Using Arch as a media server

Slax · 2010-09-02 11:12:33

I plan to use Arch as a media server, for an Arch-based media center at my TV.

I don't want to deal with RAID, so I'm planning on running large single-partition disks to hold media, each with a slightly bigger disk for doing rsync incremental backups. For serving the media I'll be running openSSH and mounting the media volumes over SFTP from the media center.

I'll also be running a webserver on this machine. Someone suggested that I run the webserver on a virtual machine to segment it securely from my precious media.

Does all of this sound like a fine idea?

Last edited by Slax (2010-09-02 11:13:30)

litemotiv · 2010-09-02 12:05:05

I have a similar setup at home, it works great. If you're going to use network-storage i wouldn't use SSH for the connection since it is much slower than NFS. I also wouldn't run a webserver on the same machine, since the (possibly) large amount of small random reads/writes is detrimental to your streaming capacity. Webspace is very cheap these days so just host it somewhere online, there are even some people offering free VPS-space here on the forums: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=95732&p=1

Slax · 2010-09-02 12:18:06

Ok I'll look into NFS. However, I have some roommates that might like to poke around with my files, so I was planning to rely on the security of SSH.

There will be literally 20 feet of ethernet cable between the server and the media center so I'm hoping the overhead wont be an issue. As for the webserver, I'd like to control my uptime, and I have great free internet service and electricity right now, so if you think disk IO will be an issue then I guess I'll set up another box for that purpose.

litemotiv · 2010-09-02 12:38:55

Slax wrote:

Ok I'll look into NFS. However, I have some roommates that might like to poke around with my files, so I was planning to rely on the security of SSH.
There will be literally 20 feet of ethernet cable between the server and the media center so I'm hoping the overhead wont be an issue.

The overhead is mainly that with SSH each packet needs to be encrypted and checked separately, so that makes it less suitable for sending continuous high-bitrate streams. For your scenario, you can roughly expect around 30-50% less performance than with NFS, depending on the bitrate of the stream.

As for the webserver, I'd like to control my uptime, and I have great free internet service and electricity right now, so if you think disk IO will be an issue then I guess I'll set up another box for that purpose.

This is something you will have to test, maybe a webserver won't draw too much capacity but it depends on your hardware. For instance a gigabit connection, fast harddrive (multiple drives is better) can make a lot of difference.

zenlord · 2010-09-02 16:12:55

I have a mediaserver running on Arch64 with following services:
* ps3mediaserver: upnp/dlna to my ps3 for all images, audio and video
* NFS: filesharing
* SSH: controlling the headless server
* rtorrent: downloading and seeding
* apache + PHP + postgresl: webserver
* webmin: installed out of curiosity - it shows useful information.

jac · 2010-09-02 19:25:10

Also something you should make sure of is that your can legally host material with your ISP. For instance, with my ISP (Road Runner), if somebody were to ever find out about any host I might do I'm sure my internet would be canceled and who knows what else... The terms of service is where you should look

Dieter@be · 2010-09-02 19:42:43

i use mediatomb. works quite fine. don't use virtualisation unless you need it

Cape · 2010-09-02 19:54:37

Plenty of stuffs you can do with linux as a server!
But i wouldn't use it as a media center since X does not support vsyncing and ALSA doesn't like surround: http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/Dmix# … ound_sound.

ould · 2010-09-12 23:55:12

Cape wrote:

Plenty of stuffs you can do with linux as a server!
But i wouldn't use it as a media center since X does not support vsyncing and ALSA doesn't like surround: http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/Dmix# … ound_sound.

I disagree, ALSA works great for surround, vsync also seems to be not a problem in my experience. I have 4 Arch boxes all running XBMC, 3 are strictly XBMC boxes that do nothing but play movies, tv shows and music. One is hooked to a fairly substantial Home Theater system and surround works with no problems whatsoever and most of the content played on that box is HD material(i.e. movies). The other 2 boxes are mainly for TV watching. And the last box is my main rig which also acts as my fileserver and for day to day use, 2 of the xbmc boxes actually netboot off this machine as well so no disks in those two so they are almost silent(both have a small almost inaudible CPU fan).

As others have said definitely use NFS for your file sharing.

Kevin

Cape · 2010-09-13 15:22:26

Really... if you've managed to get your video output V-Synced, please...please!!! Tell us how you did it!

And did i mentioned Blue-Ray discs?

Texas · 2010-09-13 15:47:02

@ould - you say use xbmc to watch tv shows... streaming only or dvr? My understanding is that xbmc does not do tv tuner / dvr. Does one use a mythtv backend to record and xbmc as a front end?

Primoz · 2010-09-13 17:54:35

I'm also interested in this thread. I'm playing with an idea for media server. On which I would store music, videos and more (if this would be possible). But I would also use it as FTP server. Actually I thought this would be one and the same thing. But I don't know anymore...

So please do share.

I actually don't have a computer for this, so I wonder what kind of hardware do you actually need for a media server. I was thinking to build something like a net-top just with out any fancy stuff just a lot of disk space for all the media....

.:B:. · 2010-09-13 22:45:58

Cape wrote:

And did i mentioned Blue-Ray discs?

And how is that Linux's fault? Because that's how you make it sound. Do you think Sony will allow you to play Blu-Ray stuff on your homebrew computer, running the hacker OS that Linux is?

I am using Xbmc on an Arch setup btw, hooked to my Full HD LCD, and it works flawlessly. No vsync issues either.

Texas wrote:

My understanding is that xbmc does not do tv tuner / dvr. Does one use a mythtv backend to record and xbmc as a front end?

That is in the works indeed, and scheduled for inclusion in the next stable release (not the upcoming one, the one after).

Cape · 2010-09-14 19:36:51

I'm never ever going to blame linux or any other FOSS project for anything.

I'm just making a statement here. And as always... linux (kernel) is great for multimedia, but X, ALSA and the lack of support for crappy monopolistic standards like Blue-Ray discs makes linux (system) an unfortunate choice for a media center.

About vsync (which has become a fixation for me...), it's just not possible either with or without composite. Simply there's no piece of code in X to allow applications to sync to the refresh rate of the screen . It might be that playing around with configs and using a decent composite manager (like compiz or kwin) gets you to a point where it almost looks like... but no.

Also, HDMI audio output can be a pain to set up with certain audio/video cards.

brisbin33 · 2010-09-14 19:50:12

i suppose i'll share my experience:

My desktop

Arch 64 running [testing], nvidia-beta, and kernel-ck
Runs my website
Shares lots of media via type-specific samba shares
Music always playing through MPD

My mediacenter

Runs XBMC with media sources as those samba shares
Nvidia GT210 with HDMI working great through Alsa

everything is running really smoothly on both sides so, it can be done -- pretty easily too.

Last edited by brisbin33 (2010-09-14 20:17:17)

pseudonomous · 2010-09-15 18:46:42

Going back to Slax's original post:

I would recommend using raid and/or lvm partitions on the server, they really aren't that hard to administer/setup and they offer you much easier scalability in terms of storage space. I mean, you can grow an LVM volume (and then grow the fs partition on top of it) quite easily if you just stick another disk in the server. But if you replace a disk on a physical harddrive's partition, you have to copy the contents of that entire partition to a hardrive on a newly partitioned hard-disk.

You can also shrink other lvm volumes to make room to grow a different volume (but then you have to be careful of the filesystem you use on top of the LVM volume, some filesystems, e.g. XFS can't be shrunk). Raid can also potentially speed up disk access times, depending on the Raid level and/or CPU bottlenecks. (Raid 4/5/6 all have a significant CPU overhead for parity calculations on write).

I would also point out that Samba/CIFS offers another way to share files over your network, which will also allow windows-running computers to access your files shares. Also, Samba/CIFS has a reasonably easy to setup password-authenticated security model. On the other hand, non-authenticated NFS is dead easy to setup, and securing NFS might not be harder than setting up Samba for any purpose. Basically, I'd recommend Samba if you're interested in sharing in files between Windows-running computers and your server, otherwise NFS is probably a better choice.

rwd · 2010-09-17 13:47:45

I have a similar setup for a homeserver/nas: two hard disks and a rdiff-backup cron job making incremental backups of one disk to the other. I chose no lvm/raid, because my data will fit on one hard disk in the foreseeable future and I figured booting from usb to mount/fix stuff on the hard disks is more straightforward. Watching hd media mounted on a sshfs share works without any stuttering, so I'd say give it a try. I did choose a somewhat less resource intensive cipher (blowfish-cbc) in ~/.ssh/config.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-09-02 11:12:33

Using Arch as a media server

#2 2010-09-02 12:05:05

Re: Using Arch as a media server

#3 2010-09-02 12:18:06

Re: Using Arch as a media server

#4 2010-09-02 12:38:55

Re: Using Arch as a media server

#5 2010-09-02 16:12:55

Re: Using Arch as a media server

#6 2010-09-02 19:25:10

Re: Using Arch as a media server

#7 2010-09-02 19:42:43

Re: Using Arch as a media server

#8 2010-09-02 19:54:37

Re: Using Arch as a media server

#9 2010-09-12 23:55:12

Re: Using Arch as a media server

#10 2010-09-13 15:22:26

Re: Using Arch as a media server

#11 2010-09-13 15:47:02

Re: Using Arch as a media server

#12 2010-09-13 17:54:35

Re: Using Arch as a media server

#13 2010-09-13 22:45:58

Re: Using Arch as a media server

#14 2010-09-14 19:36:51

Re: Using Arch as a media server

#15 2010-09-14 19:50:12

Re: Using Arch as a media server

#16 2010-09-15 18:46:42

Re: Using Arch as a media server

#17 2010-09-17 13:47:45

Re: Using Arch as a media server

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