[mythtv-users] diskless backend?

[Robin Gilks]

> I am considering building a diskless mini-ITX frontend/backend using NFS
> over switched 100base-T for the storage.  I would be capturing at most
> two streams at a time and watching at most one.
>
> Has anyone done this?  Any problems with the setup?
>
> Also, when watching live TV, does the backend read from the file and
> stream to the backend?  Or does it take what it is capturing and both
> write it to the file and stream it to the frontend?  If it reads it from
> the file, then is there any likelihood of the data being cached?
>

This is exactly what I'm doing.

I have a diskless sp13000 with a pvr-150 as a combined frontend/backend
next to the TV where all the terrestrial & sat cables are and a server
with all the noisy disks locked away out of earshot. Works like a charm.
I'm using standard 100M cat5 cable thru the house and even though the live
TV ring buffer is on the NFS mounted server, I have no issues at all with
it.

Since I've only got the system up in the last week, I've not done any CPU
timings but the lights on the 100M ethernet switch only twitch during live
TV when data is going both ways so its not stressed at all. I'd guess
(based on DVD & divx playback) that I'm using about 50% of the CPU time
when both back & frontends are running during live TV.

Go for it...

-- 
Robin Gilks