FR - Server - Global Cache

[AxeMan 25]

I'm not sure how to phrase this so that it make sense - so please let me know if i need to clarify.

 

My media is stored on an UnRaid array. The drives are set to spindown after 30 minutes of no activity. 

 

When I fire up MB3 - and dive into a Media Collection (say TV shows), pretty much all of my drives spin up that have a TV show on it. 

 

Can we get the server to have a cache of all media details that are loaded from the cache until the play button is pressed? I like the metadata being stored within the movie folders and am not asking that to be changed - just thinking - metadata is small (ish). so a second/centralized copy wouldn't be a huge waste of space. 

 

My MB3 server is running on an SSD so i'm guessing performance would be somewhat better ? 

 

OR am I wrong and is this how MB3 already works? Do I need to set a value in the Cache Path ([ ] Use custom server cache path) setting in the Advanced tab do this?

[ebr 16177]

That is kinda how we work now except our system is designed to be "live" and self-maintaining.  This means you don't have to "import" things into a library or do anything else to keep everything up to date.

 

This is accomplished by us monitoring and scanning the file system so that we know what is there at any given time.

[AxeMan 25]

That is kinda how we work now except our system is designed to be "live" and self-maintaining.  This means you don't have to "import" things into a library or do anything else to keep everything up to date.

 

This is accomplished by us monitoring and scanning the file system so that we know what is there at any given time.

 

Thanks for the reply. My issue with drives spinning up is that I have 12 drives now and will be going to 24 over time. it's a lot of spinning to get to 1 drive/1 movie. Not sure - but I don't think MB2 did it the same way. Could be wrong. 

 

I like the current structure of just telling MB3 where my media is at - and everything just works fine. One odd side effect that I noticed is renaming a movie file caused some confusion a couple over versions back. It was a one time thing and I couldn't really replicate so i didn't bother reporting it. 

[AxeMan 25]

I think it's a reasonable request to eventually implement. We'd have to cache all images within the server's cache folder, but I think it could be done.

 

thanks luke! this is why you guys kick ass - you actually listen to people and give feedback on why something can or cannot be done.

 

*cough* plex still can't handle trailers *cough*

 

i never contributed under MB2 - but i certainly have this round; Kudos!

[Abobader 3464]

I think it's a reasonable request to eventually implement. We'd have to cache all images within the server's cache folder, but I think it could be done.

 

Well done Luke.

 

If I am not mistaken, you did apply that one time for offline titles in the past, then it get removed somehow.

[Luke 42078]

Well done Luke.

 

If I am not mistaken, you did apply that one time for offline titles in the past, then it get removed somehow.

 

No, never.

[AxeMan 25]

No, never. not yet

 

FTFY  

[ebr 16177]

Depending on how you set it up the spin groups could speed the process up since you won't have to wait for each drive to individually spin up as requested.  But, you do need to know something about the physical organization of the items.

[ebr 16177]

Do you use SpinGroups in Unraid?

 

This can help keep you from having to have the entire array spin up to access a show.

 

However, a library scan is still going to go try and confirm that everything is there.

[AxeMan 25]

@@ebr - i do not use the spin up groups. I thought that's the exact opposite of what i'm looking for. For example: I know my music share spans Disk1, Disk2, and Disk7, so if I request \\tower\music, spin up all three of those disks even if the content I want is on Disk1.

 

I also have tried the cache directories plug-in on Dynamix... but that doesn't help because when the backdrops and other images are polled, the drives will spin up. 

[AxeMan 25]

@@ebr

 

I see what you are saying. My specific issue is to prevent triggering a spin up during library browsing (reading nothing more than metadata), until a title is actually selected to be played. If the server had a full cached copy of all metadata, it could be served from the cache, preventing any disk acces until needed.

 

Side benefit would be perhaps be a perceived increase in speed. Though in MBC, its snappy anyhow.

[Luke 42078]

I think it's a reasonable request to eventually implement. We'd have to cache all images within the server's cache folder, but I think it could be done.

[ebr 16177]

I understand what you're asking for but, at what point in this system do we go and check if something has actually been removed...?

 

I'm sure Luke can figure something out but anytime you disconnect what you are viewing from what actually exists you then will have the problem of determining when something legitimately no longer exists (or has just changed).

[AxeMan 25]

@@ebr  - yeah that's a delicate balance.

 

one way to approach it would be to make it tunable. i wouldn't mind having all drives spin up 1x or even 2x every 24hrs to keep content fresh. Then again, I never delete (digital hoarder) so it would be just additions, which is probably easier to handle. 

 

 

[ebr 16177]

It isn't just deletions but also re-organizations that are a problem.  If you change the location of something, that is technically a delete and add operation to us.

 

Look around the forum and you will find some people having issues with items that they move or delete but that still show up in their interfaces.  Even with our fairly tight coupling to the file system we have now, because we do try to handle the situation of drives or servers simply being off line, we still have some issues with this.

 

As I said, I'm sure eventually, we can figure it all out - but it does get a bit complex pretty quickly.  Personally, I like the fact that our library is always up-to-date with reality and that I don't have to do anything to keep it that way - as opposed to other products that force you to import or take steps to keep your library in sync with what you actually have.  So, I hope we continue to favor that scenario as well as supporting some of these other ones.

[AxeMan 25]

@@ebr - yeah - i too have seen some "weirdness" - 

 

either way glad it was moved in to FR and commented as a potential future feature. 

 

Thanks!

[metaman 4]

I would also very much like to see this implemented. The file structure I use, is more or less or less permanent and to the extent it does change, it's in the occurence of adding or removing files. To me It seems impractical(power & wear) to spin up n drives in order to merely browse. I would like to see the two be treated separately. Look forward to seeing these changes implemented . 

 

Keep it up!