Minimserver readfoldercache operation causing delay in Minimserver startup

[tboooe]

In my setup, it takes about 10-15 mins after starting Minimserver before it is seen by my control point. When I access the log from Minimwatch on another PC on the network, I notice that Minimserver is performing a readfoldercache operation on a portion of my large music library which is causing the delay. I thought that by setting startup scan to false in properties this operation would not be done?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here is my setup:
Minimserver installed on PC hard wired to Dlink access point

Dlink access point communicating to Asus R7000 router via Wifi AC

Music library on NAS. NAS hard wired to Asus R7000 router. Music library has over 40K songs. Minimserver accessing library via mapped drive.

Control point - BubbleUPnP on Android tablet and phone communicating to Asus R7000 router via Wifi

[simoncn]

Accessing your library across a network share will cause poor scanning performance and is not recommended. It would be better to run MinimServer on your NAS if your NAS supports this.

Hoewver, if you have set startupScan to false, MinimServer will not scan your library at startup but will instead read its local cache of your music library. The calls to readFolderCache confirm this is what MinimServer is doing. The cache file is in your user folder and I presume this is on a local disk. If so, it should normally be read fairly quickly.

Please enable Verbose logging and do a Restart. On my Windows PC (with an SSD), album folders are read at a speed of 100 folders per second. What speed are you seeing for this?

[tboooe]

Thank you for the reply! Unfortunately my old POS NAS (Thecus N4100Pro) does not support running Minimserver on it though I know I could try. Not sure it worth the effort. Aside from scanning, I have no issues streaming high def music across my network.

The PC that has Minimserver installed in running Server Essentials on an SSD so I would expect the readfoldercache operation to be fast as well. Question, why is readfoldercache even required? Is there a way to disable it?

(23-12-2015 19:45)simoncn Wrote:  Accessing your library across a network share will cause poor scanning performance and is not recommended. It would be better to run MinimServer on your NAS if your NAS supports this.

Hoewver, if you have set startupScan to false, MinimServer will not scan your library at startup but will instead read its local cache of your music library. The calls to readFolderCache confirm this is what MinimServer is doing. The cache file is in your user folder and I presume this is on a local disk. If so, it should normally be read fairly quickly.

Please enable Verbose logging and do a Restart. On my Windows PC (with an SSD), album folders are read at a speed of 100 folders per second. What speed are you seeing for this?

[tboooe]

I restarted Minimserver and observed the verbose log. Looks like the readfoldercache went quickly. This time, BubbleUPnP identified Minimserver in 2 minutes. I wonder if perhaps the very first time I start Minimserver after my pc has been turned off is causing the delay? I will test this now.

Restarting the PC then starting Minimserver, it takes 6 mins before BubbleUPnP sees MS.

Restarting MS after the PC is already on, it takes 2 mins before BubbleUPnP sees MS.

Looking at the the logs, readfoldercache operation is considerably faster restarting MS versus starting MS after turning on the PC for the first time. I wonder why? I would like to know if it is possible to disable readfoldercache?

[simoncn]

(23-12-2015 22:55)tboooe Wrote:  I restarted Minimserver and observed the verbose log. Looks like the readfoldercache went quickly. This time, BubbleUPnP identified Minimserver in 2 minutes. I wonder if perhaps the very first time I start Minimserver after my pc has been turned off is causing the delay? I will test this now.

Restarting the PC then starting Minimserver, it takes 6 mins before BubbleUPnP sees MS.

Restarting MS after the PC is already on, it takes 2 mins before BubbleUPnP sees MS.

Looking at the the logs, readfoldercache operation is considerably faster restarting MS versus starting MS after turning on the PC for the first time. I wonder why? I would like to know if it is possible to disable readfoldercache?

You can't disable readFolderCache because MinimServer would not be able to function without having done this cache reading as part of startup.

When you turn on the PC for the first time and start MinimServer, the SSD cache isn't populated. When you do a subsequent restart, the SSD cache is populated. This is probably the reason for the speed improvement on restart.

The simplest solution for this startup delay would be to buy a cheap NAS to run MinimServer and leave MinimServer running 24x7. You could probably reuse your existing disks from the Thecus in the new NAS.