Suitability for Media server

JW · Tue Oct 23, 2007 10:25 pm

I am interested in using StarWind on my Vista PC I use as a media centre so I can work on my photos from my main desktop. (i.e. the block level access would really speed things up). The media centre would also have acess to the drive in order to play mp3s, dislplay photos etc. However I noticed this on your FAQ page:

Q. I share a hard drive with SPTI module. When I write a file onto the share drive I can't see or access it from the local server's account. If I write a file from the server's logged-in account I can't see it from the remote client.

A. Configurations where remote iSCSI clients and local server processes access the same drive are not supposed to work correctly with read/write devices, because the file system's data is not synchronized between clients. If you use such a configuration, the file system will be corrupted in short time.
There are 2 ways how to use shared iSCSI disks:

Using of a distributed (SAN) file system. (MetaSAN iSCSI or DataPlow SFS are supported)
Using of the MS Clustering Services.

NOTE: StarWind since v3.2.1 has SPTI access blocking local file system calls when a remote client connects (except the "Share RW" set).

If I have got this correct, you are sugesting that this would be a bad idea, i.e. the local PC acessing the 2nd storage disk would clash with the remote iSCSI access. Is this right, or would it be possible to share a local drive in this manner?

Wed Oct 24, 2007 6:57 am

It's not a bad idea, we'll release dedicated media sharing product soon ourselves. You just need to have read-only access to the media or simply install correct file system or arbitration software (SAN File System or MetaSAN). Quite simple

JW wrote:I am interested in using StarWind on my Vista PC I use as a media centre so I can work on my photos from my main desktop. (i.e. the block level access would really speed things up). The media centre would also have acess to the drive in order to play mp3s, dislplay photos etc. However I noticed this on your FAQ page:

Q. I share a hard drive with SPTI module. When I write a file onto the share drive I can't see or access it from the local server's account. If I write a file from the server's logged-in account I can't see it from the remote client.

A. Configurations where remote iSCSI clients and local server processes access the same drive are not supposed to work correctly with read/write devices, because the file system's data is not synchronized between clients. If you use such a configuration, the file system will be corrupted in short time.
There are 2 ways how to use shared iSCSI disks:

Using of a distributed (SAN) file system. (MetaSAN iSCSI or DataPlow SFS are supported)
Using of the MS Clustering Services.

NOTE: StarWind since v3.2.1 has SPTI access blocking local file system calls when a remote client connects (except the "Share RW" set).
If I have got this correct, you are sugesting that this would be a bad idea, i.e. the local PC acessing the 2nd storage disk would clash with the remote iSCSI access. Is this right, or would it be possible to share a local drive in this manner?

JW · Wed Oct 24, 2007 9:49 pm

anton (staff) wrote:It's not a bad idea, we'll release dedicated media sharing product soon ourselves. You just need to have read-only access to the media or simply install correct file system or arbitration software (SAN File System or MetaSAN). Quite simple

Oooh, sounds interesting. Can you say more?

I could live with the media server only having read access to the data while a remote connection was active. I take it that the media server gets local write access back one the remote client has disconnected?

I like NTFS and would prefer not to go to an unknown File system if at all possible.

Wed Oct 24, 2007 9:54 pm

We'll compile virtual DVD-ROM image from the files on the hard disk. And export it as an iSCSI target. So any machine with iSCSI initiator could read the stuff w/o any SMB or access rights installed.

Good. Download and read StarWind + MetaSAN manual in such a case

JW wrote:
anton (staff) wrote:It's not a bad idea, we'll release dedicated media sharing product soon ourselves. You just need to have read-only access to the media or simply install correct file system or arbitration software (SAN File System or MetaSAN). Quite simple
Oooh, sounds interesting. Can you say more?

I could live with the media server only having read access to the data while a remote connection was active. I take it that the media server gets local write access back one the remote client has disconnected?

I like NTFS and would prefer not to go to an unknown File system if at all possible.