by GJ51 » Tue Mar 19, 2013 4:58 pm
I see this sort of thing and get flamed a bit for my comments regarding, but I'll do it again for the sake of new Subsonic users and those considering trying Subsonic, Madsonic, Music Cabinet. or any other Subsonic branch.
I have several servers and some of those are running Hyper-v VM's which allows me to test all this stuff frequently and to play around with different configurations without corrupting baseline installations. My very first server was an HP ex485 that we bought when they were first introduced. It's still running today. It is running the original software, WHS v1 but the hardware has undergone some upgrades. It now has a 3.0GHz dual core Xeon CPU and 4GB of ram and has 4 2TB hard drives. It just sits on the shelf humming along day after day needing virtually NO attention and whenever I do an occasional logon and check event viewer there are NEVER any errors in event viewer.
It has been running Subsonic in one form or another for several years - AND HAS NEVER CRASHED.
I've suggested and still would argue that 99% of the issues we see here in the forums are primarily self-inflicted wounds that are the result of underlying problems on the host machine's OS or user impatience during the installation/upgrade process.
I'm not trying to cast aspersions on anyone's tech abilities here, but Subsonic is a complicated application that does require above average skills to install properly and troubleshoot. It's just the nature of the beast. One of the benefits of using SS is the education the user will get by learning everything one needs to know to get it up and running. It takes a little effort and the primary skill sets needed are PATIENCE and the ability to READ. Lacking either of those one would be better served sticking with iTunes.
We seasoned vets take a lot for granted. We've learned how to set up our routers, open ports, set static ip addresses, install Java, and do all the other things involved in setting up Subsonic. There may actually be the occasional new user who downloads and install SS and gets it to work on the first try, but I would think that percentage is VERY low. Most new users first need to understand and figure out the routing and firewall issues. Then there is the whole Java and database relationship thing that is the SS Achilles heel. Almost any installation/upgrade glitch will screw the pooch and I always back up my data before doing this just in case something doesn't go right. This can also get easily screwed by any improper shutdown/restart even ones caused by automatic upgrades from MS.
There may be newer database technologies that have better self-recovery abilities than what Subsonic uses that would help avoid some of these problems. I don't know, I'm no expert on the subject.
I'm only trying to point out here that a properly set up Subsonic installation can run indefinitely without any problems at all. It's usually when we try to fix what ain't broke that we end up shooting ourselves in the foot.
And all that is before you get into the whole ffmpeg transcoding thing!
Gary J
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