Frigate as my NVR - 16 channel PoE Cameras, High Level Questions reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TheTuxdude · 2023-11-17 18:51 We are re-doing our home network, running 10Gig capable wiring throughout, using (existing) switches with 1G ports for the time being but a few years down the line switch to 10G ports, and more relevant to this question, installing 16 PoE Amcrest IP cameras. I looked at pre-built NVR hardware solutions like QNAP, Synology, etc. but they seem less attractive to me in general. Given I already have a lot of self-hosted solutions in my home, this will be one additional thing I can easily manage. I was considering getting a mini PC box (beelink, minisforum, etc.) to run Frigate. Also ordered Coral accelerator to speed up some of the ML based analysis. I had a few basic questions: 1. How do people store the streams from the camera that Frigate subscribes to? I was considering storing this in my in-network NAS. I have few zfs volumes on one of my machines which I use as my NAS, but not sure if there is a different recommended NAS storage that works better with Frigate? 2. I have Home Assistant running on my Raspberry Pi in the network. To what level does Frigate integrate with NAS? 3. How are all of you interacting with Frigate? Browser, mobile app, TV, etc. ? 4. What kinds of notification mechanisms Frigate supports - email, push notifications, etc. ? I guess Home Assistant can be used for this part? 5. Am I doing something against the grain here? Anything simpler I should be considering? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tech2but1 · 2023-11-17 20:09 > I looked at pre-built NVR hardware solutions like QNAP, Synology, etc. but they seem less attractive to me in general. Because they aren't NVRs, they are NAS devices with some janky NVR functionality added on. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TheTuxdude · 2023-11-17 20:14 Yeah I never understood those. I am a little skeptical of going with some proprietary NVR because I would be stuck with having no great integration options with rest of my self-hosted stuff running in my home network. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sulsa1 · 2023-11-17 20:15 1. I'd recommend using local storage, using a dedicated surveillance drive. I'd keep using your 1gb switch just for the cameras. If you're not using vlans to separate your network, you may want to add another NIC to your PC and then dedicate a POE switch to the 2nd port just for the cameras 2. There is an integration that works great in HomeAssistant 3. All of the above. There is a PIP app for android tv's that works OK 4. I like the HA notifications, using the nabucasa subscription. Lots of flexibility and it supports development ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TheTuxdude · 2023-11-17 20:19 I have Ubiquity gear with VLAN support, so I don't need to dedicate a switch for this. With local storage, I am worried about how much storage I would need. I am considering keeping majority of the NVR related system isolated in terms of hardware, except for the storage part. This is why a mini- PC sounded more attractive to me. I can probably start with local storage to keep things simple, and if it doesn't work move to something over the network instead. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sulsa1 · 2023-11-17 20:33 Unless you are accessing the files outside of the Frigate/Home Assistant or wanting to back them up somewhere, having it on the NAS will only complicate things and introduce another failure point. I have a Synology and looking into my situation I decided the cost of backups is higher than what I cared. I figured if the hard drive fails, I can have another drive delivered next day. For my situation that was acceptable. If that changes I can make a local Raid 1 to mirror. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tech2but1 · 2023-11-17 20:50 Yeah, I guess that depends on what you want it to do. You can still do stuff with RTSP streams from any proprietary NVR but you don't get any advanced integrations beyond that. Just basic "show picture when button pressed" type stuff. Even though I fit security cameras for a living I'd be inclined to use Frigate if I was integrating it with Home Assistant/openHAB to make full use of it. If I only wanted basic streams from the cameras in the HA though I would stick to using an actual NVR as it's something else I don't have to maintain and "just works" when I need to access it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TheTuxdude · 2023-11-17 21:23 Backup is not my goal for the NVR. It's something I don't mind losing in case of any disasters. But I do want the ability to view at least past 30 days of data when there are no disasters lol. So it comes to storage and my limitations when I am using a mini PC for the NVR. Alternate is to repurpose one of my servers for NVR. If I went that route, I need to bring in one of my bigger machines in the mix. Probably will evaluate the storage needs and if something can be done there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FraggedYourMom · 2023-11-17 21:48 Frigate in Docker with Coral. NFS mount to the NAS for storage. HA integration to enable/disable recordings, keep tabs on things, set up detection for person,dog, cat, etc. Haven't setup notifications yet. Web interface from browser on desktop and mobile. Works great. Make sure you've added Birdseye so when you watch a live stream only the cameras picking up motion show a feed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sulsa1 · 2023-11-17 22:19 Could use a USB case. Otherwise, using the nas wouldn't be bad. If you use the NAS, I'd recommend using a separate volume for your media. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SpongederpSquarefap · 2023-11-18 00:36 > How do people store the streams from the camera that Frigate subscribes to? I was considering storing this in my in-network NAS. I have few zfs volumes on one of my machines which I use as my NAS, but not sure if there is a different recommended NAS storage that works better with Frigate? Local storage on my host (4TB SSD in my case, but a 4TB drive would work fine) > I have Home Assistant running on my Raspberry Pi in the network. To what level does Frigate integrate with NAS? Aside from compute and storage from running the container on there? Not much > How are all of you interacting with Frigate? Browser, mobile app, TV, etc. ? The web server it provides works great for playback of footage, clips and exporting video It's also excellent for editing the config > What kinds of notification mechanisms Frigate supports - email, push notifications, etc. ? I guess Home Assistant can be used for this part? Anything that works with MQTT should work > Am I doing something against the grain here? Anything simpler I should be considering? Everything seems sane so far, just read the Frigate docs and you'll be fine ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tech88Tron · 2023-11-18 04:57 Synology's NVR isn't janky. Not sure if you've ever used it, but it's great and easy to set up. The amount of cameras supported out of box is insane. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tech2but1 · 2023-11-18 10:36 I have used it and it is slow and clunky. As I said elsewhere I fit CCTV for a living and SS is not something I would ever try and sell to a customer of mine. Fine for playing about with at home but for the price of the licences, lol no, fuck that! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Trustworthy_Fartzzz · 2023-11-18 13:50 This is the way. With that many presumably 4K cameras OP will likely want 2x Coral TPUs. Home Assistant does the notifications. Frigate communicates with HASS over MQTT so you can fire all sorts of events based on inference information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tech88Tron · 2023-11-18 16:45 ....this is SelfHosted.... A lot of cameras will bog it down. But most homes would be fine. I use Mike$tone at work