[mythtv-users] Re: Question about diskless system

[Dan Littlejohn]

Sounds like a good video card.

To answer your question.  I am using the diskless system as a frontend
and backend slave (one pvr350 card).  It does fine as this, but I try
and avoid any heavy work like commercial flagging on this box as it
gets loud when all the fans start spinning up.  All the heavy work is
done on the nfs master backend box.

Guess that leaves the chip, memory (I have 512Mb), or nfs optimization?

Dan


On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 14:26:54 -0700, Norman Lyon <yourdog at poboxes.com> wrote:
> Right now, I'm using an MX440.  That chip seems good on my other back-end, and I
> had nothing but problems when I used a TNT2 a few years ago with freevo (until I
> got the 440).  Are you using your diskless system as a backend and frontend, or
> just frontend?
> 
> Thanks,
> Norman
> 
> Quoting mythtv-users-request at mythtv.org:
> 
> > What video card are you using?
> >
> > I believe that the video card (chip) could have quite an effect.  I am
> > using a Pentium 1.8 and a FX5200 video card and have excellent
> > diskless performance.  The diskless machine has no hard drive in it at
> > all and runs well.  As a data point, I also have a AMD 3200 (backend)
> > with a very old TNT2 and it is very slow when I use a frontend on it.
> >
> > I would vote for the extra memory.
> >
> > Dan
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 11:54:08 -0700, Norman Lyon <yourdog at poboxes.com> wrote:
> > > I've seen from time to time folks talking about using a diskless setup, but
> > I'm
> > > having problems seeing what their results are like.  I just set up an old
> > piece
> > > of hardware to see if I could do it (since the spare hard drive I have is
> > VERY
> > > noisy).  It appears to work as a front-end, but it's slow when skipping
> > ahead
> > > or back.  This also could be due to the fact that I'm playing back 720x480
> > on
> > > an Athlon 650.
> > >
> > > Does anyone have performance data to provide on their diskless setups?  If
> > I
> > > were to rebuild to a Celeron D 2.5G and add a 878 grabber, would I still be
> > > able to use this diskless 

setup and be happy with performance as both
> > front-end
> > > and a diskless backend (streaming to my other backend/database/etc)?
> > >
> > > For my config's sake, my primary backend is providing the NFS root image,
> > and
> > > I'm using the noisy hard drive to provide the etherboot zlilo image to
> > netboot
> > > off a PCI NIC (the on-board NIC is too flaky to use).  If I don't want swap
> > > space or anything else on the hard drive, and I'm running XFCE (stripped
> > debian
> > > build) is 256MB enough, or should I keep it at 512MB just to be safe?  Or
> > is
> > > there a good reason why I should throw swap onto the noisy drive and just
> > hope
> > > that the 'hdparm -S' timeout keeps the drive dpun down (with either 256 or
> > > 512MB)?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Norman
> 
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