[mythtv-users] Media server? Unraid vs Freenas

[Jan Ceuleers]

On 09/03/2020 01:13, Ian Evans wrote:
> For those of you storing your video collections on a media server, are
> you using Unraid, Freenas or something else? And why that choice? 

My video collection is stored on internal disks within my backend
machine. It has 14TB of SSDs, as follows:

# lsdrv
PCI [nvme] 05:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics
Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM961/PM961
└nvme nvme0 Samsung SSD 960 EVO 250GB                {S3ESNX0K329939W}
 └nvme0n1 232.89g [259:0] Partitioned (dos)
  ├nvme0n1p1 93.13g [259:1] ext4 {2a39e062-c0b5-4227-90f3-8f0c9169986d}
  │└Mounted as /dev/nvme0n1p1 @ /
  ├nvme0n1p2 1.00k [259:2] Partitioned (dos)
  └nvme0n1p5 18.63g [259:3] swap {48e54493-2aea-492a-9d74-630630cbc1f2}
PCI [ahci] 00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 200 Series PCH
SATA controller [AHCI mode]
├scsi 0:0:0:0 ATA      ASMT109x- Fast   {____7Hyb__}
│└sda 3.64t [8:0] ext4 {7b0c4e46-a064-4d00-9848-9a68f56ab9cd}
│ └Mounted as /dev/sda @ /mnt/disk5
├scsi 1:0:0:0 ATA      CT2000MX500SSD1  {1815E1367C0D}
│└sdb 1.82t [8:16] Partitioned (gpt)
│ └sdb1 1.72t [8:17] MD raid1 (0/2) (w/ sde1,sdc1) in_sync 'dracor:0'
{0daa32d0-9b1d-c3a6-c273-ef4b64d5cd09}
│  └md0 1.72t [9:0] MD v1.2 raid1 (2) clean
{0daa32d0:9b1dc3a6:c273ef4b:64d5cd09}
│   │               ext4 {a8955a51-0086-432b-a90f-83553010301e}
│   └Mounted as /dev/md0 @ /home
├scsi 2:0:0:0 ATA      WDC WDS200T2B0A- {181631800117}
│└sdc 1.82t [8:32] Partitioned (gpt)
│ └sdc1 1.72t [8:33] MD raid1 (1/2) (w/ sde1,sdb1) in_sync 'dracor:0'
{0daa32d0-9b1d-c3a6-c273-ef4b64d5cd09}
│  └md0 1.72t [9:0] MD v1.2 raid1 (2) clean
{0daa32d0:9b1dc3a6:c273ef4b:64d5cd09}
│                   ext4 {a8955a51-0086-432b-a90f-83553010301e}
├scsi 3:0:0:0 ATA      ASMT109x- Fast   {jŹ__=_ϫ_}
│└sdd 3.64t [8:48] ext4 {64c3d268-7752-4d6b-96fc-180f1573178a}
│ └Mounted as /dev/sdd @ /mnt/disk4
└scsi 5:0:0:0 ATA      Hitachi HUS72403 {P8GU499P}
 └sde 2.73t [8:64] Partitioned (gpt)
  ├sde1 1.72t [8:65] MD raid1 (none/2) (w/ sdc1,sdb1) spare 'dracor:0'
{0daa32d0-9b1d-c3a6-c273-ef4b64d5cd09}
  │└md0 1.72t [9:0] MD v1.2 raid1 (2) clean
{0daa32d0:9b1dc3a6:c273ef4b:64d5cd09}
  │                 ext4 {a8955a51-0086-432b-a90f-83553010301e}
  └sde2 1.01t [8:66] ext4 {cd3cf806-9ff7-4cbc-8f25-f67a1dec6647}
PCI [ahci] 01:00.0 SATA controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
88SE9235 PCIe 2.0 x2 4-port SATA 6 Gb/s Controller (rev 10)
├scsi 9:3:0:0 ATA      Samsung SSD 860  {S416NB0K504879M}
│└sdf 1.82t [8:80] ext4 {29f6e1a5-8a03-4b08-a8f4-b1e6ab4d752a}
│ └Mounted as /dev/sdf @ /mnt/disk7
└scsi 9:4:0:0 ATA      Samsung SSD 860  {S416NB0K504873B}
 └sdg 1.82t [8:96] ext4 {46e701c6-091c-4aee-bc44-f1fbf6a84bae}
  └Mounted as /dev/sdg @ /mnt/disk8


Among these disks only sde is spinning rust, used as the hot spare for
the RAID1 set which hosts /home. The other partition on that drive,
currently not mounted, is used for dirvish backups.

You might not recognise the sda and sdd devices above. These are
https://www.addonics.com/products/ad2m2sar.php each hosting two 2GB M.2
SSDs.

This setup is very quiet (since there's only one spinning disk, in
addition to the fans in the enclosure), consumes very little power and
generates very little heat. The speed is a bonus. The cost is not.

Each of the /mnt/disk? mount points contains a mythtv directory, each of
which contains subdirectories for recordings, videos, etc. These are
populated as mythtv storage groups.

Most of the space is taken up by recordings (MPEG2) since the videos
were encoded using the much more efficient H.264.

You might have noticed that there is no redundancy in this setup for
volumes other than /home. This is the case because in my opinion
recordings not valuable, and my videos all consist of ripped DVDs which
I can just rip again (they are stored in the attic).

I can recommend a setup such as this if you like speccing and building
your own machinery. If you prefer to use off-the-shelf devices then a
NAS may be better, but I have no operational experience to share.

HTH, Jan