[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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