FAQ

It is strongly recommended that you use a LAN environment with the Gigabit network for all your ISS systems. If you use a 100Mbps network, you can only have a handful number of IP cameras.

For example, 2MP H.264 real-time (30ips) IP video stream can reach up to 4~12Mbps. If you are recording 10 of them and trying to do live monitoring, the 100Mbps bandwidth would not be enough.

It depends on your budget. ISS System is very flexible in terms of where to install different services. Ideally, you may want to have one server running only one service. Typically, you will run Admin/(Event) Monitoring services on one server, and Recording, (Live) Streaming and VA services on three separate servers respectively.
But if your system is 32ch max, you may run all the services: Admin, Monitoring, Recording, Streaming on one server, and VA service on another server. VA service takes a lot of CPU resources[1]. If you are installing multiple services on one PC server, such as (Live) Streaming service and Recording service on the same PC server, you need to assign different (RTP) incoming port ranges for them. Refer to the Incoming port range in the glossary.

[1]  4 core CPU can handle up to 8ch in VA service

ISS Admin service uses TCP 11001 port. If the service is behind a NAT router, you need to port forward TCP 11001 on the router, so that ISS Client and other services can connect to it.

You can configure this port number on the server running the service using ISS Service Manager.

All ISS client software will stop working.
(Event) Monitoring, (Live) Streaming and VA services will stop working. Backup service will stop working. Federation services will not be able to work with the ISS System with its Admin service crashed.
However, Recording service will continue to work, but it will be able to record Event-related IP video streams only for the IP devices registered to itself only. This is because, for cross Recording service boundary event associated recording, IP camera events are collected by (Event) Monitoring service and then routed through Admin service to the other Recording service. This can not be done because the Admin service is crashed.

Nothing. You are just creating a new ISS system. You will need to have a new ISS license, or it will be running in demo mode. You may be able to register IP devices, but recording may not work. Because if an IP camera using ISS protocol is registered to two different ISS Systems, Recording may not work properly because two ISS Systems will be competing to establish a recording session with the IP camera. IP cameras using ISS protocol allow only one recording connection session. The Recording service that establishes the recording connection to the IP cameras will keep the recording session. The other Recording service will keep trying to connect to the IP cameras and fail.

Don’t do it. You will lose everything until you restore the iexp Service Database file to restore all the services and device list.

All other services will be decommissioned immediately. For example, in the case of Recording service, the recording will be stopped immediately, and ISS Client won’t be able to access the recorded video on the decommissioned Recording service. The recorded data will be preserved in the decommissioned Recording service. If you have a backup of iexp file, you may be able to regain access to the recorded video. You need to re-register it to the Admin service, and then reload iexp file to it.

Use ISS Setup,

●     Log in to the Admin service with a user account that is a member of a group with proper Setup authorities like ISS service setup and ISS schedule setup

●     Select the Services icon to see all the registered services.

●     Double click service or use [/] edit icon to configure the selected service

Typically, you will be firstly adding/registering IP devices, nextly assigning them to different services, and then configuring the services, such as setting up Storages for Recording service, configuring VA parameters, etc.

Refer to each Service section for further service-related details.

If you are connecting to ISS Admin service behind a NAT router using ISS Setup, IP address scope issue may arise: IP devices and ISS Admin service are running in the same subnet behind the NAT router, but ISS Setup is connected from the outside of the NAT router. In most of these cases, the registered IP addresses of the IP devices are private, and ISS Setup won’t be able to use the private IP addresses when it is connected from the outside of the NAT router.

You can address these issues for IP cameras/video encoders using ISS protocol and ISS compatible DVRs/NVRs by using FEN and forwarding the corresponding ports. But when you have many different IP devices, even this approach is not manageable.

 - configure all IP cameras/video encoders using ISS protocol and ISS compatible DVRs/NVRs to use FEN

 - forward the admin port for each of them

 - register them to ISS Admin using FEN names

Typically, for security issues, it is advised to run ISS Setup in the same subnet where the IP devices are running. 

Using ISS Setup, you can remotely configure the following devices:

• IP cameras/encoders using ISS protocol

• ISS compatible DVRs/NVRs

• ONVIF compatible IP cameras[1]

• compatible 3rd party IP cameras

You can upgrade the firmware of the following devices:

• IP cameras/encoders using ISS protocol

• ISS compatible DVRs/NVRs

[1] Only supporting the setup of the ONVIF compatible parameters exposed by the ONVIF devices.

When you install ISS services[1] on one or more servers, the ISS Setup wizard will ask for the connection information of the Admin service during installation. Using this information, each service will report itself to its Admin service. An admin user will have to register these services to include them in the ISS System.
Use ISS Setup for this. Launch ISS Setup, and log in to the Admin service. Select the Services icon and use + icon to register these services.

[1] except ISS Federation service

A. It is recommended to run the service on a dedicated server if possible. ISS Admin service does not use as much computing resources as other services.

Typically, ISS Admin service and ISS (Event) Monitoring service runs on one server.
 

The general rule of thumb is
●     (Live) Streaming service uses a lot of bandwidth and CPU resources
●     Video Analytics service uses a lot of CPU/Memory resources
●     Admin or (Event) Monitoring services are moderately resource-demanding
●     Recording services require high-speed storages
●     PCs to run ISS Client software need to have a good VGA card, and CPU to decode multiple streams of IP video streams

Please refer to the below image for the recommended server specifications.

When an ISS service is launched, it reports itself to its ISS Admin service to download its configuration information as well as connection information of other ISS services.
When you log in to an ISS system with ISS Client, you are logging into ISS Admin service, and then your ISS Client software is granted access to different IP devices, or services. ISS Client downloads information about where to find, how to connect to different devices or services using the directory of the Admin service.
ISS Admin service is a very crucial part of the ISS System. If the Admin service is down, all ISS Clients will lose their connection immediately. Recording service will continue to record IP video streams, but only for the IP video streams registered to itself because Recording service can not access Admin service that mediates Events from Monitoring service.

[1] except ISS Federation service

In an ISS System, you work with many IP devices, and then a group of ISS services that provide many different features and functions. You will use ISS Client to use ISS System.

All of these services are configured using ISS Setup after logging into the ISS Admin service. Typically, you would want to limit which user groups can access these configurations using ISS Setup to change the recording schedule or event schedules.

IP cameras/video encoders using ISS protocol and ISS compatible DVRs are supported in ISS Systems. Also, ONVIF and 3rd party cameras are supported by ISS Admin service.

You can have only one ISS Admin service in one ISS System. No separate per channel License is required for ISS Admin service as long as you have an ISS Recording License.

Federation service: 11000

Admin service: 11001

Recording service: 11002

Streaming service: 11003

Monitoring service: 11004

Backup service: 11005

Video Wall service: 11006

Video Analytic service: 11007

Upgrade service: 10011

Video Wall agent service: 12000