Easy way to speed up Fanart browsing

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by sflamm

Fuzzy,

What are you using for you read-only disk cache?

Thanks in advance.

I've been running FancyCache, basically on every system, for a while now.

[dgeezer]

I just wanted to say thanks for this thread. With the new update to Phoenix my cached fanart directory is now only about 400mb. My server is an older athlon 64 with only 3GB of ram. I didn't think that I had enough ram to do a dedicated ram disk for my Fanart.

I installed FancyCache on my server last night (volume version) and set it to cache my C: drive only. This seems to have made a huge difference in browsing my movies on both the HD200 and HD300. I'm running Gemstone and it seems faster overall, not just in the movie flows.

Should I leave set the cache to read/write or set it to read only? I'm thinking that I only need the read enabled. My server stays on 24/7, would a ramdisk just for the fanart cache be more efficient?

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by dgeezer

Should I leave set the cache to read/write or set it to read only? I'm thinking that I only need the read enabled. My server stays on 24/7, would a ramdisk just for the fanart cache be more efficient?

After the Phoenix changes, I'll definitevely recommend to use a RamDisk cache instead, that way you can safely benefit of read/write caching without risking to mess-up the C: drive and most importantly the Wiz.bin file, unless you have an UPS system and a well established backup plan.

Eddy

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by routerunner

After the Phoenix changes, I'll definitevely recommend to use a RamDisk cache instead, that way you can safely benefit of read/write caching without risking to mess-up the C: drive and most importantly the Wiz.bin file, unless you have an UPS system and a well established backup plan.

I'd really like to just find something that's easy to set up. I'm OK with it not being the fastest or more efficient method.

Is the fancycache method "safe" if I set the caching strategy to "read-only" and I disable deferred writes?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by reggie14

I'd really like to just find something that's easy to set up. I'm OK with it not being the fastest or more efficient method.

Is the fancycache method "safe" if I set the caching strategy to "read-only" and I disable deferred writes?

Should be perfectly 'safe', but for extra precautions, you can always just cache a secondary partition, and use that for sage/fanart.

The fears about it somehow corrupting the system drive on a power loss are a little overreacting, as this can happen just as easily with windows' built-in cache. FancyCache simply has a disclaimer about it on their page to protect themselves.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Should be perfectly 'safe', but for extra precautions, you can always just cache a secondary partition, and use that for sage/fanart.

The fears about it somehow corrupting the system drive on a power loss are a little overreacting, as this can happen just as easily with windows' built-in cache. FancyCache simply has a disclaimer about it on their page to protect themselves.

It seems like you couldn't do a whole lot of damage with a read-only cache...

I have another partition, though, on my OS drive that isn't doing much. I could move my fanart location there. Do I need to do anything special to move it, other than simply moving the folder, changing the location in BMT, and changing the location in the SageTV settings?

[Fuzzy]

Nope, that's all it takes to move the FanArt source folder - however, that won't change where sage stores it's scaled cache - which is coded to the sagetv/userdata folder. You could use a directory junction to force it to the other drive - but I'd just assume run the whole sage install from the cached drive.

[reggie14]

Hmmm, good point. Maybe I'll just make sure I have nightly backups and I'll hope for the best.

It really doesn't seem like a read-only cache should be very risky.

[sflamm]

but I'd just assume run the whole sage install from the cached drive.

Is that what you do? Run the whole SageTV installation directory from a cached drive?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by sflamm

Is that what you do? Run the whole SageTV installation directory from a cached drive?

Yes, though in my case, it IS the C Drive that is cached on my server. I have a UPS feeding it though, so I'm not worried about any write-behind loss - and haven't had a problem yet. If you are concerned, you can always go with the read-only - but if you were that concerned, you would think you'd be disabling window's built in write cache as well. My server has 12GB ram, and 4GB of that is used for fancycache on the C drive.

[sflamm]

Not concerned with loss of the RAM disk... my server is UPS protected as well.

What do you think about using a junction point to direct the SageTV directory to a RAM disk? The folks that make FancyCache appear to make a reasonably priced product 'Primo Ramdisk' (http://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/p...isk/index.html). It has an 'Image File' feature that allows the RAMdisk to have a physical disk backing.

Thoughts?

[sflamm]

Not sure what data loss one would be concerned about with SageTV using an image file backed RAMDisk...

Worst case you would lose the latest version of the .wiz... everything else would be in the last image. The recording are still written to physical disk (not RAMDisk)

What am I missing?

[Fuzzy]

I, personally, see no reason to use a RAMDisk. It won't give you anything you can't do with FancyCache, and is a lot more trouble to manage.

[sflamm]

Not sure what the overhead to manage a RAMDisk is... simply set it up and configure it to load/save an image. Point the junction link to it and done.

The advantage of a RAMDisk is that it doesnt require you to use a separate disk or logical volume. You can keep you existing disk structure in place as is...

[sflamm]

just to be clear... the goal is *not* to cache an entire c: drive but specific directories on one or more drives into the RAMDisk (i.e. c:\program files\sagetv and d:\fanart) onto a common RAMDisk.

[sflamm]

My server has 12GB ram, and 4GB of that is used for fancycache on the C drive.

In this configuration there is no guarantee that the sagetv directory is being cached...

A RAMDisk with a folder junction will guarantee that the 4GB of RAM is dedicated to the sagetv directory

[sflamm]

I noticed that FancyCache is under a 180-day beta evaluation. However, it doesnt seem to have changed version since 04-12.

Does the beta actually expire? And if so how do you renew?

There does not seem to be a purchase option yet... is that correct?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by sflamm

In this configuration there is no guarantee that the sagetv directory is being cached...

A RAMDisk with a folder junction will guarantee that the 4GB of RAM is dedicated to the sagetv directory

Actually, on a dedicated SageTV server, it's pretty much guaranteed to only have the relevant information in Cache, especially if the purge algorithm is set to LFU-R (least frequently used).

[sflamm]

Excellent point.

Unfortunately my server isn't dedicated to SageTV (domain controller).
That's why I was looking to cache specific directories on the server.

However, my dedicated SageTV software clients would certainly benefit from your point.

Do you know the answer to my Q above about the license/renewal terms for the beta?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by sflamm

Excellent point.

Unfortunately my server isn't dedicated to SageTV (domain controller).
That's why I was looking to cache specific directories on the server.

However, my dedicated SageTV software clients would certainly benefit from your point.

Do you know the answer to my Q above about the license/renewal terms for the beta?

Mine has never expired.