Help With Slow Emby On Synology DS418

[Music100 22]

Hello,

I recently purchased a new DS418 with four HDDs and installed Emby 4.7.0.25.

I am having a problem in that it takes minutes to load pages.  Everything is very, very slow.

Once I start audio playing it does play fine.  But the system is unusable due to it taking minutes to browse or search for anything.

The NAS DS418's own built-in OS seems to be operational and responds quickly.  It's just Emby that is extremely slow.

 

Is this normal for Emby on a DS418? 

I have a big database of media on the DS418 with about 5 terabytes of audio.

Do I need to run the Emby server on a different computer and only use the DS418 for media storage? 

Or is there something else I can do to make this work?

Advice on how to make this a snappy system that pulls up the desired media quickly is appreciated and welcome.

Regards, A

[Happy2Play 8328]

That system would appear to only have 2Gb of Ram but you could try adjusting the database cache to a higher value.

Since this is a beta server version options are in the UI, Settings-Database. @Music100

[Music100 22]

Thank you for the advice. 

I changed the cache size to 512 and restarted the server.  Unfortunately it didn't seem to make any difference.

Right now it still takes several minutes to load anything in Emby.  Any further advice is appreciated.

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by Music100

[Luke 37175]

Hi, please attach the emby server log from when you thought it was slow. Thanks.

[Music100 22]

Thank you.  The server log is attached.

2022_04_12 10 14am embyserver Log.txt

[Happy2Play 8328]

Not really seeing anything related to this topic in this log.

Is there a reason you are on an older beta "Application version: 4.7.0.25"?

But that log to me shows a network issue to multiple external connections.

System.Net.Http.HttpRequestException: Name or service not known

 

OT: you need to fix inotify.

The configured user limit (8192) on the number of inotify watches has been reached, or the operating system failed to allocate a required resource.

Fix for RTM not working caused by limited inotify instances/watches - Tutorials and Guides - Emby Community

 

[Music100 22]

Okay, thank you for looking at the log. 

I'm not very technical, but here's what I've done based on your review:

1)  I had installed 4.7.0.25 in February 2022.  I've updated to 4.7.0.34 today.  This appears to be the latest version.

2)  I followed the linked instructions you gave to fix inotify. 

3) In regards to the network error messages, this Emby system is not connected to the internet and isn't planned to be.   I am guessing Emby is trying to connect and giving those errors because it can't connect.

 

But the main problem is that Emby remains sluggish and unresponsive.  Any further ideas on improving that are welcomed.

 

[Luke 37175]

You're also running an old beta so I would suggest updating to the latest.

[Music100 22]

Okay,  I had installed 4.7.0.25 in February 2022.  I updated to 4.7.0.34 today. 

I believe this is the latest version.

It hasn't changed anything with the sluggishness of the system unfortunately.

[Luke 37175]

22 hours ago, Music100 said:

Thank you.  The server log is attached.

2022_04_12 10 14am embyserver Log.txt 52.16 kB · 2 downloads

What exactly happened during this time?

[Music100 22]

I may have clicked on the home icon on the top left once and clicked on the one library folder I have to check how long it took for the library items to show up. 

To be specific, it takes about 23 seconds from the time I click on the library folder to the time the library content is shown on the screen.

Edited April 13, 2022 by Music100

[Happy2Play 8328]

What library, assuming Music? 

How many items in that library?   

What is the landing tab?

What client?

When was the last time the database was "vacuumed"?

How large is the database?

But I am guessing 5Tb of Music can be slow.

[Music100 22]

Here are answers:

Library: Music only, mainly FLAC files.  

About 164,000 songs, 4.1 TBs

I am not sure what the "landing tab" is.  I have one library in Emby currently with all this music organized artist/album/song.  I have been selecting the "Home" icon, then my music library.

The database was loaded into Emby in February 2022.   I haven't tried "vacuuming".

Tried accessing the library from both Windows 10 and MacOS computers (using Google Chrome on both) and the slow response is the same.

 

Testing Note: 

As a test to see where the problem might be coming from I loaded Emby server on a Mac and added the same 4.1 TB folder of FLAC files (accessed over ethernet).  On Mac OS the same library folder kept on the Synology responds very rapidly with Emby.  

The Mac has much more processing power, memory and a fast SSD compared to the Synology DS418. 

This was meant as a test only since the Mac is intended for some other use, not Emby.   But it is promising as it shows that the large library could work fine if I had this set up correctly.

 

Idea:

Without entirely reformatting the Synology and deleting all the media, is there some clean way to entirely remove Emby from the DS418 and start over again?  Maybe there is something corrupted in the Emby install?  It's my understanding that you can't just uninstall the Emby package from the Synology to get rid of it.  I understand one must go deeper into the Synology architecture to get rid of files not otherwise visible and that's not something I have experience with.

 

Or, is it really the case that I should use the Synology for media storage only and set up the Emby server with it's database on a different, more powerful computer with an SSD? 

It might be that having a large database on a Synology DS418 with slower hard drives (HDD) is not ever going to work quickly due to the components - but I don't have enough experience with Emby.   

Interested to hear your ideas about this.

[Happy2Play 8328]

5 minutes ago, Music100 said:

Without entirely reformatting the Synology and deleting all the media, is there some clean way to entirely remove Emby from the DS418 and start over again?  Maybe there is something corrupted in the Emby install?  It's my understanding that you can't just uninstall the Emby package from the Synology to get rid of it.  I understand one must go deeper into the Synology architecture to get rid of files not otherwise visible and that's not something I have experience with.

You could clear the contents of Data path: /var/packages/EmbyServer/var as that is your setup and relaunch Emby to start new. 

Or with Emby shutdown delete your library.db, start Emby and do a library scan to rebuild the database.

But yes the faster the driver the more responsive Emby will in my tests but every setup is different.

[Music100 22]

Thanks for this.

I deleted the contents of the Data path.  With Emby shut down I deleted library.db

After these deletions Emby ran very quickly (with no library).

Emby then rebuilt the database over the last 20 hours or so.   Now that library is in place it is back to the slow speed I was experiencing previously.

 

Based on this, I will go the route of setting up the Emby database on a separate computer and only use the Synology to hold media.

It seems like purchasing a Windows 10 computer would work. 

Or, any other low cost but effective system recommendations?

Are there are any specs you recommend as regards RAM, processor and SSD for this application?

I am trying to keep the cost down while also having a snappy user experience.

Thank you for the guidance on getting this setup correctly.

[Carlo 4330]

It sounds like you need to optimize the database.

If running the beta you can do this right from the GUI as there is a new Database menu on the left.

The bottom option to optimize the database on startup is what you want.  If you have a bit of free memory I'd suggest also updating the database memory to at least 256 from the default of 96. Those are MB not GB settings so you may want to try 512 as well.

The combination of giving the database more memory to use as well as optimizing the database should make a noticeable difference.

Carlo