What happens to a BVR file if power/network is cut?

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Donkmeister2010
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2023 10:05 pm

What happens to a BVR file if power/network is cut?

Post by Donkmeister2010 »

Hi all,

Following a recent attempted burglary at my nextdoor neighbours' house I have been looking at what I can do both to reduce the odds of that happening to me, but also to preserve evidence should it happen.

With that in mind, I want to guard against the scenario of a burglar stealing my BI server. Whilst it doesn't have a big label saying "CCTV lives inside here", it is in a cupboard and obviously a piece of computer hardware. So, my plan is to get a single-bay NAS and clone my cameras so I have them all being written to said NAS as a back-up. This NAS will be located elsewhere on my property.

My question... What would happen if someone unplugged a BI server whilst it was writing to a NAS? Do you lose the current clips, or does it simply stop recording at the moment of unplug, thus preserving video up to that point? Or something else?

You may be thinking "why doesn't he just put the BI server where he would put the NAS, seeing as he doesn't expect the NAS to get stolen?" - partly convenience but mostly environmental conditions. The two buildings on my property most likely to be burgled are the only two that are really suitable for housing computer gear. The NAS will be in a weatherproof disguise and not somewhere that you would really want to put expensive gear. If the NAS breaks, it's inexpensive and can be quickly replaced (albeit with a loss of the backup recording until it's replaced).

(As an aside the Police were very happy that my BI system could review and export the footage - as I am doing 24/7 recording, I had useful footage despite it being outside my trigger zones. Worth considering if you aren't already doing so. Also when I installed the system I asked Mr Neighbour if he wanted me to mask his property, "no, that might be useful one day" was the response. How right he was!)
IAmATeaf
Posts: 464
Joined: Mon Jun 17, 2019 7:48 pm

Re: What happens to a BVR file if power/network is cut?

Post by IAmATeaf »

Will a burglar view a desktop as a network recorder and will they even want to take it are also things to consider.

In terms of what happens it really is an open ended answer as it all depends on what was happening the clip at that exact moment, so difficult to answer.
Donkmeister2010
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2023 10:05 pm

Re: What happens to a BVR file if power/network is cut?

Post by Donkmeister2010 »

My previous network build was in a nice tall 19" rack which, after building, I found inconvenient for maintenance in the home office/domestic environment. So this one is in a nice luggable Fractal Design case. So, portable-ish and hence eminently nickable vs the faff that they would have had trying to remove 4U cases from a rack! But, given burglars do steal electronics it is at risk. I am trying to avoid going full redundancy with a second BI system, hence the NAS idea.

Shouldn't be too many possibilities though, it all comes down to the write process of BI to BVR (which may in turn simply be whatever Windows mandates). Ah well, maybe some testing is in order. Will report my findings here in case it helps anyone else.
louyo
Posts: 161
Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2020 1:16 am

Re: What happens to a BVR file if power/network is cut?

Post by louyo »

My SWAG:
Unless something has changed, if you are writing to a file in Windows and someone pulls the plug, it could corrupt the file or make the whole partition unreadable. Some/Most of the commercial NAS boxes use a journaling file system which should preserve everything up to the last buffer write. I use a system with TrueNAS and it uses the ZFS file system, which is supposed to be robust. Not sure about the small desktop NAS units.
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