XBMC and FreeNAS
#1
Question 
I have been using my FreeNAS for a little over 2 years now. In the coming months, I will be building my XBMC-based HTPC to play media from my FreeNAS. Cool

I am extremely anxious to jump in and get started once I have my XBMC HTPC built... so I created this thread to gather tips from other FreeNAS/XBMC users. Could you please share the best configuration to use with FreeNAS and XBMC?!

I am currently running 3x1TB disks in RAIDZ. I plan to expand my storage in the near future (but that is another story). As of right now, I am using a minimal amount of services (Transmission being the primary one). I run my FreeNAS as a headless box and log in via SSH or the WebGUI. I am currently using AFP.

What would I need to do to get FreeNAS to work as best as possible with XBMC? Huh Eventually, I plan to run SABnzbd, Sick Beard, and Couch Potato on my FreeNAS (tips/links for installing and configuring these services on FreeNAS are also welcome!)


Thank you in advance for your help!
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#2
Is your XBMC build going to be Mac, Windows or Linux/Live based?
Author of the NZ OnDemand and ZoneMinder addons, and caretaker of the pyamf script. Contributor to fanart.tv, TheMovieDB and TheTVDB.
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#3
Sorry about that!! I am going to be running XBMC Live on a custom-built HTPC.

My intention of this thread is not to gain hardware advise for my HTPC (as I have already chosen the main components...)! I am mainly looking for some advise and tips from XBMC users that have a FreeNAS acting as their media server backend.

I would like to learn more how they have their FreeNAS and XBMC configured to work seamlessly together. Big Grin
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#4
If you're using Live (Linux), then you'd probably find that NFS is a good way to go for accessing your FreeNAS box. It's fairly easy to setup the share from the GUI on FreeNAS, and then you just need to add a line to /etc/fstab on the XBMC box that mounts the NFS share somewhere in the filesystem. Point XBMC to that folder and voila!
Author of the NZ OnDemand and ZoneMinder addons, and caretaker of the pyamf script. Contributor to fanart.tv, TheMovieDB and TheTVDB.
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#5
markhoney Wrote:If you're using Live (Linux), then you'd probably find that NFS is a good way to go for accessing your FreeNAS box. It's fairly easy to setup the share from the GUI on FreeNAS, and then you just need to add a line to /etc/fstab on the XBMC box that mounts the NFS share somewhere in the filesystem. Point XBMC to that folder and voila!

im using XBMC live and Freenas and couldnt get my NFS shares to work. The same shares that i use to gain access to my files from my debain FTP box to my Freenas

Is there a certain format we should be adding these NFS shares to XBMC?

BTW currently im using SMB shares and it works great but i know NFS would give me a little more performance and every bit counts sometimes.
XBMC-ATV2 - Frodo
XBMC-LR - Zotac Zbox Plus - 36gb SSD - 3Gb Mem - Frodo
XBMC-BR - Foxcon 330i - 16gb SSD - 2Gb Mem - FrodoRc3
XBMC-Mini - MacMini - 128Gb OCZ Agility - 5Gb Mem - Frodo - Running SQL - Auto Library Update
Synology DiskStation Ds1512+(Dsm 4.3-3776) - 4gb Mem - 5*3tb Wd Reds [SHR] - 2GB Bonded Link - (SSD Cache WIP)

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#6
SSH into the XBMC box (using PuTTY) and run the following:

Code:
sudo nano /etc/fstab

Add the following line at the bottom, taking care to change the values to match your environment:

Code:
freenas.ip.address:/path/to/remote/media   /path/to/mount/point      nfs     defaults,_netdev        0       0

Now let's look at a real-world example, by making some assumptions about your FreeNAS drive setup, IP address, etc...

We need to make sure that the folder we're mounting to on the XBMC box (/path/to/mount/point) exists. For example, I'd recommend something like /mnt/media as a well-named place to mount your NFS share - so to make this folder, run:

Code:
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/media

If your ZFS zpool in FreeNAS is mounted at /mnt/zpool, you want to use this as your source (it should already be shared via NFS from within FreeNAS. If you're not sure how do do this, see http://freenas.org/documentation:setup_a...nfs_shares). When we put this together with an IP of 192.168.1.5 we get a line for /etc/fstab that looks like:

Code:
192.168.1.5:/mnt/zpool   /mnt/media      nfs     defaults,_netdev        0       0

Now we should be able to mount this manually using the mount command:

Code:
sudo mount /mnt/media

Our mount command knows what to mount at /mnt/media as it checks the fstab file. Also, as we've added our mount to fstab it'll automagically mount on each reboot. Now that we've mounted our NFS filesystem, we should be able to see our files with:

Code:
ls /mnt/media

Similarly, in XBMC when adding a Source we can browse to "Root FileSystem", then "mnt" and then "media" to see our files. Obviously you can keep drilling down to the required folder if you have Music, Videos, etc in separate folders on the share.
Author of the NZ OnDemand and ZoneMinder addons, and caretaker of the pyamf script. Contributor to fanart.tv, TheMovieDB and TheTVDB.
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#7
Still prefer autofs.
Code:
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `xbmc_%`.* TO 'xbmc'@'%';
IF you have a mysql problem, find one of the 4 dozen threads already open.
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#8
Mark your the man, im going to give this a whirl sometime this week and let you know.
XBMC-ATV2 - Frodo
XBMC-LR - Zotac Zbox Plus - 36gb SSD - 3Gb Mem - Frodo
XBMC-BR - Foxcon 330i - 16gb SSD - 2Gb Mem - FrodoRc3
XBMC-Mini - MacMini - 128Gb OCZ Agility - 5Gb Mem - Frodo - Running SQL - Auto Library Update
Synology DiskStation Ds1512+(Dsm 4.3-3776) - 4gb Mem - 5*3tb Wd Reds [SHR] - 2GB Bonded Link - (SSD Cache WIP)

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#9
darkscout Wrote:Still prefer autofs.

Cool, thanks! So if I am understanding correctly, I would configure the shares on my FreeNAS as NFS and then use autofs on the XBMC Live box to mount the shares? Huh I have not used autofs.

It would be nice if XBMC Live had AFP support via netatalk Nod



Do any other FreeNAS users have specific configuration tips/advice for SABnzbd, Couch Potato, and Sick Beard? Any other miscellaneous tips to make the FreeNAS and XBMC HTPC communication/sharing as seamless as possible?
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#10
Yep.
Code:
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `xbmc_%`.* TO 'xbmc'@'%';
IF you have a mysql problem, find one of the 4 dozen threads already open.
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#11
The RSS extension for Transmission of FreeNAS is very good. But if you're using some of the other tools you might not need it. It automagically manages all of my tv shows perfectly.

I set up DD-WRT on my router, some dyndns configs and port forwarding later, and I can see my xbmc and freenas from anywhere (password protected of course).

It's kinda nice using my Android phone to start a movie for a house sitter whom can't figure out the remote from another continent. I can also manage transmission and everything remotely. FreeNAS web interface is great.
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#12
I am already on the FreeNAS forums (Forum Advisor) and have the RSS Extension installed and configured. I used to use it fairly often, but have not used it for quite some time now.

DDWRT is another one of my favorites. Big Grin


Do you have any specific advise or experience on configuring shares to work seamlessly with your XBMC HTPC? Do you use NFS, SMB, AFP? Any other settings I may want to be aware of... on either the FreeNAS or XBMC side of things?!
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#13
bmcclure937 Wrote:I am already on the FreeNAS forums (Forum Advisor) and have the RSS Extension installed and configured. I used to use it fairly often, but have not used it for quite some time now.

DDWRT is another one of my favorites. Big Grin


Do you have any specific advise or experience on configuring shares to work seamlessly with your XBMC HTPC? Do you use NFS, SMB, AFP? Any other settings I may want to be aware of... on either the FreeNAS or XBMC side of things?!

In my experience, they've worked absolutely beautiful together. I had used SMB, but migrated to nfs for reliability.
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#14
I current have a test environment running on my desktop. I am running XBMC and have configured SMB shares on my FreeNAS. I had to create a user (xbmc) on the box... now it is working great.

Too bad I was a complete n00b and deleted most of my nfo files throughout the years of accumulation. Ah, whatever, I need to touch up my media library with HD content anyhow. I cannot believe some of the crap I have piled up that I just need to simply replace with 1080p (when possible).
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#15
bmcclure937 Wrote:Too bad I was a complete n00b and deleted most of my nfo files throughout the years of accumulation.


Someone can correct me if i am wrong but you likely had scene release NFO's and they wouldn't work with XBMC anyway.
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