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Drives within Max HT-04 servers?

bobbob Posts: 296
in AMX Technical Discussion
Anyone tried out different drives within Max HT-04 servers? Are the current 1.5 or 2TB SATA drives also possible? Are those on a software or hardware RAID? Anyone tried login into the box and looking around what is running beneath the AMX software? The box is supposed to be plain Linux with some add-ons...

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    DHawthorneDHawthorne Posts: 4,584
    bob wrote: »
    Anyone tried out different drives within Max HT-04 servers? Are the current 1.5 or 2TB SATA drives also possible? Are those on a software or hardware RAID? Anyone tried login into the box and looking around what is running beneath the AMX software? The box is supposed to be plain Linux with some add-ons...

    Linux, Fidora Core. I'm not conversant with Linux, but I imagine any drive you can properly mount should work fine.
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    bobbob Posts: 296
    Dave, thanks! I could try out but I don't have a Max server ritght now handy. Sounds goog though.. too bad they are not bluray capable..
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    John GonzalesJohn Gonzales Posts: 609
    I remember talking to our rep and tech support a while back about upgrading an existing HT04 to use larger drives like the HT04T, and they said it wasn't something that could be done. It took them a few days to get the answer back to me, so I assumed they gave me an accurate answer.

    One other thing, is that the drives have to be "authenticated" when you install them. In other words, once you put them into the server, you have to go into the HT04 menu and go through the "authentication" process. By the wording and the fact that you have to enter a 16-digit key that comes with the new drives I assume that there is something in place to require the use of the $8000 retail AMX drives.

    --John
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    John GonzalesJohn Gonzales Posts: 609
    As for the RAID question, they're using RAID 5 and I would assume it's a hardware RAID controller.

    edit: I just telnetted into one of ours and I see that there's a bbu (battery backup unit) monitor so it's a hardware RAID. Peeked at a manual too and the screenshot shows it's a 3Ware RAID controller.

    --John
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    bobbob Posts: 296
    John, thanks! Isn't it possible that this "authentication" string is for inserting pre-formatted drives into the controller array without going through the array-expansion process on site? Just a thought. Otherwise I can see why people are going away from Max. Even a Qnap NAS with Popcorn player units are way better in terms of managebility, price and expandability. They are also bluray capable, have HDMI 1.3a, etc, etc
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    DHawthorneDHawthorne Posts: 4,584
    The RAID controller BIOS may have addressing limitations preventing the larger drives. In any case, I don't think the MAX itself is the determining factor. There is a utility in the MAX admin to add and remove drives, or you can do it right in the BIOS utility. I've gotten BIOS updates for the controller from AMX before (they mailed me a DVD-ROM that updated the MAX and the controller). I can't imagine that the manufacturer doesn't have an upgrade for newer drives as long as the controller is physically capable of it. Too many unknowns though, to make any more of a definite statement. I can say this much for certain, having way too much familiarity with swapping out guts on these things: the controller is a card, not integral to the main board, and it has a rather daunting set of cables and connectors going to the drive back plain. But I don't think it's atypical for any server of that nature. The HT series is really not much more than a Linux server running some specialized software on the front end. The guts are pure server. I would even bet that you could completely swap the controllers out if you had the wherewithal to transfer the MAX software over to the new drive arrays.
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    John GonzalesJohn Gonzales Posts: 609
    I agree with the whole unknowns thing. It makes sense to me that it should be simple enough to add larger drives which is why I asked tech support about it. It's possible that the "authentication" process might be a way of avoiding a 2-3 day rebuild process on the array, but I think it did rebuild after we installed the new drives (sorry, I can't remember now). I'm gunshy on selling the MAX systems now because of the number of issues we had in the beginning. If I had another fresh one though I'd definitely poke around the insides to see what I could do to it. Unfortunately, the only one I have access to is fully loaded with media and I don't want to risk doing anything to it that would cause me to have to reload all those 600+ movies and CDs :). If you sell one for a job, the best time to play with it is before the media get's loaded. Once movie's are on there, you won't even want to breathe on the server out of fear you might have to reload it someday.

    --John
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    bobbob Posts: 296
    What about putting a Qnap NAS on the network and doing an rsync backup of the Max after it is fully loaded (noone will notice the minimal added cost of the NAS anyway) :-)
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