start" when mysql is run with <code>#service mysql start</code>.

A guide that covers all the steps required to move mysql on Ubuntu Trusty without omitting anything is here: [http://askubuntu.com/questions/137424/moving-mysql-datadir Ask Ubuntu: Moving Mysql datadir]
Note that within my mysql installation there was no socket file in /var/lib or in my.cnf.

After moving the Data directory, I ended up backing up the zm db and restoring it anyways, in order to get the ibdata files to split correctly. This is not hard to do. The only DB you need to mysqldump from a stock ZM installation is the ZM db. And it's also the only DB you need restore.

For a full walkthrough on converting a MyISAM DB to InnoDB (also covers backing up ZM DB) see [https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Enable_and_convert_MySQL_to_innodb_file_per_table_for_Zoneminder Enable and convert MySQL to innodb file per table for Zoneminder].

===MySQL server has gone away error with ZMTrigger===
See [[ZMTrigger#MySQL_server_has_gone_away_error]]

===MySQL Out Of Memory===
If you have recently added more cameras (especially higher resolution and framerate) and you find that periodically ZM is crashing, it may be caused by MySQL running out of RAM. As an example, I have 26 cameras, ranging from 1024x720 to SD analog resolution with framerates of 3 for the HD, and 5 for the SD. This is running under 8GB of RAM. If I add two more 1024x720 cameras with a higher framerate of 5 or 6 (and double the ZMA/ZMC CPU usage) my server will periodically run out of memory and crash. Now, it's important to note that the memory doesn't run out immediately - instead, over a period of an hour or 30 minutes, or two hours (or more), the RAM will become overloaded and begin swapping, at which point there is a user mode crash from numerous programs. The lesson to all of this, is to beware of overloading a system. You may need more powerful hardware. Or split the load over multiple servers.

===Forgot Root Password for MySQL===
dpkg-reconfigure mysql-server-#.# works in older Debian releases, but not as of Bullseye.

Other options:
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/resetting-permissions.html

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7534056/mysql-root-password-change

===Forgot Admin Password for Zoneminder===

There are different ways to resolve this. The easiest method, is probably option 3.

* Option 1: black out password
If this happens, blank out the password for admin, and you should be able to login with a blank password.

mysql -u root -p -e 'update Users set Password = "" where Username = "admin";'
Here is a hash (1.37) for the the word password instead of it being blank:
mysql -u root -p -e 'update Users set Password = "$2y$10$4Hg40fdwsq.DhiSPSRRAA.NONOj0mJK4yYMvFmL14T1IVJpsNhy2." where Username = "admin";'

ref: https://forums.zoneminder.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14543

Alternatively you can add a new password to the ZM DB. Note that mysql passwords for ZM must be encrypted. You can't just query add a new plaintext password. The following should work with mariaDB, and mysql < 8.0.11 (untested). You may also need to run zmupdate.pl -f (passwords on 1.34+ are encrypted with bcrypt and this will use perl libraries to encrypt the password if it is not. To explain this clearly, what you do is enter a plaintext password, and then run zmupdate.pl which will encrypt it for you.
'''MariaDB''' [zm]> update Users set Password=PASSWORD(NewPassword) where Username="David";

Reference: [https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/encryption-functions.html#function_password Mysql Reference Docs 8 : Password Function Deprecated]

* Option 2: Delete DB and restore from backup.

* Option 3: Turn off Auth, fix, turn auth on
From the forums.
<pre>
Best bet is to turn off auth, use UI to change admin password, turn auth back on.

So to turn if off use mysql

mysql -u zmuser -p zm
UPDATE Config set Value=0 where Name='ZM_OPT_USE_AUTH';
</pre>

===Manually Update MySQL if zmupdate.pl fails===
This shouldn't be required but for reference (from: https://forums.zoneminder.com/viewtopic.php?p=131434#p131434)
<pre>
mysql -u root
use zm
source /usr/share/zoneminder/db/zm_update-1.36.16.sql
source /usr/share/zoneminder/db/zm_update-1.36.18.sql
quit
</pre>
Where you would substitute the source entries for whichever updates you need.
===Corrupt Database Rebuild===
For example with an "[ERROR] InnoDB: Missing FILE_CHECKPOINT at ########## between the checkpoint ########## and the end" error
This error happens for me with a larger ZM setup that suffers an abrupt power loss. (It does not occur with smaller deployments, i.e. 4 cameras I don't see this error, but I see it with 40 cameras.) Or sometimes the
database will corrupt itself when shutting down. What happens is that
mysql will fail to start. And if you run it in debug mode with '''mysqld --verbose''' it may give the
error message above as the first reason why it won't start.

The official steps to resolve this, are to start the db in innodb recovery mode, dump the full database, delete all
files from /var/lib/mysql except for the mysql folder (careful!), start mysql again, then recreate zm and restore
the dump. There is a chance that dumping the database can fail, so you will want to have other db backups available.
You should have a cron script that regularly backs up at least the config.

reference: https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/317572/mariadb-missing-file-checkpoint

However, I've not been able to repair the database in innodb recovery mode. Therefore, I restore from a config only backup.
The downside of this, is that you will lose events. Otherwise, it's easy to get the system backup and
running.

Here is a script for Debian for this (assuming you can't repair the database). It is recommended you run this manually as things can easily break. Run through each step one at a time (or in blocks).
<pre>
#!/bin/bash
# Please pass the backup file as the first argument to this script.
# The file should contain the string .sql
sleep 5
#note that this script assumes you are using the default mysql location for Debian. /var/lib/mysql/

#if database not passed to script, then exit
echo $1 | grep .sql
if test $? -ne 0 ;
then
echo "Please pass a file containing .sql to the script"
echo "Exiting"
exit
fi

echo "Repairing mysql."
/etc/init.d/zoneminder stop
/etc/init.d/mysql stop
cp -r /var/lib/mysql/mysql /tmp/mysql_backup
mv /var/lib/mysql/mysql /tmp/.
rm -rf /var/lib/mysql/*
cp -r /tmp/mysql /var/lib/mysql/.
chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql/*
/etc/init.d/mysql start

echo "Restoring database from backup file"
sleep 5
mysql -u root -e "create database zm;"
sleep 2
mysql -u root zm < /usr/share/zoneminder/db/zm_create.sql
sleep 2
mysql -u root zm < $1
sleep 2
mysql -u root -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

echo "Cleaning up orphaned filesystem movie files"
zmaudit.pl
echo "Starting Apache"
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart
echo "Restore done. Please double check everything is working."

</pre>

todo:
add date and time to /tmp/mysql move
add variable for the database location

===Logging MySQL to RAM===

With Zoneminder, the mysql logs will cause a lot of disc writes, so it is probably wise to log to RAM (/dev/shm). For example:
<pre>
[mysqld]
log_error = /dev/shm/error.log
general_log_file = /dev/shm/mysql.log
general_log = 1
</pre>
These can be rotated with the instructions here: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.4/en/log-file-maintenance.html

==See Also==

* [http://zoneminder.blogspot.co.id/p/blog-page_19.html Zoneminder Blogspot]

* [http://mysql.rjweb.org/doc.php/memory rjweb.org mysql docs]

[[Category:Dummies_Guide]]

Finding Camera Stream Paths

2026-04-12T13:08:38Z

Burger: /* Reverse Engineering Links */

This page contains methods and approaches for getting cameras to work with ZM. The best results will be with cameras tested by users in the [[Hardware Compatibility List]]. Next will be with cameras that detail the path in user manuals, and or are Onvif compliant. Proprietary and undocumented cameras are more difficult.

Overall, this can be as simple as looking in the user manual, or as complicated as reverse engineering and breaking into the device.

==Overview==

Typical methods of obtaining the cameras paths in order of easiest to hardest are:

*User Manual/Website
*Onvif probe
*Search online resources and forums
*Get access to the camera shell
*Intercept network packets with TCPDump or Wireshark
*Reverse Engineer

Double check that you don't have any other settings that may block cameras communicating to your computer (firewall, antivirus, etc). For new users who install using the [https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Helpful_user_contributed_resources#Installation_Procedure recommended install] guides, this should not be a concern.

'''Important:''' While doing this testing, you want to keep in mind the following:
* Test outside of ZM, first. (this is faster)
* Verify that ffmpeg / vlc works (see below for examples of usage)
* use the info that works in ffmpeg or vlc in zm.

==Testing out a Camera==
Easy tools to quickly check whether a stream path works in ZM or not are [[VLC]] and [[Ffmpeg]].
As an example, VLC from the gui (file -> connect to network stream) would connect with a path possibly like
rtsp://<username>:<password>@<ipaddress>:<port>/<somepath>

See the hardware compatibility lists for more details. Port for RTSP is usually but not always 554.

If you want to test from the terminal without X, you can use ffmpeg
$ ffmpeg -i rtsp://<username>:<password>@<ipaddress>:<port>/<somepath> output.mp4
or (from X)
$ ffplay rtsp://<username>:<password>@<ipaddress>:<port>/<somepath>

If the stream connects, it will provide you with some information about the stream encoding, and also the resolution.

Note that the above are examples for RTSP. You would use http for MJPEG. See the [[Hardware Compatibility List]] for more details.

==Required Fields==

Not all fields are required to be filled in for Zoneminder.

* Resolution must be right.
* Most cameras require username/password.

If you are unsure how to fill in the information into Zoneminder, refer to the [[Hardware Compatibility List]] for other cameras, and copy them.

Note that the results you get from cameras will differ depending on how you connect to the camera (whether you choose, remote, ffmpeg, or libvlc in ZM).

===Example Camera===
Here's an example of one camera setup in ZM. Note that this is not the only way to setup cameras. There are a lot of other approaches that would've been equally viable. But in this example, we use FFMPEG, motion detection, a preview of 800x600, and h264 passthrough so that recorded videos are the full resolution (1920x1280). Also note that with this camera it's possible to set parameters via the address (e.g. the ? at the end of the URL can have fps or resolution set) which makes it easier to maintain the cameras instead of having to use the Web interface of the camera.
<gallery>
File:Zmcamera example1.png|General Tab|link=https://wiki.zoneminder.com/images/a/ae/Zmcamera_example1.png
File:Zmcamera example2.png|Source Tab|link=https://wiki.zoneminder.com/images/5/52/Zmcamera_example2.png
File:Zmcamera example3.png|Storage Tab|link=https://wiki.zoneminder.com/images/f/ff/Zmcamera_example3.png
</gallery>

==Methods==
===User Manual===

Reputable name brand cameras will provide video stream paths in the user manual or website. If you bought an unbranded cheap camera or one of the proprietary 'cloud' cameras sold in retail stores then you must move onto the other options.

[[File:Usermanualexample1.png|350px|thumb|right|Here, the user manual indicates the RTSP path.]]

===Onvif===

Starting with Zoneminder 1.30.4 there is an Onvif probe option in the camera configuration. You can also use external Onvif programs. Onvif is an open standard protocol, where you can get the path information from the cameras, and possibly other information such as PTZ commands or motion detection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ONVIF

===Web Search Online===

Ispyconnect has a large database of URLs available for cameras. The ZM wiki has some. Use a search engine. You may also come across a telnet or ssh password, which can be used to gain access to the camera shell.

===Camera Shell===

Many cameras run GNU/Linux. If you can get access to the files on the camera, through telnet, or through exploiting a vulnerability in the camera, then you can look around for paths. You may be able to send files from the camera to your local machine using FTP. Cameras often have busybox, or similar utils. Running the command "strings" on binaries may come up with something. Run nmap on the camera to see what ports are open. See more details in external links at the bottom.
<pre>
$ nmap -p1-65535 <ipaddressofcamera>
</pre>
Also try (from:https://ipcamtalk.com/threads/imou-ranger-pro-rtsp-problems-solved.60271/)
<pre>
$ nmap --script rtsp-url-brute -p 554 <ipaddress>
</pre>

===Wireshark/TCPdump===

Watch the packets coming from the camera when accessing the video stream, and determine where the stream is located if possible. Some cameras require custom authentication, so if your camera is proprietary, then things are more difficult. This is the danger of purchasing cameras that don't follow the standard (onvif). Some cameras will also announce the camera stream URL when they boot on the network. Wireshark and or TCPdump can be useful for this. At the least, they may indicate the IP address.

===Reverse Engineering===

Reverse engineering is one possibly time-intensive method of getting information from a given camera. See the reverse engineering links below.

==Tips/Troubleshooting==

* Some cameras have limited space for username / password. Be wary of the camera cutting off the end of the password.
* Some cameras don't handle special characters in passwords well. https://forums.zoneminder.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&p=117987#p117987

==External Links==

*[https://www.ispyconnect.com/userguide-connecting-cameras.aspx iSpy Connect cameras guide]
*[https://www.ispyconnect.com/sources.aspx iSpy Database]
*[http://zoneminder.readthedocs.io/en/latest/userguide/definemonitor.html Official ZM Documentation] on this subject
*[https://shinobi.video/docs/cameras Shinobi List]

===Reverse Engineering Links===
*https://web.archive.org/web/20180124024708/https://github.com/sgayou/medfusion-4000-research/blob/master/doc/README.md Advanced reverse engineering/exploitation of a medical device
*https://www.contextis.com/blog/push-hack-reverse-engineering-ip-camera Reverse Engineering an IP Camera
*https://alexhude.github.io/2019/01/24/hacking-leica-m240.html Reverse Engineering a consumer camera

*http://web.archive.org/web/20190609073446/https://hclxing.wordpress.com/2019/05/30/reverse-engineering-wyzesense-bridge-protocol-part-i/ Wyzesensor reverse engineering (1/3)
*http://web.archive.org/web/20190606222131/https://hclxing.wordpress.com/2019/05/30/reverse-engineering-wyzesense-bridge-protocol-part-ii/ Wyzesensor reverse engineering (2/3)
*https://hclxing.wordpress.com/2019/06/06/reverse-engineering-wyzesense-bridge-protocol-part-iii/ Wyzesensor reverse engineering (3/3)
*https://github.com/EliasKotlyar/Xiaomi-Dafang-Hacks Xiaomi / Wyzecam Camera Reverse Engineering
*https://www.eionix.co.in/2019/10/10/reverse-engineer-ddpai-firmware.html Reverse Engineering a Dashcam
*Huang, Andrew "Bunnie", (2017) The Hardware Hacker. pg 279. No Starch Press.
*http://web.archive.org/web/20201102155358/https://wrongbaud.github.io/Holiday-Teardown/
*http://web.archive.org/web/20210212100444/https://frdmtoplay.com/patching-in-fahrenheit/ - Disassembly and patching.
*https://unnamedre.com/ Podcast on reverse engineering. I haven't listened to it yet, but it may be a valuable reference.
*https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/identifying-the-mcu-from-rt85-handheld-radio/ - firmware hacking of a handheld radio
*http://web.archive.org/web/20230210164816/https://eta.st/2023/01/31/rail-tickets.html - qr codes
*https://github.com/racerxdl/stm32f0-pico-dump
*https://hackaday.com/2022/05/04/dumping-encrypted-at-rest-firmware-of-xiaomi-smart-kettle/
*https://hackaday.com/2023/02/05/need-to-dump-a-protected-stm32f0x-use-your-pico/
*https://youtu.be/Y7Z5Q_sNqUw SUPERCON 2022: Kuba Tyszko Cracks Encrypted Software
*https://hackaday.com/2024/01/19/alarm-panel-hack-defeats-encryption-by-ignoring-it/ - Sometimes you can just go right to the display and buttons and ignore the rest of the device
*https://youtu.be/uGfVn-cyz3o https://youtu.be/lbSalKp_ldA IP Camera firmware extraction and disassembly of a hardcoded password
*https://hackaday.com/2026/02/14/reverse-engineering-a-dash-robot-with-ghidra/ - Ghidra disassembly of binaries.
*https://www.robopenguins.com/reverse-dash/ - From the previous link.
*https://fippi.io/reverse-engineering-adventure-canoe/ - Finding passwords with ghidra and gdb for an old arcade game. This is pretty well written and easy to follow. A good example of shallow reverse engineering (i.e. not going into something too difficult). Also rearranges the files for MAME.
[[Category:Dummies_Guide]]

Finding Camera Stream Paths

2026-04-12T13:08:14Z

Burger: /* Reverse Engineering Links */

Burger: /* See Also */

It's possible to use lsync daemon, which leverages the inotify https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inotify kernel subsystem to run triggers based on events in a directory (create, modify, delete). Triggers can be varied (you can run any arbitrary command) but in the default use case, is as a filesystem backup / clone using the rsync command.

==About==
After recently migrating from another popular NVR software on Windows to Zoneminder on Linux I started looking for a way to do near-real-time backups of my events to offsite storage, simply as a way to have a copy should the local ZM server be compromised by break-in, fire, etc. Software such as Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. make it relatively easy to do this on Windows but the setup on Linux takes bit more effort.

I wanted to keep it as simple as possible and don't need my backup solution to interface with the ZM database at all. After experimenting with several other options, I have settled on an application called lsyncd. It runs as a service and leverages inotify and rsync to watch a directory or directories and mirror only new changes to another storage location. Lsyncd should be available as a package for most Linux distributions. I used the installation instructions here for my Rocky Linux system;

https://docs.rockylinux.org/10/guides/backup/mirroring_lsyncd/

At this point it is worthwhile to at least skim through the docs.

https://lsyncd.github.io/lsyncd/manual/config/file/

https://linux.die.net/man/1/rsync

Both lsyncd and rsync are highly configurable and incredibly powerful. For many people the use case will be very simple like my own which I will describe here - watch my Zoneminder storage location and copy new files to a remote location, but much more complex configurations are certainly possible. In my case I'll be writing to an Amazon S3 bucket which I have already setup using S3FS-FUSE according to the documentation here;

https://zoneminder.readthedocs.io/en/latest/userguide/options/options_storage.html

Note you do not need to add the S3FS as a storage location in ZM to use lsyncd to copy files there, that is only required for ZM to write events directly to S3. Configuring rsync is beyond the scope of this document but this solution will work with any target that rsync is capable of writing to. Make sure your remote location is accessible via rsync before proceeding.

==Setup==

Once lsyncd is installed you will need to create a configuration file in /etc/lsyncd.conf. I've included mine as an example below. Note this script uses LUA syntax, not bash. Be '''VERY CAREFUL''' if you are testing remote write/sync/copy operations to a destination that already has important data on it (see links below). I highly recommend initial testing with an empty bucket or target filesystem. You have been warned.

<nowiki>settings {

logfile = "/var/log/lsyncd.log",

statusFile = "/var/log/lsyncd-status.log",

statusInterval = 10,

maxProcesses = 1,

insist = true,

}

sync {

default.rsync,

source = "/home/Cameras",

target = "/media/aws",

delete = false,

delay = 10,

init = false,

rsync = {

archive = true,

compress = false

}

}</nowiki>

''logfile = '' is pretty self-explanatory. Be sure to set up log rotation after you are done setting lsyncd up, if required.

''maxProcesses = 1'' is the default. If you are syncing multiple sources or targets you may want to increase this.

''insist = true'' allows the service to start even if the target is not ready. I got errors without this which went away when I added it. YMMV.

''source = ''The directory where ZM events are stored.

''target = ''The location to copy events to. Must be accessible via rsync. In my case it is the mount point for the S3FS configured previously.

''targetdir = "/somedirectory"'' (not shown, part of sync block) subdirectory to use on the target. I'm just using the root directory in a dedicated bucket. You may not want this and should specify something here.

''delay = ''This is how often rsync will run if there are any filesystem changes. Default is 15 seconds. For many users this will be close enough to real-time for the purpose. This can be combined with (or substituted) for another value in the settings field;

''maxDelay = # '' (not shown, part of settings block) will queue this # of file changes before calling rsync. Between delay and/or maxDelay it is possible to tune the timing of your file copies to your exact preference. inotify waits for write_close to add files to the transfer list so there are no issues with rsync trying to upload uncompleted files. I typically only record short 10 second clips. If you use your cameras to continuously record be aware that files in the process of being written will not be copied until they are closed.

''archive = true ''This preserves permissions on the copied files.

Two other very important variables in this file are;

''delete = false'' this is also pretty self explanatory, file deletes will not be synced from source to target. In the case of my S3 bucket I have lifecycle rules that handle this. If you prefer for your remote storage location to synchronize the deletions made by Zoneminder you can set this to true. This also means if you accidentally delete events from your local storage they will be deleted from the cloud as well. Use with caution.

''init = false'' causes the lsyncd to not do a complete initial synchronization between source and target on service startup. On S3 this is expensive in terms of API calls and may take a while. I know I'm going to miss some events during system maintenance/OS updates etc anyway so I don't consider this worth the cost, but you can set to true if you want it. Be warned it will make your target an exact mirror of your source.

Having delete and init set to false also should make this config fairly safe to use against an existing target if you just run it on your machine without heeding my previous warning. Don't change these unless you are absolutely sure you know what you are doing. There are also options besides true and false so read the docs for more info. You can also add options to be added directly to the rsync calls. You can sync multiple directories to multiple targets with multiple options. There are exclude options which you may find useful. It is far too much to cover here so read the docs, but the simple config above is all I need for my purposes.

Once the service is configured you can control it with systemctl like any other systemd service. By default it will be disabled so you will need to enable it to run automatically after suitable testing. You can check the logs for startup or running errors with journalctl. If syncs are working correctly you can watch them as uploads are logged very shortly after the events are saved to local disk;

<nowiki>[root@nvr system]# tail -50 /var/log/lsyncd.log
/1/2025-12-11/8707/8707-video.mp4
/1/2025-12-11/8707/snapshot.jpg
/1/2025-12-11/8707/alarm.jpg
/6/2025-12-11/8708/
/6/2025-12-11/
/6/
/6/2025-12-11/8708/8708-video.mp4
/6/2025-12-11/8708/snapshot.jpg
/6/2025-12-11/8708/alarm.jpg
/8/2025-12-11/8706/8706-video.mp4
/8/2025-12-11/8706/
/8/2025-12-11/
/8/
Thu Dec 11 14:30:25 2025 Normal: Finished a list after exitcode: 0
Thu Dec 11 14:31:50 2025 Normal: Calling rsync with filter-list of new/modified files/dirs
/2/2025-12-11/8709/
/2/2025-12-11/
/2/
/
/2/2025-12-11/8709/8709-video.mp4
/2/2025-12-11/8709/snapshot.jpg
/2/2025-12-11/8709/alarm.jpg
Thu Dec 11 14:32:00 2025 Normal: Finished a list after exitcode: 0
Thu Dec 11 14:32:04 2025 Normal: Calling rsync with filter-list of new/modified files/dirs
/2/2025-12-11/8710/
/2/2025-12-11/
/2/
/
/2/2025-12-11/8710/8710-video.mp4
/2/2025-12-11/8710/snapshot.jpg
/2/2025-12-11/8710/alarm.jpg
Thu Dec 11 14:32:11 2025 Normal: Finished a list after exitcode: 0
Thu Dec 11 14:32:45 2025 Normal: Calling rsync with filter-list of new/modified files/dirs
/2/2025-12-11/8711/
/2/2025-12-11/
/2/
/
/2/2025-12-11/8711/8711-video.mp4
/2/2025-12-11/8711/snapshot.jpg
/2/2025-12-11/8711/alarm.jpg
Thu Dec 11 14:32:51 2025 Normal: Finished a list after exitcode: 0
Thu Dec 11 14:37:36 2025 Normal: Calling rsync with filter-list of new/modified files/dirs
/3/2025-12-11/8712/
/3/2025-12-11/
/3/
/
/3/2025-12-11/8712/8712-video.mp4
/3/2025-12-11/8712/snapshot.jpg
/3/2025-12-11/8712/alarm.jpg
Thu Dec 11 14:37:41 2025 Normal: Finished a list after exitcode: 0
[root@nvr system]#</nowiki>

Note: If you receive errors similar to "maximum number of watches reached" in the logs you may need to increase the default limits on your system for /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_instances and /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches. See here for more details;

https://support.scc.suse.com/s/kb/360054835111?language=en_US

I'm happy to have offsite copies of all my events now. While they are not tracked in the Zoneminder database, they are still saved in folders by monitor id and date for easy retrieval should the ZM database become unavailable. Props to the ZM devs for their great software, and I hope this writeup proves useful to some other users in the future.

==See Also==
* https://github.com/lsyncd/lsyncd/issues/668 - Beware that lsync will do rsync with deletes on by default. With some casual testing, you might inadvertedly delete your home directory or root filesystem. From the github: "''I was told many times delete by default was a bad idea and was a result of the usual use case in the sense of replicating the target exactly like the source. I suppose the people telling so have a point.''"
* https://docs.rockylinux.org/10/books/learning_rsync/06_rsync_inotify/
* https://linuxvox.com/blog/what-is-the-proper-way-to-use-inotify/ - Using inotify-tools command line interface
* https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-inotify-examples-to-replicate-directories/ - Probably easier than lsyncd. Newer software (only available in Debian Bookworm and later).
* https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Incron