ONVIF Tab

The ONVIF tab contains settings related to the ONVIF communications protocol. ONVIF provides a common protocol for network IP cameras and associated equipment to facilitate device discovery and various control features.

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Monitor ONVIF Tab

  • ONVIF_URL: Enter URL for ONVIF controlled device. Typical URL format is http://username:password@hostname:port/onvif/device_service

  • Username: The username of ONVIF access for camera. Note that if your URL contains authentication this may be automatically populated into the Username field.

  • Password: The password of ONVIF access for camera. Note that if your URL contains authentication this may be automatically populated into the Password field.

  • ONVIF_Options: Advanced ONVIF options. This is an optional field used to fine-tune the ONVIF event listener behaviour.

    Format: A comma-separated list of key=value pairs, for example:

    pull_timeout=5,subscription_timeout=120,max_retries=5

    Supported options:

    • pull_timeout=<seconds> — How long (in seconds) to wait for the camera to return ONVIF events on each poll request. Default is 1. Must be a positive integer. Increasing this value reduces network overhead but also slows down alarm detection. The value must be less than the subscription renewal advance window (60 s by default), so values of 59 or below are safe.

    • subscription_timeout=<seconds> — How long (in seconds) the ONVIF event subscription should remain valid before ZoneMinder renews it. Default is 300 (5 minutes). Must be a positive integer. Increase for cameras that struggle to keep up with frequent renewal requests.

    • max_retries=<count> — Maximum number of consecutive retry attempts before ZoneMinder enters a longer cool-down wait. Default is 10. Accepted range is 0–100. Set to 0 to disable retries (not recommended for production use).

    • timestamp_validity=<seconds> — Lifetime of the WS-Security timestamp included in each ONVIF request, in seconds. Default is 60. Accepted range is 10–600. Increase this value if ZoneMinder logs authentication errors caused by clock drift between the ZoneMinder server and the camera.

    • soap_log=<path> — Write all raw SOAP request and response messages to the specified file path. Useful for diagnosing camera compatibility problems. Example: soap_log=/tmp/zm_onvif_soap.log. Leave this option unset in normal operation to avoid large log files.

    • renewal_enabled=<true|false> — Whether ZoneMinder should automatically renew the ONVIF event subscription before it expires. Default is true. Set to false (or 0 or no) to disable automatic renewal; ZoneMinder will re-subscribe from scratch each time the subscription expires instead. Try this if a camera rejects renewal requests.

    • expire_alarms=<true|false> — Whether ZoneMinder should automatically clear alarms that have not been explicitly cancelled by the camera after their per-topic timeout elapses. Default is true. Disable (false, 0, or no) only if your camera reliably sends an explicit alarm-off notification and you are seeing spurious alarm clearances.

    • closes_event — Force ZoneMinder to immediately treat the camera as one that sends explicit alarm-off notifications (PropertyOperation="Changed" or PropertyOperation="Deleted"). By default this is auto-detected from the first event message received. Setting this option skips the auto-detection step and is normally not required.

  • ONVIF_Alarm_Text: Text associated with event when alarm is activated.

  • ONVIF_Event_Listener: Options are Enabled or Disabled.