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[jmone]

Background

This guide is not for everyone but comes from a real world situation where one of our users has a very large library of consiting of:
* Well over 1 Million Items
* Almost 2 Dozen Physical Drives
* 35GB of Thumbnail

That said the following can apply to any size setup.

The Aim

The aim is to share both the Library and it's contents to other PC's on the Network (both via Library Server, or as a direct connected library) as you can imagine just rebuilding the thumbnails for over 1 million items takes days.  One other problem is that with that number of physical drives we were running out of Drive Letters to assign to them all.  What a great problem to have!

One Solution

I'm sure there are other solutions and this one no doubt could be refined, but it will use (on a Win7 setup):
* "Mounted Drives" for the Data - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Mount-or-dismount-a-drive and
* UNC Sharing to provide a uniform way for all PC's on the network to access the Library and Data - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_(computing)#Uniform_Naming_Convention)

[jmone]

Step 1: Creating the Mounting Points

I am deliberately choosing to mount all my physical drives in a folder called "Media" under my MC15 data Folder ( eg C:\Users\"USERNAME"\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 15 ) so I can later just create one share.  Note: the "AppData" folder is normally hidden so you may need to firstly turn on the ability to see "Show Hidden Files, Folders, and Drives" in Folder Options.

Once you have created you Media folder, create an EMPTY sub-folder for each of your drives, and we will later "map" one drive to each of these folders.

[jmone]

Step 2: Sharing the Library and Data

At this point we need to now make the "Media Center 15" folder available to all users on our network.  As per the attached picture....on the "Media Center 15" Folder, Right Click --> Share With --> Homegroup (Read/Write).  The process is somewhat different in earlier versions of Windows!

[jmone]

Step 3: Assigning a UNC Name

We now need to give this a folder a better name so it can be accessed over the network more easily.  As per the attached picture....on the "Media Center 15" Folder, Right Click --> Properties --> Advanced Sharing --> Tick the "Share this folder" and if you want change the "Share name" to your preference --> click OK.

At this point you should now see this folder under the Network area of Explorer and be able to access this in the form of "\\SERVERNAME\Media Center 15" from applications etc.

[jmone]

Step 4: Mounting the Drives

OK, with a bit of luck we now have a MC data folder available on the network but we now need to make all of those drives appear in the folders we created earlier.  To do this, you need to go to Windows Orb --> Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management --> Storage --> Disk Management.  This is the area where you can configure you physical drives by right clicking on the drive in question --> Change Drive Letter and Paths as per the pic below.

If like me you already had a drive letter assigned you will first need to remove it.  Once done you can select Add --> Mount in the following empty NTSC folder --> browse to and select the folder you created earlier at " C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 15\Media\Drive 05 " as per the second pic below.

[jmone]

Step 5: Ready to go?

You should now be able to see all the data from the mapped drives under the \\SERVERNAME\Media Center 15\Media folder from all PC.  If so you can now run Media Center, and build your Library by importing the data from the "\\SERVERNAME\Media Center 15\Media" folder (DO NOT use the "C:\Users\Mum and Dad\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 15\Media" folder).

[jmone]

blank page in case I forgot something!

[zxsix]

blank page in case I forgot something!

Great writeup, but I know what goes here....
Since the drives aren't spanned or a raid array that's treated as one humunguous drive, you'll generally need an expression that controls the distribution of the media files across these drives when using the rename feature in MC.
How is the media distributed?  Genre 1 on disk 1, etc?   Artists A-E on disk 1, etc?

[jmone]

In this case the drives are not spanned or part of a RAID set as they will be moved to another system at some point in time.  At present they each hold content copied to them manually and then MC presents one integrated library sorted by the various Library Field options.  Note: Mounting Drives to a FOLDER is the same as giving them a DRIVE LETTER - they are all separate and unique except you can navigate to them "lower down" in the windows explorer tree (if that makes sense).

Thanks
Nathan

[zxsix]

Ok.  What I was getting at is that you're manually copying new content to their final storage spot one whatever drive has enough free space at the time then...instead of allowing MC to manage the physical disk location through the rename files option.
I have MC do the renaming based on a \genre\artist\album folder structure.
I have a single drive that holds all untagged new stuff.
After I complete the tagging process, I then run MC's rename utility with a fairly sophisticated expression that spreads the files across the drives depending on the genre.  Genre Metal would go to disk 1, Genre Alternative would go to disk 2, etc.

[jmone]

Got it  - I am only guessing how he does it through this is a possibility as each drive (or drives) seems to hold a particular Genre

[MusicHawk]

Good info, thanks.

Do you happen to know the physical side -- how the drives are connected to the (?) computer? There are various ways to do this, so it would be nice to know a field-tested way.

[runemail]

Sounds like Windows Home Server would be a good alternative. Then you would not have to think about file distribution and drive letters.

[idhToronto]

I use Windows Home Server but it does not provide for DLNA aspects of sharing (sending music to other devices etc) since there is no sound capabilities on the WHS. Does anyone else use WHS and if so do they have a sound card solution?

Ian

[Vocalpoint]

I use Windows Home Server but it does not provide for DLNA aspects of sharing (sending music to other devices etc) since there is no sound capabilities on the WHS. Does anyone else use WHS and if so do they have a sound card solution?

Ian

I use WHS for ALL our stuff....but we just connect the server shares and initiate playback the old fashioned way...fire up MC on whatever computer and play stuff.

WHS V2 (Vail) will be completely DLNA compliant - so when coupled with MC and it's snazzy new DLNA functionality - we should have a seamless sharing scenario present itself down the line - 

Cheers!

VP

[HTPC4ME]

I've finally splurged into buying\building a server\os type box for my DAS to get it off my work machine. And have some questions for you guys.

for those of you with large libraries... how is your server\os setup? raid, jbod, all drives on direct attatched storage as one drive?

do you suggest server based? or just a windows 7 type box? pro's? cons? Wishes? Regrets?

are you running jriver on your servers? or on a different machine, and then sharing the library? reason i ask, right now my das is hooked up to main pc.. and ive noticed with other pc's in the house after time when they search for files, some files never get added to the library due to the fact there not directly connected.. so i'm leary about setting up my server\das all by itself without having jriver directly attatched due to the fact some files might not get added, and then when i copy libraries over to other pc's those files would be missed as well.. any experience with this? how are you guys doing it?

see my post here for my concerns... http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=56010.0
thanks to gvanbrunt for helping with this concern on that post...

There is Library Server, DLNA (still somewhat experimental but very promising) and copying the library between computers periodically.

i've noticed with library server there is limitations, some files stream slow, some have to load completelly first, and dvd files wont stream at all.. dlna.. i'm not familiar with its benefits, but if there are any files it wont play or if there is a delay then this would not be beneficial for us, due to the fact i want all libraries in the house to play the files INSTANTLY. leaving us with only copying libraries over to other machines.

Sounds like Windows Home Server would be a good alternative. Then you would not have to think about file distribution and drive letters.

  meaning all drives would be considered one drive on the das?

thumbnails... would these be saved on server with the jriver, if that option is what you guys see is best, then would thumbs be copied to all other pc's for when they use the same library?

Scripts... what kind of scripts are you guys using if any? how have they benefited you? do you suggest i try them?(I'm unfamiliar with them but a friend of mine told me what scripts can do and i must admit it sounds like they could be a real time saver)

Huge concern for me.. Security. is there a third party app to allow for write access for only parts of files? meaning... all files on sever would be considered "filed" meaning tagged and done with. but as time progress's you may find that a file needs to be 5 starred. is there a script or way to only allow for 5 starring? Or if you do enable write access, it would regretfully allow for the whole file to be over written? or is this just not possible?

Security.. is there any Security risk with theaterview\jriver library server running on the server\os, and it streaming utube, hulu, etc and it effecting your data files or taking down the whole server? what are you guys doing for security but yet allowing yourselves to enjoy the benefits of these great sites jriver has incorporate into theaterview?

what are your uptimes like? if you use OS based servers(XP, Win 7) have you found yourself having crashes? or are they pretty reliable being they are only used for streaming files, doing backups, and images.

are you running any other server type software on your servers? stability?

are you using your servers as i like to call it as just filing cabinets? meaning no work is done on them only streaming. no tagging etc...

that's it for now.. thanks for any insight!



 

[jmone]

I'm assuming you still have lots and lots of drives of various sizes....but would prefer to merge them into one logical unit that you can then map to identically from all PC's so that under Library Server (or a Shared Library) it all just works as if the media was one each of the local machine.

1) HW Raid - Great HW Solution that can also provide fault tolerance to drive failures.  Downside is that you normally would have drives of all the same size and type.  Can be fiddly to play get it going just right and modify drives later if you don't know what you are doing.
2) Windows Spanning - SW Solution that lets you span all your existing Drives as one big one.  The issue is that you can not ever break this span so it is hard to replace drives with ones of bigger capacity.  I don't like this solution because of this issue
3) Windows Home Server - I really like this one as it lets you manage each drive but still presents it as one share on the network.  The OS is cheap, has a dumbed down IF and can also backup all you Win7 PC's as well!  You can run MC on it (as an application not a service).  This one gets my vote for your situation.

Thanks
Nathan

[fitbrit]

I've finally splurged into buying\building a server\os type box for my DAS to get it off my work machine. And have some questions for you guys.

for those of you with large libraries... how is your server\os setup? raid, jbod, all drives on direct attatched storage as one drive?

do you suggest server based? or just a windows 7 type box? pro's? cons? Wishes? Regrets?

are you running jriver on your servers? or on a different machine, and then sharing the library? reason i ask, right now my das is hooked up to main pc.. and ive noticed with other pc's in the house after time when they search for files, some files never get added to the library due to the fact there not directly connected.. so i'm leary about setting up my server\das all by itself without having jriver directly attatched due to the fact some files might not get added, and then when i copy libraries over to other pc's those files would be missed as well.. any experience with this? how are you guys doing it?

see my post here for my concerns... http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=56010.0
thanks to gvanbrunt for helping with this concern on that post...i've noticed with library server there is limitations, some files stream slow, some have to load completelly first, and dvd files wont stream at all.. dlna.. i'm not familiar with its benefits, but if there are any files it wont play or if there is a delay then this would not be beneficial for us, due to the fact i want all libraries in the house to play the files INSTANTLY. leaving us with only copying libraries over to other machines.
  meaning all drives would be considered one drive on the das?

thumbnails... would these be saved on server with the jriver, if that option is what you guys see is best, then would thumbs be copied to all other pc's for when they use the same library?

Scripts... what kind of scripts are you guys using if any? how have they benefited you? do you suggest i try them?(I'm unfamiliar with them but a friend of mine told me what scripts can do and i must admit it sounds like they could be a real time saver)

Huge concern for me.. Security. is there a third party app to allow for write access for only parts of files? meaning... all files on sever would be considered "filed" meaning tagged and done with. but as time progress's you may find that a file needs to be 5 starred. is there a script or way to only allow for 5 starring? Or if you do enable write access, it would regretfully allow for the whole file to be over written? or is this just not possible?

Security.. is there any Security risk with theaterview\jriver library server running on the server\os, and it streaming utube, hulu, etc and it effecting your data files or taking down the whole server? what are you guys doing for security but yet allowing yourselves to enjoy the benefits of these great sites jriver has incorporate into theaterview?

what are your uptimes like? if you use OS based servers(XP, Win 7) have you found yourself having crashes? or are they pretty reliable being they are only used for streaming files, doing backups, and images.

are you running any other server type software on your servers? stability?

are you using your servers as i like to call it as just filing cabinets? meaning no work is done on them only streaming. no tagging etc...

that's it for now.. thanks for any insight!



 

I have about 20 terabytes of movies, TV shows, music, photos and cover art. My server is 23 TB, and I'll need to add more space soon. The server is a 21 disk unRAID machine. 19 disks are data drives ranging from 1TB to 2 TB. One drive is a parity drive (2 TB) and the last drive is a cache drive (750GB), to which all initial writes to the server are done.
I can access each drive separately, or create user shares with unRAID. My "Movies" share, for example, spans 16 drives, although not all the space on each drive is used up by the share e.g. my "TV_Shows" share also spans 16 drives, most of which, but not all also contain part of the "Movies" share. Thus I can have 9 TB of movies and 9.5 TB of TV shows show up as two separate drives, but we know that the largest consumer hard drives available are currently only 2TB.

I love my server - although Linux-based, it was so easy to set up unRAID. A thread I started over two years ago on another forum: http://forums.redflagdeals.com/nas-alternative-my-unraid-server-build-553514/. This has the general pros of unRAID listed. Bear in mind that the prices quoted are 2 years old, and the rig I have could be made much more cheaply now. You could also visit the makers of unRAID - Lime technology: http://lime-technology.com/

Since no version of MC runs on Linux and unRAID is Linux based, I do not run MC on my server. Instead, I have been synching libraries between my PCs, but using the unRAID shares as mapped drives, accessible to any PC in the house. Therefore, what shows up as T:\Archer\Archer S01\Archer S01E01 - Mole Hunt 720p HDTV h264 AC3.mkv to one computer, shows up with the same path on every other one too. That means the library backups can be opened by any PC and all the data will make sense to it.

I use cover art on the server, and keep the thumbnails locally on each machine.
 
My uptimes with unRAID are virtually unlimited and dependent on me - if e.g. we're going away for the weekend or I upgrade to a new version of unRAID, I'll turn off or restart my server as appropriate. Other than that, it's always on, spinning down unused disks after a pre-configured delay to save power.

I store on, tag to and stream from the server. I don't run other software on the unRAID box, but I could if I wanted to.

Main features of unRAID:
Can mix and match drive sizes.
Parity protection - lose one drive, even while watching a video from that drive, and you don't lose any data. In fact you can keep watching the video! You can replace the faulty drive and your data will be restored on the new drive.
More secure than a RAID 5 - if you lose a second drive before you replace the faulty first drive, you don't lose all your data - just those on the affected drives. If the fault was just a bad SATA cable, for example, you won't lose any data at all in virtually all circumstances.
Low power - can spin down disks that are not in use after e.g. 1 hour.
Cache drive means you write to the server quickly, and this data gets moved to the parity protected array when you feel it's convenient; there's a scheduler, and my data goes at 3:40 am every day.
Very modest hardware requirements, so you can build a very capable NAS for little cost.
Excellent forum support - just like Interact.

Anything else?

[HTPC4ME]

great info fit.. thank you

[flac.rules]

Superb guide, i have some questions:

1. Can i "upgrade" to this method with an existing libary? And keep the right albusm, ratings and so on?

2. Does this get around the super-annoying limit of 260 characters in a path that window has?

3. How does this tie inn with mapping the drives in a regular way in windows?

[HiFiTubes]

I'm with Elvis on #3. In terms of performance, should we not use Library Server, access some type of single share/mapped drives in read-only mode, but use local thumbnails?

I have been using Library Server lately, but I did test a shared library in read-only mode the other day and things seemed a little slower.

I'm not clear on the thumbnail re-building mentioned in the op. With Library Server, I think the thumbnails stay on the local disk in the AppData "Connected Library" folder, as they don't rebuild every time. So one reason is to avoid having to download a giant library each time, I understand that.