Is iSCSI what I should use for my large audio library?

[NickHark1]

I have a large audio library and I use, unfortunately, outdated media players, (Netgear MP101) to stream my music.

I outlined my headaches in this post: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=58813 and I was advised to try iSCSI to resolve my problem, perhaps.

Oh boy, something else to learn......

I have a ReadyNAS 4 Ultra Plus and two NV+s. I want to keep my music library on the Ultra Plus and stream to 4 MP101s.

ReadyDLNA and Twonky don't work because they don't play nice with the players, stopping and starting expectantly.

The server software that came with the MP101 will only properly function if the media files
are on a local PC. A mapped drive does not work.

I am the only user, but I access the media files from several computers, most of which are XP machines. One PC is Win7.

So, I could run the media software on an XP machine and it would access the target drive on the ReadyNAS and the PC would stream the media files.

Does iSCSI seem like it will work for me?

Do I have to change the formatting of the target for any reason?

Can I just make the target an already created folder in my media share, eg. "ReadyNAS3/media/music"?
Thanks, Nick
(Technology sure makes one's life easy, don't it?)

[TeknoJnky]

NickHark wrote:
The server software that came with the MP101 will only properly function if the media files are on a local PC. A mapped drive does not work.

this would be one of the only reasons to do so

So, I could run the media software on an XP machine and it would access the target drive on the ReadyNAS and the PC would stream the media files.

yes, iscsi appears as a direct attache drive (ie like an internal or usb/firewire drive).

Does iSCSI seem like it will work for me?

should

Do I have to change the formatting of the target for any reason?

not sure what you mean here.

Can I just make the target an already created folder in my media share, eg. "ReadyNAS3/media/music"?

no, as mentioned above, the iscsi drive appears as a local/attached drive to your PC and all the applications on it. It has to be formatted for use just like a normal hard drive, its like a virtual drive or virtual cdrom but stored on the network.

the data in your media share and iscsi drive are totally separate, the only thing you can do is make a duplicate copy of one to the other (like with robo copy or something), however there is no 'two way sync' between them.

[NickHark1]

Thanks for the reply.

I think I get it. The iSCSI target is merely adding disk space to the local PC.

None of the back up functionality of the ReadyNAS will work against the target.

I would format it using NTFS as the local PC.

Interesting stuff.

Thanks, again, Nick

[OOM-9]

Room for thought; since you are working with many small files like music, you will be storing it on virtually on one file on the ReadyNAS (The iSCSI Target). If you are wanting to run backups of the individual files, you will have to access them from the iSCSI Initiator (your computer). If you plan to have your computer act as a service, this will be a great option for you.

[GuyAdams]

This is isn't really an answer to your question but more a suggestion.

I too use MP101's and have found TVersity the best solution for streaming. It doesnt care where your media is stored, nor does it suddenly stop streaming for no apparent reason and best of all its free.

Its well worth checking out.

Thanks