How to get video storage used on a per-camera basis?

MIP
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1

We have several hundred security cameras, many of which are outdoors. When setting up outdoor cameras, we use exclude regions to block out vegetation. However over time, trees grow and cause motion to be detected outside of the original exclude regions. The easiest way to track this is ballooning storage requirements for a particular camera. Individual camera storage data can be found within the Milestone GUI, but I’m looking for a method using the API or direct database query to get this data.

I currently use the MilestonePSTools Powershell module to pull inventory data about our devices. Anyone know if it’s possible to find this info via the Powershell API? I looked but couldn’t find it. If not, any ideas on how I can get this data from Milestone?

2

You can get the storage usage for each storage by using the Configuration API

Unfortunately, there is no functionality to give you the information for each camera, when multiple cameras use the same storage, even though the Management Client can give the information, so it is not possible to do it using MIP SDK code.

We will put it on the wish-list for future enhancement development work. A prioritization needs to be made by Milestone Product Management, so it is not possible to say when, or even if, this will be developed.

3

Thank you, I very much appreciate the response.

4

@Rie Kiuchi (Milestone Systems)​ I’m also interested in this feature.

Is there any hint as to how implement it anyway? If the Management Client is able to do it that means it’d not be that hard to implement it. I guess the Management Client asks the Recording Server directly, so if we had to do it we could do it using some powershell remote session by summing the folders sizes in MediaDatabase?

5

As I mentioned that the functionality is not supported by XProtect unfortunately, even though the Management Client can give the information, so it is not possible to do it using MIP SDK code.

6

I understand it’s not supported, what I am asking is how the Management Client does it (in order to implement it myself).

I can see several ways, like “this information is stored somewhere in the database” or “it asks the recording server which computes the size of all folders related to a camera then sums it”.

7

Philippe, I can answer this. I did a wireshark capture and found that the management server queries the recording server for this info - it’s not stored in the database. However it uses the secure authentication channel between the mgmt and recording server so, while I was able to capture the format of the API call below (as it was unencrypted), I was unable to use the API call.

Since the API call is already built into XProtect, it shouldn’t be difficult for Milestone to open that access in the MIP SDK…but that’s on them.

API call format:

curl --location --request POST 'http://<recordingserver>:9001/api/commands/database/databaseoperation' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8' \
--header 'Host: <managementserver>:9001' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <token> \
--data-raw '{
    "DatabaseOperation": 6,
    "RecorderId": "f85f19bf-ea40-44b8-9336-0b61412a027a",
    "DeviceId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
    "DeviceIds": [
        "63dc60f6-b2cf-4276-8101-bae4533d747d"
    ],
    "TrackIds": [],
    "StorageId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
    "ArchiveId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
    "Path": null,
    "NewPath": false,
    "ArchiveDefinition": null,
    "CallContext": {
        "_userSid": "S-1-5-21-2337483895...",
        "_userDomainAccountName": "<domain/user>",
        "_locationIPAddress": "<client IP>"
    },
    "Token": "<token>"
}'
8

@Chris Reinking​ thanks, good lead.

9

@Chris Reinking​ FYI in https://www.milestonepstools.com/functions/get-vmscamerareport there’s now “UsedSpaceInGB”

10

Thanks for the update, I’ll give it a try!

11

Also found this: https://github.com/MilestoneSystemsInc/PowerShellSamples/blob/main/Samples/Reporting/Get-VmsCameraDiskUsage.ps1