WHS or a Dedicated PC?

[wolfie99]

Greetings from a Newbie.

I have been using the Snappy product for years and finally tested out SageTV last week. Simply stated Sage is years ahead of Snappy.

I purchased the extenders as well as the software today. I have the trial version working on a dedicated PC, but I would like to install it on my WHS system instead, freeing up a PC.

My WHS server has a number of apps already running on it. UTorrent, Mcontrol, and Avast are currently working as well as backing up 5 computers. It's a dual core system with 2 GB RAM and 13TB of storage. The server is currently working well.

I would like to install SageTV and use USB-UIRT to control HD-PVR's. In doing so, am I going to 'overload' the server? Or is it best to leave it on a dedicated PC?

Thanks in advance.

[kevine]

Well, I would think yes. But your choice to move it brings up more questions.

Do you plan on doing comskip or video conversions adding more cpu usage?

How many HD-PVRs? How many extenders? These require more memory the more you add.

Make sure Avast does not scan recording directories.

Not sure if you realize it but your 13 TB will have to be converted to 64k clusters. A BIG task especially on WHS. You may want to consider purchase of an application that does this without reformatting or you will need to add more storage converting to 64k as you add.

I have 8 tuners running on mine. 4 older style extenders and 1 HD200 extender. I had auto video conversion and 3 simultaneous comskips running and it began to cause me problems when recording 4 or more shows. I did away with video conversions and it went away. Mind you I have 4 GB RAM and a quad core running on mine.

[Skirge01]

Kevine definitely hit on most of what I was thinking. SageTV is a CPU slug. It requires very little of the server. As kevine said, using comskip on HD content is what will tax your server.

I also definitely agree with kevine that the 64k conversion could be an issue, however.

p.s. Feel free to use the words Snapstream or BeyondTV here.

[wolfie99]

Thanks Guys for the information - MUCH appreciated!

Originally Posted by kevine

Well, I would think yes. But your choice to move it brings up more questions.

Do you plan on doing comskip or video conversions adding more cpu usage? I plan on using comskip but no video conversion.

How many HD-PVRs? How many extenders? These require more memory the more you add.I will be using 2 HD-PVR's and 3 extenders

Make sure Avast does not scan recording directories. Thanks for the info.

Not sure if you realize it but your 13 TB will have to be converted to 64k clusters. A BIG task especially on WHS. You may want to consider purchase of an application that does this without reformatting or you will need to add more storage converting to 64k as you add. Do you know of a good app that will convert the clusters to 64K
I have 8 tuners running on mine. 4 older style extenders and 1 HD200 extender. I had auto video conversion and 3 simultaneous comskips running and it began to cause me problems when recording 4 or more shows. I did away with video conversions and it went away. Mind you I have 4 GB RAM and a quad core running on mine.

[sic0048]

I think it (it being the SageTV app, 2 HD-PVRs and 3 extenders) would run just fine on this WHS set up. But I'm not sure about comskip and the HD-PVR files since they require a lot of horsepower. Although I am not currently running Comskip, I thought I eventually might want to and went with a quad core CPU when building my new WHS rig.

Just a side note, if you don't want to convert all the shared pool drives to 64k clusters, then simply dedicate a couple of drives to SageTV recordings and keep them out of the storage pool. Of course you won't get folder duplication doing this, but personally there isn't anything I'm recording that I cannot live without if a drive got corrupted. If you don't feel the same, then you'll need to convert the drive pool HDs and record to them.

[Skirge01]

Regarding the 64k conversion, if you have a spare drive (or two), you could remove one drive at a time from the pool, add it back in, format it to 64k, and continue on to the next drive. It would be just like you were replacing a failing drive. I've done this numerous times.

[wolfie99]

Thank you for the hard drive suggestion. I'm doing exactly what you said. I'm taking a drive out of the pool and reformatting it.

[Djc208]

Originally Posted by sic0048

Just a side note, if you don't want to convert all the shared pool drives to 64k clusters, then simply dedicate a couple of drives to SageTV recordings and keep them out of the storage pool. Of course you won't get folder duplication doing this, but personally there isn't anything I'm recording that I cannot live without if a drive got corrupted.

Just what I was thinking, I don't really like my recording drives in the pool (but that's just my opinion). If you do want to keep a recording and have it backed up you can always move it to a share folder in the pool. Some have set up a "fake" transcoding option that essentially just moves the recording to their storage directory without transcoding it, or you can move it manually.

[wolfie99]

I decided to upgrade my whs server to a quad core. This was mainly due to utilizing comskip. I use commercial skipping right now with BeyondTV and the wife likes it a lot.

My current WHS Server has a primary hard disk. I have a 8 drive external sata enclosure that holds all of my data. My question is this. Can I build a new whs server (with a new primary) hard disk and then connect the external sata enclosure and still preserve all of my precious data?

[gplasky]

Is your 8 drive external the pool? Your new WHS should recognize the existing pool once you connect it. It will rebuild the necessary tombstones and keep your existing data intact.

Gerry

[wolfie99]

my 8 drives are part of the pool. Just so that I don't misinterpret anything. I 'should' be able to put togehter the new WHS Server and then add the external enclosure. All data will remain intact. Correct?

[gplasky]

Yes. That is what I am saying. It would be as if your primary drive died. Put in the new drive and do your install and update all patches and security fixes. When that is all done connect the external drive enclosure. WHS will recognize the pool and start rebuilding. (tombstones and backups) It may take awhile so give it plenty of time. Don't try and fix any file conflicts you see until it is all done. (If you see any.)

Gerry

[wolfie99]

<<whew>> Big relief, a Big Thank You

[sic0048]

Just make sure that there is no "data" stored on the primary disk drive before rebuilding it. There are a couple of programs out there that will write fake files to the primary drive to make sure no real data files exist on it. WHS will automatically push those file out to the other drives as the primary drive gets full.

If you look at your disk manager and see the primary drive with a very low capacity used % and the other attached drives have a higher capacity used %, then everything is probably fine.

But if you started out with just a drive or two initially with the WHS before adding more drives, then I suspect that some of the real data resides on the primary drive and you would want to make sure it is moved to the other attached drives before rebuilding.

[wolfie99]

I setup the new server. Installed all the patches. I even got Sage for Homeserver working. My last piece was to connect the drives. I tried doing it today. On WHS, it only shows the drives as 'Non Storage Hard Drives'. It didn't try to connect them. What am I doing wrong?

[gplasky]

Did you load any drivers that the eSata storage might require? (I'm thinking if it uses a card. Or a special mb driver.)

Gerry

[wolfie99]

Yes. After I got whs setup on the new server, I removed the e-sata card from the old server and installed it in the new server. it detected the e-sata card, then automatically installed the driver.

[sic0048]

It's showing as not being storage drives or simply not being in the storage pool? Whenever you add more drives to a WHS system, it doesn't automatically add them to the storage pool.

It doesn't sound like this is your problem, but just wanted to make sure.

[wolfie99]

It's showing as being 'storage drives' or but not automatically being in the storage pool? If I wanted, I could have added the drives to the pool, but they would have been reformatted and erased. I wanted the data intact. Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?

[gplasky]

Keep the drive connected. Boot with the WHS DVD. Choose reinstall. It should now see the pool and yo should be good to go. (You may need the drivers for the eSata card available to you on a USB floppy when Windows starts it text mode install if the driver is not a standard driver contained in Windows. You can also google for a WHS install disc called X Files someone put together that has more than the standard drivers built in if you continue to have an issue.)

Gerry