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Nezmo
The name's Bond. James Bond.
MVM
join:2004-11-10
Coppell, TX

Nezmo to Thinkdiff

MVM

to Thinkdiff

Re: [Beginner] Making the Leap to a Mini

said by Thinkdiff:

You may be clicking on the NAS in the Shared list even though it's already mounted. When you click on it in the shared list, OS X will attempt to login over AFP either as a guest or a stored login.

To avoid this, go to Finder > Preferences > General and make sure Connected Servers are set to show on the desktop. Then only access your NAS from the mounted share on the desktop. At any Finder window, you can also press Command+Shift+C to see the "Computer" view. Your mounted share will be listed there.

As for NFS, it may be worth the trouble to set it up if you can avoid all the headaches with AFP.

Just wanted to thank you for the NFS suggestion and tips. Actually both SMB and NFS work fine and NFS seems faster. I am just grappling with this long filename issue but I am sure I will solve it. Basically, anything with a long filename is getting messed up with the move over to the Mac. But the issue I had with my NAS appears to be solved.

Thank you.

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

No problem. NFS is a bit more native to *NIX systems and is completely open and mature, so I wouldn't doubt it's faster. SMB has to be somewhat of a hack-job as it's a reverse engineering of the protocol (unless Apple licensed it after they dumped samba, but I don't think so).

It's unfortunate Windows has to truncate the file names. Does it do that on a local NTFS volume? Maybe you can mount the share over NFS on the PC to get around the Windows/SMB limitation.

Nezmo
The name's Bond. James Bond.
MVM
join:2004-11-10
Coppell, TX

1 edit

Nezmo

MVM

New question.

The NAS mounted over NFS seems to be performing well. I have gotten most of my iTunes library functioning well on the mini now. I've discovered yet another issue though. It seems that there is a problem with OS X seeing filenames on the NAS that contain special characters and this might be an OS X/NFS problem. For example, if I navigate to folder with the name "Michael Buble" where the final e has an accent (sorry, not sure how to type that on a Mac yet), while the mini may display the file or folder for a second it quickly disappears before I can select it. Sometimes it may not even display.

I do not want to rename all my folders and files on the NAS with special characters in them. Is there some solution to this bearing in mind that at this point it seems I need to stick with mounting over NFS.

Just to be clear, I am not talking about using / or *, etc... just letters that have accents or graves, etc.

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

Option-e + e or just hold down "e"

Sounds like a formatting problem between the NAS's linux system, Windows, and OS X. You may get more help from the NAS manufacturer. Did you have the same problem over SMB?

Nezmo
The name's Bond. James Bond.
MVM
join:2004-11-10
Coppell, TX

Nezmo

MVM

said by Thinkdiff:

Option-e + e or just hold down "e"

Sounds like a formatting problem between the NAS's linux system, Windows, and OS X. You may get more help from the NAS manufacturer. Did you have the same problem over SMB?

I can see and access the files fine using SMB. I considered using SMB versus NFS as a result but problem... With the NAS mounted using NFS I have been fixing links in iTunes. If I switch to SMB for some reason iTunes no longer sees the volume as the same (it resets the location of media back the iTunes default). This means I would need to 'change' the location of my media to point back to the NAS volume. If I do that then I'm thinking I may lose all my fixed links - not sure for certain as the path is the same... just SMB versus NFS.

Very frustrating.

SuperJudge
Raiden Wins
Premium Member
join:2002-11-14
Atlanta, GA

SuperJudge to Nezmo

Premium Member

to Nezmo
I just bought a current gen Mini, and I've been very happy. My only real concerns were the dumping of the dedicated GPU, but the Mini seems to play Black Ops pretty well, so I can't complain about that.

I did, however, get the i7 upgrade on the second Mini (not server), which is really a worthy upgrade for $100--for your consideration.

RiseAbove
Premium Member
join:2004-01-30

RiseAbove to Nezmo

Premium Member

to Nezmo
said by Nezmo:

said by Thinkdiff:

Option-e + e or just hold down "e"

Sounds like a formatting problem between the NAS's linux system, Windows, and OS X. You may get more help from the NAS manufacturer. Did you have the same problem over SMB?

I can see and access the files fine using SMB. I considered using SMB versus NFS as a result but problem... With the NAS mounted using NFS I have been fixing links in iTunes. If I switch to SMB for some reason iTunes no longer sees the volume as the same (it resets the location of media back the iTunes default). This means I would need to 'change' the location of my media to point back to the NAS volume. If I do that then I'm thinking I may lose all my fixed links - not sure for certain as the path is the same... just SMB versus NFS.

Very frustrating.

personally I loath SMB and NFS transfers going to and from Mac's it's ridiculously horrible and half the time it doesn't work right.

What i did in my own home to send files back and forth from my iMac and HTPC(windows 7) was to install the free Filezilla FTP program on the HTPC, then I purchased Transmit for the iMac. From there I did everything in FTP windows and not only did it work faster but it made manipulating files a whole lot faster and easier. So I don't know if that NAS supports an FTP option but if it does you might want to turn it on and use that.

Octavean
MVM
join:2001-03-31
New York, NY

1 edit

Octavean

MVM

Interesting,….

I think my approach would have been to use a an external HDD enclosure connected directly to the Mac Mini. Maybe a JBOD / RAID 5 port or 8 port model. Everything else would connect through the Mac Mini

The way I have things setup now is I just use a Windows Home Server with about 16TB of storage. Everything is easily accessible whether it be OS X or Windows based. There is even a built in iTunes server. I used to be able to backup easily to the server too via Time Machine but upgrading to OS X Lion killed that feature.

Nezmo
The name's Bond. James Bond.
MVM
join:2004-11-10
Coppell, TX

Nezmo

MVM

said by Octavean:

Interesting,….

I think my approach would have been to use a an external HDD enclosure connected directly to the Mac Mini. Maybe a JBOD / RAID 5 port or 8 port model. Everything else would connect through the Mac Mini

The way I have things setup now is I just use a Windows Home Server with about 16TB of storage. Everything is easily accessible weither it be OS X or Windows based. There is even a built in iTunes server. I used to be able to backup easily to the server too via Time Machine but upgrading to OS X Lion killed that feature.

I have two external 1TB HDDs and two 3TB NAS. My media totals about 1.6TB right now and it has been running off the NAS great from Windows for some time. Moving to HDDs was not really the best option for me. The HDDs are just for other storage like photos and video files not used in iTunes and neither one is large enough to house my whole iTunes media library.

Whatever way I turn there's some problem right now. AFP sucks with the NAS. SMB seems okay but sluggish the first time it loads a directory. NFS seems fast but it won't recognize certain files ( and I am not renaming files just to suite OS X as the files represent artist and song names). I may have to switch back to SMB and see how to minimize the repair work I have already done in iTunes.

Quite frankly this is pissing me off now. I have spent WAY too much time frigging with this thing and I'm getting a bad taste in my mouth. As I dig more I can see some of the frustrations legacy users have with ML.

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

Looked into it a bit and it's pretty much what I expected:

OS X uses UTF8 decomposed formatting which is incompatible with the UTF8 precomposed formatting used on most Linux/Windows shares.

If you have access to a Linux computer, you can apparently convert all the naming from UTF8 precomposed to decomposed in one shot (maintaining all of the accents, etc). No idea how this would affect the Windows side, though.

Nezmo
The name's Bond. James Bond.
MVM
join:2004-11-10
Coppell, TX

Nezmo

MVM

said by Thinkdiff:

Looked into it a bit and it's pretty much what I expected:

OS X uses UTF8 decomposed formatting which is incompatible with the UTF8 precomposed formatting used on most Linux/Windows shares.

If you have access to a Linux computer, you can apparently convert all the naming from UTF8 precomposed to decomposed in one shot (maintaining all of the accents, etc). No idea how this would affect the Windows side, though.

Yeah, I'm basically hosed if using NFS.

When I get more time I'm going back to the SMB route. I am willing to be told I have made more of a big deal out of this than I needed to but at this time I don't think so. I wanted to maintain the integrity of my library including play counts, date added, etc. If I'm willing to let iTunes on the Mac rebuild things it may just all be fine but then I lose a lot of history.

I'll report back when I've tried the SMB route.

Thanks again to all who have offered help and suggestions.

I have at least had the sense to keep the Windows iTunes in place for now (another reason for not letting the Mac restructure the media on the NAS).

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

said by Nezmo:

I wanted to maintain the integrity of my library including play counts, date added, etc. If I'm willing to let iTunes on the Mac rebuild things it may just all be fine but then I lose a lot of history.

That was me a few years ago. I started out with my iTunes library on the internal hard drive. Then I moved it to an External. Then I wanted to move it to a network share. After losing play counts once in that period and facing the same problem again when moving to network storage, I decided it wasn't worth it. Deleted everything in the iTunes library, dragged my Music folder from the NAS into iTunes and let it rebuild. The hours I saved wrestling with netatalk, AFP, SMB, etc was well worth it

Octavean
MVM
join:2001-03-31
New York, NY

Octavean to Nezmo

MVM

to Nezmo
Well my HP MediaSmart Windows Home Server is a bit old. Its still running WHS v1 PP3 which doesn’t have support for 2.5GB, 3TB and 4TB HDD’s. That can be a bit limiting because 2TB HDDs is the largest option left. I also have a bunch of 3TB HDDs (5x) that I intend to use with a new server. Since I have a TechNet subscription I may have a few options there with respect to OS.

Still you might want to look at something like this for inspiration:

Using Apple OS X Lion Server as a Home Server (Part 1)

My initial response to your setup configuration was based on the understanding that your Mac Mini was connecting to your NAS to serve devices like an AppleTV. I just see it as simpler to have the data directly connected to the Mac Mini (via Thunderbolt, FireWire or USB 3.0) because in theory there is the potential to reduce network traffic.

However, I get that you’re interested in using your NAS and maintain history, meta data, ect.

Nezmo
The name's Bond. James Bond.
MVM
join:2004-11-10
Coppell, TX

2 edits

Nezmo

MVM

Ejected the NFS mount, mounted the NAS over SMB.

Running iTunes again pointing to the NAS (now over SMB). Address of the NAS is 192.168.0.31 (and was under NFS too, ie, unchanged). I now get the following message in iTunes when I try to fix links. I believe this is the address that the NAS was a few days ago (my router was reset). Any ideas why iTunes is trying to connect to ....16? Note that when I first change the media location in iTunes it updates iTunes okay. I get this when I do a Get Info.

It appears that somewhere the previous IP address of the media location is stored.



RiseAbove
Premium Member
join:2004-01-30

RiseAbove

Premium Member

said by Nezmo:

Ejected the NFS mount, mounted the NAS over SMB.

Running iTunes again pointing to the NAS (now over SMB). Address of the NAS is 192.168.0.31 (and was under NFS too, ie, unchanged). I now get the following message in iTunes when I try to fix links. I believe this is the address that the NAS was a few days ago (my router was reset). Any ideas why iTunes is trying to connect to ....16? Note that when I first change the media location in iTunes it updates iTunes okay. I get this when I do a Get Info.

It appears that somewhere the previous IP address of the media location is stored.

[att=1]

was that the address of your NAS before you reset the router? If it was then that is why it is spitting that out. Unless your NAS is going to have a static IP your links in Itunes will be broken each and every time that IP changes. It will be a constant shell game from that point forward.

Nezmo
The name's Bond. James Bond.
MVM
join:2004-11-10
Coppell, TX

Nezmo

MVM

said by RiseAbove:

said by Nezmo:

Ejected the NFS mount, mounted the NAS over SMB.

Running iTunes again pointing to the NAS (now over SMB). Address of the NAS is 192.168.0.31 (and was under NFS too, ie, unchanged). I now get the following message in iTunes when I try to fix links. I believe this is the address that the NAS was a few days ago (my router was reset). Any ideas why iTunes is trying to connect to ....16? Note that when I first change the media location in iTunes it updates iTunes okay. I get this when I do a Get Info.

It appears that somewhere the previous IP address of the media location is stored.

[att=1]

was that the address of your NAS before you reset the router? If it was then that is why it is spitting that out. Unless your NAS is going to have a static IP your links in Itunes will be broken each and every time that IP changes. It will be a constant shell game from that point forward.

Yes, it was. So, somehow OS X/iTunes knows that /Volume/iTunes at one point was 192.168.0.16 even though /Volume/iTunes is now 192.168.0.31? The IP address is not in the XML file but I guess it could be in the ITL file?

My NAS changes IP address from time to time and that has never once been a problem for this set-up on Windows. Windows has the path defined in iTunes to the NAS and handles changing IP address of the NAS just fine. Perhaps there's some other component on Windows that keeps track of this.

Note, accessing a track to Get Info on a link that is valid (to the NAS at ...31) is not a problem. I get this when I am trying to do a Get Info on a link that was already broken.

Anyway, I'm trying something else.

HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON

HiVolt

Premium Member

Why not just set your NAS IP as static, or as a "static DHCP" in your router if it supports it.

Nezmo
The name's Bond. James Bond.
MVM
join:2004-11-10
Coppell, TX

1 edit

Nezmo

MVM

said by HiVolt:

Why not just set your NAS IP as static, or as a "static DHCP" in your router if it supports it.

I could and will at some point but that's not the issue. If you use a path name and not an IP address when you mount, a changing IP address should not be a problem.

I think the issue I had was caused somehow by some mangled files. I started over. I cleared-out the Mac iTunes library files, recopied them from the Windows box, mounted the media library on the NAS using SMB and reset the media location in iTunes on the Mac. It did some library file updates itself but it appears that for every track that has an Artist different from Album Artist it did not update the iTunes library files with the path name to the files on the NAS. iTunes has some new trickery in it that if after you start iTunes and play a track that has a broken link it asks if you want to find files for broken links using the location you specify. I let it do it's thing and after about 20 mins it located files for about 5400 of the 5450 broken links. I manually fixed the remainder. This auto-fix in iTunes does not always pop-up as an option. Why iTunes did not establish those links the first time I updated the media location I don't know.

Anyway, all is okay for now. iTunes is running on the mini with all play counts/history in place and pointing to the media on the NAS. I suspect that if/when the NAS does change IP address I won't get the problem I had before. It does not make sense that an OS would expect something to remain the same IP address when you are mounting using a name. Windows certainly has no problem with that.

kerriskandie
join:2001-10-09
Coram, NY

kerriskandie

Member

Nor should it, my NAS has been automounting, through the Mini, for about 3 years now, and playing 95% of Itunes/media filres through Plex beautifully...............even after countless IP changes/hard reboots etc..........