Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Replacing Harddisks on Doremi 2000 to get more space.

This is topic Replacing Harddisks on Doremi 2000 to get more space. in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Simon Christensen (Member # 6996) on 06-19-2012, 01:56 PM:

Hi.

I have 2 screens, both of them equipped with a Doremi DCP-2000 and Barco DP2K-12C. The Doremi DCP-2000 is born with 3x1TB drives, and I'm running low on disc space. Not critical yet, but I know it will be one day.

I would like 2TB drives, and I have been told that I could replace the hard drives with WD2003FYYS (they should be on the Doremi certified list, but I don't have the list so I can't check).

It is no problem getting the disks, and it is properly no problem replacing the drives in the Doremi. But I just need to get something clear first. And I hope you guys can help me.

I can take backup of playlists, and I can transfer all movies, trailers ect. to the other screen. So I don't care about the content on the discs. I would like to start clean with the new drives.

My question is: What about the OS? Where is Doremi Operating System located? Is it on the RAID set (the one I'm going to replace) or is there an extra HD/SSD/WhatEver located inside the Doremi server that holds the OS. If so, then the RAID set is ONLY for media content.

Can I just replace the drives and Reinitialize the RAID, and all is good? :-)

My guess is that I have to do the following:
1: Backup playlists ect.
2: Transfer all movies, trailers ect to the other screen.
3: Power off.
4: Replace hard drives.
5: Power on.
6: Reinitialize RAID
7: Transfer all movies, trailer ect back to this screen
8: Restore playslists.
9: PLAY MOVIE ! :-)

Any input is appreciated. Thanks

/Simon Christensen

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 06-19-2012, 03:47 PM:

No worries, the OS is on a SSD inside the unit. You won't lose anything. You may want to run a backup of your settings just in case (the backup tool is on the doremi ftp).
I am not sure though that doremi supports a bigger RAID, but if the drives are on the approved list I am likely to be mistaken.

Posted by Crol Hexel (Member # 6984) on 06-19-2012, 05:09 PM:

you can add an additional 1TB, so you get 2,7TB Space.

Replacing all in 2TB works also.

OS is on SSD.

No worry, works like you described it.

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 06-19-2012, 08:22 PM:

You can't add a 4th drive to a DCP2000, there are 3 drive bays.
The OS and settings (IP setup, macros, etc) are on a SSD inside the case, the RAID is pretty much just content. But it includes the "preinstall" content - test material and such. The backup routine migrate.sh is for backing up the SSD stuff, not RAID content. I think the current software has "content manager" in the control panel that makes backing up stuff from the RAID fairly easy - you will need a USB drive formatted for large files (NTFS or EXT2/3) to put the content on.
You can replace the drive set with 3 matching drives from the approved list. 2TB is fine, I haven't seen 4TB drives used. You reinitialize the RAID in diagnostics/storage. It takes a LONG time.
You should call Doremi tech support for the entire procedure, and what/how to back up content you want to keep. Losing the test material may cause problems for a tech on any future service calls.

Posted by Simon Christensen (Member # 6996) on 06-20-2012, 01:19 PM:

Thanks for all the input. I really appreciate it.

I have 2 identical Doremi-DCP2000 servers. So all test material, trailers, ect are on both servers. If I reinitialize the RAID on screen one I still have all test material on screen two. And can transfer it back to screen one.
I believe that a fallback plan is to remove the new drives and reinstall the old ones and then I'm back from the beginning.

I'm not worried about content on the RAID. I know it will be lost, but I can recover everything from the other screen. I am also aware that reinitializing will take a LONG time. So my plan is to upgrade the RAID a day with no shows on that screen.

Again, thanks a lot. This Forum and people is a goldmine of information.

/Simon Christensen

Posted by Crol Hexel (Member # 6984) on 06-21-2012, 03:38 AM:

you can do this in a night, 3-4 hours it takes to reinitalize.

works! (8 screens done)

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 06-22-2012, 12:51 PM:

Hello Dave,

Yes, I meant to backup the settings, just in case anything went wrong, but it's just a precaution.
The RAID will take a while to rebuild, but if I'm not mistaken it can be used while it's rebuilding. It's not safe and will take more time, but if needed it's a possibility.
Marco

Posted by Edward Havens (Member # 4715) on 06-23-2012, 11:33 AM:

Not to be critical, but I'm wondering why one running a twin with 3TB of server space for each screen would feel the need to add more space in the first place. The biggest digital movie files I've seen, such as the Avatar 3D Special Edition from 2010, were all less than 400GBs, and the average digital file for a trailer is about 2-3GBs each. With 3TB of space, one should be able to hold several movies and dozens of trailers before worrying about running out of space.

I had the same setup at one of my theatres a couple years ago, and I was able to hold all eight of the After Dark HorrorFest films plus about forty trailers on that specific server, and I still was only at 60% capacity. Since I only had the one digital screen at the time and lacked the benefit of a centralized LMS, I only uploaded what I absolutely needed to the server, and deleted what I no longer needed as soon as I was done with it.

Your results may vary, but I can't see why logically.

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 06-23-2012, 01:35 PM:

You can use the system while the RAID is rebuilding after replacing one drive. This is about initializing the RAID, it is not usable until that's finished.
It will take a few hours. Install your new drives and start the initialization after the last show of a day ends, then come in the next morning to reload content.

Posted by Simon Christensen (Member # 6996) on 06-26-2012, 08:43 AM:

@ Edward

We get movies 3-4 weeks in advance. Then we ingest the movie and ship the harddrive to the next cinema.
So we allways have about 5-6 movies "idle" on the server, that we can't delete. Then there are trailers ect. which also takes a little space.
Sometimes we alto run a marathon (6 movies in a row at one night). Some of these movies we also get a few weeks in advance.
So worst case is 6 movies Idle, 4 running movies, 6 movies for marathon and some trailers = 16 movies + trailers. Then we are running low on space...
One time we had to delete a movie and ask the movie company to ship the harddrive to us again. :-(

But you are right, 98% of the time we have plenty of space.
Right now we have 49% disc space free.

UPDATE:
The new harddrives have arrived, and I'm planning an upgrade this week.
I'll let you know how it goes.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 06-26-2012, 11:53 AM:

Well it's possible to do it this way with increased harddisc space on the server, but in the long run you should think about a separate computer with multiple harddrives or a networked RAID appliance. Easy to transfer content and keys through FTP.

Please report back which drives you bought and wether they play fine.

- Carsten

Posted by Simon Christensen (Member # 6996) on 06-29-2012, 03:36 AM:

I have upgraded the discs in both my Doremi servers now.
It was really easy, and I had no problems.

I used Western Digital WD2003FYYS http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=30

Started when the last show finished, and the new discs was 100% up and running next morning, and they play perfectly.

I did as follows:

1: Copy all content to the other screen
2: Power off the Doremi
3: Replace the drives
4: Power on
5: Initialize the RAID (it took about 3 min)
6: The Doremi starts to rebuild (took about 7 hours)
7: Ingest all content from the other screen (Did that when the Doremi was rebuilding the RAID)
8: Ingest KDM keys
9: PLAY MOVIE !

Just for fun I tried to install the old discs again, and they worked fine. Then I tried to put the Screen 1 discs in the Screen 2 server, and it also went fine. So I could swap the discs between servers with no problems.

Posted by Aleksander Bal (Member # 6009) on 11-24-2012, 09:32 AM:

Hi.
I have two Doremi DCP 2k4 servers, 3x1TB disk + 1 empty slot.
Disk's on the server - WD1003FBYX-01Y7B0, firmware: 01.01V01.
I think about mount next (4) disk to empty slot and reinitialize RAID - more space needed!
On store is only WD1003FBYX-01Y7B1, firmware version info not available...
Is it a god idea, or every 4 disk's MUST be identical?
(sorry for my English)

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 11-24-2012, 02:17 PM:

These may be just different revisions of the same drive. I'd say mixing is safe.

However, one additional 1TB drive will not yield so much more. Adding 3 or 4 2TB drives might be the better (yet of course more expensive) choice.

- Carsten

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 11-25-2012, 09:24 AM:

Latest approved drive list I have:
1TB Hitachi HDE721010SLA330 HT1TB-SATA
1TB Hitachi HDU722010CLA330 HT1TB-SATA
1TB Western Digital WD1002FBYS WD1TB-SATA
1TB Western Digital WD1003FBYX WD1TB-SATA
2TB Western Digital WD2003FYYS WD2TB-SATA
2TB Western Digital WD2002FYPS WD2TB-SATA