Storage Setup

Scrypted NVR requires a disk that can store at least 3 days of video for the cameras in the system. The storage requirement will vary based on the camera count and camera resolution. The following table provides a rough estimate for one week retention with a given number of cameras.

Resolution	4 Cameras	6 Cameras	10 Cameras	16 Cameras
1080P	1TB	1TB	1.5TB	2.4TB
2K	1.2TB	1.8TB	3TB	4.8TB
4K	2.4TB	3.6TB	6TB	9.6TB

WARNING

All storage disks must be 1TB minimum in size.

WARNING

When the storage device is a NAS Share, ensure that the NAS Recycle Bin feature is disabled, or the old recordings can not be properly deleted by Scrypted NVR and the disk will fill up.

WARNING

Scrypted NVR will not work with filesystem quota features. Use a separate filesystem partition to restrict how much space is available.

Disk Setup

Use an appropriate filesystem for your OS. The storage disk must not be MS-DOS/FAT formatted. For best performance, provide an entire disk or partition to Scrypted NVR. Volumes that share disk space other is not recommended as it may cause issues with recording retention periods.

OS	Filesystem
macOS	HFS or APFS
Windows	NTFS
Linux	ext4

WARNING

When the storage device is a NAS Share, ensure that the NAS Recycle Bin feature is disabled, or the old recordings can not be properly deleted by Scrypted NVR and the disk will fill up.

WARNING

Scrypted NVR will not work with filesystem quota features. Use a separate filesystem partition to restrict how much space is available.

OS Setup

To configure storage, select the server installation platform below:

• Proxmox
• Windows
• Mac
• Docker

Mac Storage

1. The storage disk must be formatted as HFS or AFPS.
2. The recordings storage directory can be configured within the Scrypted NVR Plugin Settings. Multiple Storage Devices can also be added.
3. Continue on to Enable Camera Recording.

Windows Storage

1. The storage disk must be formatted as NTFS.
2. The recordings storage directory can be configured within the Scrypted NVR Plugin Settings. Multiple Storage Devices can also be added.

Proxmox VE Volume

Proxmox VE can add a storage device to Scrypted through the Proxmox VE web interface. There are a few steps: adding the storage to Proxmox VE and passing the storage through to Scrypted.

TIP

The Recordings Directory should not be manually configured in the NVR plugin when using the process described below. Clear any manual Recordings Directory configuration inside the NVR plugin prior to usage of this script.

WARNING

If adding multiple storage devices beyond the first, see the Proxmox VE Disk Setup Notes for additional notes on the script.

Add Storage to Proxmox

1. Open the Proxmox VE web interface.
2. Select the server (aka node) from the Datacenter drawer on the left.
3. Select the Disks section in the secondary drawer.
4. Find the Device in the list. The disk's Device will typically be something like /dev/sda or /dev/sdb.
5. Click Wipe Disk.
6. Select the Directory section in the secondary drawer.
7. Click Create: Directory.

• For Filesystem select ext4.
• Name the new storage something recognizable like nvr-storage (remember this for later).

Add Storage to Scrypted

1. Select the server (aka node) from the Datacenter drawer on the left.
2. Select the Shell section in the secondary drawer.
3. Enter the following to download the storage setup script:

cd /tmp
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/koush/scrypted/main/install/proxmox/setup-scrypted-nvr-volume.sh > setup-scrypted-nvr-volume.sh

Adjust the the previously named nvr-storage if necessary, and run the script:

bash setup-scrypted-nvr-volume.sh nvr-storage

This command will stop Scrypted, add the storage, and start the Scrypted.

Continue on to Enable Camera Recording.

INFO

Reference: Proxmox VE Disk Setup Notes has information about the script.

Reference: Proxmove VE Mount Point has information about using standard Proxmox Mount points, which are not recommended due to issues with backup and snapshots.

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Proxmox VE Mount Point

For example, as seen in the screenshot below, inside the container Resources:

1. Click Add and select Mount Point.
2. Set the size to 1000GB (adjust accordingly).
3. Set the mount to /mnt/crucial (the name can be any preference in place of "crucial").
4. The /mnt/crucial path can then be provided to the NVR Plugin after restarting the container.

WARNING

The Proxmox VE Mount Points MUST set the path to be inside /mnt in the container.

Proxmox VE Disk Setup Notes

The disk setup adds the disk as a directory on the host system. The setup script modifies the lxc conf file (/etc/pve/lxc/10443.conf) to mount the directory into the container. It also creates a hidden .nvr file to the storage folder to earmark it for NVR usage. This method allows for fast snapshots, replications, and backups.

Environment variables can be set to change the setup script behavior:

WARNING

Read more about Multiple Storage Devices before running these advanced commands.

Additional disks can be added by setting the ADD_DISK=true environment variable:

ADD_DISK=true bash setup-scrypted-nvr-volume.sh another-nvr-storage

A Fast Disk can be added by setting the FAST_DISK=true environment variable:

FAST_DISK=true bash setup-scrypted-nvr-volume.sh fast-nvr-storage

Docker Volume

Use the Quick Setup script to format a disk or use an existing directory in Scrypted NVR. Manual Docker Setup steps are also available.

Quick Setup

Run the following to download the script:

mkdir -p ~/.scrypted
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/koush/scrypted/main/install/docker/setup-scrypted-nvr-volume.sh > ~/.scrypted/setup-scrypted-nvr-volume.sh

If a recording directory is already formatted and mounted, follow the steps at Existing Storage Directory. Otherwise continue on to formatting a New Disk.

Existing Storage Directory

sudo SERVICE_USER=$USER bash ~/.scrypted/setup-scrypted-nvr-volume.sh /path/to/existing/directory

The docker container will be updated and restarted with the new Recordings Directory.

New Disk

Run the following to list available disks:

lsblk

The output will be similar to below:

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0    7:0    0  63.4M  1 loop /snap/core20/1974
loop1    7:1    0  63.9M  1 loop /snap/core20/2105
loop2    7:2    0 111.9M  1 loop /snap/lxd/24322
loop3    7:3    0  53.3M  1 loop /snap/snapd/19457
loop4    7:4    0  40.4M  1 loop /snap/snapd/20671
sda      8:0    0   128G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0     1M  0 part 
└─sda2   8:2    0   128G  0 part /
sdx      8:16   0  4096G  0 disk 
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom

In the example above the 4TB storage disk is listed as sdx. To format and use sdx, run:

sudo SERVICE_USER=$USER bash ~/.scrypted/setup-scrypted-nvr-volume.sh sdx

The docker container will be updated and restarted with the new disk.

Continue on to Enable Camera Recording.

Manual Docker Setup

1. The storage disk must be formatted as ext4 or xfs.
2. Edit ~/.scrypted/docker-compose.yaml.
3. Make the highlighted changes in the yaml block below, adjust the storage directory as appropriate.
4. Restart the container by running the following:

cd ~/.scrypted && docker compose down && docker compose up -d

docker-compose.yaml

services:
  scrypted:
    environment:
      # Scrypted NVR Storage (Part 2 of 3)

      # Uncomment this line to configure the NVR plugin to store
      # recordings within the /nvr directory inside the container.
      # DO NOT MODIFY /nvr.
      # The Recordings Directory in the NVR Plugin will autopopulate
      # with /nvr (unless it was manually changed earlier).
      # The disk or network share will ALSO need to be configured in
      # Part 3.
      - SCRYPTED_NVR_VOLUME=/nvr

      - SCRYPTED_WEBHOOK_UPDATE_AUTHORIZATION=Bearer SET_THIS_TO_SOME_RANDOM_TEXT
      - SCRYPTED_WEBHOOK_UPDATE=http://localhost:10444/v1/update

      # Uncomment next 3 lines for Nvidia GPU support.
      # - NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=all
      # - NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES=all

      # Uncomment next line to run avahi-daemon inside the container
      # Don't use if dbus and avahi run on the host and are bind-mounted
      # (see below under "volumes")
      # - SCRYPTED_DOCKER_AVAHI=true
    # runtime: nvidia

    volumes:
      # Scrypted NVR Storage (Part 3 of 3)

      # Modify to add the add a Recordings Directory for Scrypted NVR.
      # The following example would mount the /mnt/media/video path on
      # the host to the /nvr path inside the docker container.
      # Modify /mnt/media/video according to the server path.
      # DO NOT MODIFY /nvr.
      - /mnt/media/video:/nvr

      # Or use a network mount from one of the CIFS/NFS examples at the top of this file.
      # - type: volume
      #   source: nvr
      #   target: /nvr
      #   volume:
      #     nocopy: true

      # uncomment the following lines to expose Avahi, an mDNS advertiser.
      # make sure Avahi is running on the host machine, otherwise this will not work.
      # not compatible with Avahi enabled via SCRYPTED_DOCKER_AVAHI=true
      # - /var/run/dbus:/var/run/dbus
      # - /var/run/avahi-daemon/socket:/var/run/avahi-daemon/socket

      # Default volume for the Scrypted database. Typically should not be changed.
      - ~/.scrypted/volume:/server/volume

Multiple Storage Devices

Multiple Recording Storage directories can be added to Scrypted NVR (Large Disks). This can be used to improve loading performance, particularly when recording a large number of cameras. Multiple Recording Storage directories is not the same as RAID, but it is a form of redundancy: main and sub streams are distributed across all storage devices. If a Storage disk goes offline or fails, the specific camera stream stored on that disk will be unavailable. The other streams will be available on other Storage disk(s).

Scrypted NVR setups recording to Network Attached Storage (NAS) will result in reduced performance due to network latency as well as an increased surface area for recording failure. This configuration is not recommended. To mitigate the performance issues, Scrypted NVR can utilize a direct attach disk (as a Fast disk) in addition to the NAS disk. The NAS (Large) disk will store the main stream while Fast disk will store remote and low resolution (scrubbing, event lookup).

DANGER

Do not use Fast storage unless the Scrypted NVR server is primarily recording to a NAS.

The Fast disk must be a direct attached disk (SATA or USB) and at least 1TB in size. The ideal ratio for Fast and Large disks is 1 to 6.

E.g.: If the Large storage is located on a NAS with 18TB available, the Fast disk must be at least 3TB.

The Default Recording Storage is designated as Large.

RAID disks can be assigned to Recording Storage as a storage directory for servers that need true redundancy.

Storage Utilization

Scrypted NVR will delete recordings and potentially stop recording if the disk reaches 10% free space or only has 10GB free space remaining. This is to ensure there is sufficient space available for OS updates and optimal filesystem performance (defragmentation/reallocation). Disk performance decreases as the utilization approaches 90%. The system may become unresponsive if disk is filled completely, potentially by other programs writing to the disk.

For best performance, provide an entire disk or partition to Scrypted NVR. Volumes that share disk space other is not recommended as it may cause issues with recording retention periods.