View Full Version : Performance comparison between my old Server and Touch internal one?
Have always used a server (of course!) to run my SB3, but with the Touch on its way I'm curious about the idea of using its own server rather than having to have the PC on?
Some info:
My server is an old Dell GX260SFF P4 2Ghz with 1B ram running windows XP.
I use an external WD 1TB USB hardrive to supply the FLAC files.
I use IPENG to control my music...about 36000 tracks last count.
The SB3 was wired to an Access Point in the same room, which in turn was wired to the main router connected to my modem.
The only wireless part of the setup was my wifi connection from the ipod to an access point in the same room as my SB3
Now sometimes I got slowdowns when using the SB3, and I had just put it down to my server being an old computer..but people are using EVEN LESSER spec PCs (and not just running Linux ;)) without any problems.
I noticed it particularly with SS 7.5...the MYSQL was running 92% CPU on XP, which caused slowdown.
Not a major drama, slowdowns come up now and again not all the time but it IS a bit of a pain.
I wondered if the slowdownds were with the SB3 itself, and the Touch, with its uprated CPU and memory,would not have this issue?
On paper my PC Server has enough horsepower to run my music centre..so any thoughts, ideas or opinions welcome!
Of course, the best way to find out is for me to just TRY it (which I will), but Im just wondering what you thought.
Ta.
I'm running sbs (7.5) on an single core Atom Whs (1,6Ghz, 2GB RAM). And I also like the idea of using the touch's internal server. At it's current state, its performance and stability is miles away from the atom and that stopped me from following that idea very soon.
Besides, I don't want to miss the extended features of the 'real' sbs (eg. dynamic playlists.).
Are you using the mysql that comes with SBS?
In that case you might be able to gain a little by doing this
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showpost.php?p=401530&postcount=18
However I do not think that is your problem.
Are there anything unusual in the server or scanner logfiles? errors? constant repeated scanning?
Have always used a server (of course!) to run my SB3, but with the Touch on its way I'm curious about the idea of using its own server rather than having to have the PC on?
Some info:
My server is an old Dell GX260SFF P4 2Ghz with 1B ram running windows XP.
I use an external WD 1TB USB hardrive to supply the FLAC files.
I use IPENG to control my music...about 36000 tracks last count.
The SB3 was wired to an Access Point in the same room, which in turn was wired to the main router connected to my modem.
The only wireless part of the setup was my wifi connection from the ipod to an access point in the same room as my SB3
Now sometimes I got slowdowns when using the SB3, and I had just put it down to my server being an old computer..but people are using EVEN LESSER spec PCs (and not just running Linux ;)) without any problems.
I noticed it particularly with SS 7.5...the MYSQL was running 92% CPU on XP, which caused slowdown.
Not a major drama, slowdowns come up now and again not all the time but it IS a bit of a pain.
I wondered if the slowdownds were with the SB3 itself, and the Touch, with its uprated CPU and memory,would not have this issue?
On paper my PC Server has enough horsepower to run my music centre..so any thoughts, ideas or opinions welcome!
Of course, the best way to find out is for me to just TRY it (which I will), but Im just wondering what you thought.
Ta.
Do you own the Touch? It's not clear from your post if you are talking about things being slow with the Touch and external server or if you are just asking if the Touch server is going to perform better than your server.
Hi, thanks for the replies.
I DO own a Touch yeah..I was relaying my experiences with the SB3.
Actually, when I posted the Touch was "in transit" with the Courier and I hadn't received it yet.
Been playing my LastFM for the last couple of hours..REALLY I
pressed with the sound quality into my Dac...even at 128kbs it sounds sublime..a good step up over the Sb3 into my Dac.
I think the problem is mysql related..as it always hovers at high usage, even when I uninstalled the Trackstat plugin..
I've cleared my dell server of any SB software, cleaned out the registry and defragged my hard drive.
Fresh install of version 7.5 with a hopefully speeded up XP...I'll see how I get on.
If I still happens I'll take a look at the server logs.
Thanks.
92% cpu ! maybe you do a clean reinstall of the whole machine, if it's only used for music. I gets high during start for 10 sec or so
Unless when you are scanning then >90% is the norm, it scans as fast as it can using the resources available.
Or do you need to transcode, then it could be high.
I have an 1.2gHz machine <3% cpu when playing flac to 1 Squeezebox
when transcoding via SOX to get the 24/96 flac to play on my "lesser" players.
70% cpu load.
I noticed it particularly with SS 7.5...the MYSQL was running 92% CPU on XP, which caused slowdown.
As already mentioned, something has to be wrong if it's continuously using 92% CPU. If it's only now and then it could be normal, especially if you are measuring while browsing your library or doing something that execute queries towards the database.
I've almost only used Linux of course but I can't imagine that it's normal that it uses 92% continuously on Windows.
If you are using my plugins note that:
- TrackStat runs import, export and restore operations in the background, so if you have started one of these it might be running and cause high CPU. Restore and import can be pretty slow if you have a lot of renamed/moved files in the files your are restoring from backup. You will get a message in the server.log when it's finished. Import/Export operation is visible in the Custom Scan settings page.
- Custom Scan plugin runs import, scanning and export operations in the background, you can see in the Custom Scan page if something is running or not.
server PC now reinstalled with 7.5 rather than 7.4.
You know what?
7.5 seems to run a LOT sweeter than 7.4 did.
Currently scanning my library, mysqld at 14 percent CPU load, scanner.exe at 73 percent.
More efficient coding maybe? A bugfix?
I DO transcode Flac files on the server rather than on the SB3/Touch, which perhaps in 7.4 was a problem.
At this rate, I might even reinstall TrackStat on the server,I loved it when used with IPENG.
Like a super playlist/favourite function.
Think for the moment I'll stick to using the USB for pictures for the Image Viewer screensaver.
Thanks for the replies guys.
JohnSwenson
2010-04-22, 16:02
Think for the moment I'll stick to using the USB for pictures for the Image Viewer screensaver.
Thanks for the replies guys.
The builtin server starts up whenever you plug in a USB drive (or SD card) even if you are just using it for pictures. If you are using an external server its probably a good idea to manually kill the builtin server.
John S.
Thanks John,
so the built in server is by default "off" until you plug something into the Touch?
Wonder if maybe I've spoken too soon actually...
I have a 500odd track playlist which my Touch is having problems playing..
Selecting the playlist to "play all" so to speak can take a few minutes to begin, and whe I select the next track there is a very long delay.
Very long, with lots of rebuffering.
Also, if I press Next again the Touch seems to be "storing up" key presses with a long delay and rebuffering.
This is with normal redbook Cd ripped into level 5 Flac files..
I've had a look at the Server Log for anything obvious, and saw this:
[10-04-22 18:28:25.6516] Slim::Web::Graphics::processCoverArtRequest (272) Error: Unable to resize music/1057/cover_96x96_p.png (original file: D:\Music\. COMPILATIONS\00s\General 00's - 14 - Jamelia - Thank You.mp3): Unable to process JPEG image using Imager: Unsupported marker type 0xa1: Corrupt JPEG data: premature end of data segment at /<C:\PROGRA~1\Squeezebox\server\SqueezeSvr.exe>Slim/Utils/ImageResizer.pm line 120.
This comes up for just about every track.
There was no problem before with my SB3?
Would this have any effect?
Also THIS:
[10-04-22 18:36:10.1722] Slim::Networking::Discovery::Players::_players_err or (145) Unable to get players: Connect timed out: Bad file descriptor
[10-04-22 18:36:
And THIS:
[10-04-23 00:14:57.0763] Slim::Utils::Misc::msg (1165) Warning: [00:14:57.0755] DBIx::Class::ResultSet::single(): Query returned more than one row. SQL that returns multiple rows is DEPRECATED for ->find and ->single at /<C:\PROGRA~1\Squeezebox\server\SqueezeSvr.exe>Slim/Schema/Track.pm line 159
Im stumped.
In fact is there any chance anyone could look at my 100 line Server Log for anything obvious?
Im sure its just a glitch somewhere, but I only got my Touch yesterday!!
*EDIT*
Just noticed on Task Manager in Windows...
When changing a track on my Touch SqueezeSvr.exe jumps to 85-100% CPU and takes about 17 seconds to settle back down to the 4% or whatever whilst actually PLAYING a track?
Is this a clue to the delays and rebuffering on the Touch?
Is this normal CPU load?
Tried the Search feature looking for a specific track..gave up after nearly five minutes..
Theres something wrong in the State of Denmark for sure....
Any help appreciated.
Thanks.
Last step is a reinstall of XP on my server I guess...
(I tried Linux and its not for me..)
Thanks.
so the built in server is by default "off" until you plug something into the Touch?........
Correct, it needs a storage device to function.
If SqueezeSvr.exe is maxing out my CPU, then maybe its a good strategy to minimise its footprint as much as possible?
Is there a configuration of the Server software that runs at the bare minimum?
Just through un-ticking things loaded through the Web Interface?
I've already disabled LastFm scrobbling and thats made a positive difference, which has got me thinking SB Servers footprint could be reduced further?
Is there any boxes in the PLugin section of the web interface that CANNOT be switched off to retain function?
Any other performance Tweaks that might help?
Thanks again, getting there!
well back to this if you are using the mysql that comes with SBS
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showpo...0&postcount=18
As it is a dedicated server with 2 GB you can give more memory to mysql.
Otherwise disable away. Personally I am a lightweigt SBS user.
So things like Napster, input/output on Boom and Tranporter, ... are disabled.
The problem is that a lot of the add-ons I do not know what is. So have to be online and check them all one by one.
XP itself - I can't recall if it was in XP, but disable things like the Index/Search service. You can find plenty of information on the internet about which services does what.
Information about SBS plugins http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/SqueezeCenter_Plugins
Actually I have not gone through all the plugins on my server yet.
I have removed the obvious plugins and stripped Win7 a bit. It is only used for SBS so there are no other applications installed.
In this moment my server is at 660 MB, of which SBS is using 93 MB.
FYI SBS 7.6 nightly using SQLLite -> no mysql running.
How did you find the 7.6 nightly compared to 7.5 performance wise?
Any difference?
How did you find the 7.6 nightly compared to 7.5 performance wise?
Any difference?
Huge difference.
How did you find the 7.6 nightly compared to 7.5 performance wise?
Any difference?
Scanning performance with 7.6 is much faster (two to three times) if you use SQLite as the database engine (now the default in 7.6). Performance in other tasks feels pretty much the same. But as I use 7.6 with SQLite now as my main server I'm seeing more and more unexplained server brain farts where doing some common taske will take 12 seconds one time and then 1 second the next. I don't think I saw that very often with MySQL.
Cached artwork retrieval is faster in 7.6, which can make the web interface feel a little snappier even though page generation times are the same.
7.6 sounds good, but maybe not QUITE ready for use yet?
How can I use SQLite instead of MySql with ver. 7.5?
Sounds as though it might go some wat to reduce performance issues Im having?
Thanks.
7.6 sounds good, but maybe not QUITE ready for use yet?
How can I use SQLite instead of MySql with ver. 7.5?
You can't. SQLite is only supported in 7.6.
I'd say is very ready for use, just not ready to be released. The biggest caveat is that it _may_ become unstable with a particular nightly release, since it's the development branch. So if you run it you might not want to update it every day and you may also want to watch the beta forum carefully to read about problems that arise.
I have been running 7.5embedded and 7.6 with SQLite for several months.
Yes scanning time reduced a factor 2-3.
Part of that is also that SQLite is used to handle covers. If I recall correctly, SQLite is used for covers even if you choose to use mysql as your database.
The only problem that I have on 7.6 right now is international characters being dodgy http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=15983
Remember that the real performance gain of SQLite is reduced communication time, as the database is running in the same context as the rest of SBS.
Mysql is a more powerfull database as such, but we do not see its force because of the relatively simple SBS database.
I do not use Erlands plugins so I am not sure about the status of these. But it was feared that complicated queries would suffer on SQLite.
Have we seen any feedback from some of the heavy users? 200-300.000 tunes using Erlands plugins?
The foreign character bug exists in 7.5 and caught me out with some missing tracks in my favourites..
See here:
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=77845
I'm not using Erlands TrackStat plugin as my server is a bit underpowered (max CPU a lot), but I'll have a play with 7.6 soon, see if it speeds thnigs up a bit.
Thanks.
Have we seen any feedback from some of the heavy users? 200-300.000 tunes using Erlands plugins?
I suspect that large libraries might be unusable with some menus provided through Custom Scan/Custom Browse, at least with MySQL. I also know Custom Scan can get really slow in large libraries if you use the "Mixed Tag" scanning module.
Generally speaking, Custom Scan/Custom Browse is normally a bit slower than the standard browse menus because their queries is a bit more complex. I suspect this is also going to be the case with SQLite.
If anyone uses 7.6 and Custom Browse and have tried using both MySQL and SQLite, I'd be happy to know how it performs with SQLite vs MySQL. I'd also like to know if you have some problem with SQLite and my plugins.
I tried plugging my usb HDD directly into the Touch...
to be honest I felt the performance was a wee bit slow, especially when dealing with playlists..
. I didnt have any of Erlands plugins installed
. I was using 7.5
I know 7.6 expects some performance enhancements over 7.5...does this apply to using the inbuilt Server too??
Thanks.
Meanwhile Ive set up 7.5 on my fast PC and running it at 5%Min 10%Max CPU power through Power Options in windows..
It goes into standby after 5 minutes and Wake On Lan is set up when I switch the Squeezebox.
Everything happens in an instant, which is great, but I would prefer not to use my main PC just for squeezecentre.
So a solution is still ongoing.. :)
Many of the improvements that have been mentioned (SQLite, scanner, ..) Are changes/improvements done in order to be able to make a server able to run on the Touch.
All these changes was done on a track (7.5embedded), in parallel with the main 7.5 track which mainly received generel corrections.
With the release of 7.5 and Touch the 7.5embedded track got promoted to 7.6 main track.
For the Touch I do not think that you should expect other improvements than what error corrections and minor tweaks can give us.
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