[mythtv-users] My First MythTV Box
Yan Seiner
yan at seiner.com
Tue Jan 1 01:27:47 UTC 2008
match at ece.utah.edu wrote:
> I wrote:
>
> > It is an *extremely* sensible idea to separate your system files and
> your Mythtv
> > files onto separate disks. *Especially* to put the Mysql database on
> a separate
> > disk to the video storage. When recording there are many I/Os to the
> video disk
> > at the same time as many I/Os to the Mysql database. You really don't
> want to be
> > thrashing your heads from one file to another at the rate video comes
> in.
> >
> > For the system disk you don't even need 80Gb, but if that's what you
> got, go
> > with it.
> >
> > Mike Perkins
>
> OK, Brad and Mike, I understand full well where you're coming from,
> and I used to think this way too... back when. Many years ago I
> subscribed to this very logic, but not anymore, and I've done it both
> ways. Modern SATA 300 drives are faster, cheaper and more reliable
> than drives were back then, so I just no longer see the need.
>
> Perhaps I've just been lucky, but I've never lost a system disk in any
> of my Mythboxen, and I've never encountered I/O throughput problems by
> having the Mysql database on the same drive that I store recordings
> on. These have just never been issues for me over these last 4 or 5 or
> so years that I've been running MythTV.
>
> Now that I've said that, I'll probably suffer a drive failure, but for
> heaven's sake guys, they're only TV shows, and there will be more of
> them even if I lose a whole diskful. And if I lose the system, well
> it's probably time to upgrade to newer versions anyway.
>
> Therefore, I contend that the cost (in heat, power and noise) does not
> justify the benefit gained by dedicating a drive position to a tiny
> drive that only holds the system and the database. That realestate is
> better used by installing another large drive, chosen to maximize the
> GB per buck ratio, IN MY OPINION.
>
> I guess I would be willing to meet you half way. Use the extra space
> on the system disk for something else. Something non-critical, like
> backing up and serving other computers in the house, but even in this
> configuration the 80GB drive is too small to be useful and the 500GB
> is barely adequate, from my experience. So we're back to 2 large
> drives... The cost in dollars for another 500 is only a little more
> than double the cost of the 80, if that, and will likely perform better.
I just built a server with 2 - 36 GB 15K SCSI drives in a RAID-1 for the
OS and 1.5 TB of RAID-6 storage on SATA drives for myth and my
commercial stuff.
Compared to the last server, this thing just FLIES! I think it also
makes a huge difference what *other* uses you put it to. Mine runs 2
X11 sessions, one for me and my wife, runs my website, and acts as a
backend for my commercial operations. So at times, when all my clients
are hitting it, and the kids want to stream videos and music, it really
helps. I put the website and MySQL on the SCSI drives, and myth and
other things that need room but not great speed on the SATA drives.
I also bond two gigabit lans together to the central hub, to serve the 3
remote frontends and the broadband to the web.
So for me at least, it's worth it.
--Yan
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