Twonky Maintenance Basics Question

General discussion about the media server. Feature requests. Hints, tips and tricks.
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Budgie
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Twonky Maintenance Basics Question

Post by Budgie » Sat Mar 05, 2011 12:40 am

Please could somebody help me with some basic. When I upload additional music tracks to my media database which is on a NAS and served by Twonky, what should I run to have these new files included. (I have rescan set to 0 for the time being as I am ripping a new collection.)

What is the difference between rescanning the content directories and rebuilding the database?

When I restart the server which of these processes is carried out?

How can I lock the media receiver type to a specific mac address/ip address. I save these using the media receivers configuration control page but they are very volatile and often not restored correctly on restart of server. They are certainly not correctly detected automagically


Sorry to be dumb but I am trying to understand some problems I am having at present.

Twonky_Rick
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Re: Twonky Maintenance Basics Question

Post by Twonky_Rick » Sat Mar 05, 2011 1:48 am

I'm not a server expert, but here is what I think is the case.

Q: What is the difference between rescanning the content directories and rebuilding the database?

A: Recanning your content directories happens automatically after TwonkyServer is launched or new content is added. Rebuilding the database is no longer necessary with TwonkyServer 6.0 and later -- unless your having problems with database corruption, deleted playlists not going away or things like media feeds not appearing.

The ability to manually rebuild your database will probably be removed in TwonkyServer 7.0, since an database corruption will be detetected and this process will occur automatically.

Q: When I restart the server which of these processes is carried out?

A: Normally the database is not rebuilt upon restart. Only content is rescanned.

I don't have an answer to your last question, but someone else may.

- Rick
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Budgie
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Re: Twonky Maintenance Basics Question

Post by Budgie » Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:43 am

Hi Rick,
Many thanks for the answers. They have cleared up the design intent at least but I am finding that I must use the database rebuild option if I wish to have newly uploaded files shown, for example on the browser or client devices. If I rescan directories the new files are not shown. I am using qpkg version 6.0.30 on Qnap NAS and will now try further checks.
Hope somebody answers the last question in due course.
Thanks again,
Budgie

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phibertron
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Re: Twonky Maintenance Basics Question

Post by phibertron » Sun Mar 06, 2011 1:07 am

I have seen what you describe happen in older versions of twonky

Currently I use 6.0.31 from Windows Home Server, and have a mixed bag of clients
One of the things I always look for when going to a new version, is the add files test
So, I add a file, then I go check the web interface to see if it shows up
If it doesnt show there it isnt going to show anywhere else either

There is also a different scenario that is interesting
If I am looking at lets say recently added from the PS3
and I add a file, noi matter what I do, the added file will "eventaully" appear
but it will "always" be at the bottom of the list
or worse the whole list goes kaplooey, and i have to retart the ps3
it is a ps3 problem all the way, in how it is cacheing the xml from twonky
I brought this scenario up, so you that you can see that not all clients are equal
and that even if things show up on the web gui, they dont allows show up right
when a client is already on, and has already cached a view, if it caches at all

When I say add a file, that brings me to a question for you
How are you adding files to you NAS
Is it to a shared folder directly ?
Or is it with the upload function from the web interface ?
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10627
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phibertron
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Re: Twonky Maintenance Basics Question

Post by phibertron » Sun Mar 06, 2011 2:24 am

Also

If you are up to looking into your server ini
look for this, what does yours read?

# -1 for evented, 0 for disabled, positive value for rescan time in minutes
scantime=-1

If you arent up to doing it that way do this in a browser
just change <server_ip_address> to the ip or hostname of your nas

http ://<server_ip_address>:9000/rpc/get_option?scantime

it shoulkd read -1 if you want files to be seen upon being added in real time
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10627
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9353
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9408
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9416
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9424
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9364
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9497

Budgie
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Re: Twonky Maintenance Basics Question

Post by Budgie » Tue Mar 08, 2011 11:26 am

phibertron wrote:Also

If you are up to looking into your server ini
look for this, what does yours read?

# -1 for evented, 0 for disabled, positive value for rescan time in minutes
scantime=-1

If you arent up to doing it that way do this in a browser
just change <server_ip_address> to the ip or hostname of your nas

http ://<server_ip_address>:9000/rpc/get_option?scantime

it shoulkd read -1 if you want files to be seen upon being added in real time
Hi Phibertron,
Many thanks for the reassuring replies. I thought it was just me!.

I rip and tag edit if required on a workstation. The tag edits are often needed for classical because some folk tag the album artist as the composer but this wrongly tagged info still finds its way to the database.
When I am happy with the files I upload them to my Qnap NAS box where twonky is running, using rsync.

I have the Twonky set to 0 at present, ie disabled, because I am doing major work on my music data at present and it takes too long if I have it set to anything else.

As things are settling down now I shall try the event setting but my biggest problem is the volatility of the client's characteristics which are not read correctly between restarts.
Will research based on your advice and get back to you.
Many thanks,
Budgie

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phibertron
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AV Hardware:Hardware
========
WHS - HP Ex495
PS3
XBOX 360
iTouch - Gen 2 and Gen 3
PSP - 3000

Encoders
========
Handbrake
x264
ffmpeg
mencoder

Tagging
======
mp3tag

Re: Twonky Maintenance Basics Question

Post by phibertron » Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:05 pm

Yeah, I can see why you have it set to 0 at the moment
doing all of that metadata changeing would make the differences of a rescan or rebuild seem the same
for you at present

As far as the client changeing chaos

out of curiosity, how long is your dhcp reservation set for on you network
mne is like a month, and for the most part the router
will always hand out the previous ip, even though im not using reservations on mac addresses
all bets are off if I reboot the router =)

with that said, I wonder if going static ip by using mac reservations for dhcp would help the client chaos
or incresing the dhcp reservation time to expire
as i really dont see to much of it at the moment
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10627
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9353
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9408
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9416
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9424
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9364
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9497

Budgie
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Joined:Wed Oct 12, 2005 5:41 pm

Re: Twonky Maintenance Basics Question

Post by Budgie » Wed Mar 09, 2011 12:53 am

phibertron wrote:Yeah, I can see why you have it set to 0 at the moment
doing all of that metadata changeing would make the differences of a rescan or rebuild seem the same
for you at present

As far as the client changeing chaos

out of curiosity, how long is your dhcp reservation set for on you network
mne is like a month, and for the most part the router
will always hand out the previous ip, even though im not using reservations on mac addresses
all bets are off if I reboot the router =)

with that said, I wonder if going static ip by using mac reservations for dhcp would help the client chaos
or incresing the dhcp reservation time to expire
as i really dont see to much of it at the moment
Hi, don't recall how long leases are but I think the correct solution is to tie down the mac address at the dhcp server.
Very short of time right now. Will report back in due course.
Many thanks again,
Budgie

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