My theater has a PC that controls its full operation under the direction of the "User" who deals with a Pronto PRO to indicate what is to be done. The only purpose (for now at least) for the unRaid server is to serve the movies to the media player (a Dune 3.0 base unit).

 

I would like to be able to use telnet to send commands to the unRaid system to do simple things starting with Spin up and Spin down the drives, perhaps sleep and Wakeup. The Theater PC has a complete telnet driver that operates programatically with no user at the console. The code also can also issue a ping and a WOL packet. My first approach would be to add a TelNet function directory where I could keep scripts to be executed by simple telnet commands such as "/boot/telnet/spin_down_all". 

 

The question I need help with is how does one tell unRaid/Linux to spindown drives, spinup drives, (sleep I know how to do using echo 3 > /acpi...) and WOL I can do. What other hooks might there be to grab info or status across a telnet interface?

My theater has a PC that controls its full operation under the direction of the "User" who deals with a Pronto PRO to indicate what is to be done. The only purpose (for now at least) for the unRaid server is to serve the movies to the media player (a Dune 3.0 base unit).

 

I would like to be able to use telnet to send commands to the unRaid system to do simple things starting with Spin up and Spin down the drives, perhaps sleep and Wakeup. The Theater PC has a complete telnet driver that operates programatically with no user at the console. The code also can also issue a ping and a WOL packet. My first approach would be to add a TelNet function directory where I could keep scripts to be executed by simple telnet commands such as "/boot/telnet/spin_down_all".  

 

The question I need help with is how does one tell unRaid/Linux to spindown drives, spinup drives, (sleep I know how to do using echo 3 > /acpi...) and WOL I can do. What other hooks might there be to grab info or status across a telnet interface?

easiest is to telnet to port 80 instead of port 23, but if you insist on using port 23...  

 

To spin up a drive

/root/mdcmd spinup drive_num

where drive_num = 0 (parity) through 19

To spin one down

/root/mdcmd spindown drive_num

 

Available "hooks" from telnet are:

ls

ps

free

mount

df

du

kill

ls

/root/mdcmd status

and many more  

 

Other than that, you need to code your own listener.

Thanks Joe, I think that answers my questions. What I am doing is as follows:

 

I use DVD Profiler to manage my full library and export an xml file that my Theater PC control application deals with.

I encode in DVD profiler for each movie on which disk of the array the movie has been ripped to

I store whole movies on a single disk, i.e. I do not allow movies to span a disk.

My control software knows on which disk a movie is stored so when a movie is selected by the viewer it can spin up just that disk. When the theater is shut down for the night it can spin down all the disks or just the ones it spun up that session.

 

That should keep everything pretty cool and green.

 

Is there any documentation anywhere on mdcmp so I can learn what else it can do?

 

If I telnet to port 80 can I still issue the same linux commands or do I need to use http get and post?

 

I have a full telnet lient incorporated in my theater control system so the listner is already done. 

I plan to connect, issue commands and then disconnect.

 

Thanks again, you are very helpful and the help is appreciated.

Thanks Joe, I think that answers my questions. What I am doing is as follows:

 

I use DVD Profiler to manage my full library and export an xml file that my Theater PC control application deals with.

I encode in DVD profiler for each movie on which disk of the array the movie has been ripped to

I store whole movies on a single disk, i.e. I do not allow movies to span a disk.

There is no need for you to spin up any disk.  Simply accessing the movie files on it will spin it up automatically.

My control software knows on which disk a movie is stored so when a movie is selected by the viewer it can spin up just that disk. When the theater is shut down for the night it can spin down all the disks or just the ones it spun up that session.

In the same way, there is no need for you to spin-down any disks.  They will spin down after their spin-down interval.

That should keep everything pretty cool and green.

 

Is there any documentation anywhere on mdcmp so I can learn what else it can do?

Unfortunately, it cannot do much more you will find useful.  The source code for it is in /usr/src  There is no documentation.

If I telnet to port 80 can I still issue the same linux commands or do I need to use http get and post?

No, you'd need to use GET.  I have no idea if it supports POST.

I have a full telnet lient incorporated in my theater control system so the listner is already done. 

I plan to connect, issue commands and then disconnect.

 

Thanks again, you are very helpful and the help is appreciated.

I guess what you need is executing the scripts located on unRAID via rsh from your PC. Just install cygwin on your Windoze box in order to get rsh (and many more linux shell tools). No need to code any listener and such (I guess Joe meant listener on your unRAID box anyway). No need to GET or POST or http to port 80...

 

Btw, I think you are making things more complicated than needed. Read carefuly through the unRAID docs, take a look at YAMJ, C-200... and re-think your strategy.

starcat, I suspect you are correct.  Things are actually going quite well and easily (with all of the great help from this community). As a person who has not toiuched Linux in years I am a little paranoid.

 

I am not sure what strategy you are referring to.  If it is the use of the unRaid server as the stream source for my Dune player, I see nothing wrong with that, and based upon what I have in place (the full librarian based on DVD Profiler) it is the obvious path for me.

 

If it is the use of telnet I am begining to think you are correct and I probably do not need it much at all.  I had a graphical telnet program laying around that I wrote several years ago that I used with a Rohu HD-1000 box and was very convenient for me. It provided a drag and drop interface with text editing and all sorts of file previewing on a windows machine for someone who knew zero about Linux, bash and all of that the ilk.

 

I always want to learn things and am using the development of my unRaid server as a Linux learning experience.

unRAID will do all for you. Just export the share and use it. It will automatically spun down disks not needed and if any program accesses content they will be auto spin up. I guess you do not need streaming but just exporting a share to your Dune player.

Yes I believe what you say is absolutely correct.  I just did not realize that a week or two ago. My only issue right now is do I even want to shut down the server when I know I will not be watching movies.  I am quickly coming to the opinion why bother.  The power drain from the server with all drives spun down will be negligible compared to air conditioning a large home in Central FL.

Absolutely, no need to shut down. And if you decide to shut it down, there are script to monitor client IP addresses (ping and such) and upon no activity (also network activity is checked) to sleep the server ot shut it down. The clients then wake it up by sending a WOL. But, I would not shut it down especially not with numerous clients and not when unRAID is able to spin down all unused drives. The SeaSonic X650W powersupply will shut off its fan if there is less than 20% consumtion and if you use PWM fans there are scripts to shut down other fans depending on case or drive temp (direct SMART reading). WD drives report drive temp eading even when the drives are spun down. So, you get pretty much a "green" server without shuting it down.

I assume your initial Absolutley in your last post is to my comment  "The power drain from the server with all drives spun down will be negligible compared to . . .

 

The only Absolute I fully enjoy is a brand of Vodka.