Where are my Hikvision cameras recording?

[nicobar]

I have a bunch of Hikvision cameras in a remote location, all with their own SD card, and all recording to their own share in a local Synology NAS. No NVR and no iVMS4200.
In each camera I have formatted the SD and the NAS storage (set in the NAS for each camera to be same size as the SD card, 128GB).
In the Storage configuration page, the SD always shows on top, the NAS second.

Where are the camera recording, the SD, the NAS or both? Both would be my desired choice as a camera may be stolen with the SD in it, while the NAS is hidden inside the house. But the NAS alone went sometimes offline, and as I said the location is remote.

I cannot for the sake of me figure out where the events are recorded: as I mention the size of the SD is roughly the same as the NAS share, and yet when I look at the available space it can be sometimes very different, inconsistent with the hypothesis that the cameras is recording on both at the same time.
Are the camera's perhaps recording on the SD Card first, and only when it's full on the NAS? Or only when it fails in the NAS? And the order of the two cannot be changed.

Does anybody know what may be going on?

Thank you in advance!

 

[Kyle]

Hi @nicobar

What models are the cameras please?

Could you share a screenshot of the following pages when logged into the cameras?

Configuration > Storage > Storage Management > HDD Management
Configuration > Storage > Storage Management > Net HDD

 

[nicobar]

Hi,
For instance a bunch are DS-2CD2542FWD-IS

In the example above it may seem that the same amount of data is recorded on both.

But here is another camera, slightly different model DS-2CD2142FWD-IS, where the SD has way more room available than the NAS :

 

[nicobar]

OK, I came out with the answer myself, which I am going to share here:

My test setup:
- no NVR
- Synology NAS in local LAN
- Hikvision camera 2104 with latest firmware (but all the other similar ones will probably work the same way)
- microSD 128GB inside camera
- 128GB dedicated share folder in a Synology NAS
- both storages formatted successfully from the camera
- motion detection that fires about once every 10 minutes (insects, shadows)

FIRST TEST:
1) Start with both storages freshly formatted and empty, with and status = Normal
2) Record three events.
3) All events can be seen from the camera.
4) change password of the NAS: NAS storage shows Error
5) From camera: the events disappeared.
6) reconnect the NAS with the right password: event re appear
RESULT: EVENTS WERE RECORDED ONLY IN THE NAS


SECOND TEST:
1),2),3) as in the FIRST TEST, which means start again from no event and wait for three new events
4) Format the SD card from the camera
5) events can still be seen from the camera
RESULT: EVENTS ARE CERTAINLY RECORDED IN THE NAS

THIRD TEST:
1),2),3) as in the first two tests above
4) Format the NAS from the camera
5) events can no longer be seen from the camera
RESULT: EVENTS ARE ONLY RECORDED IN THE NAS as long as there is a NAS configured

FOURTH TEST:
I established at this point that when a NAS is configured, NOTHING IS RECORDED IN THE SD. Does it work at least as a spare?
Start from the End of the SECOND TEST, where we have 3 events in the NAS and none in the SD card
6) disconnect the NAS and wait for more events
7) three new events are recorded and visible in the camera: they are obviously recorded in the SD card.
8) reconnect the NAS
9) all 3 + 3 events are seen in the camera.


So now I have it, this is what is going on with two storages:
- priority to the NAS in case the camera is stolen with the SD card in it
- SD card is used only when the NAS connection does not work

Bonus advantage of this approach: the NAS could be live synched with another NAS in another place or cloud, in case also the NAS gets stolen

 

[Kyle]

Thanks for sharing your findings, I'm glad that you've worked it out

We were stumped by this too and have been trying to find out what storage device takes priority or if they are used simultaneously. As you say, it is not clear at all from those Storage Management pages.

 

[nicobar]

Yeah, ideally Hikvision should have provided in the storage page a mean to choose which storage to prioritize, and perhaps also an option to record on both. At least I know that at least for me, better spend money on NAS than on high/max endurance SD's