Hardware upgrade
Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2020 1:42 pm
I finally broke down and updated my movie server. I was in a strange situation as my server was a very old Vidabox running WHS 2011 (that is not a typo). I have left it alone for years as it worked and it was so slow it was painful to do anything on it. I really like CMC/CCC and am committed to that going forward and CCC needs to run on the server so I bit the bullet and migrated. I expected a nightmare going from 2011 to 2020 but it went better than expected.
I should note that all of my movie drives are in external racks so I did not have to change disks. That was very handy as there is over 40TB's of disk attached to the system.
Due to the way the system sits in my rack, I had to go with a system that lays on it side. I ended up going with a Lenovon M75s-1 with 16GB and a 512GB SSD. As the only thing that runs on it is Windows, MyMovies, and CCC so there really isn't a need for anything crazy. This is especially true considering what I migrated was 8 years old.
In general the migration went better than expected. I installed MyMovies and restored the database from the other machine. One issue I did run into that I didn't think of is that MyMovies uses shared drives and my machine name changed (by design). When I first tried to launch a movie from the client it failed and I couldn't figure out why but Paul reminded me about the names. I can't tell you how thankful I was that MyMovies let's you change one name and it updated all the others. That feature was a huge help. I have run into a couple of issues with old WMA Codecs not being part of the current Windows but found a way to install them.
CMC and CCC migrated very well. I had to update the server name on the CMC client (as expected) and I basically reinstalled CCC on the Server and rebuilt it's database.
I am having an issue burning movies but I think it is an actual hardware issue. I opened a ticket with Lenovo and am waiting to hear back from them. I get strange I/O messages from MyMovies when I try to ingest a movie. I tried running the Lenovo diagnostic tool and it didn't work either which tells me it might be a bad drive. Until I get that piece fixed I can't report on burning but playing seems to work fine.
As I mentioned, this started out as Vidabox. If you are not familiar, they were crazy expensive home systems with servers and clients. They left the market when MicroSoft bailed. With CMC, CCC and MyMovies, I am now able to replicate the Vidabox solution. That was my last piece of their hardware. In case I have not mentioned it, I am a HUGE fan of CMC and CCC. Best customer service on the planet....
I should note that all of my movie drives are in external racks so I did not have to change disks. That was very handy as there is over 40TB's of disk attached to the system.
Due to the way the system sits in my rack, I had to go with a system that lays on it side. I ended up going with a Lenovon M75s-1 with 16GB and a 512GB SSD. As the only thing that runs on it is Windows, MyMovies, and CCC so there really isn't a need for anything crazy. This is especially true considering what I migrated was 8 years old.
In general the migration went better than expected. I installed MyMovies and restored the database from the other machine. One issue I did run into that I didn't think of is that MyMovies uses shared drives and my machine name changed (by design). When I first tried to launch a movie from the client it failed and I couldn't figure out why but Paul reminded me about the names. I can't tell you how thankful I was that MyMovies let's you change one name and it updated all the others. That feature was a huge help. I have run into a couple of issues with old WMA Codecs not being part of the current Windows but found a way to install them.
CMC and CCC migrated very well. I had to update the server name on the CMC client (as expected) and I basically reinstalled CCC on the Server and rebuilt it's database.
I am having an issue burning movies but I think it is an actual hardware issue. I opened a ticket with Lenovo and am waiting to hear back from them. I get strange I/O messages from MyMovies when I try to ingest a movie. I tried running the Lenovo diagnostic tool and it didn't work either which tells me it might be a bad drive. Until I get that piece fixed I can't report on burning but playing seems to work fine.
As I mentioned, this started out as Vidabox. If you are not familiar, they were crazy expensive home systems with servers and clients. They left the market when MicroSoft bailed. With CMC, CCC and MyMovies, I am now able to replicate the Vidabox solution. That was my last piece of their hardware. In case I have not mentioned it, I am a HUGE fan of CMC and CCC. Best customer service on the planet....