How to download, install, and use Sentinel VMS—Most security camera manufacturers offer their own VMS software, which is usually designed to work only with their cameras. For example, iVMS-4200 and HikCentral Lite are made for Hikvision cameras, while SmartPSS Lite is designed for Dahua cameras. But with Sentinel VMS, you can manage cameras from almost any security camera brand using a single platform.
In this article, I’ll walk you through Sentinel VMS and show you how to add a camera to it.
What Is Sentinel VMS?
Sentinel is a free, self-hosted video management system (VMS) for IP cameras.
It lets you record footage from all your cameras in full quality, receive alerts when people or vehicles are detected, and access your cameras from anywhere. Best of all, your footage stays on your own hardware. You can start with a single machine and expand your setup as needed, with no subscriptions or recurring fees.
Sentinel VMS is a great option if you have multiple cameras from different brands and want to manage them all through a single VMS platform.
What Hardware Is Required to Install and Use Sentinel VMS?
Sentinel Operator for Mac
- macOS 13 Ventura or later (Ventura is macOS version 13)
- Apple Silicon or Intel processor
Sentinel for Linux
- 64-bit Linux with systemd:
- Ubuntu
- Debian
- Raspberry Pi OS and similar
- x86-64 (Intel/AMD) or ARM64 (Raspberry Pi 4/5 or ARM-based servers) processors
How to Download and Install Sentinel VMS on a Mac?
At the time of writing, Sentinel VMS is only available for macOS and Linux, with a companion app for iOS. Windows and Android versions aren’t available yet. For this guide, I’m using macOS Ventura on an Intel-based Mac.
Download Sentinel VMS
Visit the official Sentinel VMS website and click the Get Sentinel Free button.
Note: You’ll need to create an account using your email address to download Sentinel VMS.
Once you’ve entered your email address and password, check your inbox for the confirmation email from Sentinel VMS and click the link to verify your account.
The download will start automatically. The ZIP file is about 188 MB in size.
Installing Sentinel VMS on Mac
To get started with installing Sentinel VMS on your Mac, simply double-click the downloaded file to extract its contents. You’ll see Sentinel Operator. Click it to get started with the installation.
Since I’ll be running the Sentinel VMS server on my Mac, I’ll select Run a Server in This Mac on the Sign in to Sentinel page.
As you can see, the Sentinel VMS server isn’t installed on my Mac yet, and the status shows Not Installed. To install it, I’ll click the Install Server button. The installation will begin. Just wait for it to finish, which should take less than 5 minutes.
You don’t need to do anything during the Sentinel VMS server installation process.
Just enter your Mac password once to confirm that you allow Sentinel VMS to install the server on your Mac. Once the installation is complete and the server is running, its status will show Running.
Setting Up Self-Hosted Sentinel VMS Software on a Mac?
Once the server is up and running, the next step is to set up Sentinel VMS.
First, you’ll need to create an administrator account to access the Sentinel Operator dashboard. This is where you can manage your cameras, add new ones, view live feeds, and perform other tasks related to using Sentinel VMS.
Here’s how to fill in the fields:
- Username: cctvmanuals
- Password: Enter a password of your choice.
- Re-type Password: Enter the same password again to confirm it.
Click Create and Sign In.
And here’s the Sentinel VMS (Sentinel Operator) dashboard running on my Mac for the first time. The interface looks clean and simple.
How Do I Connect the Security Camera to the Sentinel VMS Software?
According to the official Sentinel VMS website, you can connect an unlimited number of cameras to Sentinel VMS. You can also add IP cameras from different brands, as long as they support ONVIF and RTSP. So, I’ll try connecting an IMOU camera that supports ONVIF and RTSP to Sentinel VMS.
Add Camera to Sentinel VMS
Click This Mac > Open Sentinel Admin.
A new tab will open with the Sentinel VMS Admin Panel. To get started with adding a camera, go to the Admin Panel and select the following menu:
- Admin.
- Cameras.
Click the Scan Network button to automatically detect ONVIF cameras connected to your network. Make sure your camera and the device running Sentinel VMS are connected to the same network before adding the camera.
Sentinel VMS has automatically detected my camera’s IP address.
Click the Add button.
Enter your camera’s password. For my IMOU camera, I use the security code printed on the camera’s label. Then, click Connect.
Click Add Camera to save the settings.
Once you’ve added the camera to Sentinel VMS, make sure its status shows Online. If it shows No Signal, the camera isn’t connected properly. Check your camera password, as an incorrect password is a common cause of this issue.
Here’s the live view from my IMOU camera, successfully connected to Sentinel VMS.
Once connected to Sentinel VMS, your cameras can automatically record footage to the storage on your PC or laptop running the Sentinel VMS server. You can also subscribe to Sentinel’s cloud storage service if you prefer to store your recordings in the cloud.
How Much Does a Cloud Sentinel VMS Subscription Cost?
Sentinel Cloud is an optional hosted service for your Sentinel server. It gives you a permanent remote address, push notifications, and offsite backups. You can enable it from Sentinel Admin → Sentinel Cloud or through the Management window in the Mac app by signing in once. You can also subscribe to the service here.
Sentinel VMS itself remains free, with all cameras and features available on your own network.
Benefits of a Sentinel Cloud Subscription:
- Remote access
- Push notifications
- Offsite backup
Sentinel Cloud Options and Features:
Sentinel Cloud – $4.99/ month or $49/ year
Features:
- 1 linked server
- Remote access at a permanent address
- Push notifications through Sentinel’s relay
- 10 GB offsite backup, kept 30 days
Sentinel Cloud Business – $199/ year or $19.99/ month
Fetures:
- Up to 5 linked servers
- Remote access at a permanent address
- Push notifications through Sentinel’s relay
- 100 GB offsite backup, kept 90 days
Visit the Sentinel Cloud page to subscribe to a cloud plan, which lets you back up your camera recordings and access them from anywhere.
Problems I Encountered When Installing Sentinel VMS on a Mac for the First Time
When I first tried to install Sentinel VMS, I ran into an issue with the following error message: “The service was installed but the server doesn’t respond on port 8090. See /Library/Logs/Sentinel/Sentinel.log.”
This indicates that port 8090 may already be in use by another application.
If you run into the same issue, here’s how I fixed it so Sentinel VMS could run on my Mac. I’d previously tried several security camera software applications, so it’s possible that one of them was still using port 8090. I needed to stop the process using that port before running Sentinel VMS.
Open Terminal.
Next, type sudo lsof -i :8090. This is to check whether port 8090 is currently being used by another application or piece of software.
Enter your Mac password. You’ll then see a list of processes using port 8090.
For example:
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
HandoffGr 25668 pstv 18u IPv4 0x4823eeb89ad8ac3d 0t0 TCP localhost:52108->localhost:8090 (ESTABLISHED)
Agent 27526 pstv 248u IPv6 0x4823eeb3d04623b5 0t0 TCP localhost:8090->localhost:52108 (ESTABLISHED)
Agent 27526 pstv 544u IPv6 0x4823eeb3cf0aebb5 0t0 TCP *:8090 (LISTEN)To stop a port being used by another program, you can use the command sudo kill -9 <PID>.
For example:
sudo kill -9 25668I ran this command to stop HandoffGR, then used it again to stop the Agent process.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a self-hosted VMS for your security cameras, Sentinel VMS is worth checking out.
It has a clean, user-friendly interface.
Sentinel VMS offers the same core features as other security camera VMS software, including live viewing, video recording, and playback. The main advantage is that you can connect security cameras from different brands, as long as they support ONVIF and RTSP. This means you don’t have to rely on manufacturer-specific VMS software, such as HikCentral Lite for Hikvision cameras or SmartPSS Lite for Dahua cameras.
I hope you found this guide helpful. Enjoy trying out Sentinel VMS!
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