The MOBOTIX NAS is a hybrid memory that can manage two types of camera recordings. On the one hand, the native storage of the MOBOTIX IoT cameras on a share folder (SMB Share). On the other hand, the NAS can use the MOBOTIX QVR Pro Recording Software to manage the recording of ONVIF S capable cameras such as the MOVE camera series. The two technologies differ as follows:
- MOBOTIX IoT cameras manage decentralized (self-contained) their data on the NAS
- The QVRPro software manages recording centrally for all connected MOVE or ONVIF S cameras.
For this purpose, different test scenarios were carried out with the aim of determining the maximum acceptable number of recording cameras.
Important:
The use of the central QVR Pro motion detection requires significant CPU load per camera channel used. This was not used in this scenario! For motion detection, camera event detection such as Video Motion or Activity Sensor should preferably be used to concentrate NAS performance purely on storage management and not on image analysis.
The upper limit in the MOVE case is the maximum of the supported “Recording Channel” of the MOBOTIX NAS model (e.g. 8Bay Nas à32 Channels).
In the case of the direct recording of the IoT cameras to the share release, a fixed data rate of 16 Mbps was used. This fixed data rate is used regardless of the resolution to determine the maximum number of cameras that can be placed on the NAS. The data rate is mainly due to the resolution, quality and frame rate of the camera. For the exact determination, the Storage Calculator can be used, which also determines the data rate according to the desired settings in addition to the amount of memory. Doubling the data rate to 32 Mbit would reduce the maximum number of cameras to 25. Please note that due to the maximum IOP’s of the NAS the overcircuit does not apply and a reduction of the data rate automatically leads to a doubling of the number of cameras, e.g. 8 Mbit/s and 100 cameras do not apply!
A further limit on the maximum number of cameras per NAS is further limited by the storage capacity of the disks in a NAS. For many project requests, the recording time is 30 days, limiting the maximum number of cameras per NAS.
A helpful tool for calculating the memory capacity and the data throughput from IoT cameras is the Storage Calculator on the MOBOTIX homepage:
https://www.mobotix.com/de/support/tools/speicherbedarfsplaner
It calculates two important values:
A: The required storage capacity per camera
B: The data rate per camera
From these values, the maximum number of IoT cameras per NAS can be determined according to the specific project requirement with the table below.
Another important core that must be taken into account in the maximum number of cameras is the write/read throughput of the plate used. Depending on the plate type, there are significant performance differences that have a strong influence on the maximum number of cameras per NAS…
Especially with the 8Bay MOBOTIX NAS models, the access load peaks to the hard drives can be optimized with an extra available read-read cache (M2-SSD 1TByte).!
This is actually advisable from any medium project size to optimize playback accesses.
Test results with MOVE (ONVIF S) cameras and the recording software QVRPro:
| MOBOTIX NAS | Number of cameras | Camera Models | Resolution | Scenario | RAID Level | Test result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2Bay | 8 | MOVE 4 MP | 4 MP, 20 FPS, standard quality, normal quality | Little movement | 1 | Passed |
| 4Bay | 16 | MOVE 4 MP | 4 MP, 20 FPS ,Standard quality, normal quality | Little movement | 5 | Passed |
| 8Bay | 32 | MOVE 4 MP | 4 MP, 20 FPS, standard quality, normal quality | Little movement | 6 | Passed |
Test results with IoT cameras and decentralized storage on a shared folder:
2Bay MOBOTIX NAS
| MOBOTIX NAS | Number of cameras | Camera Models | Data rate per camera | RAID Level | Test result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2Bay | 20 | IoT Mx6 | 16 Mbit/s | 1 | Successfully |
| 4Bay | 40 | IoT Mx6 | 16 Mbit/s | 5 | Successfully |
| 8Bay (WD Purple HDD | 50 | IoT Mx6 | 16 Mbit/s | 6 | Successfully |
| 8Bay (WD Red Pro HDD and M2.SSD)* | 80 | IoT Mx6 | 16 Mbit/s | 6 | Successfully |
| 8Bay (SSD Drives)** | 100 | IoT Mx6 | 16 Mbit/s | 6 | Successfully |
*Test environment with “fast” hard drives and additional M2.SSD cache
** Test environment with SSD hard drives or additional M2.SSD cache
Move and IoT Test Environment:
Model NAS-251±G:
QTS Software 4.3.4.0807mx (2018/12/20)
Storage configuration StoragePool as RAID 1
→ Static Volume 1 „Apps“
→ Static Volume 2 „Recording data“
WD Purple
HDD1 → WDC WD20PURZ-85GU6Y0
HDD2 → WDC WD20PURZ-85GU6Y0
Network Setup 1x Gigabit
Model NAS-451±G:
QTS Software 4.3.4.0807mx (2018/12/20)
Storage configuration StoragePool as RAID 5
→ Static Volume 1 „Apps“
→ Static Volume 2 „Recording data“
WD Purple
HDD1 → WDC WD20PURZ-85GU6Y0
HDD2 → WDC WD20PURZ-85GU6Y0
HDD3 → WDC WD20PURZ-85GU6Y0
HDD4 → WDC WD20PURZ-85GU6Y0
Network Setup 1x Gigabit
Model NAS-873U-RP-G (Hardware setup up to 50 IoT cams)
QTS Software 4.3.4.0735 (2018/10/09)
Storage configuration StoragePool as RAID 6
→ Static Volume 1 „Apps“
→ Static Volume 2 „Recording data“
StoragePool 2 as RAID 1
→ Static Volume 1 „Recording data“
WD Purple
HDD1 → WDC WD20PURZ-85GU6Y0
HDD2 → WDC WD20PURZ-85GU6Y0
HDD3 → WDC WD20PURZ-85GU6Y0
HDD4 → WDC WD20PURZ-85GU6Y0
HDD5 → WDC WD20PURZ-85GU6Y0
HDD6 → WDC WD20PURZ-85GU6Y0
HDD7 → WDC WD20PURZ-85GU6Y0
HDD8 → WDC WD20PURZ-85GU6Y0
M.2 SSD→ WDC WDS500G2B0B
M.2 SSD → WDC WDS500G2B0B
Network Setup 1x 10 Gigabit
Model NAS-873U-RP-G (Hardware setup up to 80 IoT cams)
QTS Software 4.3.4.0735 (2018/10/09)
Storage configuration StoragePool as RAID 6
→ Static Volume 1 „Apps“
→ Static Volume 2 „Recording data“
StoragePool 2 as RAID 1
→ Static Volume 1 „Recording data“
WD Red Pro:
HDD1 → WDC WD4003FFBX
HDD2 → WDC WD4003FFBX
HDD3 → WDC WD4003FFBX
HDD4 → WDC WD4003FFBX
HDD5 → WDC WD4003FFBX
HDD6 → WDC WD4003FFBX
HDD7 → WDC WD4003FFBX
HDD8 → WDC WD4003FFBX
Network Setup 1x 10 Gigabit
Model NAS-873U-RP-G (Hardware setup up to 100 IoT cams)
QTS Software 4.3.4.0735 (2018/10/09)
Storage configuration StoragePool as RAID 6
→ Static Volume 1 „Apps“
→ Static Volume 2 „Recording data“
StoragePool 2 as RAID 1
→ Static Volume 1 „Recording data“
WD RED SSD Pro
SSD1 → WDS400T1R0A-68A4W0 (4 TByte)
SSD2 → WDS400T1R0A-68A4W0 (4 TByte)
SSD3 → WDS400T1R0A-68A4W0 (4 TByte)
SSD4 → WDS400T1R0A-68A4W0 (4 TByte)
SSD5 → WDS400T1R0A-68A4W0 (4 TByte)
SSD6 → WDS400T1R0A-68A4W0 (4 TByte)
SSD7 → WDS400T1R0A-68A4W0 (4 TByte)
SSD8 → WDS400T1R0A-68A4W0 (4 TByte)
M.2 SSD→ WDC WDS500G2B0B
M.2 SSD → WDC WDS500G2B0B
Network Setup 1x 10 Gigabit