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Affected Roles: Administrator, Owner
Related Digital Watchdog VMS Apps: DW Spectrum® IPVMS
Complexity: High
Last Edit: September 4, 2020
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A virtual machine (VM) is when an emulated computer system is created as an isolated duplicate of a computer’s architecture to provide the same functionality of a physical computer. Despite the possible benefits of using such a setup, Digital Watchdog advises caution when using the DW Spectrum® IPVMS software in a virtual environment.
This article will outline several points of concern when using DW Spectrum® IPVMS on a virtual machine.
When a virtual machine is configured with the DW Spectrum® Client software, the client application scans the machine for a video card to determine how best to scale the video. However, in circumstances where a VM is in use, there is no video card for the software to detect. This may cause the client to run improperly or to not run at all.
To artificially replicate a video card, check out How To Run DW Spectrum Client With GPU Limitations.
Note: Digital Watchdog Technical Support is not responsible for making this configuration work. The use of a physical machine for running the DW Spectrum® IPVMS Client is recommended instead.
When activating a Recording License for DW Spectrum®, the use of a Hardware ID (HWID) is required. Due to the lack of physical hardware, virtual machines do not have a composite Hardware ID that will remain static, changing whenever variations are made within the virtual environment. As a result, Recording Licenses will likely experience problems while interacting with the recording server. For example, if the Hardware ID of the server changes, all Recording Licenses assigned to the server will no longer be usable and must be deactivated then reactivated before video recording can resume.
It is recommended to resolve all GUID and HWID issues before activating Recording Licenses on a virtual server.
Note: If you are using a virtual machine as your DW Spectrum® Media Server, be sure to have your Recording Licenses and Hardware ID documented in case of an unexpected Hardware ID change.
The DW Spectrum® Media Server is the only portion of the IPVMS that can be successfully run in a virtual environment. However, in the event that the DW Spectrum® Media Server process terminates as soon as it is started, the operating system (OS) API is likely unable to return a valid Global Unique Identifier (GUID) value from which DW Spectrum® may calculate a Hardware ID.
When checking the DW Spectrum Log, you may find log entries pointing to this issue.
2017-06-09 15:12:06.945 704 ERROR: Can't save guid. Run once as administrator.
To create a standard GUID that will allow DW Spectrum® IPVMS to calculate an HWID:
To use the GUID from the above section (Generating a Server GUID) for a virtual DW Spectrum® server:
Alternatively, use Windows Key + R to open the Run program, then type regedit.
Open the Registry Editor application.
Paste the copied GUID that was created in the Generating a Server GUID section above.
To use the GUID from the above section (Generating a Server GUID) for a virtual DW Spectrum® server:
Note: All Terminal commands are case-sensitive. Please follow the command format as it is written.
Paste the copied GUID that was created in the Generating a Server GUID section above.
Sudo service digitalwatchdog-mediaserver restart
Another common issue with using a virtual machine for DW Spectrum® is network configuration. Digital Watchdog Technical Support will only be able to support as far as verifying if the physical Digital Watchdog cameras are functioning properly and are using an unmanaged network and physical computer. Beyond this, any issues that arise with camera communication or inter-server communication will need to be addressed by the creator of the virtual system.