mymovies, whs, and unraid

[Hunter69]

So my WHS server is getting full and like all others before me I am looking to solutions. I love whs and will most likely keep my server. The problem I have is desire more efficient use of space (currently I rip dvd's and bluray's to my whs without duplication due to using to much disk space). I am seriously considering a unraid server but I have to consider all aspects of making this move. Mymovies is a definite consideration. If I were to create a unraid server, I would use it to store all my dvd's and blurays. I have the auto ripping setup on my WHS server (I love this feature). SO by making this type of change, is it possible to continue to use the auto rip capability of mymovies while storing the rips on a unraid server? If this is possible could someone in the know give a quick rundown of how this would be setup?

Thanks in advance for sharing your valuable information.

[gplasky]

I think My Movie for WHS limits you to ripping to the local WHS server.

Gerry

[dan596]

I don't see why not. One option would be to use an external storage device to just increase the storage size of your server. Newegg/rosewill has a 5 bay enclosure with eSATA connection and comes included with a expansion card. How WHS handles this depends on if you are using WHS storage management or not.


If you just want to set up a completely separate storage system then I would think it would be as easy as:

1)Setup your storage device
2)configuring Sage to see that device as you intend (media import directory for example)
3)Use your auto ripping to create your image (btw..I'm interested to know what this is).
3)set up a script/backup program (I suggest SyncBack) to move your image from WHS to new storage on a periodic basis.

[PLUCKYHD]

I use external esata enclosures *8 bay) on my whs machine.

[Hunter69]

I was thinking of continuing with WHS and the mymovies autripping feature, then moving the ripped movie to the unraid server. I was wondering how this would affect the mymovies database (moving the ripped movie to the unraid server)? Is this possible. I know I can configure the sage server to utilize the unraid. I am just looking for input to see what I might bump into if I decided to go this route.

Thanks for helping me out

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Hunter69

I was thinking of continuing with WHS and the mymovies autripping feature, then moving the ripped movie to the unraid server. I was wondering how this would affect the mymovies database (moving the ripped movie to the unraid server)? Is this possible. I know I can configure the sage server to utilize the unraid. I am just looking for input to see what I might bump into if I decided to go this route.

Thanks for helping me out

MyMovies should handle it fine as long as both locations are monitored it will pickup one being removed and the other being added basically.

[Hunter69]

That is good to hear. Thanks for you input, I know you are very busy. If you don't mind, can you tell me where I go to add another location to monitor (is the setting in the mymovies client)?

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Hunter69

That is good to hear. Thanks for you input, I know you are very busy. If you don't mind, can you tell me where I go to add another location to monitor (is the setting in the mymovies client)?

Yes in the collection manager fo to monitored folders and you would add it there just be sure the WHS has read/write access to the share.

[Hunter69]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Yes in the collection manager fo to monitored folders and you would add it there just be sure the WHS has read/write access to the share.

Thanks for the response. No problem setting read/write access. Can I ask what 8 bay esata you use?

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Hunter69

Thanks for the response. No problem setting read/write access. Can I ask what 8 bay esata you use?

I use 2 of these so far they have worked quite well

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-140-_-Product

[Hunter69]

So do you set it up as Jbod or raid for your setup.

[PLUCKYHD]

Just jbod didn't trust raid with whs.

[davephan]

Unraid is a good option to increase your disk space. I have 5 RAID 1 arrays which is similar to the efficiency of WHS. My disk space will double with unRAID since there is only one parity drive.

Your data is protected from one drive failure. The second drive failure will cause data loss only on one drive. A future release of unRAID will allow for two drive to fail and still protect the data.

It takes a long time to migrate to unRAID. The preclear script takes about 28 hours for a 2 TB drive on my system. I have seen other reports of 48 - 52 hours. It also takes a long time to migrate terrabytes of data to unRAID, since writing is slower than RAID.

The storage efficiency and lack of Microsoft patching is a big plus for an unRAID video library storage server.

Dave

[madpoet]

Yep, I'm in the process of preclearing 8 2TB drives right now Going to migrate over completely to unRaid and sell of my WHS. My Sage box is big enough that I can rip locally with MyMovies to it and then move over to unRaid as required and have MM monitor both.

[Hunter69]

Well I saw 2 TB WD drive for sale at tiger $109, good deal. Ordered 2 wished I could afford more. Definitely comtemplating the cheapest way to implement a unraid server. I know I can use the free version for up to 3 drives. So I am looking a hardware considerations. I know I can use a low power cpu but as I understand unraid the write capability of the parity is where the performance is at. So I am thinking of PCIe, which from my reading makes quite a difference in performance, am I correct in my thinking? These areas are where I am still deciding:

Case, sata controllers and amount of ram.

I have seen alot of suggestions for the Norco 4020. Although I do not have a rack but within a few years I will have built my media cloaset with rack. I have looked closely at the builds suggested on the lime tech web site.

I have also thought of esxi (have been reading you thread davephan)

Lots of decisions. Tough to decide the best way to go.
I like the idea of an expandable array with good redundancy. I don't really like the issue of adding another computer into the mix. I think whs is great but it wastes a lot of space with its raid 1 type of redundancy. The biggest expense seems to be in the case and sata controller. I am wondering how well unraid deals with new hardware. I was thinking of digging up some older hardware to start, then migrating to newer hardware. I know linux handles the changing of a mobo alot better than windows. So how well does unraid deal with migrating to new hardware.

Decisions decisions

[PLUCKYHD]

Yeah the redundancy issue with WHS doesn't really effect me as I don't duplicate my movies since they are easy enough to copy again if a failure occurs.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Yeah the redundancy issue with WHS doesn't really effect me as I don't duplicate my movies since they are easy enough to copy again if a failure occurs.

I'm in the process of getting all of my movies onto my server and believe me I never want to do this again. I never would have dreamed it would take this long.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I'm in the process of getting all of my movies onto my server and believe me I never want to do this again. I never would have dreamed it would take this long.

That is why I kept one of my old sony 200 disc wmc changers around With Mymovies and automated ripping not so bad.

[madpoet]

I've got one of those Plucky.. is there a way to do automated ripping on Win7?

[PLUCKYHD]

Not 100% sure but mymovies website will probably tell you. I know there use to be a couple of scripts available at one time on tgb forums not sure if they still exist or not

Hopefully you didn't pay $750 for one like I did

I use to have 3 of them daisy chained on the hope one day I would be able to use it to stream to an extender lol!! Although mymovies does control and index it so maybe it would be possible with sagetv...if only I had the time to try it.