NAS question

[krys]

having never owned a network storage device before I have a question. Assuming that I go with something like

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822155009

with 2 1TB SATA drives, is there a way to format this to where LMCE can use it along with some Windoze boxes? What would be the best way to go about this?
Thanks,
Krys

[seth]

That would be a fine enclosure. All you need to do is let LMCE manage it. If you are going to RAID it, let LMCE set up the RAID mirror from the webadmin. Use Pluto's file structure, and after you start saving media there, LMCE will samba share it for the windows machines. SHould be able to do everything you want it to, just let LMCE work its magic.

Regards,

Seth

[krys]

cool, have I mentioned that I love LMCE.....

[alx9r]

krys,
i just set up a DNS-323 on my system.  I recorded how I set it up here:

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Alx9r%27s_Network_Attached_Storage_Setup

I'm not sure what the difference between the DNS-321 and DNS-323 is, but hopefully that wiki page will help you.

Alex

[krys]

Thanks Alex, that puts me at ease. I will probably be purchasing that in the near future and just running a few spare drives I have till I spring for the TB drives.

[krys]

I read up on the difference between the 321 and 323, it looks like the only two negatives to the 321 is no usb port for a printer, and it doesnt support bit-torrent DL's. Neither of which should affect what I want to do. The 321 actually has some improved hardware and costs like $60 less. So I placed my order for the 321 and two seagate 1TB drives and they should be here just in time to play with over the holiday weekend.

[krys]

Alex,
Do you use the FTP server that this thing has built in?

[alx9r]

Alex,
Do you use the FTP server that this thing has built in?

Nope, haven't tried its ftp server.  I access my DNS-323 through the core via /mnt/device.  If you are going to run the FTP server you should probably be aware of some security problems with some versions of firmware.  Read here:

http://wiki.dns323.info/howto:open_ports_ftpd

Alex

[wombiroller]

While there are reasons for opting for a separate NAS - I have found having all drives in the Core is a smoother experience. Then just use the Core as your NAS! Assuming they can fit in your box... ;-) Just my 2 cents.

[nite_man]

While there are reasons for opting for a separate NAS - I have found having all drives in the Core is a smoother experience. Then just use the Core as your NAS! Assuming they can fit in your box... ;-) Just my 2 cents.

IMHO NAS is much better option. For example, if the core doesn't work 24/7. Also I assembled once the core with 2x250GB system disks in RAID and 4x500GB HDDs for media (also in RAID). It was a mess with cables and I'm not talking about warm (thanks God, it was placed into special room with separated air condition). The case was Silverstone LC16M.

So, I vote NAS

[wombiroller]

I'm sure there is no right and wrong - but I should probably point out my reasons;
* Much improved NAS access speeds / file transfer (when compared with the DNS 323. Although the 323 has gbit LAN the transfer speeds are puss when compared with a proper NAS (or LMCE))
* Better new media detection (seems faster - less need to update via manual scans for us impatient people), no need for constant full HDD scans etc (unless I'm wrong LMCE has to constantly scan the NAS to keep up to date file changes?)
* less network traffic

Granted it gives you some more redundancy with a separate NAS, but LMCE doesn't really crash for me. I was worried about what would happen when I reinstalled LMCE with internal HDDs but all I had to do was unplug the storage drives for safety during re-install and put them back in once complete. All media information/covers were left intact ;-)

 

[krys]

I considered just placing the drives in the core but decided that I would rather go with the NAS, it just works for my setup better because I will be using it between different OS's and might not be running my core 24/7. Also I dont want my wife saving shit to my core and such. Also I dont have any SATA slots available on my current core...thats the big one.
Also I got the drives and the NAS in the mail today, I am gonna plug and play tonight, and I will let you know how it goes.

[krys]

I got my NAS all set up last night and I have to say that it was a breeze. All I did was loosely follow the instructions that Alex posted earlier in this thread.
Got new firmware
Let the NAS admin site format the drives
changed the complicated NAS name to NAS_1
plugged NAS_1 into the LMCE network
Clicked yes to a few prompts in LMCE, and it works.

The only issue I have is kind of strange. I had a test movie that I ripped to the NAS, it was named unknown.dvd, (I realize now I should have fixed the name from the start). Now when I go to media browser under the LMCE admin site I can navigate to the file, change the name and add cover art but it wont reflect the changes inside LMCE...I waited a while still nothing, I hit the resyncronize button just for laughs and it changed the properties in the admin site back to unknown.dvd
thoughts?

[jimmejames]

I manually (using konqueror) opened the folder on my nas containing the rips and changed the name in there.  LMCE will rescan the folder after some period and get the new files.  You will find the .dvd file and the tag file(s).  I changed all of them saving the file extensions and the media data was preserved/loaded when LMCE found the file later.  Maybe there's an easier way.

I sometimes experience a delay between inserting a DVD and the media data getting pulled from whatever source it uses- I'm not sure the dvd is always scanned if you press F3 shortly after starting a movie.  In the case that "Unknown" is given as the name, I restart the movie- playing less that 10 seconds has been enough for LMCE to recognize what DVD I'm playing/ripping.