How to install Shinobi Video on a FreeNAS Jail

Prelude

So I've been doing a lot of research lately on how I should go about setting up surveillance cameras around our home. Features like remote viewing, motion detection and alerts are a necessity. At first I thought of using ip cameras then just use their own application for remote viewing and recording like Mi Home from Xiaomi, Hik-Connect from HikVision and so on. This was okay at first but then I found out that most of these cameras upload data to their corresponding servers. From what I understand, these servers act as relays in order to allow consumers to view live streams from their camera remotely without having the need for static ip addresses, port forwarding as well as DVRs/NVRs.

It does make sense to do this in some way because it does make it easier for consumers. Otherwise consumers will need to request static ip addresses from their respective ISPs or setup a DDNS at home, then setup port forwarding on their routers. Security also needs to be considered since they are opening their network to the internet.

However, the fact that these cameras uploads data to their respective servers made me think twice because of privacy reasons. Since I already have a FreeNAS available at home, I decided to just install a surveillance software on it, setup DDNS and setup port forwarding on my router.

First things first, I need to decide which software to use. My requirements are:

• Should be free.
• Should support linux (Ubuntu, CentOS, FreeBSD).
• Should not require too much RAM and CPU.

I only looked at a few software.

• Zoneminder. Unfortunately, I had a hard time setting this up on a CentOS7 in Google Compute Engine.
• Shinobi. Successful on first attempt in Google Compute Engine. Also looks promising.
• Motion. Didn't get to try it since I already installed Shinobi successfully.

And that's how I came to a decision. Shinobi it is.

Before we begin, here are some information about my FreeNAS.

root@shinobi_1:/ # uname -a                                                     
FreeBSD shinobi_1 11.1-STABLE FreeBSD 11.1-STABLE #0 r321665+9902d126c39(freenas/11.1-stable): Tue Aug 21 12:24:37 EDT 2018     root@nemesis.tn.ixsystems.com:/freenas-11-releng/freenas/_BE/objs/freenas-11-releng/freenas/_BE/os/sys/FreeNAS.amd64  amd64
root@shinobi_1:/ # 

Specs:

Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G4600 @ 3.60GHz
8GB RAM
2x2TB HDD 3.5"
1x500GB HDD 2.5"

Installation and Setup

Navigate to Jails and add a Jail.
Launch the Shell for that Jail. Must be root.

In my current FreeNAS version, running the installation produces an error.

Shared object "libdl.so.1" not found,

In order to fix this, I had to make some modifications as suggested in this thread. Basically modified the file /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf

from

FreeBSD: {
  url: "pkg+http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/freebsd:11:x86:64/latest",
  mirror_type: "srv",
  enabled: yes
}

to

FreeBSD: {
  url: "pkg+http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/freebsd:11:x86:64/release_2",
  mirror_type: "srv",
  enabled: yes
}

Then execute the following commands:

pkg update -f
pkg upgrade -f

Once done, pull the repository.

git clone https://gitlab.com/Shinobi-Systems/Shinobi.git Shinobi

Change directory to Shinobi.

cd Shinobi

Start the installer.

chmod +x INSTALL/freenas.sh && INSTALL/freenas.csh

Instructions on how to access your Shinobi instance will be available at the end of the installation process. By default, the URL for the super user should be:

http://your_jails_ip_address:8080/super

Here is where you create user accounts. To access the Dashboard, go to:

http://your_jails_ip_address:8080

Username and Password for this are those created mentioned above.

Here is a sample screen shot of the Shinobi setup.

And that's it. Enjoy!

Here are some of the references that helped me achieve this.

• Install Shinobi on FreeNAS
• Installing Shinobi CCTV software in an FN 11
• OpenVPN fails in jail with libdl so1 not found error
• Shinobi Docs

UPDATE: I've been using Shinobi for more than a year now and it has been sufficient for my needs. I also developed an android application which you can get at Google Play. It needs a lot of work but if setup correctly, you will be able to view and control your cameras.