Emby Server performance optimization suggestions

[bardmaster 17]

Hi, I'm running Emby Server 3.2.13.2 beta.

 

Just wondering if folk have suggestions on how to keep the system running as smooth as possible while still having all the awesome content.  

 

What are the biggest hits to the system?  It seems like library updates are taking awhile, but I have a lot of options turned on like movie chapters, movie subtitles, Live TV guide, etc. and the last media scan took almost two hours!  I do have a lot of content, but it seems like media scans are one of the most resource-intensive tasks I've seen to-date.

 

Appreciate any thoughts!

Edited April 24, 2017 by bardmaster

[bardmaster 17]

OK no views, no comments, so I figured I'd throw out my MAIN recommendation:  Use an SSD drive for all cache needs, both general (under Settings, Advanced) and Transcoding.  But make sure this is NOT your OS (C:) drive!  Obviously I am talking a Windows configuration here.

 

I also recommend saving all metadata in the original folders, but that is more of a preference thing.  I suppose if this was all saved to that same processing SSD drive the library updates would be faster too.

[Luke 37091]

Yes, the sqlite database will definitely perform better on an SSD.

[bardmaster 17]

Thanks @@Luke I was feeling lonely here...

 

Also, this may be obvious these days, but your OS (C:) drive must be SSD as well!

 

Another thing is:  When you first install the app and set up your libraries, give everything time to update.  If you have a large library that you add all the time, all the updating can be an extreme drain on your system initially, which leads to a false assumption that Emby Server is faulty and not a solid performer.

 

Finally, revise your scheduled jobs to run when no users are likely to be online.  I've found some tasks, especially the Roku thumbnails creator add-in, to be extremely processor-intensive - and that one is defaulted to run at 5am so morning Live TV was crashing and it took me awhile to figure it out.  In my case I have a huge library and I'm still trying to get all the BIF files created, so eventually it would not be a problem.

[maximumentropy 23]

Yes, the sqlite database will definitely perform better on an SSD.

Is there an option to move the database to another drive?

[Happy2Play 8293]

Is there an option to move the database to another drive?

 

Sorry, no option to move the database.

[Bert 49]

Interesting.... Why does emby need to be not on the OS SSD?

[bardmaster 17]

Interesting.... Why does emby need to be not on the OS SSD?

Well, it really depends on your use case, I guess.  Emby has a lot of processes that can spike your CPU and your disk I/O, the biggest hog being transcoding.  Library updates can hit your resources hard too, but not a big deal unless you've added a large volume of new media.

 

I'm a heavy user running Emby on a Windows Server, where I could be live-streaming up to 3 TVs using Roku at the same time.  I also wrote a script that cuts commercials out of TV shows that have already completed - so I have potential for up to 4 transcodes going at once.  With all that reading/writing going on, I've found having the cache files on the OS cause the server to hit 100% disk I/O and everything slows down to a crawl - to the point where the streams start crashing.  Finally, as a server there are other jobs that might be running on it (it is not dedicated to Emby...just mostly!).

 

Best to have all caching done on a separate SSD where heavy disk loads don't impact the OS' ability to function properly.  In my experience.

[Bert 49]

Cool... Thanks for the explanation... How hard is it to implement your script? Guess I better look for another SSD because I have lots of clients too.

[bardmaster 17]

Cool... Thanks for the explanation... How hard is it to implement your script? Guess I better look for another SSD because I have lots of clients too.

Still working on it, taking a lot of trial n' error.  A simpler alternative is to use MCEBuddy.

 

I recently revived an older thread about this - see https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/39980-removing-commercials-from-recordings/

[Bert 49]

Yeah this is what I do now converting to mp4 and marking chapters. Every once in a while something goes pear shaped and I'll get a corrupted file and it never seems to correctly mark the last blurb of a program but other than that it works well.

[bardmaster 17]

@@Bert what syntax do you use for marking chapters? Is Emby able to recognize?

[Bert 49]

I use the GUI and convert to mp4. There's a checkbox to leave the whole video. Theater and Android recognize the chapter marks, I'm not sure on the others as I don't typically use recorded TV in the other locations.

[Dizzy49 94]

My OS Drive is a beefy SSD and pretty much the only thing on it is windows and Emby.  All of my video is of course stored in a data pool (not SSD).

What size do you recommend for the Cache?  I've never set up a cache drive like that, do you just install the drive, and point to it for cache in Emby?  Beneficial (or possible) to have other programs use it as well (ie Windows, uTorrent, Chrome, Media Center Master)?

 

I currently use a 2TB 7200RPM drive as my landing drive, would a decent size (~240GB) SSD be decent to use as the cache and landing drive?

I think I have 600GB on my landing drive now, but at least half of that is porn that I can delete

[bardmaster 17]

My OS Drive is a beefy SSD and pretty much the only thing on it is windows and Emby.  All of my video is of course stored in a data pool (not SSD).

What size do you recommend for the Cache?  I've never set up a cache drive like that, do you just install the drive, and point to it for cache in Emby?  Beneficial (or possible) to have other programs use it as well (ie Windows, uTorrent, Chrome, Media Center Master)?

 

I currently use a 2TB 7200RPM drive as my landing drive, would a decent size (~240GB) SSD be decent to use as the cache and landing drive?

I think I have 600GB on my landing drive now, but at least half of that is porn that I can delete

I think 240GB would be more than enough - at least for Emby, can't speak for your other pursuits lol

 

For just the caching needs alone, a 32GB would more than cover it - it's the SSD speed you're looking for.  But I also use mine (480GB) for downloads, storing archives of my comskip source files (for 7 days), and just as a general playground for programming and, yes, play!

 

My data volumes are RAID 1 and I wouldn't want this stuff to ever be backed up anyway.

[Tur0k 143]

Personally, I run Emby on my home theatre PC (AMD 6 core 3.2 GHz CPU (overclocked to 3.7 GHz), 8GB RAM, 120 GB SSD (OS+emby), 2x 4TB black drives for media, windows 10 pro).

The server does all my media management and DVR services, as well as presenting an HTPC front end for the home theatre room. In all there are 6 services that I run for my media management and HTPC interface.

I would recommend setting your OS Power management to high performance, as well as, disabling Intel speedstep/AMD cool'n'quiet. These services turn down CPU voltage and subsequently operating frequency of the CPU and have a negative affect on services running in the background. My system runs very stable when streaming to 2 iOS devices and allowing 2 local Kodi/Emby Theatre client HTPCs to play from network locally.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bardmaster 17]

hey all - another big piece of advice:  do NOT stick with stock CPU coolers for your media server!  This may be obvious to most of you out there, but even I didn't put too much stock into it (pun intended).

 

When I had a stock cooler on my i7-3770 and the nightly library refresh ran, all 8 cores would be pegged at 100% and my CPU temp was hitting 73 degrees C.  That's pretty hot for sustained activity!  So this weekend, I changed it out for a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO fan-and-heatsink based CPU cooler, and now when the library refresh runs I am seeing 43 degrees C!  That's a 30 degrees drop and much more than I was expecting!  The CM cooler is highly recommended and only goes for about $30 on Amazon.

 

I'm not sure if this impacts performance (unless your PC starts rebooting due to excessive heat!), but figure it was germane to this thread.

[Bert 49]

So I finally found a steal on another SSD. So changing transcoding is easy; point to new drive. What else should I do? This drives only purpose is Emby and I actually bought two although I am not sure what to do with the second SSD yet. If I put it in my server that would total 3. I am wondering for example should I Uninstall Emby and reinstall it on the new SSD? Should I uncheck save Metadata to folders so it can live on the SSD?

[Bert 49]

Anybody have an opinion on the above?

[Luke 37091]

I think you are fine with default settings. Is there some problem you are trying to solve?

[bardmaster 17]

One SSD for your OS and one SSD (recommend at least 128GB) for your Emby cache.

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[Tur0k 143]

hey all - another big piece of advice: do NOT stick with stock CPU coolers for your media server! This may be obvious to most of you out there, but even I didn't put too much stock into it (pun intended).

 

When I had a stock cooler on my i7-3770 and the nightly library refresh ran, all 8 cores would be pegged at 100% and my CPU temp was hitting 73 degrees C. That's pretty hot for sustained activity! So this weekend, I changed it out for a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO fan-and-heatsink based CPU cooler, and now when the library refresh runs I am seeing 43 degrees C! That's a 30 degrees drop and much more than I was expecting! The CM cooler is highly recommended and only goes for about $30 on Amazon.

 

I'm not sure if this impacts performance (unless your PC starts rebooting due to excessive heat!), but figure it was germane to this thread.

Yes, an AM CPU cooler is a must IMHO. Most modern CPUS will drop operating frequency once the internal CPU temp hits the upper operating limit.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bert 49]

Not particularly, mostly just trying to get it to run the best it can. My main annoyance currently is that the guide takes forever to load on Xbox One. I widdled down to 380 stations and it's still very slow. I think it's the combination of loading the text for the listings and guide logos. I thought maybe this data would load faster if I made it live on the SSD (although Emby is on my OS SSD now I am not sure that's where tv guide data is stored).

Edited August 5, 2017 by Bert

[mCmanu 0]

Hi there,

 

Just found that thread googling and it was the first search result in the list so I've clicked and created my account here just because I've read every post you guys made and I wanted to share my own experience.

 

Before having Emby, I had a Lenovo ThinkStation with 12GB of RAM and Intel Core i5 3.2gHZ running VMware ESXi 6 free edition with this config:

 

- 1 SATA Western Digital 500GB blue Hard Drive @ 7200rpm

- First virtual server (4GB RAM, 40GB disk, 1 vCPU): Windows 2012 R2 running as a MAIN Domain Controler, DNS server, DHCP server (x.x.x.100 to x.x.x.149), Remote Access server for VPN and Print Server for shared printers on my home network

- Second virtual server (8GB RAM, 40GB disk, 4 vCPU): Windows 2012 R2 running as a MEMBER (replication and backup) Domain Controler, DNS server, DHCP server (x.x.x.150 to x.x.x.199), SMB and File server with a 2TB external USB3 Western Digital MyBook for Data

- Third virtual server (4GB RAM, 20GB disk, 2 vCPU): CentOS (FreePBX ISO) for business IP phone

 

All of theese on the same physical drive (exepted for my Data that is on the external drive like movies, music, backup files, etc.)

 

And it used to be working just fine. No network latency, no downtime due to Windows Update as I have 2 DC that replicates and 2 DHCP, DNS.

 

 

I use my secondary DC with more RAM and vCPU for the sharings (data) so I've installed Emby on that virtual machine.

 

 

Then the problems begun.

 

 

DC2 begun to be DAMN SLOW and as I don't have budget for a real physical server but have a couple of spare hard drives, I've shutted everything down, inserted a SATA 320GB Western Digital Blue drive in the machine and mounted it as a secondary Datastore in VMware and moved my secondary domain controler there (the one with Emby).

 

 

Things are now running smoothly.

 

 

DVR target is on my external drive and now Emby has it's own dedicated hard drive in my virtual setup.

 

 

I've measured the disk read and write speeds before and after this very easy and quick fix and I've noticed a signifiiant increase in both speed for accessing the server with my connected devices but also for the guide updates and all the background tasks.

 

 

Before the "upgrade", it tooked 5 seconds to get a video stream from a device and now that's almost instantly.

 

 

I have tried many other software before buying Emby in the last week and got disapointed with my original Plex server that I've also baught 2 years ago because of the lack for supporting IP TV. Tried open source software that where buggy, unfinished, unstable, unrealible that got me frustrated and finaly found what I needed, Emby (witch I find extremely cheap for the quality of it's design, management and compatibility, plus, the availability of the applications on any platform including iOS, Android, Roku and the most important one for me: Amazon Fire Stick)

 

 

If I had a little more budget my setup would be:

 

 

- A good cheap server like a Dell PowerEdge R610 (and up)

- Atleast 32GB of RAM

- Perc H730 RAID controller

- 6x SSD drives (same make, same size)

- RAID 5 configuration

- Virtual appliance

 

 

Well, in the end, that's just a media server. No need to invest too much money. But in my case, I have my files, backups, pseudo-professionnal network (I own a IT company) and a IP phone server so that's nice to get them all together.

 

 

Plus if you want to have a NVR for your cameras, that would be the right setup from my point of view.

 

 

Just my point but I am glad to join your community, I am verry interrested in theese technologies for my entertainment at home. And I hate having multiple servers for media!

 

 

If you guys have any comment or suggestions, I will be more than happy to read them!

 

 

Have a nice one and stay safe!

 

Cheers.

 

 

- manu

[pwhodges 1532]

Unless you have a way to ensure that any outside machine can only access one of them, you should only run a single DHCP server.  Running two can give rise to subtle and variable network problems.

 

Paul