NFS Server for PVR

[macfan]

It really works great!

Gruß, Horst

[DeltaMikeCharlie]

one question: do you have a solution for the "loop back directory tree" and reboot when you connect SRP1 to SRP2 and also SRP2 to SRP1 at the same time?

I can never say 100% yes, but I certainly think so.

TMSClient creates /mnt/hd/MountPoints. It then creates a structure under there with all of the TMSServers that it has learnt about. Within these structures, the actual NFS mounts take place.

Back in /ProgramFiles, for example, a symbolic link is created to the actual mount points, for example "@SRP1" or "@SRP2".

@<ServerName> -> /mnt/hd/MountPoints/<Server MAC Address>/_mnt_hd_DataFiles@

Through experimentation, I found that whatever the process was that was looping though the mount points, did not follow symbolic links and the problem went away.

At the end of the session, the symbolic links and all of the /mnt/hd/MountPoints structures are cleaned up. If a symbolic link gets left behind due to a crash or something, I found that the native file manager and TMSArchive do not follow broken symbolic links, so they effectively disappear.

Have a look at /mnt/hd/ProgramFiles/Settings/TMSClient/NFS to see how it works.

[Twilight]

thanks, i will test it

twilight

[DeltaMikeCharlie]

[quote="macfan"]It really works great![/quote]
Thanks Horst.

What testing did you do?
Did you try sharing in both directions?
Did you try the remote control function?

I am keen to hear some feedback.

[macfan]

I just use my old SRP 2100 as a "NAS" with TMSServer and mount it on my SRP 2401 via NASMount. That works very well.

But I'll try the new TMSClient, too. The remote control function sounds very interesting.

Gruß, Horst

[macfan]

So, now I tried TMSClient, but sorry, it didn't work.

Using the original filer I don't see a new directory in Data Files. Using SmartFiler I see a new directory starting with an @ followed by a hexcode. (How can I get a "real" name?) But if I open this directory I see again the standard Data Files directory.

Gruß, Horst

[DeltaMikeCharlie]

[quote="macfan"]So, now I tried TMSClient, but sorry, it didn't work.[/quote]
You may need to delete all of the old TMSServer files first. The new script files return values to TMSServer that are then broadcast to TMSClient. If you are using the old TMSServer scripts then the system will not work.

Did you give TMSServer a name?

I see from your signature that you don't use TMSCommander.

You need to create a file called /mnt/hd/ProgramFiles/Settings/PVRName.ini.

Inside that file you need to add:

pvrname={the name you want} (No spaces)

If you have WebControl or the old TMA1, this file should have been created already.

[macfan]

You may need to delete all of the old TMSServer files first. The new script files return values to TMSServer that are then broadcast to TMSClient. If you are using the old TMSServer scripts then the system will not work.

I replaced the whole TMSServer folder in Settings. So that shouldn't be the problem.

Did you give TMSServer a name?

I didn't know how. But now you wrote it.

I see from your signature that you don't use TMSCommander.

I don't have it in AutoStart, but I can use it.

If you have WebControl or the old TMA1, this file should have been created already.

I have, so I'll change that file.

Gruß, Horst

[macfan]

There was no file named "PVRName.ini" in my settings folder, though WebControl is running, but I created one. Then I started TMSServer again. But TMSClient on the other Topfield doesn't show a new directory in Data Files.

But TMSServer still works great with NASMount.

Gruß, Horst

[DeltaMikeCharlie]

The system works via UDP broadcasts, the default port is 54492. If your 2 PVRs are separated by a router, the system will not work.

Assuming for now that you have a "normal" home setup and that everything is on the same network segment, it's probably time to enable some logging.

You will need to load TMSCommander to do this.

With TMSServer running, use TMSCommander to activate the menu. If you can use NASMount, then NFS should be running, but just check what services are enabled.

Press the Blue button and check all of the settings. Change logging to "Detailed + Network". Note the port numbers.

Now, do the same thing for the TMSClient and change the logging level to "Detailed + network".

I just realised that the port is hard-coded in the client, so make sure that the server is using port "54492", otherwise TMSClient will not hear the broadcast. I need to fix this in the next version.

Also, whilst you are testing, disable NASMount just in case there is a conflict somewhere.

In the logs, you should see the server periodically advertising its services. In the client log, there should be corresponding entries where the advertisement is received and processed. If you load the client first and then load the server, you should see a successful negotiation with a trace of the scripts that are run to mount the NSF shares.

Post the logs to the forum or send them to me in a PM and I'll see if I can work out what is going wrong.

Remember to disable logging again because the files can get big.

[macfan]

With TMSServer running, use TMSCommander to activate the menu. If you can use NASMount, then NFS should be running, but just check what services are enabled.

RPC and NFS.

Press the Blue button and check all of the settings. Change logging to "Detailed + Network". Note the port numbers.[/quote]
Now it looks like that:



The name is still in hex, though I created the file "PVRName.ini".

Now, do the same thing for the TMSClient and change the logging level to "Detailed + network".

Done.

This time I got connection! I don't know if you still need the logs, but I attached them.

There are still some problems:
SmartFiler showed the server Topfield not at once, but ofter a minute. If I open the directory of the server Topfield, sometimes still the client is shown. Or if I open the folder "Drama" on the server Topfield, the folder "Drama" on the client Topfield is opened. The Topfield filer works more stable.

I tried to control the server Topfield with TMSCommander and the yellow button, but it didn't work.

Gruß, Horst

[DeltaMikeCharlie]

Thanks for providing these diagnostics.

The server only broadcasts by default every 30 seconds, this could explain the delay with the client attaching.

Control needs to be started from the client and the server needs to be running TMSRemove v4.1 or higher. A client can only control after it attaches.

There seem to be a number of odd things happening here with the server name.

To start with, your server really thinks that it is called "000E9E0371C2". This happened because when the server first started it had no name so the MAC address was used.

To fix this, unload all clients, load the server config screen via TMSCommander, press OK on the "PVR Namen" entry and enter a name for the PVR. It looks like the PVRName.ini file was not found or contains the MAC address.

Your client seems to be 192.168.1.202 and your server seems to be 192.168.1.201. At various times, the server advertises itself as 48.0.0.0 and 56.92.45.69, but never 192.168.1.201. Luckily, the client ignores this. Perhaps try to power off the server and then restart, but I don't really know why this is happening.

You seemed to have a few rapid connect/disconnect events, but then things seemed to settle down. For now, I'm assuming that this was a result of your testing activities.

[macfan]

Thanks for providing these diagnostics.

You're welcome.

The server only broadcasts by default every 30 seconds, this could explain the delay with the client attaching.

No, that are special problems of the SmartFiler TAP, the original filer is faster.

Control needs to be started from the client and the server needs to be running TMSRemove v4.1 or higher. A client can only control after it attaches.

It's 4.1, but it doesn't work.

There seem to be a number of odd things happening here with the server name.
To fix this, unload all clients, load the server config screen via TMSCommander, press OK on the "PVR Namen" entry and enter a name for the PVR. It looks like the PVRName.ini file was not found or contains the MAC address.

I did it, as you can see in the log. But the client still shows the hexcode.

Your client seems to be 192.168.1.202 and your server seems to be 192.168.1.201.

Right!

The new logs including the tests of this morning are attached.

Gruß, Horst

[DeltaMikeCharlie]

[quote="macfan"]I did it, as you can see in the log. But the client still shows the hexcode.[/quote]
I just did some experimenting here. To broadcast the new name, the server needs to be stopped and started again. Have you tried that?

[macfan]

No, I didn't.

Gruß, Horst

[DeltaMikeCharlie]

one question: do you have a solution for the "loop back directory tree" and reboot when you connect SRP1 to SRP2 and also SRP2 to SRP1 at the same time?

Answer Part II

I found today that the solution I came up with only works with 2 PVRs. If you add a third, all three reboot.

This happened to one of my test users, but as another test user with 8 PVRs was successful, I assumed that the 3 PVR setup had another problem. It seems now that the 8 PVR test was somehow invalid.

Looping is not prevented because of the symbolic link alone, it is prevented because the symbolic link points to a non-existent target. When the third client comes on line, it's symbolic link back to the first PVR was valid, the loop closed and the PVRs rebooted.

I have already worked on a fix and the 3 PVR user (who actually has 5) can now run 4 concurrent servers and clients. I have changed the NFS script and he will do a little more testing before I release it.

In summary, the old mount point used to be this:

/mnt/hd/MountPoints/<Server MAC Address>/

The revised mount point is:

/mnt/hd/MountPoints/Local-<Client MAC Address>/Remote-<Server MAC Address>/

This way, a symbolic link to a TMSServer accessed by a TMSClient can never point back to itself unless there are 2 PVRs with the same MAC address.

[Twilight]

thanks! two is enough for me

twilight

[RonaldN]

Hi Guys

Thanks a lot for this TAP.

Maybe I didn't get it right. So let me ask you something...

I start the NFS Server on my PVR and it looks that it's running well. I thought that I now can "mount" the PVR as network drive. but when i try to use "net use" or "mount" i get the message "Der Netzwerkpfad wurde nicht gefunden". Must I use a seperate software to log on? It would be nice if I can build in the PVR as networdirve like my NAS.

I have no problems to make a telnet on the PVR.

Thaks for your replay...

Ronald

[DeltaMikeCharlie]

To access the PVR HDD using Windows, you need to have NFS client software installed. I use NekoDrive, but I understand that "Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX" will also work.

By default, TMSServer does not share the whole PVR HDD, it exports DataFiles, MediaFiles, PhotoFiles and MP3Files separately. You need to ensure that you address the correct exported directory.

You can see the exports by viewing /mnt/hd/ProgramFiles/Settings/TMSServer/exports

Your mount command should look similar to this:

mount -w -o rw,nolock,vers=3, -t nfs <PVR_IP>:/mnt/hd/DataFiles/ [Local mount point]

Because you can telnet to the PVR, you could also try "ps -ef" to check that "unfsd" is running.

The PVR also has no passwords, if you are using an NFS client that requires mandatory passwords, then you may have some difficulty.

Finally, the PVR only supports NFS version 3. I do not remember every having an NFS v2 client that connected successfully.

[RonaldN]

Hi DeltaMikeCharlie

Thanks for the quick replay... Will check today and I'm sure that I get it with your informations...

BR
Ronald