[mythtv-users] Diskless backend?

[Joseph H. Fry]

If it were me, I'd probably use Gigabit copper to the storage machine if
possible... that way you could use multiple backends that utilize the
same storage device... I'm pretty sure their ring buffers would have to
be located in different folders, but they could at least have access to
the same recorded shows (I should think anyway)

Of course your storage machine will need to be gigabit, which most
"non-upgradeable" NFS machines aren’t, unless they are recent.

Or you could just put multiple net cards in the storage device and using
crossover cables network them direct to the backend machines... a little
private network between devices, so your frontend traffic wouldn’t
interefere with data to your nfs machine... 

HMM... I've been planning to do the same thing... I got a steal on a 6
drive ATA-33 raid 5 NAS machine... of course it only has one 10/100
network port on it, but I can go directly scsi from it as well (it has
integrated scsi to ide raid converter.  I haven’t loaded drives in it
yet, so I don’t know if it will handle the 100+gb drives I want to use,
but I got it for $200 without the drives, so even if it's limited to
small drives it's still cheaper than a machine with a 6 drive raid card.

Please keep me updated on what you end up doing... look into gigabit,
it's come down in price a lot... hell they had a whole section (half an
isle) dedicated to it at my local compUSA... a year ago you would never
find it retail.

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces at snowman.net
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at snowman.net] On Behalf Of Max
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2003 4:57 PM
To: MythTV Users List
Subject: [mythtv-users] Diskless backend?

I've been pondering going diskless on front AND backend (store all data
on NAS). The frontend is easy and I am sure plenty of people are doing
it, however I am wondering how practical is it on the backend. At around
4GB per hour with higher quality, it works out to be about 8Mbits/s
worth of raw data. Add overhead and all and double for playback, this
will clearly not work with 10baseT and wireless, but theoretically
should not be an issue on a "no-collision-domain" 100Mbit (I think the
figures I seem to recall is about 40Mb/s sustained data transfer on
100Mbit copper, a bit more on fiber. Plus I am wondering if NFS can even
handle this sort of the data without severe load increase on the server
and client. 
 
... or I could be overly paranoid and it may work just fine.
 
Anyone played with this sort of a setup? Any experiences?
 
-M