unRAID (some additional tips)

[willieb]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I asked about the resolution thing, because if the box is changing resolutions on channel changes, it can definitely throw the HD-PVR for loops. Being locked is going to be much more reliable, but if you do want the native resolution of the channel, I'd recommend a pretty significant wait-after-tuning delay to give the boxes output time to steady out before having the HD-PVR try to lock onto it.

Got it. Then I don't think my issue is related to this, but it can't hurt to try something different. Mine initially tunes perfectly fine. It just drops out for 30 seconds or so a few times in the middle of the recording.

[wayner]

My recording errors also occur on recordings from an HDHR for OTA recordings, as well as from the HD-PVR. I do record to the drive pool but I have changed all my drives to never spin down and that didn't change anything. I don't record a lot usually just a 2-3 shows a day and I rarely have more than two simultaneous recordings.

[willieb]

Originally Posted by wayner

My recording errors also occur on recordings from an HDHR for OTA recordings, as well as from the HD-PVR. I do record to the drive pool but I have changed all my drives to never spin down and that didn't change anything. I don't record a lot usually just a 2-3 shows a day and I rarely have more than two simultaneous recordings.

Just to keep the information flow going, I don't think I have seen this on an HDHR recording yet (either OTA HDHR or FiOS HDHR Prime).

I record to an SSD cache drive. I have not changed any settings related to how frequently the cache gets moved by the mover to the share, but I assume it does this before the cache drive gets full.

I actually don't recall seeing any setting related to frequency of the mover, but I can't say I have looked for it.

I also think my OTA HDHR recordings require more MB/sec than my HDPVR recordings do, so it wouldn't seem like a drive speed issue to me. Maybe a USB speed issue, though. Although if it is USB speed, I never had the problem in windows so it must be a linux driver issue. And the fact that Stuckless isn't having problems suggests it is not the driver...

[wayner]

I will try recording to a cache drive to see if that helps. You are right that HD-PVR recordings are at a lower bitrate.

But the difference is also the interface and from what BobPhoenix has been finding is that it may be an issue with USB ports in unRAID.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by willieb

Just to keep the information flow going, I don't think I have seen this on an HDHR recording yet (either OTA HDHR or FiOS HDHR Prime).

I record to an SSD cache drive. I have not changed any settings related to how frequently the cache gets moved by the mover to the share, but I assume it does this before the cache drive gets full.

I actually don't recall seeing any setting related to frequency of the mover, but I can't say I have looked for it.

I also think my OTA HDHR recordings require more MB/sec than my HDPVR recordings do, so it wouldn't seem like a drive speed issue to me. Maybe a USB speed issue, though. Although if it is USB speed, I never had the problem in windows so it must be a linux driver issue. And the fact that Stuckless isn't having problems suggests it is not the driver...

The mover schedule is configured in Settings -> Scheduler. It does not pay attention to how full the cache drive is. If the cache drive doesn't have enough space on it (determined by that particular share's 'Minimum free space' setting), then it will just write that file directly to the array instead of the cache.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I don't recall doing anything specific, myself, but now that you mention this... I do have my STB set to 720p output. I think I used to use 1080i, but I think that caused issues many years ago, when I first set this up. @BobPhoenix what is your STB set to? Side note... my recording quality is set to grest/best (forget which) and 1hr recordings take about 3.7g of space. I also record a lot less... about 3-4 recordings a night (sometimes a little more). I think your schedule has much more... but still seeing 75% failure rating would be concerning even for the amount of recordings I get. And lastly, the only failed recordings that I used to get were a result of the power supply... and since moving to using the power from the PC case... I haven't had any HALTs in HDPVR recordings.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I asked about the resolution thing, because if the box is changing resolutions on channel changes, it can definitely throw the HD-PVR for loops. Being locked is going to be much more reliable, but if you do want the native resolution of the channel, I'd recommend a pretty significant wait-after-tuning delay to give the boxes output time to steady out before having the HD-PVR try to lock onto it.

My DirecTV STBs were disconnected for a while when I put my account on hold for 6 months. So the box may be back to source resolution rather than fixed. Plus I do remember lengthening the tuning delay quite a bit when I was using SageTV v7 before that and I haven't done that on my V9 server Windows or Linux. I think the tuning delay will fix the start problem and making sure the resolution is locked will fix the disconnects in the middle. At least once I get mine on reliable power. Thanks hadn't remembered the tuning delay setting.

Yes I have ~1TB of scheduled HDPVR recordings in the next 360 hours (according to the "Disc space bar" anyway) and I don't think it is over estimated. The grand total for all tuners is 264 shows 2083.8GBs.

The only thing that confuses me about this is the differences between direct from linux verses from the VM Windows Network encoder. Most of my problems seem to disappear when using the VM network encoder and the same USB card but passed through to the VM for the network encoder verses directly attached. That could be a USB 3.0 problem on unRAID verses Windows I suppose and would likely be fixed going to a USB 2.0 card. Have never used a MB USB port for HDPVR since early in my usage history. Had way too many problems with multiple HDPVRs on the same hub even on MB USB 2.0 ports back then and I don't think that has improved any.

Note I've always used 1080i with my DirecTV/Cable boxes since I first got my HDPVRs so I don't think that was giving me any problems but I will try setting it to 720p just in case.

Also I'm done derailing this thread now and it could be cleaned up if needed or I'm asked. Sorry about that.

[willieb]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

Also I'm done derailing this thread now and it could be cleaned up if needed or I'm asked. Sorry about that.

We are all guilty of derailing this, but I think this is an important topic as more people consider coming over to unRAID. Unfortunately it was split between 2 threads. Some of it is also here. Maybe a mod could move it into its own thread or at least pull the relevant topics from one to another. Or one of us can start a new one and refer back to these.

[willieb]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

The mover schedule is configured in Settings -> Scheduler. It does not pay attention to how full the cache drive is. If the cache drive doesn't have enough space on it (determined by that particular share's 'Minimum free space' setting), then it will just write that file directly to the array instead of the cache.

This is a great tip for new unRAiD users. I got home to an angry wife yesterday because SageTV wouldn't record anything. Turns out, my 250 GB cache SSD was FULL. My "mover" was set to a default "weekly" schedule, so nothing was being moved. I am not sure why it did not default over to the array but it didn't. I changed the mover schedule to daily and set it for 10:00 AM. I figured I have the space for a day's worth of recordings and that is a very low probability time for recording things.

That also led me to discover another tip that I think new users will appreciate. I want my "sagemedia" share set to "Yes" for "Use cache." I originally had set it on "Priority." I now understand that "priority" means unRAID will try to keep things on the cache. If it has to move data to the array because the cache runs out of space, as soon as space frees up on the cache, it will move the data back to the cache. For me, this meant even though I invoked the mover to move my shows from the cache to the array, nothing moved. I don't want any of my shows permanently on the cache, so setting this to "yes" means they will only be on the cache until the next move - which is what I wanted.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by willieb

This is a great tip for new unRAiD users. I got home to an angry wife yesterday because SageTV wouldn't record anything. Turns out, my 250 GB cache SSD was FULL. My "mover" was set to a default "weekly" schedule, so nothing was being moved. I am not sure why it did not default over to the array but it didn't. I changed the mover schedule to daily and set it for 10:00 AM. I figured I have the space for a day's worth of recordings and that is a very low probability time for recording things.

That also led me to discover another tip that I think new users will appreciate. I want my "sagemedia" share set to "Yes" for "Use cache." I originally had set it on "Priority." I now understand that "priority" means unRAID will try to keep things on the cache. If it has to move data to the array because the cache runs out of space, as soon as space frees up on the cache, it will move the data back to the cache. For me, this meant even though I invoked the mover to move my shows from the cache to the array, nothing moved. I don't want any of my shows permanently on the cache, so setting this to "yes" means they will only be on the cache until the next move - which is what I wanted.

You also need to set your minimum space free for the share to a higher number then your largest media file. Then unRAID will consider the cache as full before it really IS and start writing files directly to the array. If you don't do that then it will just continue until the cache drive really is full and your recordings stop. When a recording starts the file doesn't have a size yet so it looks like it would fit on the drive but then after a while it no longer fits and the recording fails. You can get into problems when copying to a share from the network this way too. That is why it is recommended you set the minimum free setting for the share to the largest media file you could have. For me it is a BluRay rip which can get to 50GB max so I have my minimum free setting between 50-100GB. I like to have a little headroom. Also if you have the share set to specific drives and all of those drives are full it will stop completely and not move anything from the cache because you only allowed the share on drives that are full. unRAID will not write to all drives unless you indicate that. Usually you indicate that by not specifying specific drives for the share or not excluding any drives.

[willieb]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

You also need to set your minimum space free for the share to a higher number then your largest media file. Then unRAID will consider the cache as full before it really IS and start writing files directly to the array. If you don't do that then it will just continue until the cache drive really is full and your recordings stop. When a recording starts the file doesn't have a size yet so it looks like it would fit on the drive but then after a while it no longer fits and the recording fails. You can get into problems when copying to a share from the network this way too. That is why it is recommended you set the minimum free setting for the share to the largest media file you could have. For me it is a BluRay rip which can get to 50GB max so I have my minimum free setting between 50-100GB. I like to have a little headroom. Also if you have the share set to specific drives and all of those drives are full it will stop completely and not move anything from the cache because you only allowed the share on drives that are full. unRAID will not write to all drives unless you indicate that. Usually you indicate that by not specifying specific drives for the share or not excluding any drives.

This explains why my cache filled up and unRAID didn't start recording to the array. Makes sense. Thanks. I will change that, too.

[hb4]

Using UnRAID on Firefox with Adblock enabled does not show the user shares on the 'Shares' tab.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by hb4

Using UnRAID on Firefox with Adblock enabled does not show the user shares on the 'Shares' tab.

That's a good point... I noticed using and ad-blocker on Chrome that some of the unRAID UI wasn't functional. I now whitelist the unRAID UI Good one.

[dealsdyker]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

What would you say would/could be better (ransomware) protection?

I had almost every share RW. For now until I figure out something better I changed the majority to read only. MP3s, pictures, etc... lots of static data.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by dealsdyker

I had almost every share RW. For now until I figure out something better I changed the majority to read only. MP3s, pictures, etc... lots of static data.

Good point. I've got lots of stuff like that. I'll probably do something like that too.