ARM Support Policy

Introduction

The Video Management System (VMS) supports various Linux-based target architectures: x64, 32-bit ARM, 64-bit ARM. The x64 build is intended to be run on a regular PC and the support team provides technical support for such a configuration.

As for ARM platforms, due to the great variety of available ARM-based devices, it seems impractical for the support team to provide technical support to partners/customers for any possible combination of hardware and operating system. As a result, the policy defined in this document is in effect.

In this document, the term "Platform" is defined as a particular combination of the complete device hardware (not only CPU type but the exact specification of the CPU and other components comprising the device) and full operating system (not only Linux distribution name and version but the exact set of files on the device).

Please note that most well-known Single Board Computers (SBC), like Raspberry Pi, are not designed for such tasks as constant video recording/streaming, so they should be modified to be able to run the Nx Server application without any issues. See "Building Linux-based NVRs".

ARM Support Policy

1. Provisional support. The devices below have been tested. The support team will assist in troubleshooting issues arising with these devices.
   

   Device	OS/FW version	Support Introduced	Latest Supported Version	Distribution type ('platform')
   Nx1	Bananian Linux 15.04	2.3.0	4.0.0	BPI
   Raspberry Pi 3 Model B v1.2	Raspbian Jessie, kernel 4.9.35-v7+	2.3.0	3.2.0	RPI
   Raspberry Pi 3 Model B v1.2	Raspbian Stretch Desktop, kernel 4.14.34-v7+	3.2.0	n/a	ARM 32 bit
   Banana Pi BPI-M1	Raspbian Jessie for BananaPi, kernel 3.4.112-sun7i	2.3.0	3.2.0	BPI
   Banana Pi BPI-M1+	Raspbian Jessie for BananaPi, kernel 3.4.112-sun7i	2.3.0	3.2.0	BPI
   Nvidia Jetson Nano	Ubuntu 18.4 + Jetpack 4.2	4.0	n/a	ARM 64 bit
   Nvidia Jetson TX2	Ubuntu 18.4 + Jetpack 4.2	4.0	n/a	ARM 64 bit
   Nvidia Jetson Xavier	Ubuntu 18.4 + Jetpack 4.2	4.0	n/a	ARM 64 bit

2. Compatible but not supported.
   The devices below are known to be compatible and capable of running the Server application, but given the specific nature of the hardware / software on these devices support will not be provided without a direct support agreement with Nx.

   Device	OS/FW version	First supported VMS version	Last Supported VMS version	Distribution type ('platform')
   SocioNext Linaro box	Debian 8 Jessie+	4.0	n/a	ARM 64 bit
   Banana Pi M3	Ubuntu Desktop 16.04 LTS	3.2	n/a	ARM 32 bit
   Raspberry Pi 2B	Raspbian Stretch Desktop, kernel 4.14.34-v7+	3.2.0	n/a	ARM 32 bit
   NanoPi NEO PLUS2	Debian 8 Jessie+	3.2.0	n/a	ARM 64 bit

3. If an issue is detected on some other platform, e.g. a device being under development, in order to obtain technical support from the support team, the issue should be reproduced on one of the supported platforms from clause 1. All further communication and possible experiments with the support team should involve only that supported platform.
4. If an issue is detected on some other platform, but cannot be reproduced on one of the supported platforms, the support team will not accept the request for technical support, and the issue should be further investigated by the partner/customer.
5. Although the VMS vendor tries not to break compatibility with any device when releasing the next VMS Server version, there is no guarantee that devices that worked with the previous VMS Server version will continue to work with the next version. Moreover, if before releasing the next VMS Server version there are unresolved support cases in the VMS support team related to ARM devices, they are not guaranteed to be closed before releasing the next version.
6. The list of supported OS versions for particular officially supported devices may change with each VMS release. It is not guaranteed that the previously supported OS version will still be supported in the next release. Usually the supported OS version is either not changed, or changed to match the latest official release for the particular device.
7. On ARM devices, the VMS Client is not officially supported, though it may be included in the distribution packages. Currently, the VMS Client on ARM devices is considered to be an experimental feature which is not approved for production use. The VMS Support team will be happy to receive any feedback for the VMS Client, including bug reports prepared according to this Policy, but there is no guarantee that such feedback will be processed in any particular time frame, and that the VMS Client on ARM devices will ever enter the "officially supported" phase.

See also "ARM Single Board Computer (SBC) Support & Installation Instructions".

Questions

If you have any questions related to this topic or you want to share your experience with other community members or our team, please visit and engage in our support community or reach out to your local reseller.