XBMC Thumbnails on Just One Drive?

[sacretagent]

well it would be nice if they would make this configurable

i am not in immediate danger for this as i update always from my main machine

as i put a new movies first through ember .... then move it to the folder it is supposed to be and in the late afternoon i let xbmc scan for updates (engage it manually)

but if they would allow you to disable upgrade from some boxes that would eliminate the possibility that for example a kid pushes the button

anyway time will tell i guess

[brimnac]

I've been thinking about doing this for quite sometime too. It's not clear to me though if any of you are running the SSD solely for thumbnail + mysql databases?

 

In other words, what I was considering is keeping my 1.5TB cache drive running all my plugins and doing a lot of the data rewriting from downloading and moving files while having an additional small SSD (maybe 30GB or so) mounted somehow as an 'external' drive to not waste a drive in the tower. To maintain some sort of redundancy, I'd envision a simple rsync script to copy the SSD thumnail + mysql databases onto a small portion of the cache drive.

 

That's what I think I'm going to end up doing (for now, until Frodo is out and stable), then afterwards just for MySQL use. I have a 60GB drive not in use; is there anyone out there that has a quick link or info on how to set something like that up with SNAP and the MySQL plugins (I think I've seen some people use a separate drive for Apps, so when they turn off or reset unRAID they don't need to wait for the file lock to be removed)? No worries if not - I'm honestly not trying to be lazy  , I just think there are so many guides out there it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, and any help truly is appreciated.

 

I'll mount mine in my case, as I have 4 drive bays open still. I am just going to get one of these: http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=80

 

Thank you very much, once more. This has been really helpful so far.

[brimnac]

OK - So I added a 60GB SSD drive and figured I'd do the following (if anyone is still keeping up on this thread and has more information, much appreciated):

 

• Precleared the SSD drive using SNAP
  
• Formatted to ReiserFS using unMENU
  
• Named "scratch" in SNAP
  
• Mounted and shared in SNAP
  
• Copied over the MySQL folder from my cache drive to my "scratch" using Midnight Commander ("mc" (without quote) in Putty) and preserving the permissions
  
• Pointed my install of MySQL to the new scratch drive
  

 

My only question now is what happens at reboot? Does SNAP automatically mount this dude each time I log in, or do I need to add more commands to my go file to make that happen?

 

Currently the go file looks like this:

#!/bin/bash
# Start the Management Utility
/boot/config/plugins/snap/snap.sh -b

/usr/local/sbin/emhttp &/boot/unmenu/uu

cd /boot/packages && find . -name '*.auto_install' -type f -print | sort | xargs -n1 sh -c 

rm /tmp/crontab /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root-

/usr/local/sbin/cache_dirs -w -B -m 1 -M 10 -d 9999

chmod 777 /tmp

[brimnac]

Just a heads up to anyone that wants to try this: It works great, and I'm pretty sure the above steps should work for anyone. I re-scanned my library (I really don't care that much, just takes time) which gave me new thumbnails across the board and significantly cut down on the size of that.

 

When Frodo comes out this may be for naught, but for now this was really worth the time it took (and I learned some more about features I hadn't used).

 

Thanks for everyone that helped on this, your support was really appreciated!

[unraidnoob]

sounds interesting... so does it mount on reboot? are all your plugins there or just the xbmc share files?

[brimnac]

sounds interesting... so does it mount on reboot? are all your plugins there or just the xbmc share files?

 

I just have my MySQL plugin mounted there and the Thumbnails. It mounts on reboot without me having to think of doing it. If I get a bigger drive I may make it the cache, but for now it's just a spare.

[instableoxymoron]

I'm completely lost at this point. Hoping someone can help. Here is my config:

 

UnRaid server running the latest 5+ build, installed unmenu and mysql. 6.5TB but only 4.5TB storage and I have a 128GB SSD cache drive installed.

 

Win7 machine. Works fine. I created a symlink and it sees all of the thumbs and it loads without any problem over our gb network.

 

Openelec - I can't get this one to work at all. Since I'm running OE on an 8GB thumb drive my preference is to not have any thumbnails on this share. I have a smb share so we can play videos but no thumbs so far. I think I need to setup a simlink but I cannot figure out how to do this yet.

 

Frodo doesn't inspire me at all. We have a slow internet at the moment and my preference is to not have machines that my wife and kids use to be stalled downloading for minutes. I want to be able to turn these machines on and be ready to go.

 

From all the reading I have done it sounds like one possible solution is to store media on the the share in unraid that has the movie? At this point I am worn out and hoping anyone can help!

[brimnac]

I'll look at how I have my Symlink setup for Openelec 2.0 this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Reply to this thread if you don't get the help you need before, as I get email notifications.

 

I'd do it now, but I'm at work and my machine is in suspend mode.

 

Thanks!

[instableoxymoron]

Thanks! I am at work as well but will be on late tonight. Any input would be helpful.

[eroz]

I'm completely lost at this point. Hoping someone can help. Here is my config:

 

UnRaid server running the latest 5+ build, installed unmenu and mysql. 6.5TB but only 4.5TB storage and I have a 128GB SSD cache drive installed.

 

Win7 machine. Works fine. I created a symlink and it sees all of the thumbs and it loads without any problem over our gb network.

 

Openelec - I can't get this one to work at all. Since I'm running OE on an 8GB thumb drive my preference is to not have any thumbnails on this share. I have a smb share so we can play videos but no thumbs so far. I think I need to setup a simlink but I cannot figure out how to do this yet.

 

Frodo doesn't inspire me at all. We have a slow internet at the moment and my preference is to not have machines that my wife and kids use to be stalled downloading for minutes. I want to be able to turn these machines on and be ready to go.

 

From all the reading I have done it sounds like one possible solution is to store media on the the share in unraid that has the movie? At this point I am worn out and hoping anyone can help!

Are you using frodo or eden?

[instableoxymoron]

Using Eden on both. I've read enough about Frodo to not really want to implement it. It seems like it is still pulling Thumbs to the local drives but using the database to speed up where the URL's are online. Well that doesn't help if you do not want to store locally and if you have crap internet. The only benefit I can think of is if it is possible to link to my local share on the unraid server rather than it linking to an online URL.

[eroz]

Using Eden on both. I've read enough about Frodo to not really want to implement it. It seems like it is still pulling Thumbs to the local drives but using the database to speed up where the URL's are online. Well that doesn't help if you do not want to store locally and if you have crap internet. The only benefit I can think of is if it is possible to link to my local share on the unraid server rather than it linking to an online URL.

 

I don't use openelec but I found this

Configuring OpenELEC

When done, we're going to modify the advancedsettings.xml on your OpenELEC machine:

 

Go to the userdata map via Samba and open the file advancedsettings.xml with notepad or something similar.

 

Inside this file, paste the following between '</samba>' and '</advancedsettings>'

 

  <videodatabase>

    <type>mysql</type>

    <host>10.0.0.10</host>

    <port>3306</port>

    <user>xbmc</user>

    <pass>xbmc</pass>

  <name>xbmc_video</name>

  </videodatabase>

  <musicdatabase>

    <type>mysql</type>

    <host>10.0.0.10</host>

    <port>3306</port>

    <user>xbmc</user>

    <pass>xbmc</pass>

    <name>xbmc_music</name>

  </musicdatabase>

 

 

 

Change the host tags to the IP address to your NAS, without a portnumber. If you changed the username or password, make sure you update them in the config before you save.

After that, save the file and reboot your box.

 

Than, inside XBMC, go to "Settings -> Video -> Library" and select Import library.

Select the video database file inside the downloads map and hit OK.

 

Go to "Settings -> Music -> Library" and select Import library.

Select the music database file inside the downloads map and hit OK.

 

As the files are re-imported into your OpenELEC machine, they will populate the MySQL library instead of the local library.

 

 

Shared Thumbnails

Last of all we're going to share the thumbnails/fanart, so all of the machines have the same thumbnails (and so we're keeping less on local boxes):

 

On the same NAS that is providing the MySQL database create a new share called "XBMCthumbnails". This map must have read/write access.

 

Browse to the network shares of each OpenELEC machine, open the map 'Configfiles' and open the file 'netmount.conf'. In here, create a mountlink to the new "XBMCthumbnails" share, using the mountpoint /storage/Thumbnails. How this should be done is explained inside this file - but look here for help using network shares.

 

Now reboot the system to make the mount work.

 

After the reboot, go back to the OpenELEC network shares and open the "Userdata" share. Inside, browse to "Thumbnails" and copy everything in the share to the "XBMCthumbnails" on your NAS. This might take a few minutes - longer if you're on WiFi.

 

After the copy has finished, rename the "Thumbnails" folder in the OpenELEC share to "Thumbnails.bak".

 

Then, make a symbolic link to enable the shared thumbs library to be the default for XBMC's Thumbs:

 

Open a terminal session (using SSH) and type the following:

 

ln -s /storage/mount/Thumbnails /storage/.xbmc/userdata/Thumbnails

 

(Help using SSH)

 

You can check if the Thumbnails section is set up correct by giving this command:

 

cd .xbmc/userdata/Thumbnails

 

 

 

If you can enter it, well done!

 

If you can't enter, there is something wrong.

Remove the symlink with:

 

rm .xbmc/userdata/Thumbnails

 

 

 

Then go to the userdata map:

 

cd .xbmc/userdata

 

 

 

Try to make the link here:

 

ln -s ~/mount/Thumbnails/ Thumbnails

 

 

 

And try again if it works:

 

cd .xbmc/userdata/Thumbnails

over at the openelec forum.

[instableoxymoron]

Thanks I appreciate that but I have read it as well and it has been confirmed that this is old. Netmount.conf is no longer valid or used. I guess that is the problem with having three different things being constantly developed (xbmc, unraid, & openelec). Once someone publishes a good guide it becomes obsolete in a few months.

 

I think the key is this part:

 

ln -s /storage/mount/Thumbnails /storage/.xbmc/userdata/Thumbnails

 

I was trying this but the first part of the task would be to mount the drive. Another thread indicates that mounting didn't work unless they mounted to the main folder //Tower but wouldn't work for //Tower/Thumbnails. Another user indicated it might be possible to mount //Tower then separately mount /Thumbnails after? I'm very new to Linux and have no clue.