NVR Testing Platform

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The NVR hardware is assembled and now it is time to get the operating system(s) installed.  

I grappled with dual boot versus running multiple OS’s virtually.  Given my experience with VMWare and the desire to keep systems running in parallel for testing I have opted to virtualize.  I’ll be using the free VMWare ESXi platform ... well, because it is free and it’s really, really good.  There is one limitation that may keep me from continuing to run this virtualization environment long term, specifically the limitation of 2 CPUs per guest machine.  The Core i7 processor has 4 cores and I will want all of them assigned to my final system.  Other than that, I would actually prefer to run even 1 OS on VMWare because of the tools available - some I will explain later.
Learn more about virtualization basics. 
Learn more about installing the ESXi hypervisor. 

Installing VMWare ESXi:  

Visit VMWare’s site to download the ESXi ISO for free, use Rufus to create a bootable USB thumb drive and then follow the on-screen instructions.  Taking the defaults is the simplest way to get started.  It will grab a DHCP address from your network during installation, plug this address into your favorite browser on a machine on the same network and you will be presented with the VMWare login screen.  This is where you will perform the management of your VMWare host.  I highly recommend the first order of business is to assign an easy-to-remember static IP address.

Configuring Storage devices on ESXi: 

Now it is time to ensure all of your storage devices are visible to the VMWare host so they can be assigned to Guest machines.  I’m going to install the OS’s on my SSD and keep the active databases here as well.  The plan is to archive older video files and clips to the 6TB SATA drive keeping the 512GB SSD free for all of the heavy read/write activity.

Install a Guest Operating System (OS):

Simply put, the VMWare host will not recognize a USB thumb drive on the host hardware.  I fought this for about an hour, mounting and un-mounting that device.  Don't waste your time, it is much easier than this anyway.

Any of the storage devices visible by the host machine can host an ISO file, use the "upload" feature when viewing the storage device.  Then, add a CD/DVD ROM to the Guest machine and point it to the ISO file you stored on the storage device.  Fire up the machine and it will boot off the ISO.  Install the Operating System as you normally would.  Again, I recommend assigning a static IP address to the Guest machine and commit it to memory - for Windows, you can Remote Desktop directly to the machine without having to use vSphere to manage the machine.

So, now that this is done, I have two Guest machines prime for installing NVR software:

  • Windows 10 Pro:  Pro, because it is required for Remote Desktop to be available.  The full version of Windows 10 Pro can normally be found for about $60 online - I used PC Destination.
    • 256GB of the SSD used for this OS.
    • 2 CPUs
    • 8GB memory.
    • 1.5TB of the SATA drive assigned as a D:\
  • Debian Linux:  I chose Debian because ZoneMinder specifically called out support for this distro ... but I'm finding that for a Linux novice like myself there is much less help for Debian than there is Ubuntu.
    • 120GB of the SSD used for this OS
    • 2 CPUs
    • 4GB memory.

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