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Storage Solutions for our OUT-OF-CONTROL iTunes Libraries

FivePoint, I was inspired by your diagram and went ahead and put mine together:


Click for Detailed PDF


Storage and backup are a big thing for me. Not only do I have my iTunes library to worry about, but I'm a photographer so my life's work is stored on HDDs! I've put together a very redundant system of Local HDDs, Online storage, a local Time Capsule, and an Aperture Vault and Pocket HDD in a bank safety deposit box.

Have a look at the PDF for a close up.

Btw, with regards to stacking, I thought it over and decided to put the Time Capsule on my work bench instead of stacking it with the tv. :)
 
iPedro,
VERY nice setup. I love the chart too... wow! I think you made the right choice with the stacking. HDs hate the heat. ;)

-five
 
^ I gotta give you credit where it's due. It was the look and feel of your chart that inspired mine.

I thought I'd add some more detail by separating things by rooms and by local and offsite (indicated by being in or out of the house diagram).

Having an offsite Time Machine HDD and Aperture Vault really give me peace of mind. Every few weeks, I'll go to the bank with my laptop, update the Time Machine and Aperture Vault and put it back in the safe.

In the meantime, having a 1TB Time Capsule at home backing up in the background without any worries is the first line of defense.

I also upload all my 4 and 5 star rated photos to SmugMug online, another off site redundancy.

Finally, I have another online FTP, where I upload all my home businesses' archived dockets.

I gotta say, peace of mind is worth big bucks I tell ya!
 
jb60606 said:
holy s---, that's a rip-off. For that price, I would think that there are several other feasible alternatives.
Click to expand...

Got a much better deal with Apple :rolleyes: Drobo v2 + 2 x 1TB HDD

guess the price









£719


i kid you not ! such a joke i had a pop at them via there online chat ;) Play.com have it in for £329 so i'll go with them
 

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Superman07 said:
I'm sure this will come up in another thread as well...

What does this new Firefly app allow Drobo to accomplish that it can't otherwise? I thought others were already putting their libraries on Drobo (maybe music more than movies).

http://www.drobo.com/droboapps/downloads/index.php?id=11
Click to expand...
Firefly turns the Drobo (or other devices, my ReadyNAS NV+ has had this for some time now) into an iTunes Server. This means you do not have to keep a main computer always on to have your library be accessible to other clients on the network.

Since this is the AppleTV forum, it should be noted that Firefly can not be used to connect directly to an AppleTV as it doesn't know how to handle the PIN setup to establish the connection. I really hope some crafty programmers can figure this out... I'd love to be able to take my iMac out of the equation when streaming to my AppleTV.
 
avid content buff

I have an out of control DVD collection that I ripped to my server (took many months). Right now my iTunes library stands at ~ 1500 movies (from DVD) and ~ 2500 TV shows ripped from TV-on-DVD or downloads.

Initially I had my music in the library as well, but the load times were too long over my 2 appleTVs, so have the music on my 24" iMac (which sync's to my iphone/ipods).

The video fills up a 6.1TB ATA drives (you don't need anything terribly fast) - I bought some cheapy Venus T4U cases off of newegg that work great and do not get hot or run loud. I have them copied straight to multiple drives (no RAID). This allows them to run longer since the drives that aren't being used are spun down and rarely accessed. I have 4x750g in 2 of these cases. I have another separate 750g drive as well. Still have another 400g to go to fill it up. All of these drives are plugged into a 1.6GHz Intel Mac Mini which is fast enough for my uses. You don't need anything fast here to serve up your stuff. Its running headless in a closet without issue. I have it set to boot up automatically around when I get home from work and turn off automatically in the wee hours of the morning when no one would likely be watching. This setup has run flawlessly for me since the AppleTV first shipped (over a year). I have everything hardwired and have no issues streaming to 2 appleTVs simultaneously.

The biggest issue I have is finding new content. TV shows are listed nicely with the blue dots when new content is uploaded but movies are not. I have everything streaming (my 40g appleTVs are empty except maybe some podcasts or photos).

I know that its a little risky having no RAID, but I think its made up for the fact that I only really spin up the drives to watch a movie on any particular drive VERY rarely since the content is spread across so many drives. Also its not a HUGE deal to rerip 150 movies if I need to. I have catalogued which movies are on which drive so replacement won't be that big a headache just time.

Been using this system FREQUENTLY for over a year and haven't had any hardware issues (knock on wood) and aside from the mac mini not turning on/off automatically once in awhile for whatever reason, I have not had to think about this setup at all. I even removed my DVDs from the shelves and packed them away in closet to free up shelf space and have not missed them at all. YMMV, but thats my happy experience.
 
NightStorm said:
Firefly turns the Drobo (or other devices, my ReadyNAS NV+ has had this for some time now) into an iTunes Server. This means you do not have to keep a main computer always on to have your library be accessible to other clients on the network.

Since this is the AppleTV forum, it should be noted that Firefly can not be used to connect directly to an AppleTV as it doesn't know how to handle the PIN setup to establish the connection. I really hope some crafty programmers can figure this out... I'd love to be able to take my iMac out of the equation when streaming to my AppleTV.
Click to expand...

Nice...I read your first statement and then immediately had a question, only to have it answered by your second statement! With regard to your second statement... :(
 
bokonon said:
I have an out of control DVD collection that I ripped to my server (took many months). Right now my iTunes library stands at ~ 1500 movies (from DVD) and ~ 2500 TV shows ripped from TV-on-DVD or downloads.
........

Been using this system FREQUENTLY for over a year and haven't had any hardware issues (knock on wood) and aside from the mac mini not turning on/off automatically once in awhile for whatever reason, I have not had to think about this setup at all. I even removed my DVDs from the shelves and packed them away in closet to free up shelf space and have not missed them at all. YMMV, but thats my happy experience.
Click to expand...

Cool! Spanning across multiple drives is an interesting take on storage that I hadn't thought about before. It won't be for everyone but I can see it working in this case!

I am about to purchase a Core Duo 1.66, very much like yours, and am happy to hear that it doesn't have a single problem streaming... how is it with HD playback though?
 
Hey, just found this thread yesterday and read the first 10 pages and a couple of the last pages. I will be re doing my set up here in the next couple of weeks (moving out of parents house) and I have a couple questions. Currently what I have is an iMac, 500gb external hd, and a 320 (i think)external hard drive. I am in the process of ripping my dvds and right now they are kinda all spread out between the iMac and externals. I also have AEBS and will have an :apple:tv. So my questions are, I saw alot of the drobo in the pages I read how do you like the drobo and do people still recommend the drobo? I am confussed about the raids and the beyondraid, what is the used for protection part for the drobo isn't it basically a backup of the files on the drive so if one drive failed you just pop in another drive and its like as if nothing happened? I read about people worrying about backing up there drobo's because I do not mind buying one drobo but do not want to buy two to back up the one :D (hopefully I'm not to confusing)
so if you had AEBS, :apple:tv, and a drobo what is the best way to have it all hooked up?

thanks for all the help sorry for the long post :confused:
 
Borjan said:
Cool! Spanning across multiple drives is an interesting take on storage that I hadn't thought about before. It won't be for everyone but I can see it working in this case!

I am about to purchase a Core Duo 1.66, very much like yours, and am happy to hear that it doesn't have a single problem streaming... how is it with HD playback though?
Click to expand...

I have a few Blueray rips and they work just fine. Not sure how wireless would work, but at least for hardwired connection I have no problems with it.
 
If the Drobo runs as a proper iTunes server via that app, can you synch iPods, iPhones etc over the network?
 
With the iTunes app for Drobo...do you have to have the network adapter, or can you host it from the Drobo and simply plug that into something like an APBS (or similar AP w/ USB) to share that way via the network?
 
Superman07 said:
With the iTunes app for Drobo...do you have to have the network adapter, or can you host it from the Drobo and simply plug that into something like an APBS (or similar AP w/ USB) to share that way via the network?
Click to expand...
I think it requires the DroboShare or whatever they call that ethernet add-on, but don't quote me on that.
 
Well I've been using my USB drobo for a little more than a week and after some initial problems it appears to be working fine. The unit had trouble updating, but after trying several times it took. It works exactly as I had hoped.
 
DROBO reliability?

t0mat0 said:
Snow Leopard on a Mac mini, ZFS, and a lot of external hard drives. Oh yes.
Having seen the problems with Drobo, I kept well away - If you're going RAID, you may as well have a properly used form of it. I don't want all my drives going down.
Click to expand...

Am looking at DROBO as primary daily backup too - but Amazon has mixed reviews.

It seems like generally, this thread is positive on the DROBO, but the Amazon reviews shows signs of catastrophic failure when ALL 4 drives fail.
Could consider a 2nd level backup (a superduper clone/smartbackup) to a single drive?

Any comments or insights on the DROBO reliability please?
 
phelix_da_kat said:
Am looking at DROBO as primary daily backup too - but Amazon has mixed reviews.

It seems like generally, this thread is positive on the DROBO, but the Amazon reviews shows signs of catastrophic failure when ALL 4 drives fail.
Could consider a 2nd level backup (a superduper clone/smartbackup) to a single drive?

Any comments or insights on the DROBO reliability please?
Click to expand...

Well, I actually think I was one of the reviewers on Amazon. My initial problems with the FW800 V.2 have not repeated themselves (lost access due to a defunct FW800 port during firmware upgrade) since the replacement unit arrived about 5 weeks ago. I have 4 1TB drives loaded providing about 2.7TB of useable space and am slowly using MTR and HB to convert my 500+ disc DVD library over to the Drobo for streaming to my two ATV's, currently have about 900GB of data loaded. Streaming via my AEBS has been faultless with the Drobo attached directly to my iMac. I do leave the iMac on 24/7.

With respect to reliability, as indicated above, no problems since my initial issue, but I have taken the precaution of backing up my photo and home movie (not DVD) library to Amazon S3, about 65GB, as worst case I do have the DVD's to copy from again. Down the track I will look at getting a Burly 4 bay array and running a software RAID0 backup of the Drobo, but I will wait until the 2TB discs come out next year before doing this. The Drobo forum appears to have plenty of people with issues so it certainly is a technology that is not exactly mature. But for ease of use and quiet operation I think you would be hard pressed to find a better solution for non-technical people. Providing that you consider it as a redundant scratch disc, rather than a true backup. For this I would recommend going with a second backup of some description, and if another array, consider swapping out the discs from time to time for offsite backup.
 
Questions about Drobo

This may be a dumb question. I've googled and can't find much of use.

I currently have all of my data (about 700 gigs) stored on a 1 TB iomega external HD. I really need to back all of this up! I only have it partially backed up onto a separate 500 gig external HD. I'm therefore interested in the drobo; it sounds slick. Would it be possible to disassemble the iomega and place that drive into the drobo with other drives?
 
Cuthbert said:
This may be a dumb question. I've googled and can't find much of use.

I currently have all of my data (about 700 gigs) stored on a 1 TB iomega external HD. I really need to back all of this up! I only have it partially backed up onto a separate 500 gig external HD. I'm therefore interested in the drobo; it sounds slick. Would it be possible to disassemble the iomega and place that drive into the drobo with other drives?
Click to expand...

No, don't do that. Any drive in stick in Drobo get's formatted.
 
So Ive out grown my WD 1tb and so I just got the WD 4TB nas external drive... Im trying to figure out if I should use raid 5 or raid 1... LOL... total nebee.... ive read all the info and im still kinda lost. Going to use it for Itunes music and straight ts folders for movies. O yeah... is it a pain to swap info from one external to another.
 
aaronthomas said:
So Ive out grown my WD 1tb and so I just got the WD 4TB nas external drive... Im trying to figure out if I should use raid 5 or raid 1... LOL... total nebee.... ive read all the info and im still kinda lost. Going to use it for Itunes music and straight ts folders for movies. O yeah... is it a pain to swap info from one external to another.
Click to expand...

Assuming those are 4x1TB drives, RAID 5 would be probably the way to go. You will loose 1 of those drives to raid overhead, but still have 3TB to run with. RAID 1 would just mirror two disks to look alike.

Here's a basic explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
 
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