Give the Hub a recording disk

Why the Hub needs its own disk

Continuous recording writes all day. The Hub refuses to do that on the disk it boots from, such as a Raspberry Pi's SD card, because that disk wears out and fails without warning, taking the Hub with it. This refusal is SE-STA-015. Until the Hub has a disk of its own, cameras set to record show WAITING · BOOT DISK and nothing is recorded.

• The Hub on a container host, such as Proxmox, sets its disk up differently. See Set up a recording disk for a Hub in a container.
• To record onto a NAS instead, see Record to a network share.

Use the disk the Hub recommends

1. 01Plug the disk into the Hub.
2. 02Open the Hub's web page. Overview offers the disk, as “A new disk is attached: <model and size>. Use it for recordings?” or “Recordings have no disk of their own yet”. Settings, Storage shows the same offer, under NO RECORDING DISK YET while recordings have no disk of their own.
3. 03Choose Use this disk or Format and use, whichever the offer shows.
4. 04Confirm in the dialog (see “The confirmation” below). The page then says “Recording to <partition> now, at <folder>.”, or after a format “Erased <partition> and recording to it now, at <folder>.”

• The Hub recommends at most one disk, and only on its own machine, not in a container: never the boot disk, at least 32 GB, a disk it formatted before first, then the largest.
• Use this disk is offered when the partition already holds ext4, xfs or btrfs. Nothing is erased.
• Format and use is offered for a blank disk, or for a partition that is not mounted and holds another filesystem, such as exFAT or NTFS. Everything on it is erased.

Choose a disk yourself

1. 01Go to Settings, then Storage.
2. 02Next to Where recordings go, choose Change disk. The Where recordings go window opens.
3. 03Choose the This Hub's disks tab. RECOMMENDED shows the Hub's choice. DISKS THIS HOST CAN SEE lists every disk and its partitions.
4. 04On the partition you want, choose Use this disk or Format and use. A row that cannot be used shows NOT SELECTABLE and why.

• A disk already mounted on the Hub machine is listed under ALREADY MOUNTED ON THIS HUB. Use this mount records into a footage folder on it.

The confirmation

• Use this disk asks “Record onto <partition>?”. Choose Use <partition>. New footage goes there at once, and the choice survives a reboot.
• Format and use asks “Erase <partition> and record onto it?”. Type the partition name exactly as the grey hint in the box shows it, in lower case (for example sdb1), even though the caption above the box shows it in capitals. Then choose Erase and use <partition>. The disk becomes an ext4 disk owned by the Hub.
• Cancel or Escape leaves everything as it was.

Use a folder by its path

If a disk is already mounted on the Hub machine, you can type the folder.

1. 01In the Where recordings go window, choose By path.
2. 02Type the folder, for example /mnt/footage, and choose Use this path.
3. 03The Hub tries a real write there first. On success the page says “Recording to <path> now. It took a real write first.” On failure it shows the reason.

• A Hub with an owner and no valid licence is blocked and refuses a typed path. See When the Hub is blocked.

Disks the Hub will not use

• Any partition on the disk the Hub boots from.
• An EFI system partition, swap space, or a raw LVM or encrypted container.
• A partition that is not mounted and has no UUID.

After a restart

The Hub mounts its chosen disk again when it starts. On its own machine (not in a container), if nothing has been chosen and exactly one unmounted disk carries the label the Hub gives disks it formats (secureeyes), the Hub uses that disk by itself.