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Troubleshooting

Here are some tips for diagnosing various problems with Moonfire NVR. Feel free to open an issue if you need more help.

Viewing Moonfire NVR's logs

While Moonfire NVR is running, logs will be written to stderr.

  • When running the configuration UI, you typically should redirect stderr to a text file to avoid poor interaction between the interactive stdout output and the logging. If you use the recommended moonfire-nvr config 2>debug-log command, output will be in the debug-log file.
  • When running through systemd, stderr will be redirected to the journal. Try sudo journalctl --unit moonfire-nvr to view the logs. You also likely want to set MOONFIRE_FORMAT=systemd to format logs as expected by systemd.

Note: Moonfire's log format has recently changed significantly. You may encounter the older format in the issue tracker or (despite best efforts) documentation that hasn't been updated.

Logging options are controlled by environment variables:

  • MOONFIRE_LOG controls the log level. Its format is similar to the RUST_LOG variable used by the env-logger crate. MOONFIRE_LOG=info is the default. MOONFIRE_LOG=info,moonfire_nvr=debug gives more detailed logging of the moonfire_nvr crate itself.
  • MOONFIRE_FORMAT selects an output format. It defaults to an output meant for human consumption. It can be overridden to either of the following:
  • Errors include a backtrace if RUST_BACKTRACE=1 is set.

With MOONFIRE_FORMAT left unset, log events look as follows:

2023-02-15T22:45:06.999329  INFO                   s-courtyard-sub streamer{stream="courtyard-sub"}: moonfire_nvr::streamer: opening input url=rtsp://192.168.5.112/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1&unicast=true&proto=Onvif

This example contains the following elements:

  • the timestamp (2023-02-15T22:45:06.9999329) in the system's local zone.
  • the log level (INFO) is one of TRACE, DEBUG, INFO, WARN, or ERROR.
  • the thread name (s-courtyard-sub), see explanation below.
  • the "spans" (streamer{stream="courtyard-sub"}), which contain context information for a group of messages. In this case there is a single span streamer with a single field stream. There can be multiple spans; they are listed starting from the root. Each may have fields.
  • the target (moonfire_nvr::streamer), which generally corresponds to a Rust module name.
  • the log message (opening input), a human-readable string
  • event fields (url=...)

Moonfire NVR names a few important thread types as follows:

  • main: during moonfire-nvr run, the main thread does initial setup then just waits for the other threads. In other subcommands, it does everything.
  • s-CAMERA-TYPE (one per stream, where TYPE is main, sub, or ext): these threads write video to disk.
  • sync-DIR_ID (one per sample file directory): These threads call fsync to
  • commit sample files to disk, delete old sample files, and flush the database.
  • r-DIR_ID (one per sample file directory): These threads read sample files from disk for serving .mp4 files.
  • tokio-runtime-worker (one per core, unless overridden with --worker-threads): these threads handle HTTP requests and read video data from cameras via RTSP.

Below are some interesting log lines you may encounter.

Flushes

During normal operation, Moonfire NVR will periodically flush changes to its SQLite3 database. Every flush is logged, as in the following info message:

2021-03-08T23:14:18.388000 sync-2 syncer{path=/media/14tb/sample}:flush{flush_count=2 reason="120 sec after start of 1 minute 14 seconds courtyard-main recording 3/1842086"}: moonfire_db::db: flush complete:
/media/6tb/sample: added 98M 864K 842B in 8 recordings (4/1839795, 7/1503516, 6/1853939, 1/1838087, 2/1852096, 12/1516945, 8/1514942, 10/1506111), deleted 111M 435K 587B in 5 (4/1801170, 4/1801171, 6/1799708, 1/1801528, 2/1815572), GCed 9 recordings (6/1799707, 7/1376577, 4/1801168, 1/1801527, 4/1801167, 4/1801169, 10/1243252, 2/1815571, 12/1418785).
/media/14tb/sample: added 8M 364K 643B in 3 recordings (3/1842086, 9/1505359, 11/1516695), deleted 0B in 0 (), GCed 0 recordings ().

This log message is packed with debugging information:

  • the date and time: 2021-03-08T23:14:18.388.

  • the name of the thread that prompted the flush: sync-2.

  • a flush count: 3810. This is handy for checking how often Moonfire NVR is flushing.

  • a reason for the flush: 120 sec after start of 1 minute 14 seconds courtyard-main recording 3/1842086. This was a regular periodic flush at the flush_if_sec for the stream, as described in install.md. 3/1842086 is an identifier for the recording, in the form stream_id/recording_id. It corresponds to the file /media/14tb/sample/00000003001c1ba6. On-disk files are named by a fixed eight hexadecimal digits for the stream id and eight hexadecimal digits for the recording id. You can convert with printf:

    $ printf '%08x%08x\n' 3 1842086
00000003001c1ba6

  • For each affected sample file directory (/media/6tb/sample and /media/14tb/sample), a line showing the exact changes included in the flush. There are three kinds of changes:

    • added recordings–these files are already fully written in the sample file directory and now are being added to the database.
    • deleted recordings–these are being removed from the database's recording table (and added to the garbage table) in preparation for being deleted from the sample file directory. They can no longer be accessed after this flush.
    • GCed (garbage-collected) recordings—these have been fully removed from disk and no longer will be referenced in the database at all.

    You can learn more about these in the "Lifecycle of a recording" section of the recording schema design document.

    For added and deleted recordings, the line includes sizes in bytes (98M 864K 842B represents 10,3646,026 bytes, or about 99 MiB), numbers of recordings, and the IDs of each recording. For GCed recordings, the sizes are omitted (as this information is not stored).

Panic errors

Errors like the one below indicate a serious bug in Moonfire NVR. Please file a bug if you see one. It's helpful to set the RUST_BACKTRACE environment variable to include more information.

2021-03-04T11:09:29.230291 ERROR s-peck_west-main streamer{stream="peck_west-main"}: panic: should always be an unindexed sample location=src/moonfire-nvr/server/db/writer.rs:750:54 backtrace=...

In this case, a stream thread (one starting with s-) panicked. That stream won't record again until Moonfire NVR is restarted.

Slow operations

Warnings like the following indicate that some operation took more than 1 second to perform. PT2.070715796S means about 2 seconds.

It's normal to see these warnings on startup and occasionally while running. Frequent occurrences may indicate a performance problem.

2020-11-29T12:01:21.128725 WARN s-driveway-main streamer{stream="driveway-main"}: moonfire_base::clock: opening rtsp://admin:redacted@192.168.5.108/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0&unicast=true&proto=Onvif took PT2.070715796S!
2020-11-29T12:32:15.870658 WARN s-west_side-sub streamer{stream="west_side-sub"}: moonfire_base::clock: getting next packet took PT10.158121387S!
2020-12-28T12:09:29.050464 WARN s-back_east-sub streamer{stream="s-back_east-sub"}: moonfire_base::clock: database lock acquisition took PT8.122452
2020-12-28T21:22:32.012811 WARN main moonfire_base::clock: database operation took PT39.526386958S!
2020-12-28T21:27:11.402259 WARN s-driveway-sub streamer{stream="s-driveway-sub"}: moonfire_base::clock: writing 37 bytes took PT20.701894190S!

Camera stream errors

Warnings like the following indicate that a camera stream was lost due to some error and Moonfire NVR will try reconnecting shortly. Stream ended might happen when the camera is rebooting or if Moonfire is not consuming packets quickly enough. In the latter case, you'll likely see a getting next packet took PT...S! message as described above.

2021-03-09T00:28:55.527078 WARN s-courtyard-sub streamer{stream="courtyard-sub"}: moonfire_nvr::streamer: sleeping for PT1S after error: Stream ended
(set environment variable RUST_BACKTRACE=1 to see backtraces)

Problems

Docker setup

If you are using the Docker compose snippet mentioned in the install instructions, you might run into a few unique problems.

"/etc/moonfire-nvr.toml" is a directory

If you try running the Docker container with its /etc/moonfire-nvr.toml:/etc/moonfire-nvr.toml:ro mount before creating the config file, Docker will "helpfully" create it as a directory. Shut down the Docker container, remove the directory, create the config file, and try again.

Error response from daemon: unable to find user UID: no matching entries in passwd file

If Docker produces this error, look at this section of the docker compose setup:

    # Edit this to match your `moonfire-nvr` user.
    # Note that Docker will not honor names from the host here, even if
    # `/etc/passwd` is passed through.
    # - Be sure to run the `useradd` command below first.
    # - Then run `echo $(id -u moonfire-nvr):$(id -g moonfire-nvr)` to see
    #   what should be filled in here.
    user: UID:GID

clock_gettime failed: EPERM: Operation not permitted

If commands fail with an error like the following, you're likely running Docker with an overly restrictive seccomp setup. This stackoverflow answer describes the problem in more detail. The simplest solution is to uncomment the - seccomp: unconfined line in your Docker compose file.

$ sudo docker compose run --rm moonfire-nvr --version
clock_gettime failed: EPERM: Operation not permitted

This indicates a broken environment. See the troubleshooting guide.

VFS is unable to determine a suitable directory for temporary files

Moonfire NVR's database internally uses SQLite, which creates various temporary files. If it can't find a path that exists and is writable by the current user, it will produce errors such as the following:

2023-12-29T16:16:47.795330  WARN           sync-1 syncer{path=/media/nvr/sample}: moonfire_db::writer: flush failure on save for reason 120 sec after start of 59 seconds driveway-sub recording 10/1222348; will retry after PT60S: UNAVAILABLE
caused by: disk I/O error
caused by: Error code 6410: VFS is unable to determine a suitable directory for temporary files

The simplest solution is to pass /var/tmp through from the host to the Docker container in your Docker compose file.

Server errors

Error: pts not monotonically increasing; got 26615520 then 26539470

If your streams cut out and you see error messages like this one in Moonfire NVR logs, it might mean that your camera outputs B frames. If you believe this is the case, file a feature request; Moonfire NVR currently doesn't support B frames. You may be able to configure your camera to disable B frames in the meantime.

Out of disk space

If Moonfire NVR runs out of disk space on a sample file directory, recording will be stuck and you'll see log messages like the following:

2021-04-01T11:21:07.365 WARN s-driveway-main streamer{stream="s-driveway-main"}: moonfire_base::clock: sleeping for PT1S after error: No space left on device (os error 28)

If something else used more disk space on the filesystem than planned, just clean up the excess files. Moonfire NVR will start working again immediately.

If Moonfire NVR's own files are too large, follow this procedure:

  1. Shut it down. 
    $ sudo killall moonfire-nvr
  2. Reconfigure it use less disk space. See Completing configuration through the UI in the installation guide. Pay attention to the note about slack space.
  3. Start Moonfire NVR again. It will clean up the excess disk files on startup and should run properly.

Database or filesystem corruption errors

It's helpful to check out your system's overall health when diagnosing this kind of problem with Moonfire NVR.

  1. Look at your kernel logs. On most Linux systems, you can browse them via journalctl, dmesg, or less /var/log/messages. See Errors in kernel logs below for some common problems.

  2. Use smartctl to look at SMART ("Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology System (SMART)") attributes on your flash and hard drives. Backblaze reports that the following SMART attributes are most predictive of drive failure:

    • SMART 5: Reallocated Sectors Count
    • SMART 187: Reported Uncorrectable Errors
    • SMART 188: Command Timeout
    • SMART 197: Current Pending Sector Count
    • SMART 198: Uncorrectable Sector Count If the RAW value for any of these attributes is non-zero, it's likely your problem is due to hardware.

  3. Use smartctl to run a self-test on your flash and hard drives.

  4. Run fsck on your filesystems.

    Your root filesystem is best checked on startup, before it's mounted as read-write. On most Linux systems, you can force fsck to run on next startup via the fsck.mode=force kernel parameter, as documented here.

    If you have hard drives dedicated to Moonfire NVR, you can also shut down Moonfire NVR, unmount the filesystem, and run fsck on them without rebooting.

After the system as a whole is verified healthy, run moonfire-nvr check while Moonfire NVR is stopped to verify integrity of the SQLite database and sample file directories.

Incorrect timestamps

Moonfire NVR uses the system clock when a run of recordings starts to determine the run's initial timestamp. If the system clock is stepped after the run starts, Moonfire NVR will keep using timestamps based on the old (usually incorrect) setting.

This is most noticeable on the Raspberry Pi or other cheap SBCs which don't come with a battery-backed real-time clock (RTC). Instead, they save the current time periodically and restore it on bootup. Their clocks often are a few hours behind on startup following a power outage. You may notice in journalctl logs messages similar to the following when the clock is fixed:

Aug 14 21:05:51 moonfire moonfire-nvr[710]: Aug 14 21:05:51.538 INFO reserved 590d892d-b2e8-4e6c-9e1b-c4418d0abd69
Aug 14 22:37:39 moonfire systemd[1]: Time has been changed
Aug 14 22:38:48 moonfire moonfire-nvr[710]: Aug 14 22:38:48.965 INFO Committing extra transaction because there's no cached uuid

Note the 1.5-hour gap between messages; this is roughly how much the clock was adjusted.

The exact message may differ based on your Linux distribution and message; here's another variation:

Jul 13 10:05:52 pi4 systemd-timesyncd[340]: Synchronized to time server for the first time [2600:3c00::e:d0bb]:123 (2.debian.pool.ntp.org).

Here's what you can do:

  • recover: restart Moonfire NVR to pick up the new timestamp.
  • prevent: add a RTC module or fresh battery so your clock is correct at boot time. There's a guide on the wiki.

Currently Moonfire NVR doesn't have any logic to detect this happening or mechanism to fix old timestamps after the fact. Ideas and help welcome; see issue #9.

Configuration interface problems

moonfire-nvr config displays garbage

This may happen if your machine is configured to a non-UTF-8 locale, due to gyscos/cursive#13. As a workaround, try setting the environment variable LC_ALL=C.UTF-8.

Errors in kernel logs

UAS errors

Some cheap USB SATA adapters don't appear to work reliably in UAS mode under Linux. If you see errors like the following, try disabling UAS. Unfortunately your filesystem is likely to have corruption, so after disabling UAS, run a fsck and then moonfire-nvr check to try recovering.

Sep 22 17:26:01 nuc kernel: sd 4:0:0:1: [sdb] tag#2 uas_eh_abort_handler 0 uas-tag 3 inflight: CMD OUT
Sep 22 17:26:01 nuc kernel: sd 4:0:0:1: [sdb] tag#2 CDB: Write(16) 8a 00 00 00 00 01 4d b4 c4 00 00 00 03 b0 00 00

Filesystem errors

Errors that mention EXT4-fs (or your filesystem of choice) likely indicate filesystem corruption. Run fsck to fix as described above. Once the corruption is addressed, use moonfire-nvr check to survey the damage to your database.

Jan 28 07:26:27 nuc kernel: EXT4-fs (sdc1): error count since last fsck: 12
Jan 28 07:26:27 nuc kernel: EXT4-fs (sdc1): initial error at time 1576998292: ext4_validate_block_bitmap:376
Jan 28 07:26:27 nuc kernel: EXT4-fs (sdc1): last error at time 1579640202: ext4_validate_block_bitmap:376
...
Feb 13 04:48:43 nuc kernel: EXT4-fs error (device sdc1): ext4_validate_block_bitmap:376: comm kworker/u8:2: bg 57266: bad block bitmap checksum
Feb 13 04:48:43 nuc kernel: EXT4-fs (sdc1): Delayed block allocation failed for inode 7334278 at logical offset 0 with max blocks 11 with error 74
Feb 13 04:48:43 nuc kernel: EXT4-fs (sdc1): This should not happen!! Data will be lost