Tips for Network Shares?

[jackgibbs]

is it possible to install the subsonic server directly onto the storage device? I have a fun_plugged dlink NAS, and part of the ffp is a mediatomb upnp server...would any of the subsonic downloads work this way (stand alone or linux d/l) I don't know a lot about linux, so if anybody knows if this is even possible it will save me hours of googling.

eta. I should add that I only need this for use with the android app. Any possible limitations with the web interface don't matter to me.

[grant420]

Hi,

I've been enjoying Subsonic for quite a long time, thanks for making it.

However, recently, I moved my library to a NAS device to give my family access without my computer being reliably available. Also, the library's gotten so large that I wanted to RAID it and get it off my internal drives.

Anyway, this has killed Subsonic. The NAS device is hanging off a gigabit ethernet switch. I can watch DVDs mounted directly from ISOs on the device. But Subsonic takes, probably, 30 (or more) seconds to load even the homepage.

I've tried updating the search index (doesn't seem to make any difference). For what it's worth, I can only access the network share with the UNC path (i.e., the mounted drive isn't visible, even if I run the service as me).

So, my question is... does anyone have any tips for speeding this up? Any idea why this would be so slow? It's just barely usable at this rate. This is Vista, and the library is probably 80GB or so. It's running on Tomcat, since I'd read that Jetty was slower. That also didn't make any difference.

Thanks!

Thought I would reply to this older post since I may have some useful information.

I recently experienced the same problem you described after moving my music library to a NAS. However, I'm not running Vista - here's my setup:

*Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 (2x1TB)
*Windows Server 2008 (running on a laptop at home)
*~100GB music library

At first, when I mounted the network share on my Windows server, I was really disappointed in the speed it took to load folders in Subsonic. My music collection is sorted into genres, by folder. For a folder which had ~10 folders enclosed, it was taking ~30 seconds to load up all the folders inside. (I would click on my Japanese folder, and 30 seconds later I would see the 10 folders of Japanese artists.)

However, once I created an ISCSI share on the NAS and mounted it on the server, Subsonic was nearly back to normal speeds. I don't believe any non-server versions of Windows have an ISCSI option, but it worked for me - same physical setup, different protocol.

Uh, Windows Server 2008 is the EXACT same platform as shitty ass Windows Vista.

[Jack]

Hello all,

I have read all forum posts both here and on other forums
i have tried everything i can
removed and reinstalled htc sync / driver 5-6 times now

I cannot get my PC to use the 3g/HSPDA connection using MNS

all methods have the same result

I get connected to the device fine
the network exists but the internet connection fails

PC : win vista 32b home premium
phone : htc hero (orange) standard 2.73 out the box ROM

I am using 2.0.18 htc sync and associated drivers
disabled all firewalls etc on PC.

I can syn perfectly contacts - calendar
The usb mass storage is fine too

the only time i can Gert a connection is after reinstalling all htc drivers and software, then the connection drops after about 5 mins.

HELP ANYBODY

[tguless]

For those of you experiencing very slow directory browsing against your NAS boxes, I am attaching a set of patches I sent over to Sindre to speed it up tremendously at the expense of no cover arts for your albums. The cover art lookups can be turned on and off by changing two new properties in the .properties file.

From my email to him:
"Sindre,

I have a few items I’d like to check in to subversion server.

They are .properties file settings for the server piece.

Added a new CoverartLookupsEnabled setting which defaults to true. This setting allows the user to disable coverart lookups which can be very slow while browsing folders.

Also added DirectoryAttributeLookupEnabled. Setting this to false also speeds up browsing folders tremendously. This setting also defaults to true.

If you add me to the sourceforge project, I’ll check them in myself, otherwise, I’m supplying the patch files in this email.

I had made similar changes a few releases ago but as they never made it into the trunk, when I just did an update, my android client went back to being uselessly slow. Same deal with subair. I have a massive collections which might be the real reason behind it. But the beauty of subsonic is the fact that you can have a huge collection available wherever you go, otherwise, ipod model wins. "

Here are the patches I submitted. I never got a response from Sindre, so I do not know it they'll ever make it into the main repository.

http://flixchamp.com/subsonic/SubsonicPatches.zip

[olivier-FR]

Hi,

Not sure this message is useful but I'm very interest in any patch that speed-up Subsonic when music is on a NAS.
> Kind of "vote for this feature".

tguless : I never patched a java application so, can't use your files ; but definitely thanks !



Olivier
- first message on this forum

[alm]

I've been following this thread and other threads like it for a LONG time now and the bottom line is this:

The Subsonic app clearly is not being efficient when it comes to NAS. I have tested many programs similar to Subsonic where the music resides on a NAS. Currently, I'm using Audiogalaxy. Same NAS. Same mapped drive and I experience NO lag whatsoever when streaming on the LAN or on the WAN to my portable devices.

Obviously, there has to be a way to make this work properly. As it is, it's unusable for me using a Windows 7 PC and a NAS device. The same issues that all of you others have. Slow admin page loading, slow song streaming, doesn't work. It doesn't matter whether I use UNC or a mapped drive. It doesn't matter which ID and password I use to run the service.

I've basically given up on Subsonic because of this issue. While Audiogalaxy does NOT provide nearly the amount of features that Subsonic does, the main feature that I need, which is music streaming, works fine with no lag.

This issue has been around for a long time and I just don't believe that there is no way to fix / patch / alter the way this works.

[lovebags]

This is all very interesting reading as I'm having similar issues. Have been running subsonic on Mac OS X with music on both internal drives and also a Drobo Pro connected via iSCSI and no loading speed issues. I recently set up a duplicate subsonic service on a Windows 2008 VM with a network attached storage mapped. (Had to log in to the subsonic service with my credentials in order for the VM to see the music).

As far as performance goes, any large directory of music on the mapped network drive takes ages to load, if it all. However, any music locally hosted on the C: of the VM loads with no speed problems. I get the same slow speed issues when loading the shared storage to the mac installation via smb. So unless I can increase the C: of the VM I'll need to stick with the Mac set-up for now. I'm planning an ubuntu VM next with cloud storage so will see how that one compares.

[tnt533]

Just a thought here... You say Samba sucks in a mixed environment but have you ever thought about the fact that the only reason we NEED Samba is because of M$'s insistance on trying to force everyone into their products through closed systems/architecture? Just a thought. An application or protocol can only do so much depending on the level of access it has to the underpinnings of the systems it has to interface with hence if the architecture of windows file sharing were designed to be interoperable with non-microsoft systems...

I am having the same issues as others here with slow performance but it is what it is. It's only an issue when indexing my 300gig collection off the network share. Playback and web interface performance are not an issue. Indexing takes a fortnight though! I have my music stored on my main box which I use daily and the server is running off of a dedicated box. The server is headless and running Ubuntu 11.04 and my workstation, Mint LMDE 11.

I swear, the next RTFM I get from some doofus kid who just learned to chain command line commands and thinks he's Matthew Broderick in War Games... is going to put me over the edge.

Well if that's all it takes, might I direct you to a bridge in Brooklyn?? lol




Hey...I didn't mean to come off in a "RTFM" kind of way.
My reply was not based on any assumption as to your level of knowledge or experience, rather on my own personal experiences:

Anything UNIX + anything Windows = Oil + Water
You might be able to mix the two...but only after some vigorous stirring...try a blender even.

Java has nothing to do with it...well...perhaps it does...As I had no issue accessing files directly on the NAS when not using subsonic. Though I did notice that the NAS seemed to throttle down my bandwidth. Then again, there is no doubt a substantial amount of file buffering that takes place when accessing a file using this method.

When I first started using Subsonic I envisioned a Windows based web server and a Linux based Nas solution...Secure and user friendly..right??

NOPE!

I built my own NAS using Freenas and a custom XP iso using Nlite for the Web server.

I was using a small 100Mbps network at the time.
No matter what I tried, the throughput on the NAS, could never climb beyond 60mbs/Sec, up or down. This was based on the NAS's own internal bandwidth graphs.

Thinking that Freenas was to blame, I tried OpenFiler..No Change
I then tried Ubuntu as the file sever...no change.
I then tried SUSE..no change

The moment I moved the web server to Ubuntu...it was all good.
It would seem that windows was the problem..right?...not so fast.
I decided to host both the media files and subsonic on separate Windows boxes. The result was the same! The performance was what it was supposed to be....the conclusion??...SAMBA sucks...

Well, it doesn't suck....Its just not good in a mixed environment....how ironic.

So in my mind, for best performance, keep subsonic and its media on the same platform.

Sincerely,

"Doofus kid"

[olivier-FR]

Hi,

I've possibly found a workaround for the slow speed for Network Share. The workaround is : share using NFS instead of Samba.
On Windows 7 I found Nekodrive https://code.google.com/p/nekodrive/. You give IP user to neko drive and it create a new windows 7 drive.

On my Subsonic server that solution really speed up web interface and Android client ! I configure NekoDrive in no-cache mode. Didn't try with.

You can try this workaround if your shares are accessible with NFS (most NAS are).



Olivier

[jofafrazze]

Hi,

Not sure this message is useful but I'm very interest in any patch that speed-up Subsonic when music is on a NAS.
> Kind of "vote for this feature".

tguless : I never patched a java application so, can't use your files ; but definitely thanks !



Olivier
- first message on this forum

+1, Subsonic is so slow it's useless for me as of now.

@tguless: Can you offer any more help regarding the patches for us noobs? I only find "subsonic-booter-jar-with-dependencies.jar" and "subsonic.war" in the Subsonic installation folder, how should I proceed from here?

[gergo]

I am very sad that I had to abandon using Subsonic because of its NAS issues. Now I use Tonido with the same NAS drive, and what a difference! Browsing and playback is instant. Also very fast (and free) music playback on Android devices.
I am sorry for that but I cannot use Subsonic until these NAS issues are fixed

[toto_fla]

Hello everyone.
I'm learning a lot of things by reading this post. I'm disapointed because of that problem :
In my case,
Subsonic is running on WinXP - my music is stored on a NAS Lacie 2big Network - both are connected with RJ45 (not Wifi) - my network is with fix IP adresses (No DHCP),
The result is : not possible to browse correctly my directories (slow activity - freezing - or bug).

Those problems are the same on the Subsonic HTTP interface and when I try to use iSub MS on my Iphone.

I've tried Tonido, and W-streamer (with W-Mode server), both worked perfectly with my configuration - very fast and no lag
The problem with those 2 Apps : You can't manage your playlist without downloading the music on the device - or changing the place of the files (all together in the same directory).
This option is available on iSub MS - and I'm looking for desperetly an Apps that could do the same.

Now I am convinced to forget definetly Subsonic and in the same time iSub MS

So my questions are :
did someone know an Iphone Apps like this ?
or
Did iSub MS could worked with another WinXP server rather than Subsonic ?

Thanx everyone for the answers you'll be able to give me - and sorry for my poor english.

regards

[seecoolguy]

I have both iSub Streamer on iOS which works so flawlessly with my dyndns account that I did not think that for one minute that was the problem with my Android Devices. In fact any web browser was -slow- getting to my music library but I discounted it, as I kept thinking that it was *my* slow upload speed at home. my ISP hasn't given me anymore speed but I did finally setup the *.subsonic.org address and viola my android device loads my music library, it's slow and no where as fast as the iOS device, but it can get to my play list. (loading music was always slow, but working).

my setup:

Windows 7
Subsonic 4.6.beta1 (build 2501) (using the web server from Subsonic NO IIS)
SMB share from Netgear off my router

result:
streaming over iOS devices like butter (slightly better performance loading music playlist), streaming over android finally works without timeouts, slow loading of large playlist but works (Finally!!!)

now I can use my iOS on the road, but my Android @ work !!