NFS Suport - any chance of it being added to Drivepool?

Gez777

Hi,
I have migrated from WHS V1 to WHS2011 and bought Drivepool to fill the DE duties.
I am pleased with the performance, but have noticed that HD video I used to be able to stream on my network using my Devolo AV200
homeplugs now stutters and hangs. The only difference is that I had set up NFS shares on the previous WHS V1 box.

I believe if NFS was available i would not have this problem. Is it anywhere 'in the pipeline'? I see that 'Drive Bender' now natively supports NFS, I'd hate to have to jump ship, but I may have to have a look at it if
NFS is a 'Non Starter' on 'Drive Pool'

Thanks, Gerry.           

Shane

Hi Gerry, it looks like NFS is supported by WHS 2011 - http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2011/12/23/guide-setting-up-nfs-in-whs-2011/ - but not by DrivePool at this time. Alex attempted to provide support for it back during the M3 beta stage but ran into a figurative brick wall viz MS's (lack of) docs etcetera: http://forum.covecube.com/discussion/comment/580#Comment_580

However as DB seems to have found a way, and the current DP is rather different under the hood to M3, you might wish to submit a feature request via http://stablebit.com/contact and perhaps Alex will consider revisiting the issue.

Shane

Some more searching finds one person using a shareware program called "haneWIN NFS Server" - http://www.hanewin.net/nfs-e.htm - to set up NFS shares on the pool, but it was not clear how successful they were. http://forum.covecube.com/discussion/comment/2613

Philmatic

I believe if you have the pool reporting as NTFS and you enable NFS Services in WHS 2011, it should work just fine, but don't quote me on that.

Shane

I've now tested CoveFs_ReportAsNtfs set to True with Services for NFS; the pooldrive is still unavailable for NFS usage. I assume that leaves either an update to DP or the use of haneWIN (or similar).

VanillaXtract

I store my movies on my WHS using DP and I doubt the lack NFS is causing the stuttering. Blu-ray spec is 48Mbit/sec which does not require a lot to achieve.

Shane

True. Perhaps there is a software or firmware update available for the "Devolo AV200" device Gerry mentions?

Edit: Gerry, that appears to be an ethernet-over-mains adapter, and shouldn't (in theory) care whether it's ferrying NFS or SMB. While the devolo site does offer firmware updates for it, I'd also be looking at whatever you're using for a media client and whether there are software/firmware updates for that.

Paaland

I use five Devolo adapters myself. Some AV200 and some AV500. Have you run the dLan Copilot software? In addition to letting you firmware-upgrade all your units you can check the transfer speed to and from each of your devices. Make sure you click on all your devices in turn to see the transfer speed they have between each other.

This is an example of a problem I had at home where the speed between two adapters are quite low and caused slow transfer speed. The solution was to move the adaptor and use a longer ethernet cable instead.

NFS is marginally faster then SMB when streaming files. Some devices (like Boxee Box that I use) have faster NFS implementation than SMB, but that said I think that problem lies in the Devolo adaptor-network and not the file protocol used. These adapters are quite sensitive to "noizy" equipment like electrical heaters and stuff with motors. So just plugging something like that to a wall socket used as part of the network can  give you problems.

Gez777

Thanks a lot for all the info guys, I'll have a look at Copilot and SW updates for the Develo's.

I am using an Egreat M34A media streamer taking a feed from my HP Proliant N40L Microserver running WHS 2011 and Drivepool.This replaced my HP Mediasmart E470 Homeserver running WHS v1. Memory has also been increased to 6Gb on the new server. 

The Egreat didn't hiccup with the old kit over the Devolo's but does with the new. When I get a chance I'll stick a film I was having trouble with onto a drive not in the pool and see if that has issues also.

In another room I also have a 'Popcorn Hour' A100 Medai Streamer hardwired to a Gig switch over a hardwired Gig network to the Proliant and I noticed a film freezing today and the sound dropping out on another. This all may be coincedental, but I also do not remember having issues with this box under the old server setup??? Clearly more investigation on my part is required.

The egreat is no longer supported with SW updates, i will update the PCH A100 and see if that improves things, however these boxes were performing fine on their current SW level with the old kit.

Thanks again, Gerry.   

 

 

     

TRaSH

hmm i would like to know if NFS will be supported in the short future,

this is one of the things i would like to to know before i decide to get a license.

beeing that DB seems to support it.

Gez777

It seems that The Develo and/or NFS issue may have been a red herring as one of my drives was failing (although I didn't get much in the way of alerts for this) and so the streaming seemed to be impared due to this. Replacing the drive has restored performance. Checking the drives using 'Home server Smart' provided the best clue. 

TRaSH

will drivepool ever support NFS ?

Shane

This has been a persistent topic, so worth mentioning that the latest 1.3 beta has added NFS Server support. From the changelog:

1.3.2.7545

----------

* [D] Enabled File ID support by default.

      This enables compatibility with the NFS Server, and has a memory usage and performance impact.

      The file system only consumes extra resources if there is a service that is actively querying it 

      for file IDs.

      (Controlled by CoveFs_OpenByFileId)

* [D] File IDs are now recycled when a file is deleted or renamed.

* [D] Fixed MDL based Fast I/O calls (used by NFS Server).

* Duplicated files that were not yet duplicated were not being selected for re-balancing.

Alex

DrivePool now supports NFS in 1.3.2. It was a ton of work and we'll try to get this into 2.X in the future.

Gubi

Hi,
i have installed Drivepool V. 1.3.2.7556 on my WHS2011.
Also i have enabled NFS Service on my WHS.

But, i cant see a tab called “NFS Sharing” in the Properties for my Server Folders!!!

The Properties for my C: System HDD (not in the Pool) show the NFS Sharing Tab
and also all my HDD's shown under "my computer".

How support Drivepool NFS? Why is it not possible to share my Folders in the Drivepool?

Can anyone help?

Thanks!!

xenios

Hi Gubi,

You have to change a configuration file and then restart the server. The instructions are here http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Advanced_Settings

The option you have to change is this one: CoveFs_ReportAsNtfs 

You have to restart the server to take effect.

c0rn4

Hi xenios,

I update DrivePool to 1.3.2.7556, set "CoveFS_ReportAsNtfs" to "True" in DrivePool.Service.exe.config_default, restarted the WHS but in properties of a DrivePool folder I don't get any NFS options like I get on C:\. Anythink else to consider?

Thanks 

Shane

Hi c0rn4, remember to copy/rename DrivePool.Service.exe.config_default to DrivePool.Service.exe.config and make the changes in that.

If you need further help, please post your questions in the new forums at http://community.covecube.com/