Best way to transition to new storage

[coryking]

So I bought myself a spiffy new Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ and 6TB of disk space. I would like to move the existing ~3tb of videos from my SageTV server to the NAS. However, even at gigabit speeds, this operation will take over two days*. Unless I want to be single again, shutting down the SageTV service while this operation completes is simply not an option!

My strategy is to use mirroring software and simply mirror all the video directories onto a directory on the NAS the SageTV doesn't know about yet. Then when all the video directories are synchronized, I'll shut down the SageTV service, delete the videos off the SageTV server, move the videos from the "hidden" NAS directory into the one SageTV knows about, start up the SageTV service and let SageTV deal with the moved video files as outlined in the FAQ.

While this process is completing, the lady of the house wants to delete a bunch of junk videos (probably 500 gigs) in order to reduce the amount of stuff to move over.

My question is, once she frees up the disk space, is there a good way to tell SageTV to stop writing to the video directories on the server and use the video directory on the NAS instead? I don't want any new videos recorded on the server--it will make it almost impossible to finish mirroring.

If you can think of a better way to do this, I'm all ears as well. Thanks!

* the system it is on is an old P4 and doesn't have enough horsepower to saturate a gigabit connection.

[JetreL]

Sounds like a good plan. In the past I have just deleted the stuff I only kinda wanted and then started the copy. Either way it will take forever!!! Just a FYI

[coryking]

Yeah, it is estimating it will take 44hrs just to copy the 1.5tb drive. Then there is a 750gb drive to copy as well.

She is planning to free stuff up, but I dont want SageTV to start using the freespace.

[aflat]

I haven't done it myself, so you might test it first. I'm assuming you want to move your recordings to the NAS, and that is what is going to take so long? If so, just tell Sage to move your recordings directory to your NAS, and then tell Sage that your old recordings directory is just an import directory. Then you will have all recordings, and Sage will be recording to your NAS. While Sage is not in use, just move the recordings from your old to your new dir.

I think this should all work, I know that you can have import files show up in your recordings list, and if they are already in the recordings list, they should stay there, even if it is an import dir.

[thomaszoo]

What I have always done is add the new storage as a recording directory first and then change the rule on the old storage to use less than what it currently occupies. And then I move the files at night when no one is watching anything (and Sage is shut down).

Wayne

[Fuzzy]

Is there actually a reason you want to move the current recordings off the server itself? You should be able to just add the NAS as a recording folder, and new recordings will go there (if you don't want any new recordings going to the server HD, then you can remove it as a recording drive, and add it as an import source - it will still show/access the recordings, just won't record from there.

As she/you delete old recordings, they will start freeing up on the server drive.. after a while, if for some reason you DO want to remove that drive, you can then do the move operation (I don't see any reason why sage would have to be shut down for this... perhaps it would be best to just remove that folder from the import library before doing the move). Once they are moved to the NAS, run a refresh from in sage, and you'll be done.

[mayamaniac]

It's pretty safe to move files around with v7, but back up your wiz.bin file just in case. Just start copying/mirroring files overnight before you sleep, I'm sure it's not gonna take that long to move 3TB. I moved 2TB recently and it took less than a day, and that was to a 5400rpm green drive.