Emby - Will it work for me?

[augmont 0]

I live in a rural area with no internet access via broadband.

 

I'm seeking a media manager for an HTPC on LAN that doesn't need internet access to work.  I can tether my phone to grab metadata when I add movies but needs to function without it.  I will only use to movies and music.  

 

thanks....

[Olywa123 46]

Don't see why not, once you are all set-up you can access your media via http://localhost:8096/ (or local IP).

[augmont 0]

awesome.

[augmont 0]

I need some advice or direction on storage software for the Emby Server and my server.  I have a Dell Precision T7500 which will have the Emby Server.  The  T7500 has Win 2008 OS and a SuperMicro SAS2LP-MV8 controller.  It has a 250GB drive that has the Win 2008 OS and two (2) 5 TB's drives.  This is all a new build and the T7500 will only be used for Emby and file storage.

 

What I'm having trouble is finding a RAID/back up/et.c solution for the TB's drives.  I'm a total newb when it comes to this stuff and want something that will play nice with Emby and is cheap/close to free.

 

this kicker is lack of internet at home so i need a solution that doesn't require regular internet to update files.  The T7500 only has legacy mode in the BIOS (no UEFI) which is why i had to purchase the SAS controller.  

 

Thoughts or recommendation?  Will FreeNAS work for me?

Edited November 12, 2015 by augmont

[Olywa123 46]

Others can advise on Raid (Im not a fan due to recovery/drive rebuild times - I'm too impatient). Personally I have multiple 3tb and 6tb drives for my media and have complete backup/clones of each of them.

I keep the clones up to date with a free piece of software called freefilesync running it periodically in mirror mode to copy the delta. This works well for me.

If a drive dies or gets corrupt I can quickly swap it out and instantly have all my stuff still available.

That said, I'm sure there will be users of freenas here that can give you some pointers.

 

--edit

 

just to add Raid and Backup are not really the same thing, as I understand it raid will not give you the same protection from corrupt/deleted/overwritten data that a full back up would.

 

My clones are not always in the machine (I have some 5.25" hot-swap bays) so even if the whole machine got overwritten/virus ridden/destroyed/stolen I would still have a good copy of my data. Unless you plan to purchase additional disk(s) for backup I'd recommend using one of your 5TBs for your current 'live' media and the other for a full backup (but kept disconnected).

Edited November 12, 2015 by Olywa123

[augmont 0]

I know there are many camps as to how much is too conservative vs. better utilization of disk space vs. etc.  My problem is having a legacy BIOS (no UEFI) and limits on drives greater than 2 TB's which is my need for a 3rd party storage solution to read larger drives.

 

Others can advise on Raid (Im not a fan due to recovery/drive rebuild times - I'm too impatient). Personally I have multiple 3tb and 6tb drives for my media and have complete backup/clones of each of them.

I keep the clones up to date with a free piece of software called freefilesync running it periodically in mirror mode to copy the delta. This works well for me.

If a drive dies or gets corrupt I can quickly swap it out and instantly have all my stuff still available.

That said, I'm sure there will be users of freenas here that can give you some pointers.

 

--edit

 

just to add Raid and Backup are not really the same thing, as I understand it raid will not give you the same protection from corrupt/deleted/overwritten data that a full back up would.

 

My clones are not always in the machine (I have some 5.25" hot-swap bays) so even if the whole machine got overwritten/virus ridden/destroyed/stolen I would still have a good copy of my data. Unless you plan to purchase additional disk(s) for backup I'd recommend using one of your 5TBs for your current 'live' media and the other for a full backup (but kept disconnected).

 

 

Edited November 12, 2015 by augmont

[Happy2Play 9355]

I know there are many camps as to how much is too conservative vs. better utilization of disk space vs. etc.  My problem is having a legacy BIOS #no UEFI# and limits on drives greater than 2 TB's which is my need for a 3rd party storage solution to read larger drives.

Why can't you format disks to gpt instead of mbr, UEFI has nothing to do with it.  I have 4TB drives in my WHS2011 which is Windows Server 2008.

Secondary drive –
 
If BIOS is in Legacy or UEFI mode – a secondary hard drive can be either MBR or GPT formatted, depending on the OS version

 

 

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/w/wiki/2837.hdd-support-for-2-5tb-3tb-drives-and-beyond

[augmont 0]

Why can't you format disks to gpt instead of mbr, UEFI has nothing to do with it.  I have 4TB drives in my WHS2011 which is Windows Server 2008.

Secondary drive –
 
If BIOS is in Legacy or UEFI mode – a secondary hard drive can be either MBR or GPT formatted, depending on the OS version

 

 

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/w/wiki/2837.hdd-support-for-2-5tb-3tb-drives-and-beyond

 

I'm going to try it later tonight.  it didn't give me the option last night to format to GPT but tech support for the SAS controller said I needed to delete the volume.  I'm a newb when it comes to this stuff.

 

 

[Happy2Play 9355]

Correct, you have to delete the volume to convert.

 

Option One should help you.

[Deathsquirrel 744]

If you're buying and ripping your owned content, Olywa123's suggestion works really well.  That's what I do.  Zero management work beyond connecting an external drive once a week or so and backing up my new movies.  If I were downloading movies I'd probably not care about backing p 100% of content.  I'd be getting it too quickly and have no real time invested in building the collection.

 

The first time you have to re-rip tv shows from disc you'll swear to pay any price to avoid doing it again.  After that buying redundant drives is a small price to pay.  The thought of having to rip my looney tunes discs for example could give me nightmares.

[augmont 0]

It worked. i deleted the volume and converted to GPT. how do i mirror the drive?

[Happy2Play 9355]

It worked. i deleted the volume and converted to GPT. how do i mirror the drive?

Are you wanting to Mirror (software raid 1) the drives, or are you wanting to do like a sync backup?

[augmont 0]

mirror.

[augmont 0]

do i use a simple volume?

Edited November 13, 2015 by augmont

[augmont 0]

....and do i select "don't format the drive?"

Edited November 13, 2015 by augmont

[Happy2Play 9355]

Use Drive Mirroring for Instant Backup

[augmont 0]

thanks happpy..

 

i started the process last night at 7pm. i forgot to select quick format and as of 11 pm it was only at 30%. this morning its "resyncing" and current at 22%.

 

does it normally take that long?

Edited November 13, 2015 by augmont

[augmont 0]

As I continue working on my rig in various areas, i read a thread about hardware and got thinking about mine and transcoding.  Plan is to have the T7500 do all the transcoding and use Kodi or Emby theater for the clients.

 

Is there something I should be concerned about?

 

   

 

 

 

Edited November 19, 2015 by augmont

[Olywa123 46]

Glad it's coming along. It really depends on a number of factors, especially the number of clients being active at the same time and the files/formats being viewed. Some files, depending on codec and compression/encoding quality will cause more CPU load to transcode than others. Direct stream to clients will of course result in the least CPU load on the server.

 

In my opinion and looking at the average benchmarks for that CPU I would think it should do fine if transcoding to two clients at the same time (possibly even 3). If you had one client transcoding and another two or three direct streaming my guess is it would mange ok too. The More clients running/viewing in parallel the more resources you are going to need.

 

If you are only likely to have one or two clients on at a time then I am certain your system will be fine

.

--edit--

 

If you have ripped media already could you not do a basic set-up of emby just to test things out? It wouldn't take too long to set the windows server application up in it's raw form, create yourself just a small library folder with only a small handful of media to start with and install a couple of clients for parallel testing.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Olywa123

[augmont 0]

Glad it's coming along. It really depends on a number of factors, especially the number of clients being active at the same time and the files/formats being viewed. Some files, depending on codec and compression/encoding quality will cause more CPU load to transcode than others. Direct stream to clients will of course result in the least CPU load on the server.

 

In my opinion and looking at the average benchmarks for that CPU I would think it should do fine if transcoding to two clients at the same time (possibly even 3). If you had one client transcoding and another two or three direct streaming my guess is it would mange ok too. The More clients running/viewing in parallel the more resources you are going to need.

 

If you are only likely to have one or two clients on at a time then I am certain your system will be fine

.

--edit--

 

If you have ripped media already could you not do a basic set-up of emby just to test things out? It wouldn't take too long to set the windows server application up in it's raw form, create yourself just a small library folder with only a small handful of media to start with and install a couple of clients for parallel testing.

 

Emby hasn't been installed yet due to lack of internet at home.  I'm waiting for a wifi USB adapter to arrive so i can tether my phone and install Emby on the server.  From that, I will be able to test to make sure it all works.