Common Issues with Zoneminder Installation on Ubuntu

05JAN15

With some changes “in-the-works” for Ubuntu installs by the hard working volunteers who keep Zoneminder up-to-date, it was recommended that we post fixes/instructions for some issues that continue to surface. One difference will be that the Zoneminder install will no longer automatically install the zm database in MySQL. This document will likely grow over time but may become obsolete as procedures become better documented.

Zoneminder "Master" PPA This is to remind you that software installed from the iconnor zoneminder-master PPA is BETA software and NOT recommended for production systems! BETA software may have some features that do not work correctly!

Zoneminder Database

See Database Tips and Tricks for more topics: http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/General_Notes#Database_Tricks.2FTips

Enable and convert MySQL to innodb_file_per_table for Zoneminder

Note: You may wish to convert MyISAM tables to InnoDB tables before you proceed. Upgrading Zoneminder to 1.26 or newer should do this for you.

innodb_file_per_table is by default ON Mysql 5.6.6 and onwards. There is plenty of stuff on Google about pros & cons of innodb_file_per_table. This post details how to enable innodb_file_per_table on an existing database. Because innodb_file_per_table affects new tables only, created after innodb_file_per_table is enabled, we need to recreate old databases to force innodb_file_per_table on old tables and reclaim some disk space.

Become root

sudo su

Backup First Create a dir to take backups:

cd ~

Note: I found it helpful to create a file which contained the MySQL user and password. Otherwise you will have to enter the user and password for every operation.

nano .my.cnf

Enter this content

[client]
user=root
password=mysqlpass

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Make backup directory

mkdir backup

cd backup

Copy MySQL data files (raw) (If all goes well, we will not need this)

Stop Zoneminder

service zoneminder stop

If you have other services that use MySQL you will want to stop them and possibly Apache.

service mysql stop && cp -ra /var/lib/mysql mysqldata && service mysql start

Take mysqldump As soon as above line completes, take a mysqldump of all databases

mysqldump --routines --events --flush-privileges --all-databases > all-db.sql

Drop Databases Create a sql file to drop all databases EXCEPT mysql database

mysql -e "SELECT DISTINCT CONCAT ('DROP DATABASE ',TABLE_SCHEMA,' ;') FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA <> 'mysql' AND TABLE_SCHEMA <> 'information_schema';" | tail -n+2 > drop.sql

Verify if drop.sql has correct database names and then execute drop.sql queries.

mysql < drop.sql

Verify all InnoDB tables gone

SELECT table_name, table_schema, engine FROM information_schema.tables WHERE engine = 'InnoDB';

Remove InnoDB files Stop mysql server first

service mysql stop

Then

rm /var/lib/mysql/ibdata1 && rm /var/lib/mysql/ib_logfile0 && rm /var/lib/mysql/ib_logfile1

At this point most likely you will have only /var/lib/mysql/mysql directory only.

Enable innodb_file_per_table

Open my.cnf file

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Add following line after [mysqld]

innodb_file_per_table

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Time to import from mysqldump Start mysql server now

service mysql start

Run mysql import

mysql < all-db.sql

Force mysql_upgrade (to generate performance_schema)

mysql_upgrade --force

That’s All!

Restart Zoneminder (and any other services you have stopped)

service zoneminder start

Check for proper operation and that all your events are present.

When you are satisfied that all is worling well remove the backup directory and password filr=e

cd ~

rm -r backup

rm .my.cnf

You are finished!

This procedure has been adopted from https://rtcamp.com/tutorials/mysql/enable-innodb-file-per-table. Thanks to Rahul Bansal!

Adding Permissions to allow Database Upgrade

Versions of Zoneminder up to and including 1.28.1 in Ubuntu would automatically add the zm database to MySQL. Beginning about August 2015 the development version from the iconnor-master PPA omitted this step becoming like the Debian install process. Manually adding the database to MySQL will be necessary.

To install the zm database (after doing apt-get install zoneminder)

Create Zoneminder database in MySQL (Note: this also creates the default Zoneminder user and permissions in MySQL)

This next step creates a file which contained the MySQL user and password. Otherwise you will have to enter the user and password on the command line which is not secure!

Go to the root directory

cd ~

Create a hidden password file

nano .my.cnf

Enter this content (but use your MySQL root password!)

[client]
user=root
password=(mysqlpass)

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Create database permissions

mysql -e "grant select,insert,update,delete,create,alter,lock tables on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

Remove password file

rm .my.cnf

Continue with the Zoneminder installation

Upgrades

Ubuntu 14.04 with MySQL 5.6 and Zoneminder from PPA

This procedure starts with Ubuntu Server 14.04-3 with LAMP added. Zoneminder is not installed. It is possible to upgrade a system running Zoneminder but it is not covered in this procedure.

Become root

sudo su

Stop MySQL

service mysql stop

Remove MySQL

apt-get purge mysql

Install MySQL 5.6 (will upgrade the MySQL client)

apt-get install mysql-server-5.6

Note: You may need to edit my.cnf and change the value: sql_mode= to sql_mode=NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

Follow the install instructions: https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Ubuntu_Server_14.04_64-bit_with_Zoneminder_1.29.0_the_easy_way

Ubuntu 14.04 - ZM 1.26.5 or later to 1.29.0 or the latest PPA version

Become root

sudo su

Add Repository (not needed if you are running ZM 1.28.1) Note: if you need to remove a repository use: add-apt-repository --remove ppa:iconnor/zoneminder

add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder

apt-get update

Stop Zoneminder

service zoneminder stop

Upgrade the installation

apt-get upgrade  (may return nothing to upgrade)

apt-get dist-upgrade

You will be asked if you want to replace /etc/init.d/zoneminder. Choose "Y"

The database will not automatically update.

Change permissions in your "ZM database to allow the creation of a table

mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

Run the database upgrade

/usr/bin/zmupdate.pl  

Install PHP5-GD

apt-get install php5-gd

Add back the delay to allow MySQL to start before Zoneminder

nano /etc/init.d/zoneminder

Add sleep 15 as shown:

start() {
     sleep 15
     echo -n "Starting $prog: "

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Remove symbolic link

rm /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/zoneminder.conf

Set permissions of /etc/zm/zm.conf to root:www-data 740

chmod 740 /etc/zm/zm.conf

chown root:www-data /etc/zm/zm.conf

Enable Zoneminder and rewrite

a2enconf zoneminder

a2enmod rewrite

Start Zoneminder

service zoneminder start

Add timezone to PHP

nano /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] and make changes as follows for your time zone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Apache

service apache2 restart

Open Zoneminder. Click on Options - Paths

Change PATH_ZMS to /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms

Ubuntu 15.04 - ZM 1.26.5 or later to 1.29.0 or the latest PPA version

Become root

sudo su

Add Repository (not needed if you run 1.27.x or later)

add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder

apt-get update

Stop Zoneminder

systemctl stop zoneminder.service

There are some database changes which should update automatically. To preclude problems, run:

mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

Upgrade the installation

apt-get upgrade  (may return nothing to upgrade)

apt-get dist-upgrade

Note: the 1.29.0-vivid from the PPA does a database upgrade automatically.

Install PHP5-GD

apt-get install php5-gd

Configure Apache

rm /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/zoneminder.conf 

a2enmod rewrite

a2enconf zoneminder

Start Zoneminder

service zoneminder start

Fix Permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Add timezone to PHP

nano /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] and make changes as follows for your time zone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Services

service apache2 reload

systemctl start zoneminder.service

Open Zoneminder. Click on Options - Paths Italic text Change PATH_ZMS to /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms

If Zoneminder does not start when you boot your server, run these commands:

systemctl stop zoneminder.service

systemctl disable zoneminder.service

systemctl enable zoneminder.service

systemctl start zoneminder.service

Reboot your server and check that Zoneminder started.

Ubuntu 15.10 - ZM 1.28.1 to 1.29.0 the the latest PPA version

Become root

sudo su

Add Repository (This adds the PPA master which is for testing only!)

add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder

Update package list

apt-get update

Stop Zoneminder

systemctl stop zoneminder.service

There are some database changes which should update automatically. To preclude problems, run:

mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

Upgrade the installation

apt-get upgrade 

apt-get dist-upgrade

Install PHP5-GD

apt-get install php5-gd

Configure Apache

rm /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/zoneminder.conf

a2enmod rewrite

a2enconf zoneminder

Fix Permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Add timezone to PHP

nano /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] and make changes as follows for your time zone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Services

systemctl start zoneminder

service apache2 reload

Open Zoneminder in a browser. Click on Options - Paths

Check that PATH_ZMS is set to: /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms

Ubuntu 16.04 - ZM 1.30.0 Upgrade

Ubuntu 16.04 contains Zoneminder 1.29.0. The official release date is 21APR16.

To upgrade to Zoneminder 1.30.0

Become root

sudo su

Add Repository (This adds the PPA master which is for testing only!)

add-apt-repository ppa:iconnor/zoneminder

Update package list

apt-get update

Stop Zoneminder

systemctl stop zoneminder.service

Note: It may be a good idea to backup your database. This procedure was tested with MySQL 5.7 but should work with Mariadb 10.

Upgrade the installation (Zoneminder will upgrade with the "apt-get dist-upgrade" command. Your database will automatically be upgraded.

apt-get upgrade 

apt-get dist-upgrade

Start Zoneminder

systemctl start zoneminder.service

Ubuntu 15.10 with ZM 1.29.0 from the PPA to Ubuntu 16.04

do-release-upgrade -d

Fix Permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Fix to allow API to work

nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Change "AllowOverride None" to "AllowOverride All" two places as shown below

<Directory /usr/share>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
</Directory>

<Directory /var/www/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
</Directory>

Restart Apache

service apache2 reload

If you want to switch to MariaDB server see: https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Install_MariaDB_Server_10.0

Ubuntu 14.04 with ZM 1.29.0 from the PPA to Ubuntu 16.04

02MAY16 This upgrade procedure has been tested successfully! It may not be necessary to take a dump of your zm database but I did it just-in-case MySQL messed something up.

Make sure your install is up to date!

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Reboot if needed

Login to a console and stop Zoneminder

sudo service zoneminder stop

Take a dump of the Zoneminder (zm) database (the zm.sql will be saved in your "home" directory)

mysqldump -u root -p zm > zm.sql 

Drop the "zm" database

mysqladmin -uroot -p drop zm

Run the Ubuntu upgrade (note: the "-d" is required until Ubuntu 16.04-1 is released)

sudo do-release-upgrade -d

When prompted, overwrite the zoneminder configuration with the package maintainers version.

My upgrade informed me MySQL server upgrade failed. I had to continue and reboot (Ctrl+Alt+Del) the server manually.

Log in and become root

sudo su 

Clean up packages that were not removed when the upgrade failed (may not be needed in the future)

apt-get autoremove

Install PHP7

apt-get install php php-gd libapache2-mod-php php7.0-mysql

Secure MySQL

mysql_secure_installation

Create Zoneminder (zm) database in MySQL

mysqladmin -uroot -p create zm

Import the zm database

mysql -uroot -p zm < zm.sql

Set permissions

mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

To better manage the MySQL server I recommend you copy the sample config file and replace the default my.cnf symbolic link.

rm /etc/mysql/my.cnf  (this removes the current symbolic link)

cp /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf

To change MySQL settings:

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

In the [mysqld] section add the following

sql_mode = NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart MySQL

systemctl restart mysql

Set the Timezone on PHP7

nano /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Fix Permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Fix to allow API to work

nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Change "AllowOverride None" to "AllowOverride All" two places as shown below

<Directory /usr/share>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
</Directory>

<Directory /var/www/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
</Directory>

Enable and start Zoneminder

systemctl enable zoneminder

service zoneminder start

Restart Apache

service apache2 reload

You should be able to connect to Zoneminder in your web browser!

Ubuntu with ZM 1.28.1 or Earlier Upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04

Upgrade Ubuntu running Zoneminder 1.28.1 or earlier.

05MAY16 This has been run on Ubuntu 14.04 with Zoneminder 1.26.5 and Ubuntu 15.10 with Zoneminder 1.28.1. You have two database options: (1)MySQL 5.7 or (2)Mariadb 10.1. Switching to Mariadb Server is a good thing as it seems to work smoother than MySQL 5.7.

Make sure your install is up to date!

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Reboot if needed

Login to a console and stop Zoneminder

sudo service zoneminder stop

Take a dump of the Zoneminder (zm) database (the zm.sql will be saved in your "home" directory)You will need this if you choose Mariadb or if something goes wrong with the upgrade.

mysqldump -u root -p zm > zm.sql 

Run the Ubuntu upgrade (note: the "-d" is required until Ubuntu 16.04-1 is released)

sudo do-release-upgrade -d

When prompted, overwrite the zoneminder configuration with the package maintainers version.

If, for some reason, you get an error message that MySQL did not upgrade, continue to reboot, manually if needed, and run on restart

apt-get autoremove

Log in and become root

sudo su 

Install PHP7

apt-get install php php-gd libapache2-mod-php php7.0-mysql

Use the default MySQL 5.7

To allow the database upgrade to work you will need to edit one sql file

nano /usr/share/zoneminder/db/zm_update-1.28.99.sql

Search for [ALTER IGNORE TABLE] (Ctrl + w then type ALTER IGNORE TABLE and press Enter. Remove IGNORE then

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

To better manage the MySQL server I recommend you copy the sample config file and replace the default my.cnf symbolic link.

rm /etc/mysql/my.cnf  (this removes the current symbolic link)

cp /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf

To change MySQL settings:

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

In the [mysqld] section add the following

sql_mode = NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart MySQL

systemctl restart mysql

Recommended: Secure MySQL.

mysql_secure_installation

Scroll down to Continue Installation and skip Mariadb

Replace MySQL 5.7 with Mariadb 10

apt-get install mariadb-server

Secure Mariadb (set root password in Mariadb and etc.)

mysql_secure_installation

Create Zoneminder (zm) database in MySQL

mysqladmin -uroot -p create zm

Import the zm database

mysql -uroot -p zm < zm.sql

Set permissions

mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

Run the database upgrade

/usr/bin/zmupdate.pl  

To better manage the MySQL server I recommend you copy the sample config file and replace the default my.cnf symbolic link.

rm /etc/mysql/my.cnf  (this removes the current symbolic link)

cp /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf

When you want to change MySQL settings:

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Continue Installation

Set permissions

mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

Run the database upgrade

/usr/bin/zmupdate.pl  

Set the Timezone on PHP7

nano /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Fix Permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Fix to allow API to work

nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Change "AllowOverride None" to "AllowOverride All" two places as shown below

<Directory /usr/share>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
</Directory>

<Directory /var/www/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
</Directory>

Enable and start Zoneminder

systemctl enable zoneminder

service zoneminder start

Restart Apache

service apache2 reload

Connect to Zoneminder in your web browser, open Options and set PATH_ZMS to /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms

Ubuntu Swap File

I have been puzzled for some time as to why Ubuntu will write to the swap file when there is plenty of RAM installed. I've discovered that writing to the swap file is controlled by the "swappiness" setting! By default, Ubuntu uses a swappiness value of 60 which means that when 40% of memory is used, the system will start swapping data from memory to the swap file. Here is some info you can use to check and/or change swappiness:

To check the swappiness value

cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

To change the swappiness value A temporary change (lost on reboot) with a swappiness value of 10 can be made with

sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10

To make a change permanent, edit the configuration file with your favorite editor:

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

Search for vm.swappiness and change its value as desired. If vm.swappiness does not exist, add it to the end of the file like so:

vm.swappiness=10

The more RAM your system has the lower the swappiness value can be. Possibly even "0" My production system with 16 GIG of RAM works well with a value of "10"

Save the file and reboot.