MM in network: best choice of hardware/software?

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willyvds
Posts: 439
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 3:30 pm

MM in network: best choice of hardware/software?

Post by willyvds »

We are 2 heavy MM users, and want to share 1 library. We use MM from 4 networked XP PC's. One of the PC's hosts the MP3 collection, and the MM database.
We experience a lot of problems (locked database, error messages, crashes, MM hanging). This happens especially when one of us is doing something else than just listen to music (synchronizing, tagging, ripping etc).

As far as I understand this is probably caused by the fact that sqlite is not well designed for a network environment. But maybe there are ways to reduce the trouble....

So: are you running MM in a networked environment succesfully? What hardware do you use? All Windows? XP or Vista? NAS or file server or ....? Specific virus scanner? Any other suggestions for improvement?

Regards, Willy
Last edited by willyvds on Tue Feb 02, 2010 11:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
raharris
Posts: 86
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:02 am

Re: MM in network: best choice of hardware/software?

Post by raharris »

I am a sort of network user.
Several XP computers, 1 MAC

All music is on NAS drives (4 now)

Whole system is wired EXCEPT from the (single) PC that does the streaming to multiple Airport expressii

Thus system is a network but there is only 1 MediaMonkey user (hence "I am sort of a network user").

Nevertheless, in this configuration, I reliably (100% of the time) stream to up to 3 Airport expresses. No drop outs, lockups, etc, even when PC is doing other stuff (like moving lots of data around the network). PC is an older slow machine - single core, etc.

I have tried 2 Maxtor NAS drives (work but vacuum cleaner loud fans at times), Passport drive - quiet and works and recently an IOCELL device container. I really like the IOCELL because one just pops an ESATA drive into the box and the drive can be USB or NAS or ESATA. I was able to plug in USB and NAS without hassle or issues. They are quiet and look ok. They have various sizes and one can bind 7 devices together

Hope this helps

raharris
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: MM in network: best choice of hardware/software?

Post by Lowlander »

The problem seems that SQLite isn't designed for multi-user environments. I ran into errors when running two instances on the same machines for a local database myself. The network does add additional slowness as large amounts of data might need to be read if you have a large database.

Maintaining a local copy of the database might be the only way out of this. You could try lowering the database robustness and see if that solves your issues, but make a backup copy in case you encounter problems. I also believe that the latest beta release might have some improvements for users who work over the network.
raharris
Posts: 86
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:02 am

Re: MM in network: best choice of hardware/software?

Post by raharris »

So let me ask this.

If you had
music files in an accessible location on a network, shared
multiple machines on network that can see the music files
Media Monkey on each machine that can see the music files
a database on each machine created by scanning the music files on that PC

Could one that have each machine accessing the files simultaneously thus playing independently of each other?
Would there be any contention issues, ie trying to play same song at same time or displaying files in a library at same time or running a search query at same time?

thnaks
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: MM in network: best choice of hardware/software?

Post by Lowlander »

There should be no problem having multiple machines accessing the tracks simultaneously. The only issue you could run is the NAS device being slow or bandwidth, but this shouldn't be the case for most users.
willyvds
Posts: 439
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 3:30 pm

Re: MM in network: best choice of hardware/software?

Post by willyvds »

Yes, indeed this (multiple databases, shared MP3 collection) is the solution we have in mind "if nothing else works".

But there is a serious downside: if you have your own database you also have your own playlists and non-mp3 info (like playcount).

That setup is what we had with Windows Media Player, and it was the exact reason why we switched to MM in the first place!

Now we like MM for so much more, but we don't want to give up our single database. And therefore we're wondering if a NAS (or anything....) would help.

Regards, Willy

PS Lowlander: I've tried the different settings, but it didn't help. But: I'll try again with the new release, you never know! Thanks.
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: MM in network: best choice of hardware/software?

Post by Lowlander »

I myself was disappointed that SQLite seems to have issues with multi-user environments whereas MS Access was able to manage this. I would have though that SQLite would be significantly better in this area as a known MS Access weakness is multi-user environments. I definitely urge to try out the latest beta release as it's said to have improvements for network access of the DB.
willyvds
Posts: 439
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 3:30 pm

Re: MM in network: best choice of hardware/software?

Post by willyvds »

Lowlander, yes, I've done that, latest build as soon as it was available. But unfortunately, it doesn't help. That's why I concluded to start this thread to try and find another work around.
Regards, Willy
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: MM in network: best choice of hardware/software?

Post by Lowlander »

I just realized that you have a thread going on this topic in the Beta forum. I would suggest to wait to make a decision and see if this issue can be resolved before the final release of MediaMonkey 3.1.

PS. I myself use multiple databases in my network setup and it works well. As mentioned the drawbacks are play data and playlists. For manual playlists you can do mass export (Tools > Scripts > Export All Playlists), but for auto-playlists this wouldn't work well (as they're criteria based). Have you attempted hosting the database on a different machine on your network (to rule out the machine being the problem)? Start at the fastest machine and work you way down. Also attempt running no security software (disconnecting from the internet is advised during this) on the machine hosting the database to make sure that the software isn't causing the database locks.
willyvds
Posts: 439
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 3:30 pm

Re: MM in network: best choice of hardware/software?

Post by willyvds »

We have put all MP3's and the MM library on a NAS, some months ago. It has solved all the problems mentioned above! Great!
Regards, Willy
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