FortiRecorder™ 1.4.1 GA

Release Notes

FortiRecorder v1.4.1 GA Release Notes

April 2014

Copyright© 2014 Fortinet, Inc. All rights reserved. Fortinet®, FortiGate®, and FortiGuard®, are

registered trademarks of Fortinet, Inc., and other Fortinet names herein may also be trademarks

of Fortinet. All other product or company names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Performance metrics contained herein were attained in internal lab tests under ideal conditions,

and performance may vary. Network variables, different network environments and other

conditions may affect performance results. Nothing herein represents any binding commitment

by Fortinet, and Fortinet disclaims all warranties, whether express or implied, except to the

extent Fortinet enters a binding written contract, signed by Fortinet’s General Counsel, with a

purchaser that expressly warrants that the identified product will perform according to the

performance metrics herein. For absolute clarity, any such warranty will be limited to

performance in the same ideal conditions as in Fortinet’s internal lab tests. Fortinet disclaims in

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this publication without notice, and the most current version of the publication shall be

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Table of Contents

Introduction ...................................................................................................... 4

Supported models ..................................................................................................... 4

Summary of new features ......................................................................................... 4

Special Notices ................................................................................................ 5

Monitor settings for Web UI ....................................................................................... 5

Supported Web browsers and plugins ....................................................................... 5

Upgrading from FortiCamera v1.0 GA, FortiRecorder v1.1/v1.2/v1.3 GA .................. 5

Camera discovery method changed to use mDNS protocol in v1.2 ........................... 5

FortiRecorder MIB file ............................................................................................... 5

Remote storage methods .......................................................................................... 5

New Features .................................................................................................... 6

FortiRecorder-VM ............................................................................................. 8

Licensing .................................................................................................................. 8

Trial License ............................................................................................................. 8

Evaluation License .................................................................................................... 8

Installation notes ....................................................................................................... 8

Camera deployment scenarios ....................................................................... 9

Local camera deployments ....................................................................................... 9

Same network deployments ...................................................................................... 9

Routed network deployments .................................................................................... 9

Remote camera deployments ................................................................................... 9

Performance Guidelines ................................................................................ 10

NVR performance ................................................................................................... 10

Number of supported cameras .......................................................................... 10

General performance factors ............................................................................. 10

Variable versus constant bit rate ....................................................................... 10

Bandwidth per camera or live view (for FCM-20A) ............................................ 11

Storage capacity ............................................................................................... 11

Client Performance ................................................................................................. 12

Image Checksums.......................................................................................... 13

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Introduction

This document provides a summary of enhancements, installation instructions, deployment scenarios and performance guidelines for FortiRecorder v1.4.1 release build 263. Please review this document before installing or upgrading FortiRecorder.

For more information on installing or upgrading your FortiRecorder device, see the FortiRecorder Administration Guide. The Administration Guide can be found at http://docs.fortinet.com/frec.html.

Supported models

The following models are supported in FortiRecorder v1.4.1:

FortiRecorder-200D Network Video Recorder

FortiRecorder-100D Network Video Recorder (new)

FortiRecorder-VM (64bit) Network Video Recorder for VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESX/ESXi v5.0 and 5.1

FortiCam-20A Network Camera

FortiCam-MB13 Network Camera

FortiCam-OB20 Network Camera (new)

Summary of new features

The following is a list of the enhancements in FortiRecorder v1.4.1:

FRC-100D support

FCM-OB20 support

Remote storage quota and statistics support

NVR support for new camera capabilities (dependent on camera model) :

o Privacy button

o Status LED

Better virtual IP support for remote camera deployments

Better iOS mobile streaming

Fix OpenSSL CVE-2014-0160 ‘heartbleed’ vulnerability

Minor bug fixes

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Special Notices

Monitor settings for Web UI

Fortinet recommends setting your monitor to a screen resolution of at least 1280x1024. This allows for objects in the web UI to be viewed properly.

Supported Web browsers and plugins

Internet Explorer 9 or higher

Firefox 4.0 or higher

Safari 4 or higher

QuickTime 7.1 or higher plugin (required for viewing video and playback)

Upgrading from FortiCamera v1.0 GA, FortiRecorder v1.1/v1.2/v1.3 GA

Upgrading to v1.4.1 from v1.4 and v1.3 is fully supported. From v1.0, v1.1 and v1.2 a consecutive upgrade is recommended. Upgrading from v1.0 to v1.4 will result in the NVR product name being changed from FortiCamera to FortiRecorder.

Fortinet always recommends backing up the NVR configuration before performing an upgrade.

Camera discovery method changed to use mDNS protocol in v1.2

As of FortiRecorder v1.2 the camera discovery method was changed from UPnP to mDNS. Both are multicast protocols, but mDNS is more router friendly than UPnP.

FortiRecorder MIB file

An SNMP MIB file for FortiRecorder is available from the FortiRecorder download directory on the support site.

Remote storage methods

Several remote storage options have been removed as of v1.3. The supported remote methods are NFS and iSCSI.

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New Features

The following section highlights the new features in the FortiRecorder v1.4.1 release.

FRC-100D support

The FortiRecorder FRC-100D is a compact 16ch NVR with 3 x GbE, 1TB Storage

FCM-OB20 support

FortiCamera FCM-OB20 is a high-end 2 Megapixel bullet camera with motorized zoom,

IR/Night Vision, Audio, DIDO. It is IP67 rated for Indoor/Outdoor use and powered by 802.3af or 802.3at PoE.

Remote storage quota and statistics support

Quota management has been extended to remote storage

When the video disk is 95% full, FortiRecorder will move the oldest video files and related files to remote storage. It will stop when the disk usage reaches 90%. Remote storage is managed the same way except files are deleted instead of moved. The user is able to specify the amount of disk space that FortiRecorder can use on the remote storage. It must be more than 10% of that disks capacity, which is indicated as tooltip.

Storage Options

Keep: Leave the video files until they are deleted by the quota management subsystem.

Delete: Delete video files once these videos are older than a given time. Using this option can provide more disk space to other cameras or enforce max. storage duration policies.

Move: Move video files that are older than a given time from FortiRecorder video disk to the Remote Storage. This option can provide an opportunity to move files to a physically different location before the quota management requires it.

Statistics on sys status page

Better detection when the remote storage is not accessible

NVR support for new camera capabilities

Privacy button

Status LED

Zoom In/Out

Light level

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Better virtual IP support for remote camera deployments

In v1.4.1, there are 4 explicit transport types for streaming (UDP, TCP, HTTP and HTTPS) instead of the 3 tunnel types specified in v1.4.0 (TCP, HTTP, HTTPS).

Selecting the transport type, the correct port is displayed for the given model (i.e. UDP:554, TCP:554, HTTP:80 and HTTPS:443).

When using a Virtual IP address (VIP), the user can modify the virtual address and the selected transport type port.

Firewall port forwarding must be configured to forward these externally visible VIP ports to the correct local camera IP and port (as determined by Transport Type).

Better iOS mobile streaming

Fix of HLS streaming for iOS 7

Fix OpenSSL CVE-2014-0160 "Heartbleed" vulnerability

For more information see: http://www.fortiguard.com/advisory/FG-IR-14-011/

Minor bug fixes

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FortiRecorder-VM

Licensing

FortiRecorder-VM is licensed based on the number of active (enabled) cameras and uses a stackable licensing model. The available license SKUs are:

FRC-VM-Base – includes 10 camera license

FRC-VM-10 – adds 10 cameras to the Base license

FRC-VM-50 – adds 50 cameras to the Base license

FRC-VM-100 – adds 100 cameras to the Base license

There are no other restrictions to the license other than the number of active cameras – i.e. there is no restriction on the number of virtual CPUs, disk space, etc.

The current maximum number of active cameras supported by FortiRecorder-VM is 1010 – i.e. you cannot currently license more than 1010 active cameras per FortiRecorder-VM installation.

After placing an order for FortiRecorder-VM, a license registration code is sent to the email address used in the order form. Use the license registration code provided to register your FortiRecorder- VM with Customer Service & Support at https://support.fortinet.com.

Upon registration, you can download the license file. You will need this file to activate your FortiRecorder- VM. You can configure basic network settings from the CLI to complete the deployment. Once the license file is uploaded, the CLI and Web-based Manager are fully functional.

Trial License

When FortiRecorder-VM is first installed, it will have a trial license. The trial license supports a maximum of 5 active cameras for 45 days. All features and functionality are available with a trial license.

Evaluation License

The FRC-VM-Base SKU can be ordered as an evaluation license. The FRC-VM-Base SKU supports 10 active cameras. All features and functionality are available with an evaluation license.

Installation notes

Refer to the FortiRecorder-VM Installation Guide for installation details. The Installation Guide can be found at http://docs.fortinet.com/frec.html.

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Camera deployment scenarios

Cameras are deployed in two basic scenarios: local to the NVR and remote to the NVR. FortiCamera deployments can combine both scenarios.

Local camera deployments

Local cameras deployments have two specific scenarios:

1. Cameras are installed on the same network as the NVR.

2. Cameras are installed on a local network, but there are one or more routers between the NVR and the cameras.

Same network deployments

Installing the cameras on the same subnet as the NVR is the easiest deployment scenario since the NVR can automatically discover the cameras.

Routed network deployments

If there are routers between the cameras and the NVR, the routers must be configured to allow mDNS multicast packets between the camera network and the NVR network in order for the NVR to automatically discover the cameras. Once the cameras are discovered, you can leave the address mode as DHCP or change it to static.

If the routers are not configured to pass the mDNS packets, the cameras can be configured manually by selecting the static address mode on the camera configuration page.

Remote camera deployments

Remote camera deployments refer to scenarios where there is a firewall between the NVR and the cameras – i.e. camera discovery will not work and the cameras will likely have virtual IP addresses on the firewall. The cameras are configured by selecting the VIP address mode on the camera configuration page.

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Performance Guidelines

There are two components to consider when looking at FortiRecorder performance – the NVR and the client.

Overall FortiRecorder performance is a combination of the video input (number of cameras, camera streams, resolution, etc) and the video output (to the browser for live views and playback).

The performance bottleneck in a FortiCamera deployment will likely be the client, which must decode and render the video streams from the NVR. Displaying multiple video streams on the client is very CPU intensive.

NVR performance

Number of supported cameras

The FortiRecorder-200D can support 64 cameras or more depending on the configuration. For FortiRecorder-VM the number of supported cameras is dependent on the hardware configuration of the VMware server and the number of licensed cameras.

General performance factors

The following factors affect the input side of performance:

Total number of video streams from the cameras (i.e. not just the number of cameras)

The video recording types (motion only or continuous) per camera

The video stream parameters per camera – i.e. resolution, frame rate, bitrate mode (constant or variable) and the bitrate mode parameters (bitrate or image quality)

The number of motion clips being received and the number of associated snapshots being generated for display in the event monitor.

The following factors affect the output side of performance:

Number of administrator/operator/viewer sessions

Peak number of simultaneous administrator/operator/viewer live views

The video stream parameters per camera live view – i.e. resolution, frame rate, bitrate mode (constant or variable) and the bitrate mode parameters (bitrate or image quality)

Variable versus constant bit rate

The variable bit rate mode means the bandwidth used by the camera will vary according to what the camera is seeing and the video profile settings. The video profile settings for the variable bit rate mode are resolution, frame rate and image quality. For FCM-20A High resolution creates three times as much data as medium resolution. Low resolution creates half as much data as medium resolution (see following sections for more detail). The degree of motion present in a video stream also affects the amount of data created.

The constant bitrate mode means the bandwidth used by the camera will stay relatively constant regardless of what the camera is seeing. The constant bitrate mode is therefore more

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predictable in deployments where bandwidth and/or storage capacities are important considerations. The video profile settings for the constant bit rate mode are resolution, frame rate and bit rate. The bandwidth used by the stream is dictated by the bitrate setting.

In general, using the variable bit rate mode results in higher quality video with higher bandwidth requirements and using the constant bit rate mode results in predictable bandwidth requirements with lower quality video. However, in most cases the difference in video quality between the variable and constant bit modes is negligible (assuming the same resolution and frame rates) and the constant bit rate mode produces more reliable output from the cameras.

Bandwidth per camera or live view (for FCM-20A)

Variable bitrate

Each camera stream or live view will use the following (approximate) bandwidth:

320x256 @ 30 FPS, high quality, variable bit rate = 48kB/s

640x512 @ 30 FPS, high quality, variable bit rate = 107kB/s

1280x1024 @ 30 FPS, high quality, variable bit rate = 322kB/s

For variable bitrate streams, lowering the quality setting increases the amount of compression resulting in lower video quality and lower data rates.

Constant bitrate

Each camera stream or live view will use the following (approximate) bandwidth:

320x256 @ 30 FPS, 1000 kb/s, constant bit rate = 50kB/s

640x512 @ 30 FPS, 1000 kb/s, constant bit rate = 150kB/s*

1280x1024 @ 30 FPS, 1000 kb/s, constant bit rate = 150kB/s*

For constant bitrate streams, lowering the bitrate setting increases the amount of compression resulting in lower video quality and lower data rates

*This is not a typo. At medium or high resolution, 30 FPS and 1000 kb/s, both resolutions result in the same approximate bandwidth usage since the high resolution stream is being compressed more than the medium resolution stream.

Storage capacity

Variable bitrate

Assuming one camera at the specified resolution, the FortiRecorder-200D provides the following (approximate) storage capacities:

320x256 @ 30 FPS, high quality, variable bit rate = 6700 hours of storage capacity

640x512 @ 30 FPS, high quality, variable bit rate = 3000 hours of storage capacity

1280x1024 @ 30 FPS, high quality, variable bit rate = 1000 hours of storage capacity

Constant bitrate

Assuming one camera at the specified resolution, the FortiRecorder-200D provides the following (approximate) storage capacities:

320x256 @ 30 FPS, 1000 kb/s, constant bit rate = 6700 hours of storage capacity

640x512 @ 30 FPS1000 kb/s, constant bit rate = 2000 hours of storage capacity

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1280x1024 @ 30 FPS, 1000 kb/s, constant bit rate = 2000 hours of storage capacity

Client Performance

If you need to display 8 or more camera live views, you may need to configure the second camera stream so that viewing is done at a lower frame rate or resolution, depending on how powerful the client PC is. RAM is less important than CPU for rendering video.

Video playback is very CPU intensive. If you are experiencing choppy video playback and cameras “freezing” during playback, you may have a client performance problem. Use the diagnostic tools available on your client OS and look at the CPU usage when you are experiencing video problems. If possible, keep the CPU usage below 50%.

To optimize client performance, use the video and camera profiles to define and assign a second video stream for each camera. To increase the number of live views the client computer can display, or to reduce the CPU requirement for a given number of live views, reduce the resolution, quality and/or frames per second of the second video streams.

10 FPS is a good general setting for live views. 10 FPS provides a reasonable frame rate for the live views, but significantly reduces the load on the client (compared to 30 FPS).

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Image Checksums

To verify the integrity of the firmware file, use a checksum tool and compute the firmware file’s MD5 checksum. Compare it with the checksum indicated by Fortinet. If the checksums match, the file is intact.

MD5 checksums for Fortinet software and firmware releases are available from Fortinet Customer Service & Support. After logging in to the web site, near the bottom of the page, click the Firmware Checksums button. (The button appears only if one or more of your devices have a current support contract.) In the File Name field, enter the firmware image file name including its extension, then click Get Checksum Code.