Group cameras by model¶
Description¶
Creates a specified base camera group, and within that base group, it creates a group for every enabled camera make/model. For each camera model, a group is created with a name like 1-X where X is the number of cameras in that group. If the number exceeds 400, it will create another group called 401-X, until all enabled cameras of that model have been added to a group.
Note
Groups larger than 400 should not be created as the Management Client will not be able to do bulk configurations on them.
Having groups of camera models is very useful for doing bulk configurations. Note that in some instances, cameras report their models as a series of cameras and not a specific model. In cases like this, bulk configuration will likely not work as the cameras in the series might support different resolutions and/or frame rates.
Code¶
Group-CamerasByModel.ps1
function Group-CamerasByModel {
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Creates a camera group for each camera make and model.
.DESCRIPTION
Creates a specified base camera group, and within that base group, it creates a group for every enabled camera
make/model. For each camera model, a group is created with a name like 1-X where X is the number of cameras in that
group. If the number exceeds 400, it will create another group called 401-X, until all enabled cameras of that model
have been added to a group.
Groups larger than 400 should not be created as the Management Client will not be able to do bulk configurations on them.
Having groups of camera models is very useful for doing bulk configurations. Note that in some instances, cameras
report their models as a series of cameras and not a specific model. In cases like this, bulk configuration will
likely not work as the cameras in the series might support different resolutions and/or frame rates.
.PARAMETER BaseGroupPath
Specifies the camera group under which cameras should be grouped by model. For example, "/__ADMIN__/Models".
.PARAMETER MaxGroupSize
Specifies the maximum number of cameras to add to a single camera group. The default value is 400 which is also the maximum
number of cameras the Management Client will allow bulk configuration operations on.
.EXAMPLE
Group-CamerasByModel -BaseGroupPath /__ADMIN__/Models
Creates a top-level group called "__ADMIN__" which will typically be listed at the top of the device group list, and
a "Models" subgroup. Cameras are then grouped by model under the Models camera subgroup.
.EXAMPLE
Group-CamerasByModel -BaseGroupPath /zzADMIN/Models -MaxGroupSize 200
Creates a top-level group called "zzADMIN__" which will typically be listed at the bottom of the device group list, and
a "Models" subgroup. Cameras are then grouped by model under the Models camera subgroup with a maximum group size of
200 cameras.
.NOTES
For reference, on a 5217 camera test system with 148 unique models, this function completes in 6 minutes 13 seconds.
The time required to run in your environment may vary based on many factors including total number of cameras and
models, management server and/or sql server load, and latency between the PowerShell session and the management server.
#>
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[Parameter(Position = 0, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName, Mandatory)]
[string]
$BaseGroupPath,
[Parameter(Position = 1, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName)]
[ValidateRange(1, 400)]
[int]
$MaxGroupSize = 400
)
process {
$parentProgress = @{
Activity = 'Creating camera groups by model'
Status = 'Discovering camera models'
Id = Get-Random
PercentComplete = 0
}
$childProgress = @{
Activity = 'Populating camera groups'
Id = Get-Random
ParentId = $parentProgress.Id
PercentComplete = 0
}
try {
Write-Progress @parentProgress
Write-Verbose "Removing camera group '$BaseGroupPath' if present"
Clear-VmsCache
Get-VmsDeviceGroup -Path $BaseGroupPath -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Remove-VmsDeviceGroup -Recurse -Confirm:$false -ErrorAction Stop
Write-Verbose 'Discovering all enabled cameras'
$ms = [VideoOS.Platform.ConfigurationItems.ManagementServer]::new((Get-VmsSite).FQID.ServerId)
$filters = 'RecordingServer', 'Hardware', 'Camera' | ForEach-Object {
[VideoOS.ConfigurationApi.ClientService.ItemFilter]::new($_, $null, 'Enabled')
}
$ms.FillChildren($filters.ItemType, $filters)
$parentProgress.Status = 'Grouping and sorting cameras'
Write-Progress @parentProgress
Write-Verbose 'Sorting cameras by model'
$modelGroups = $ms.RecordingServerFolder.RecordingServers.HardwareFolder.Hardwares | Group-Object Model | Sort-Object Name
$totalCameras = ($modelGroups.Group.CameraFolder.Cameras).Count
$camerasProcessed = 0
$parentProgress.Status = 'Processing'
Write-Progress @parentProgress
foreach ($group in $modelGroups) {
$modelName = $group.Name
$safeModelName = $modelName.Replace('/', '`/')
$cameras = $group.Group.CameraFolder.Cameras | Sort-Object Name
$totalForModel = $cameras.Count
$groupNumber = $positionInGroup = 1
$group = $null
$childProgress.Status = "Current: $BaseGroupPath/$modelName"
$parentProgress.PercentComplete = $camerasProcessed / $totalCameras * 100
Write-Progress @parentProgress
Write-Verbose "Creating groups for $totalForModel cameras of model '$modelName'"
for ($i = 0; $i -lt $totalForModel; $i++) {
$childProgress.PercentComplete = $i / $totalForModel * 100
Write-Progress @childProgress
if ($null -eq $group) {
$first = $groupNumber * $MaxGroupSize - ($MaxGroupSize - 1)
$last = $groupNumber * $MaxGroupSize
if ($totalForModel - ($i + 1) -lt $MaxGroupSize) {
$last = $totalForModel
}
$groupName = '{0}-{1}' -f $first, $last
Write-Verbose "Creating group $BaseGroupPath/$modelName/$groupName"
$group = New-VmsDeviceGroup -Type Camera -Path "$BaseGroupPath/$safeModelName/$groupName"
}
Add-VmsDeviceGroupMember -Group $group -Device $cameras[$i]
$camerasProcessed++
$positionInGroup++
if ($positionInGroup -gt $MaxGroupSize) {
$group = $null
$positionInGroup = 1
$groupNumber++
}
}
}
} finally {
$childProgress.Completed = $true
Write-Progress @childProgress
$parentProgress.Completed = $true
Write-Progress @parentProgress
}
}
}