NAS

[windcrest77]

Hi,

Situation: I have 2 computers in two different rooms, and I have a NAS that both machines are networked to. What are my options for having just ONE MM library? If I did a portable install to the NAS will MM save ALL its "stuff" to the NAS? Stuff like ini, the database, playlists, virtual CD's, DLNA cache, etc... I want ALL these things to be saved on the NAS so either computer can see the same view of things, and either computer can make updates to a single database.

Will a portable install to my NAS accomplish this? I do have a Gold license key.

My goal is to have NOTHING being saved to C drives, I want all MM activities captured on the NAS so I can just bring my NAS to someplace else and be able to use use any spare computer on a DJ gig as a backup computer. It is OK if I need to place my Gold key on each computer, but I want all the MM "stuff" on the NAS.

Thanks

[Peke]

MMW is not yet optimize for full usage on multiple PCs ate once.

LAN bandwidth can be bottleneck. I have QNAP NAS with 2Gbit link to Switch and bandwidth is OK around average 85% of Local HDD speed which is OK.

[dtsig]

I have *tried* this but for me the big worry would be the possibility of 2 devices wanting to update a tag at the same time. If it isn't specifically defined as multi-user the possibility of losing changes exists. Also on my NAS box (a buffalo) it (accessing the db/ui) seemed slow. Multiple users play from the drive doesn't seem to be a big problem .. but the buffalo box is slow to begin with. I don't think more that 2 (maybe 3) streaming is useful with this box.

[windcrest77]

MMW is not yet optimize for full usage on multiple PCs ate once.

LAN bandwidth can be bottleneck. I have QNAP NAS with 2Gbit link to Switch and bandwidth is OK around average 85% of Local HDD speed which is OK.

Thanks, but i would always be using one PC or the other, so not multi-user. Currently my media strams from my NAS box to a local install of MM very nicely, fast. I just dont want to have to maintain 2 databases on 2 different machines. So what you are saying is that there are performance issues with the MM DB being on a NAS, not the media files? Is it because all the SQL traffic to the NAS? My media itself streams very fast from the NAS and gets updated fast tag-wise. So I'm assuming your talking about the MM DB file, not the media files?

Unfortunately thats the thing I want to not have duplicated on 2 machines.

Rick

[Scottes]

If you use only one instance of MM at a time, and you are happy with the speed of MM over the NAS then you could be OK. However there is no way to be 100% sure that only one instance of MM is running, so there could be issues. It should not be an issue unless both ever wrote to the mm.db at the same time, and you can never be sure if MM will do so.

You could write a batch file that starts MM on both PCs that could detect if the other PC has MM running. Something like:

@echo off
If exist locked goto LOCKED
Dir > locked
Mediamonkey.exe
Del locked
Goto end
:LOCKED
Echo Other system is running MM
pause
:end

No, it's not bulletproof, but it will help. Installing the database Backup addon onto both is also a good idea, just in case it ever gets corrupted.

[windcrest77]

If you use only one instance of MM at a time, and you are happy with the speed of MM over the NAS then you could be OK. However there is no way to be 100% sure that only one instance of MM is running, so there could be issues. It should not be an issue unless both ever wrote to the mm.db at the same time, and you can never be sure if MM will do so.

You could write a batch file that starts MM on both PCs that could detect if the other PC has MM running. Something like:

@echo off
If exist locked goto LOCKED
Dir > locked
Mediamonkey.exe
Del locked
Goto end
:LOCKED
Echo Other system is running MM
pause
:end

No, it's not bulletproof, but it will help. Installing the database Backup addon onto both is also a good idea, just in case it ever gets corrupted.

Thanks,

Ive installed MM portable on the NAS and it all seems to be working fine. Time will tell.

[dannyno]

I have all my music on a NAS. However, I long since gave up trying to *run* MM from the NAS. To make sure the mm.db file and other files are shared between machines on the network, I use synctoy.

Dan

[windcrest77]

I have all my music on a NAS. However, I long since gave up trying to *run* MM from the NAS. To make sure the mm.db file and other files are shared between machines on the network, I use synctoy.

Dan

Ive dedicated a laptop to live in my stereo rack, it just runs MM all day from the NAS potable install. From that laptop it is connected to my Integra receiver and main stereo TV (HDMI and audio), so I can access my whole 9TB media library. I then use my office computer from time to time to update ratings, add media, etc. and rescan the NAS MMDB. Now when I do that rescan from my office, my main stereo system immediately sees a fresh MMDB library for the family TV and stereo too.

This setup works pretty good it seems, time will tell. No more maintaining two MMDB's or doing synch/copies to other machines. I control the dedicated laptop with monkey mote from my couch, its really a nice setup in all these ways. God use for an old laptop too. It really is a "whole house" system now without the hassle of having one MMDB be more up to date than another because it is centralized. Monkey Mote is awesome in a setup like this for playback. And my office computer is a workstation to update and maintain the "house" library. The dedicated laptop is just an "appliance" to play music and hi def video from the NAS I stopped using that computer for updating the MMDB or rescan, its basically just a component n the stereo system now.

[windcrest77]

I have *tried* this but for me the big worry would be the possibility of 2 devices wanting to update a tag at the same time. If it isn't specifically defined as multi-user the possibility of losing changes exists. Also on my NAS box (a buffalo) it (accessing the db/ui) seemed slow. Multiple users play from the drive doesn't seem to be a big problem .. but the buffalo box is slow to begin with. I don't think more that 2 (maybe 3) streaming is useful with this box.

I had a Buffalo NAS once. Now I built a Synology DS413 with 4 Western Digital "red" drives. This Synology NAS is by far the best NAS for home or small business use I have ever seen and used. Its incredibly fast and reliable. The WD red drives are also specifically designed for NAS use, they dont have long time outs for sector bypass like desktop drives do, which allows the NAS controller to handle sector avoidance like it should and not kick out the whole drive from the array. The WD red drives also have enterprise double diamond bearings on the platter hub. Before WD came out with the red line a single enterprise-class RAID hard drive would cost 3 times the price of a desktop consumer drive. highly recommend this NAS and drives when you are thinking of upgrading that Buffalo.

[windcrest77]

Hi,

Situation: I have 2 computers in two different rooms, and I have a NAS that both machines are networked to. What are my options for having just ONE MM library? If I did a portable install to the NAS will MM save ALL its "stuff" to the NAS? Stuff like ini, the database, playlists, virtual CD's, DLNA cache, etc... I want ALL these things to be saved on the NAS so either computer can see the same view of things, and either computer can make updates to a single database.

Will a portable install to my NAS accomplish this? I do have a Gold license key.

My goal is to have NOTHING being saved to C drives, I want all MM activities captured on the NAS so I can just bring my NAS to someplace else and be able to use use any spare computer on a DJ gig as a backup computer. It is OK if I need to place my Gold key on each computer, but I want all the MM "stuff" on the NAS.

Thanks

Well unfortunately Peke was right. I have to take back all the good things I said initially about trying to live with just ONE MMDB on a common NAS by using portable mode. I'm encountering too many bad issues with the system hanging doing very simple things like deleting a playlist. This is unfortunate I thought this would all work and for simple things like updating a rating it s fine or just playback. But for the past 4 hours its been "removing playlists" after I tried to delete that huge useless playlist MM generates after auto-scanning. I dont know what to do now, when your library as over 200,000 tracks you really dont want to have to maintain 2 MMDB's or do synching to other machines. I wish MM were a client/server application or at least had a client/server installation option, "portable" installation is just not living up to its promise of a single MMDB.

[Guest]

I am pretty happy with my hack to get it work on a NAS.

Here what I what I did –

Put my music on the nas and installed MM on just one machine. Told MM that the DB was on the nas by using its IP address (10.10.7.175\volume1\music). Let MM do its initial scan.

Shut down MM and moved the DB to the NAS, edited the MM ini file to show this.

By adding the following line to the [System] section of the .ini file:
DBName=full pathfilename.DB (DBName=10.10.7.175\volume1\music\MM.db

(http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/inde ... ticleid=46)

Then moved that ini file to the nas as well.

Now for the clever part – I created a symbolic link to the ini file in the directory where the ini file lives.
Fired up MM and it worked. Installed MM on two other devices, by creating the symbolic link to the ini file all three installs see the same ini file.

I don’t get any errors when I have all 3 open, other than I have to refresh the screen to see any changes I made on a different machine.