More > JRiver Media Center 18 for Windows
Auto import in the background and Synology NAS
psam:
--- Quote from: rayooo on March 12, 2013, 03:08:43 pm ---yea...
so just to be sure.. I've got a dedicated MC computer that is used exclusively for audio playback. Theater view, no mouse, no KB.
This dedicated MC computer is pointed to and watching a specific folder on a Synology NAS where music media is stored.
...
--- End quote ---
Could you elaborate on your setup/settings please?
I mean, even though Synology replied to me in writing that their software does not support the function responsible to trigger an auto import, I trust that your setup somehow overcomes this limitation.....
What OS are you using? How do you attach the network location?
Thanx
rayooo:
Here is setup info....
Win7-64.
I use direct address to NAS locations. (not Mapped drives, I can never remember what the proper name for this is)
in my case the media location as well as auto-import watched folder is: \\DISKSTATION\Music\HiRezAudio\
Virtually all features in MC not pertaining to audio are disabled.
All computers are wired Gig-E, standard network, HP Procurve 1810G-24 and a smaller Procurve at the Diskstations.
(I use two 1812+, one as primary storage, the 2nd as a backup to the first)
I was running a very old firmware in the Synologies, I did recently update, although the audio-import worked prior, and worked with MC-17 as well.
I continue to be at a loss.
zxsix:
--- Quote from: rayooo on March 13, 2013, 08:26:59 pm ---
I use direct address to NAS locations. (not Mapped drives, I can never remember what the proper name for this is)
in my case the media location as well as auto-import watched folder is: \\DISKSTATION\Music\HiRezAudio\
--- End quote ---
"UNC path" (universal naming convention).
I also use a Synology NAS using UNC path.
My difference is that I have a C:\import folder on my local hard drive on the main computer. New songs are copied to there. Auto-import watches that folder. I prefer separation in that if the files are on the NAS, I know I have properly tagged those files. Then I use the rename/move feature in MC after tagging to move the files to the NAS.
Any files waiting in c:\incoming I know I still need to finish tagging.
Just a workflow thing for me.
Can't tell you right now how quickly a new file introduced on the NAS would show up since I don't do that. I do understand what Synology's rep means though. Since the NAS runs a linux operating system, both the operating system and the disk formats are completely foreign to windows.
On a windows readable file system (fat32 or ntfs) there is a 'notification' function when a file is created or modified. This 'notification' is used primarily by backup software to know that the file needs backed up again. Windows can't detect that happening on the NAS because a) it's a network resource not a local resource, and b) not a compatible file system.
If MC does in fact pick them up, then it's because MC is being proactive about looking for changes (Jim mentioned it will scavenge every couple of hours at the latest), but it's not going to be doing it from the file change notification from the O/S.
bivan:
Hello,
I tried to dig some more into this issue and here are my findings.
I have identified a few scenarios regarding media files on NAS devices and how they are picked up by the OS hosting MC (Windows). If Windows OS is "aware" of the presence of these files, so will be JRiver MC (it has been explained several times how that works.)
1. Files are copied/modified/deleted onto the NAS device into one of the watched paths using Windows File Service (CIFS/Samba) from the computer hosting MC. Since it is the Windows hosting MC that creates these files, it is aware of them and MC picks them up immediately.
2. Files are copied/modified/deleted onto the NAS device from another host than the one hosting MC, through the use of CIFS/Samba. Samba server on the NAS device will be "aware" of the new files into its watched directories (shares) and triggers a CHANGE NOTIFY to its other clients. That means the Windows client hosting MC will be notified that new files are created/modified/deleted (etc) and the changes are picked up immediately by MC. I have replicated this and I can confirm that it does work (at least with Synology.) This is the reason why some users (eg. rayooo) report the auto-import feature as working (they copy the files on the NAS through Samba).
3. Files are copied/modified/deleted onto the NAS through any other means but CIFS/Samba (eg.: FTP, HTTP, SSH, torrent download, local creation, etc.)
The Samba server will not be aware of these changes and so, it will not trigger a change notify. It would be very nice if the linux kernel on the NAS would support "inotify" and that Samba server would be compiled to use such a feature. This feature means that Samba can poll the kernel for changes to the filesystems through the inotify() interface. From what I have read over the Internet, it does not. The configuration option for Samba regarding this is: kernel change notify=yes. It is a global configuration option. Unfortunatelly, for Synology, it does nothing. I assume support for this feature was not implemented because of performance issues.
How to get around this:
- manual refresh of the directory issued from Windows (a simple access to the directory containing new/modified files would suffice)
- manual restart of Samba on the NAS. For synology: /usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S80samba.sh restart (command line access is required).
- automated restart of Samba. There is a workaround for "detecting" the change of files in the filesystem. It is a software called inotify-tools and can be installed on synology. It can monitor (using inotifywait command) even recursively a directory and issue a message whenever a filesystem event is detected.
Then, through the use of a script, you can call a samba restart. Again, command line access is a must. More of this here: http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=56439.
Still, it is not a very good solution, since files change quite often in a large share (eg. creation of thumbnails by MC). That would lead to quite often restarts of the daemon affecting the normal usage.
- ask the nice developers of MC to implement a button/hotkey command/app command that would trigger a "global" refresh. The way it is done now is through (from memory): File - Import - Run Auto-Import Now. But this requires the use of at least a mouse and using the normal view; not so cool for HTPC's.
The performance impact (at least for me) is not an issue, because my library is quite small and it would finish fast. :)
Regards,
rayooo:
YES! that's it ;D UNC UNC UNC UNC... (me trying to remember the TLA.. :D ) Thank you zxsix !
'and bivan, thank you very much for that explanation! it's starting to make sense now.. One of those things I've wondered about for ages. :)
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