Prerequisites

There are a number of requirements for the Macula host system:

  • Microsoft Windows operating system (10, 11, 11 IoT Enterprise, Server 2016, Server 2019, Server 2022), real or virtual machine

  • both .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and 4.x installed (the latest version should come with OS updates)

  • for Windows Server operating systems, make sure the Desktop Experience feature is installed

  • Windows Media Features must be installed (via Windows Features), it is missing by default in Windows N editions

  • all Windows updates should be installed (especially, this is critical for Windows 10 and newer editions and for pending updates)

  • ports for remote connections should be enabled through the firewalls (default ports are 60554 for Macula Monitor and Macula Console and 8080 for the Macula Streaming Server and external services)

  • disable HTTP traffic analysis in the antivirus settings (especially ESET) to ensure the correct work of external services (LPR, FR, and other external video analytics modules)

  • installation and recording directories should be added to antivirus exception list so that they are not scanned or interfered with in any other manner

  • indexing and defragmentation services must be disabled for the storage locations

  • for software analytics requirements, see the corresponding section of the VCA/VA manual (provided as a separate document)

  • for Macula Monitor application, DirectX 10+ is required along with the latest stable graphics card drivers

  • for Macula Monitor, display resolution of 1280x720 pixels or higher is recommended

For Windows Server 2016 and 2019, specify the Server with Desktop Experience option as part of the OS installation. Prior versions of Windows Server allow you to install this feature post installation.

For recording, the following recommendations apply:

  • for 48+ channels and/or >20MB/s total recorded stream, RAID 5/6/10 with high speed hardware controller is strongly advisable

  • defragmentation and indexing must be disabled for all storages

  • every recording location, regardless of its type, must have 10-15% of free space, not used by Macula or any other software

  • recording to the system disk is strongly not recommended

  • antivirus software or any other scanners should be disabled for the storage locations

  • no third-party VMS should be recording to the same location as Macula

  • for NAS, make sure to disable the Recycle Bin feature, so that the erased files are actually deleted and not just moved to trash folder

  • after adding the channels for recording, check the disk load (disk queue)

  • disable read cache for RAID controllers

Antivirus scanning, defragmentation and indexing being enabled for Macula files may result in dramatically decreased write speed, recording disturbances and, occasionally, database corruption. We strongly recommend that you make sure that storage locations are not affected by these processes.

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