nagetech 66 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 (edited) Howdy Everyone! So I was thinking about ways to can "tweak" emby to make sure she runs top notch. Right now I have emby running on a powerful server with plenty of RAM. The OS Drive / where emby lives is a 1TB SSD Drive. As it stands, I have all the metadata being saved to the media folders (movie.mkv, banner, logo.jpg, etc). The media collection is spanned across 30 drives (using Drive Bender Drive Pool) My thought process was, why not centralize all the pictures/artwork etc into the SSD Drive (basically Un-Check the option that says save metadata to each media folder) The way I THINK it works is when things are accessed, it has to spin up the drives to pull the picture files, nfo files etc...... I came to that conclusion testing it by using the web app, clicking on a movie, and looking @ the drive bender console which shows what files are being accessed, and for each movie I selected, it showed it was reading all the metadata files from the drives in the pool. But if it is all housed on the SSD Drive, then the only reason the Drive pool is accessed is to actually fetch the movie file itself. Does my logic make sense? Also, if I were to elect to not save the meta data to the media folder, where exactly does emby store it? Looking forward to some input here Edited March 7, 2017 by nagetech Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy2Play 8270 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 Emby already has that option. But either way all the images get cache in a cache folder and are not pulled from media all the time. When saved with media this allows for faster rebuilds is you ever have issues as Emby will not have to redownload everything, as it would if everything was saved centrally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagetech 66 Posted March 7, 2017 Author Share Posted March 7, 2017 Thanks for the quick response! Putting library re-builds asside, if I were to un-check the box to save the metadata locally, and refreshed my library (I understand it will have to repull the information from the web) where exactly will Emby store the information this time around? And I see you mentioned that emby has a chace, but in my tests, I picked 31 random movies, and all 31 times, it showed in Drive Bender that it was pulling the images and such from the Drive Pool. If you say it's suppose to pull from the cache, then why are my tests showing me this? Just trying to understand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcook 265 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 (edited) I recommend saving your Metadata on a fast SSD this will make things quicker and you won't have to spin up your drives. It also keeps your Library clean without all the metadata files being stored in the Library. There are many benefits to having Metadata stored on a Local SSD instead of in the Media folders that offset having to download the Metadata if you ever do a rebuild. I have 1 SSD for my Metadata and another for my cache, the performance difference is night and day since my NAS does not have to spin up the drives in order to browse the library. By not storing the Metadata on your media drives it will also prolong their life, less chance of drive failures. Edited March 7, 2017 by dcook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagetech 66 Posted March 7, 2017 Author Share Posted March 7, 2017 Thanks for the response! As I mentioned before, My primary drive where emby is installed is a SSD. If I were to uncheck the "save artwork and meta date into media folders" option, and manually refresh the library, where would Emby save said data? I see where there is a plce where I can setup a custom directory for the metadata, but would be curious to know where exactly the default place would be for the .nfo files and all associated .jpg files would go? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy2Play 8270 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 All nfo information is written directly to the database and most images will got to /metadata/library for TV and Movies. Music images would go to metadata/artists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deathsquirrel 741 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 This isn't likely to boost performance. Your cache is going to be, by default, on that SSD already. You're already benefiting from that speed. All you're doing by not saving metadata locally is ensuring that if you have to rebuild your server it will take a lot longer to build that cache. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorac 100 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 I've never seen a difference between storing metadata on ram drive, SSD or regular HDD. Then again my drives are in a raid 6 format and something is generally always going on. To each their own though. Sent from my STV100-3 using Tapatalk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy2Play 8270 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 But all this information goes into a cache also so when navigating via a client it would primarily read for the cache unless it hasn't been cached yet so centralized or with media really doesn't matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcook 265 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 It does matter if your using a NAS, prior to setting up my local SSD for Metadata when browsing there was a noticeable delay when browsing the library as Emby had to wakeup the NAS and pull the images across the network. Now with the SSD all this done locally, and the NAS is only woken up once I click Play on something But all this information goes into a cache also so when navigating via a client it would primarily read for the cache unless it hasn't been cached yet so centralized or with media really doesn't matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagetech 66 Posted March 7, 2017 Author Share Posted March 7, 2017 (edited) How does one force emby to ensure all items are in the cache? As you said, if the file isn't in the cache, then it will read it from the media folder. What I'm trying to do is make it so that image files etc are loaded strictly from the SSD and @ no point pull it from the Mechanical drives my media is stored on. My Drive pool is a healthy mix of 2TB Enterprise grade WD drives, with 1TB WD Green Drives. As many you know, the Green drives do go to sleep after a bit, so waking them up does have some lag. I understand if the pictures are in cache, emby pulls it from there first, but not all the files are in the cache already. I guess my strategy is to perhaps guarantee that 100% of all images pulled will always either be from the cache, or from the metadata folder, both of which are on a SSD drive. Can anyone concur? Edited March 7, 2017 by nagetech Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy2Play 8270 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 It does matter if your using a NAS, prior to setting up my local SSD for Metadata when browsing there was a noticeable delay when browsing the library as Emby had to wakeup the NAS and pull the images across the network. Now with the SSD all this done locally, and the NAS is only woken up once I click Play on something But once the information is cached Emby will read it form the cache folder not the metadata folder / or media location, so I don't see how that is relevent. Your cache folder was always on your SSD unless you relocated it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy2Play 8270 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 How does one force emby to ensure all items are in the cache? As you said, if the file isn't in the cache, then it will read it from the media folder. What I'm trying to do is make it so that image files etc are loaded strictly from the SSD and @ no point pull it from the Mechanical drives my media is stored on. Cache is created by navigating your library. Every client will cache differently also. So there is no true answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagetech 66 Posted March 7, 2017 Author Share Posted March 7, 2017 I do understand what you mean, but if the image But once the information is cached Emby will read it form the cache folder not the metadata folder / or media location, so I don't see how that is relevent. Your cache folder was always on your SSD unless you relocated it. is not in cache, then it has to pull the images from the Drive Pool, that is where the lag comes from I think. As I mentioned before, in my test, every movie i picked happened to pull from drive pool, not the cache. In a library of 8000 movies, the chances that maybe half are in the cache may be unlikely, unless there is a way to force emby to "pre-cache" everything so it never has to pull from the Drive Pool again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcook 265 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 (edited) Correct, but your assuming that everyone will view everything right away in order to build the cache?? By having the Metadata also on the SSD then it avoids having to spin up the media drives, which improves performance and prolongs the life of the media hard drives. I agree with your 100% that cache should be on local SSD as that is where Emby will look first. I am saying that Metadata should also be on SSD because until it is in the cache, it would be stuck on the media drives. Unless you have a secret option that will "rebuild cache" ? But once the information is cached Emby will read it form the cache folder not the metadata folder / or media location, so I don't see how that is relevent. Your cache folder was always on your SSD unless you relocated it. Edited March 7, 2017 by dcook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy2Play 8270 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 (edited) I guess that depends on your setup. I don't spin down drives so the Server information is always available so there is no lag. To me it is more important to maintain the information and not have to download it with every rebuild. Edited March 7, 2017 by Happy2Play Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcook 265 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 (edited) Why does it have to be one or the other? For example your saying that if you store metadata with the media, then if you rebuild Emby will detect the metadata and use it. However if you store the metadata in a specific folder, and then rebuild Emby and also set the metadata to the same specfic folder that contains the metadata then all the metadata would still be there and available? Would that data not be used? Is the Metadata only used again on a rebuild if stored inside the Media Library? I guess that depends on your setup. I don't spin down drives so the Server information is always available so there is no lag. To me it is more important to maintain the information and not have to download it with every rebuild. Edited March 7, 2017 by dcook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy2Play 8270 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 (edited) Why does it have to be one or the other? For example your saying that if you store metadata with the media, then if you rebuild Emby will detect the metadata and use it. However if you store the metadata in a specific folder, and then rebuild Emby and also set the metadata to the same specfic folder that contains the metadata then all the metadata would still be there and available? Would that data not be used? Is the Metadata only used again on a rebuild if stored inside the Media Library? Since everything is stored in a GUID the server will give your media new ids with every rebuild. Metadata is stored directly to the database you are replacing. Edited March 7, 2017 by Happy2Play Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcook 265 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 So if its going to give a new guid anyway why does it matter if its store inside a Media Library or in another Folder? I guess what I am asking is, why does Emby recognize the metadata in one scenario but not the other? Since everything is stored in a GUID the server will give your media new ids with every rebuild. Metadata is stored directly to the database you are replacing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy2Play 8270 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 Everything stored centrally gets nuked with every install. If stored with media it is read again and gets populated without every hitting the internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBers 6768 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 The media collection is spanned across 30 drives (using Drive Bender Drive Pool) Another Drive Bender user 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcook 265 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 So could make it a FR that if you change the default Metadata location to not nuke it? I understand nuking it if left at the default app data location, but if someone changes it to d:\metadata or whatever then that directory could still exist on a rebuild and emby should use it? Everything stored centrally gets nuked with every install. If stored with media it is read again and gets populated without every hitting the internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy2Play 8270 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 So could make it a FR that if you change the default Metadata location to not nuke it? I understand nuking it if left at the default app data location, but if someone changes it to d:\metadata or whatever then that directory could still exist on a rebuild and emby should use it? An how do you relink the information with a new database? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagetech 66 Posted March 7, 2017 Author Share Posted March 7, 2017 Oh man, this conversation seems to have struck a note with some people...... was just looking to optimize you guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy2Play 8270 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 Oh man, this conversation seems to have struck a note with some people...... was just looking to optimize you guys Well everyone system is setup differently, it is all trial and error. My setup is on 24/7 so my optimization is going to be different then yours. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now