How to Install Frigate NVR

Frigate is an open-source Network Video Recorder (NVR) designed to run in a home lab with real-time AI-powered object detection. Frigate runs in Docker and integrates natively with Home Assistant.

System Requirements

• Linux OS (Ubuntu 20.04+ / Debian 11+ / Proxmox LXC)
• Minimum 4 GB RAM (8 GB+ recommended for multiple cameras)
• Sufficient storage for recordings (separate HDD/NVMe recommended)
• Docker & Docker Compose installed
• IP camera with RTSP stream

Install Docker & Docker Compose

If Docker is not installed yet, run the following commands (Ubuntu/Debian):

# Install dependencies
apt update && apt install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg

# Add Docker GPG key
install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg \
  | gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

# Add Docker repository
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] \
  https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" \
  | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list

# Install Docker
apt update && apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin

# Verify
docker --version

Installation Steps

1. 1

   Create Directory Structure

   mkdir -p /opt/frigate/config
   mkdir -p /opt/frigate/storage
   cd /opt/frigate

2. 2

   Create docker-compose.yml

   Create the file /opt/frigate/docker-compose.yml with the following content:

   services:
     frigate:
       container_name: frigate
       privileged: true
       restart: unless-stopped
       image: ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable
       shm_size: "128mb"
       devices:
         - /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb   # Coral USB TPU (remove if not present)
         - /dev/dri/renderD128          # GPU acceleration (Intel/AMD)
       volumes:
         - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
         - /opt/frigate/config:/config
         - /opt/frigate/storage:/media/frigate
         - type: tmpfs
           target: /tmp/cache
           tmpfs:
             size: 1000000000
       ports:
         - "5000:5000"   # Web UI
         - "8554:8554"   # RTSP streams
         - "8555:8555/tcp"  # WebRTC
         - "8555:8555/udp"
       environment:
         FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD: "your_camera_password"

   Warning: Remove the devices lines that don't apply to your hardware. If you have no Coral TPU or GPU, remove the entire devices block.
3. 3

   Create the Frigate Configuration File

   Create /opt/frigate/config/config.yml. Below is a basic configuration example with one camera:

   mqtt:
     enabled: false   # Enable if using Home Assistant
   
   detectors:
     cpu1:
       type: cpu
       num_threads: 3
   
   cameras:
     front_camera:
       ffmpeg:
         inputs:
           - path: rtsp://user:password@192.168.1.101:554/stream1
             roles:
               - detect
               - record
       detect:
         enabled: true
         width: 1280
         height: 720
         fps: 5
       record:
         enabled: true
         retain:
           days: 7
           mode: motion
         events:
           retain:
             default: 14
       snapshots:
         enabled: true
         timestamp: true
         retain:
           default: 7
       motion:
         mask:
           - 0,0,0,100,100,100,100,0   # Example masking area (optional)
   
   objects:
     track:
       - person
       - car
       - motorcycle

   RTSP URL tip: The RTSP URL format varies by camera. Try rtsp://user:pass@IP:554/stream1 or check your camera's manual. Tools like VLC can be used to test the stream before configuring it in Frigate.
4. 4

   Start Frigate

   cd /opt/frigate
   docker compose up -d
   
   # Monitor logs to check for errors
   docker compose logs -f frigate

   Wait a few minutes for Frigate to finish initializing the detection model.

5. 5

   Access the Web UI

   Open your browser and navigate to:

   http://<Server-IP>:5000

   From the Frigate dashboard you can view live streams from all cameras, detected events, and recordings.

Hardware Acceleration Configuration

Intel QSV / VAAPI (Intel iGPU)

Add to the ffmpeg section in the camera configuration:

ffmpeg:
  hwaccel_args: preset-vaapi
  inputs:
    - path: rtsp://...

Make sure the /dev/dri/renderD128 device is mounted in docker-compose.

Google Coral USB TPU

Replace the detectors section in config.yml:

detectors:
  coral:
    type: edgetpu
    device: usb

Useful Commands

# Restart Frigate after editing config
docker compose restart frigate

# Update to the latest version
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# Check resource usage
docker stats frigate

# Stop Frigate
docker compose down