General notes for troubleshooting the variety of issues that come with Unifi Video.
[ Overall ]
- Historically at NCS: Fought with ongoing issues with the version (which we were stuck on because we were using Gen1 cameras) which was documented through the forums and with support tickets but unable to get the system to work as some bug in the maintenance would consume 100% CPU on the server until the video service was restarted. Had a script in place to manage this but it wasn't foolproof. Ultimately updating to a newer version after replacing the Gen1 cameras resolved the issue but we ate some cost on it
- Neither the windows nor NVR are reliable and can create situations where needed footage isn't available because of a system glitch of some sort. General uptime without issues seems to be ~2-3 months but can vary wildly with software glitches per version
- The software seems to have serious quality-control issues and updates can result in lost features and reliability issues with no ability to go back to prior versions. Prior to installing updates check the forums to help evaluate what issues may be created as a result of upgrading
- The cost is low, which can fit well for price-sensitive customers - but if reliability and uptime are needed this is NOT a good fit
- Carefully check to determine if the cameras support PoE as the marketing materials suggest that they are PoE but in fact, are using a non-industry standard passive 24v or similar power supply not capable of being powered by a PoE 802.3xx switch making installation unnecessarily messy if you have a PoE switch
[ Windows ]
- Logfiles: C:\ProgramData\unifi-video\logs
- Specifically MogoDB and Server
- Steps: How to Repair the Database on Windows: https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/219494977
- At some point dumping the DB and starting again seems to help clear up lingering issues
[ NVR ]
Every few months the NVR needs to be restarted
I'm seeing that error too. It seems the NVR may need to be restarted.
As a next step lets power cycle the NVR located in the equipment rack/storage room
- Locate the equipment (pictured)
- Press the blue power button on the NVR appliance - and it should turn off (its a mini server so the hope is we can restart it gracefully rather than simply power cycling - also note its a server so it will take some time to shutdown)
- After it turns off wait 10 seconds and power back on again - startup process generally takes about 2-5 mins (but can be as long as 30 mins or more if a database problem is detected) at which point the system will come back to life