How to Install Zoneminder on macOS

Zoneminder is a free and open-source surveillance system that allows you to monitor and record multiple cameras. In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Zoneminder on your macOS system.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure your system meets the following prerequisites:

• macOS 10.15 Catalina or later
• Homebrew package manager installed
• Xcode command-line tools installed

Step 1: Install Apache and PHP

Zoneminder requires an Apache web server and PHP to run. To install them, open the Terminal app and run the following command:

brew install httpd php

This will install the latest version of Apache and PHP from the Homebrew repository.

Step 2: Configure Apache

Now that Apache is installed, you need to configure it to load the PHP module. To do this, open the /usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf file in your favorite text editor and uncomment these lines:

LoadModule php_module lib/httpd/modules/libphp.so

<FilesMatch \.php$>
    SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
</FilesMatch>

Save the changes and exit the text editor.

Step 3: Install Zoneminder

To install Zoneminder, run the following command:

brew install zoneminder

This will download and install the latest version of Zoneminder along with all its dependencies.

Step 4: Configure Zoneminder

Once Zoneminder is installed, you need to configure it to run with Apache and PHP. Open the /usr/local/etc/zoneminder/zoneminder.conf file in your favorite text editor and set the following values:

CGI_BIN=/usr/local/Cellar/zoneminder/1.30.4_1/www/cgi-bin
ZM_WEBDIR=/usr/local/Cellar/zoneminder/1.30.4_1/www
ZM_SSL_LIB=/usr/local/opt/openssl/lib/libssl.1.0.0.dylib
ZM_SSL_INC=/usr/local/opt/openssl/include

Replace the version number in the paths with the actual version number of Zoneminder you installed.

Save the changes and exit the text editor.

Step 5: Start Apache and Zoneminder

To start Apache and Zoneminder, run the following commands:

sudo apachectl start
sudo brew services start zoneminder

This will start Apache and Zoneminder as background services.

Step 6: Access Zoneminder

Now that Zoneminder is installed and running, you can access it from your web browser by going to http://localhost/zm/. The default login credentials are admin for the username and admin for the password.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you learned how to install Zoneminder, a powerful surveillance system, on your macOS system. With Zoneminder, you can monitor and record multiple cameras to keep your home or business safe and secure.

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