CPU Usage 100% when enabling more than 6 cameras

G

garyg15

n3wb
Mar 3, 2015
8
0
I am writing because I have an issue that I am not able to resolve that resolves around the CPU usage spiking to 100% when I enable more then 6 cameras and the CPU affinity is set to use all CPUs.

System Setup:
VM - Windows Server 2012, 8GB RAM, 2TB Drive, Intel i5 2.4 Ghz
Cameras - 9 x Hikvision DS-2CD2332-I RSTP steaming

I have had this same setup for over 2 years with no issue. I have been on every forum and tried all of the suggestions, from reducing Motion Detection sensitivity to setting up Direct to Disc. I increase the RAM, number of vCPUs and nothing is changing the outcome. I am using the most up to date version and I even went back to version 4.0.0.13.

Do you have any other suggestions to resolve this issue?
 
It has been running on a VM for 2+ years without issue. Something in the software changed and just wondering if anyone had any thoughts.
 
garyg15 said:
It has been running on a VM for 2+ years without issue. Something in the software changed and just wondering if anyone had any thoughts.
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Did it change after an update? why did you go back so far? go back to something from a few months ago...
 
I went that far back, because it worked fine on the original release. I went ahead and set it up on a standalone PC with an Intel Duo Core with 12 GB RAM and the exact issue persists. I am at a loss with BI. I really like it, but I may need to look into another software.
 
garyg15 said:
I went that far back, because it worked fine on the original release. I went ahead and set it up on a standalone PC with an Intel Duo Core with 12 GB RAM and the exact issue persists. I am at a loss with BI. I really like it, but I may need to look into another software.
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you are not going to be able to run that load on an old duo core....
any software that comes close to this level of options will cost you on a per camera basis...buy a 200-300 dollar i5-haswell/skylake system and be done with it...if you are still having issues even when you revert back then there is a problem with your VM which is not a good idea for BI anyway....
 
Just move Blue Iris to the host OS instead of the guest OS and then you should be able to use hardware accelerated H.264 decoding, which will cut CPU usage down.

This is assuming that your i5 has quick sync support, which it may not.
 
Thank you for all the suggestions. I am just confused, because I didn't change anything on the VM Guest or my host environment. This is the same setup that has been working without issue for 2+ years. Now all of a sudden I getting high cpu usage and it is happening on a VM and physical. I am running VMWare, so I can't move BI to the host. I am going to see if I can find a PC with an i5 to test.
 
Oh, for some reason I thought you said you were using Hyper-V.

What CPU usage did you have before this problem?
 
Maybe the CPU is overheating now and throttling its speeds down to compensate. Clean the dust out of the fans and heatsinks lately?
 
CPU usage was about 50% rarely would it hit 60%. If it was a heat sink issue I would think that I would see high CPU usage on all VMs on that host. However, that isn't the case.
 
Most tasks assigned to a VM consume diddly squat for CPU most of the time and you might not notice a doubling or quadrupling of usage. LOL. Besides if it is all sucked up by the Blue Iris VM, there might not be anything left for the other VMs.

I wouldn't be surprised if it is Blue Iris's fault one way or another though. You should be using H.264 (not H.265, as it is less efficient with CPU), not H.264+ if your cameras have that, and no smart codec. If there is an option for baseline/main/high profile, try baseline as it should be less computationally expensive if anything.

If all else fails, you can make most BI systems run okay by reducing the frame rate which the cameras encode their video at.
 
I have always used H.264 and my frame rate was as low as 4 fps. Now matter what I change the CPU usage remains the same.
 
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garyg15 said:
I have always used H.264 and my frame rate was as low as 4 fps. Now matter what I change the CPU usage remains the same.
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Task Manager shows that it's the Blue Iris process itself that's killing the CPU? It's not another task that may be running on the same VM?

I don't disagree with the suggestion to get a cheap dedicated box for BI, but I'm still confused why it would shoot up to 100% with no changes. Do you have Blue Iris feature to auto-update enabled?
 
Thanks for the i5 suggestion. I work in IT, so I have access to a few i5 that I can use to test.

I am only looking at CPU usage for the BI Task. This VM only runs BI and no other apps. Right now I have 6 cameras enabled and I am between 15%-25% CPU Usage. When I enable a 7th camera it shoots up to 90%+. Mind you, I use to run all 10 and it would never get above 60%.

BI auto-update is enabled, and this didn't start until a few months ago.

FYI - BI is running as a service. There are 2 processes when I open it up to the application on the server.

See that attached image.

7 cameras enabled.
1.JPG

6 cameras enabled.
2.JPG
 
Holy cow. That is a huge difference. It is like the one cam you enabled to cause this has some very poorly tuned settings (like, direct to disk disabled and it happens to be 4K @ 30 FPS).

Yeah the obvious test is to try to narrow it down to any particular cameras. e.g. if you enable CAM9 and it skyrockets the CPU, try turning off CAM8 and see if it goes back down.
 
What is the memory usage looking like? If you are anywhere near the limit and the swap file is being used, that could cause any manner of terrible performance for Blue Iris.
 
I thought like you did that it might be the camera, but all of my cameras are setup the same. I already tried the test to see if it was a specific camera, and it doesn't matter which cameras I enable. The only thing that matters is enabling a 7th camera.

The memory is set to 8GB and it doesn't even get close to utilizing half of it.
 
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