[mythtv-users] Migrating recordings to a NAS

Johnny jarpublic at gmail.com
Sat Oct 10 15:25:07 UTC 2009


> Currently, I'm using a combined BE/FE machine. It works well, but hard drive
> noise, heat and capacity are issues. In a bid to reduce these problems, I
> want to set up a system such that shows will be recorded to the local hard
> drive, then later migrated to NAS. This should have the additional benefit
> of reducing cases where the local hard drive is being used to simultaneously
> record and play back.
>
> Essentially, I'm wondering if it's possible to create a script/combination
> of scripts which would perform the following:
>
> 1. Check if any recordings are being used, or have jobs scheduled
> 2. Check if there is space available in the "Remote" storage group
> 3. Move available recordings from the "Local" storage group to the "Remote"
> storage group
>
> Additionally, it'd be good if recordings in the "Remote" storage group could
> still have Myth's auto-expire functionality applied (so the drive wouldn't
> fill up entirely) despite the fact that recordings will never be scheduled
> against it directly.
>
> Any advice would be appreciated. My experience in writing scripts for linux
> is minimal, but I have some basic programming experience.

First of all, this seems like a bad idea to me. It complicates things
when it is unnecessary. Myth is designed to handle the essentially the
same functionality you want without adding the complexity you are with
scripts and moving files around. Rather than getting a NAS it would
probably be a better idea to move your BE to where you are planning on
puttiing your NAS (and add storage if you need it). Then get a
separate frontend. This is the way mythtv was designed to operate. A
NAS is nice if you are turning your other systems off and you want a
low power always on source for you storage. But since your backend is
always on it seems like a good idea to use that as your main storage
as well.

If you already have a NAS and want to utilize it why don't you just
record straight to the NAS? Or if you have the NAS storage in the same
storage group then you can just freely move files between the NAS and
local drives and mythtv won't care where the file actually is, as long
as it is in the same storage group. Also if the NAS is just added to
the storage group then mythtv will try to balance the load accross the
local and NAS drives so moving stuff around shouldn't be necessary at
all. If you don't have the bandwidth, then Gbit ethernet cards and
switches are incredibly cheap these days.


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