Can Nx Witness Media Server be installed on the same Windows Server as Honeywell Win-Pak?

dinh nguyen thanh

July 09, 2026 09:17

Hello Network Optix Team,

I would like to ask for your recommendation regarding a deployment scenario for an enterprise Data Center project.

We are planning to deploy:

• Nx Witness VMS for approximately 250 IP cameras 5MP, (Recording 2MP)
• Honeywell Win-Pak Access Control System for 87 doors

The proposed hardware is:

• Dell PowerEdge R760
• 2 × Intel Xeon Gold 5418Y (24 cores each, 48 cores total)
• 512 GB DDR5 ECC RAM
• Dual 10 GbE NIC
• Windows Server

Honeywell Win-Pak requires Microsoft SQL Server and several Windows services, while Nx Witness will be used primarily for continuous recording. We understand that the server hardware is sufficiently powerful, but we would like to know Network Optix's official recommendation regarding this deployment.

Our questions are:

1. Does Network Optix officially support installing Nx Witness Media Server together with third-party enterprise applications such as Honeywell Win-Pak on the same Windows Server?
2. The Hardware Specification document states that the sizing recommendations assume the server is "dedicated exclusively to running the Nx Mediaserver application." Does this mean:
   • It is only a sizing assumption, or
   • It is also a recommendation not to co-host other server applications?
3. If co-hosting is technically acceptable, are there any best practices or limitations regarding:
   • Microsoft SQL Server
   • Disk I/O
   • CPU allocation
   • Memory allocation
   • Windows services
4. For a system with approximately 250 cameras, would Network Optix recommend:
   • Running Nx Witness and Win-Pak on the same physical server, or
   • Separating them into different virtual machines (VMs), or
   • Deploying separate physical servers?

We would appreciate any official guidance or deployment best practices for this type of enterprise installation.

Thank you very much for your support.

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  Mohammed

  July 09, 2026 13:21

  Pretty impressive hardware specs!

  On paper, you'd pretty much have to dedicate the hardware for NX Media Server. However in your case your best approach is to have 2 or 3 VMs and merge them in the same system.

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  dinh nguyen thanh

  July 10, 2026 08:31 Edited

  Thank you very much for your quick response.

  After reviewing and consolidating all the information, I have summarized my understanding as below. Could you please review and verify whether this method is correct?
  1. Main implementation methods

  The system uses a total of 6 Dell PowerEdge R760 physical servers running integrated. Instead of separating, we leverage 2 servers in the cluster  to install the Stratus everRun fault-tolerant virtualization platform  (Active-Standby configuration) to run both VMS Nx Witness and Honeywell WIN-PAK in parallel:

  • Step 1 (CCTV Cluster Aggregation): Connect all 6 physical servers into a  homogeneous Nx Witness Cluster to centrally manage all 250 AI Cameras.
  • Step 2 (Fault-tolerant Virtualization on 2 Management Servers): Install Stratus everRun on 2 selected servers in the cluster, split into 3 hard-assigned Virtual Machines (VMs) to avoid disputes:
    • VM 1 (Honeywell WIN-PAK & SQL Server): Running Windows Server. Dual to everRun's Fault Tolerance (FT) mechanism, the data of 87 gates is cross-synchronized in real-time between the two hardware. If one server crashes, WIN-PAK automatically resumes running on the other server with 0s downtime.
    • VM 2 (Nx Media Server): Runs Linux Ubuntu LTS, as a node that receives and records video streams, connecting directly to the 6 Server Nx Cluster.
    • VM 3 (Nx Failover Node): As a standby node. When 1 of the remaining 4 hosting servers (Server 3 to 6) crashes, this VM will automatically wake up to the rescue load, ensuring no loss of recording data.
  • Step 3 (Hardware Isolation): Route Network Gateway 1 to synchronize everRun data, Network Gateway 2 runs the Security thread to the core network. Separate hard drive RAID groups: RAID 10 SSD for WIN-PAK Database and RAID 5/6 HDD for Nx sequential video recording stream.

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