Analytics data storage location
Answered
Gurus, I am receiving Storage Issue errors on all analytics data. Says: "not enough HSS/SSD speed for recording to /mnt/NXMEDIA/HD Witness Media"
That is referencing my main storage location, and it is an SSD with 1.8 TB of free data. So should have sufficient speed and capacity?
In NX Server Settings the Storage Management section then says:
"Analytics data can take up large amount of space. We recommend to choose another location for it instead of the system partition. Analytics data will continue to be stored on the disabled storage".
A bit lost as to what the issue is and how to fix. Do I need a separate partition for analytics vs normal motion footage? Or is the analytics storage location just not configured correctly?
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Hi Ben Williams,
The Nx Server is an application, which will send the queries to the OS for reading or writing the data into the storage volume.
The Nx Server reports "Not enough HDD/SSD speed for recording" events when the storage volume can not catch up with the reading and writing queries.
Here is the support ARTICLE describing in more detail the storage events on the Nx Witness.For understanding the issue you met and further investigation, please share more detailed information about your storage volume configuration with us.
1. What's the total size of your SSD?
2. You mentioned:
That is referencing my main storage location, and it is an SSD with 1.8 TB of free data.
Do you mean that you set the Nx Server to use the SSD as the storage volume for storing the video archive?
What's the "free data"? Is it the video archive? Or, is it the files you stored on the SSD which does not relate to the Nx Witness?3. Does any other software/service use this SSD for storing the data?
Please note that one of the characteristics of the SSD is, that the writing speed will significantly decrease as it fills up to almost full.
The rule of thumb to avoid the performance issue on the SSD is don't use more than 70% of the total capacity.
Here is more information on this ARTICLE on the internet.About your questions:
Do I need a separate partition for analytics vs normal motion footage? Or is the analytics storage location just not configured correctly?
It depends on the number of analytics events generated by your system and environment.
If your environment does not have many analytics events to be recorded, then should be okay to store the analytics data on the system drive.
If there are huge amounts of analytics events in your environment, or you find the system drive can not afford the loading, it will be better to add a dedicated drive for storing the analytics data.
This concept also applies to whether saving the analytics data and the video recording on the same drive.For a system that has lots of analytics data and high resolution cameras, it would be better to use the different SSDs for 1) OS system, 2) Nx analytics data, and HDDs for 3) Nx video archive.
If you would like to use the SSD for storing video archives as well, you could modify the reversed space to avoid the Nx Server storing more than 70% of the SSD total volume by:
1. Log in to Nx server web admin page.
2. Go to Settings > Servers, and select the server with the SSD.
3. Add ?advanced=true to the end of the URL.
4. Set the reversed space of the SSD to 30% (or more) of its total volume.Please don't hesitate to let us know if you have any further questions.
Thank you.0 -
Thanks Anderson.
I have 2 storage locations.
One address is opt/networkoptix/mediaserver/var/data. This has 30GB of storage and is in "reserved" mode, of which 3GB is free and 10GB is reserved. I assume is designed to be used for the operating system etc only?
The second address is /mnt/NXMEDIA//HD Witness Media. This is in "Main" mode and is 1.8TB in size, of which 30% is now reserved following your advice. Previously this was maxxed out so there would have been no room for analytics processing.
I think there is one last step. The 'Analytics DB Storage' is set as the 'Reserved' address above. That would be too small. The drop down menu will not allow me to change this to the 'Main' storage location. How can I achieve this?
I may try adding another SSD later if this step does not work.
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Update:
After making the change to set 30% of main storage location as reserved, I am still getting storage issue alerts. "Not enough speed for recording to /mnt/NXMEDIA//HD Witness Media".
Welcome your advice on this and also on how to use that reserved 30% for the analytics DB storage.
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Hi Ben Williams,
Please find the below answers to your questions:
One address is opt/networkoptix/mediaserver/var/data. This has 30GB of storage and is in "reserved" mode, of which 3GB is free and 10GB is reserved. I assume is designed to be used for the operating system etc only?
The second address is /mnt/NXMEDIA//HD Witness Media. This is in "Main" mode and is 1.8TB in size, of which 30% is now reserved following your advice. Previously this was maxxed out so there would have been no room for analytics processing.
I think there is one last step. The 'Analytics DB Storage' is set as the 'Reserved' address above. That would be too small. The drop down menu will not allow me to change this to the 'Main' storage location. How can I achieve this?
Short answer: Nx Witness will not allow recording to drives that are less than 10% the size of the largest drive in the system. That's the reason why your /opt/networkoptix/mediaserver/var/data storage is listed as reserved space, and can not be used for recording.
For further information, please refer to this support ARTICLE, or the user manual.After making the change to set 30% of main storage location as reserved, I am still getting storage issue alerts. "Not enough speed for recording to /mnt/NXMEDIA//HD Witness Media".
Welcome your advice on this and also on how to use that reserved 30% for the analytics DB storage.
First of all, are the /opt/networkoptix/mediaserver/var/data and /mnt/NXMEDIA/HD Witness Media the two partitions on the single SSD? Or, different SSDs?
Second, for saving the analytics data on the /mnt/NXMEDIA/HD Witness Media, the Use to store analytics data option will appear when you hover the mouse cursor over the line of the storage volume.
Please note that this will not make the Nx Server store the analytics data in the "30% reserved space". The Nx Server will save the video recording and the analytics data outside of this 30% reserved space.
For further information, please refer to the section Working with Nx Witness > Configuring Server Settings > Background: Archive Distribution and Retention of our user manual.The last thing is, as I mentioned in the previous message, the Nx Server reports "Not enough HDD/SSD speed for recording" events when the storage volume can not catch up with the reading and writing queries.
Also, please note that the SSD has a limited number of times for programming and erasing, this number may be consumed promptly especially when it is almost full. (Here is an internet ARTICLE for your reference.)
Therefore, I suggest stopping the recording on this SSD, and doing the SSD health check.0 -
Thanks. It's just one SSD with a partition.
NX does not give me the option 'to store analytics data' on that main drive. See screenshot.
I did not have this 'speed' issue with an HDD. Thought SSD would work better, be faster etc. The SSD does fill up quickly and get written over regularly with new footage. Is an HDD arguably a better choice then?
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Hi Ben Williams,
Currently, Nx Witness does not support storing the analytics data on portable storage, which includes USB external storage.
Since the surveillance system is designed to store as maximum video as possible, it will utilize almost all of the volume of the storage, and do the video recording file rotation.
In my opinion, the HDD will be more suitable than SSD for this kind of usage, unless there are special demanding.
Also, an internal drive could provide more reliable storage than a USB one.Generally, we recommend using the SSD as the system drive, and if the environment will create a lot of analytics data, install an additional SSD for storing the analytics data but not video recording.
Thank you.
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Helpful info, thanks.
To loop back to the analytics DB storage location, the system is not allowing me to select the main partition and is instead defaulting to the reserved partition which is very small. Yes I can add a second hard drive for this but in the interim I want to use some of the 1.8TB on the main partition for analytics.
EDIT:
NX server was setup on RaspberryPI so reliant on USB storage.
Here are some images to help demonstrate analytics storage issues
(1) Analytics data storage error notification
(2) Unable to select an alternate storage location from the drop-down menu:
Is the storage type being "USB" the reason why the system will not allow me to select that 1.8TB drive for analytics storage?
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Bump. Anderson Chang are you still following this thread? Would be great to get more of your help :) Cheers.
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Hi Ben Williams,
Sorry for the late reply, I was out of the office for the past few days.
Is the storage type being "USB" the reason why the system will not allow me to select that 1.8TB drive for analytics storage?
Correct, as I mentioned in the previous comment, currently, Nx Witness does not support storing the analytics data on portable storage, which includes USB external storage.
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Anderson Chang I'm following as I have this issue within my hardware. Linux sees my drives as HDDs, but Nx interprets as USB. How can I force the analytics location to a drive?
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Hi Maria Smith,
According to the manual page of lsblk, it provides information about available or specified block devices.
However, it does not reveal the interface of the mounting drives.Could you share the result of the ls /dev/disk/by-id command on your realwave device?
Thank you.
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Hi Maria Smith,
According to the screenshot, the four ST4000VX hard drives are connected to the USB interface.
Based on this information, it seems that the Nx Witness server has correctly detected the drives.If you would like to store the analytics data on one of these drives, please connect the hard drive via the SATA port.
Thank you.0
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