Building library from Synology NAS

Roon Software Discussion QNAP/Synology NAS
1

I am a new user having just bought a 1 year subscription. I have set up my Roon library on my Synology NAS. The Library is in Root/music and my music files are in Root/music/Music

I have approx 127,540 music tracks on 6,837 albums as identified on my Plex server which is also on my NAS in the root I.e. Plex/music/Music.

My music files are all flac from CD and vinyl rips and sit in album title folders within artist folders in the Music folder. I started building the library 3 days ago and it started quickly and got up to 50,000 tracks in 2 days and i could use roon. The last 2 days the library is building very slowly and is only up to 70,000 tracks and Roon is unusable. Not identifying the server and when it does it takes long time to show artists and then cant play tracks off albums.

Is this normal when building a server of this size? I have a nas from 2019 with 8gb of Ram. Is that the issue? Will it be usable when the server is built as I cant increase the RAM in the NAS as its built into the motherboard.

Fred

2

We’d need a bit more details from you to judge your situation.

Where is your roon server located? Also on the NAS or somewhere else?

Keep in mind the setup guide. Are your music files on the NAS on HDDs or SSDs? Is your roon library on HDDs or SSDs?

The library shall only be on SSD since it needs speed. Having your music files on HDDs may not be that bad, but may take longer for indexing. Though, your mentioned times are pretty high.

What is your exact NAS model?

3

And if you run Roon Server from your NAS, the NAS also needs a sufficient amount of RAM available for a snappy experience. More than 100k tracks is considered to be a big library that requires a substantial amount of resources. A NAS might be not the best platform to run Roon Server for such a big library. Knowing the model / CPU of your NAS might allow others to assess your situation better.

4

It is normal, because Roon needs to identify your music when it’s first added, but for a library of this size, Roon would prefer 16gb of RAM, and many Synology NASs allow for that or more. What model are you using? Additionally, Roon expects that your Roon database be on an SSD for performance purposes.

5

Hi Thanks for the reply.

NAS model is DS916+. It’s all HDD and the Roon Library is on the NAS. There is a USB slot on the NAS. Could I attach an SSD to the USB and put the library on that?

Fred

6

As mentioned its an 8gb ram ds916+ which has a 1.6 processor.

7

I personally don’t see this working satisfactory (needs more RAM and faster CPU for that library size IMHO) but maybe other users with similar hardware and library size can comment on this.

See also:

1 Like
8

Thanks. Ive looked online and it seems that having a small dedicated PC with an SSD, like a GEEKCOM Sir 12, left on continually and just for Roon might me the way to go. What size SSD is needed for a library of 150,000 tracks?

9

Roon Labs recommends a 256GB model here:

Note: This is for the OS and Roon Server only.

10

Yeah, that is a little underpowered and outdated. I have a library about half that size and use a DiskStation 1522+ with 16GB of RAM (and an SSD for the Roon database) and it works splendidly (using only about 5GB of RAM on average), but once you get that large, I think you need to consider something that can at least accommodate 16-24GB of RAM.

11

Thanks - so just to be clear where is the SSD in relation to the NAS - i.e. is it in the NAS - attached by USB or a standalone PC - like a Mini PC. That is something I’ve been thinking about recently.

Fred

12

Ideally, it’s in the NAS. I use a 5-bay unit (1522+), and use one bay for the SSD; you can read about this configuration here:

If you scroll down to the section labeled Can You Use the M.2 Cache Slot for Your Roon Database? you will see how you can use that slot to achieve something similar in a 4-bay NAS like a DS925+

13

Something very strange is happening.

Having been in a state of total paralysis, the building of the database is now rapidly taking place having jumped from 80k tracks building at about 1,000 a day for the last 2 day to now whipping through my nas. Currently at 114k of the 126k I have. On this rate it should be built in the next couple of hours.

Also the access to playing the tracks has gone from unplayable, to lightening fast access both on the roon app and in roon arc.

Very strange, but very welcome. I was.looking at getting the database externalised on a standalone pc with an ssd but now may not need to?

Fred

14

This makes sense… Once much of your collection is identified things start to get a lot faster. Keep the community posted.

15

When I started out with Roon, I went with a Synology DS918+ NAS and 4x4, or 16TB of storage and had about 50K tracks, and after a couple years of eating up space and slowing my Nucleus down, I then upgraded to 4x12, or 48TB, of storage with the same 50K tracks, and the speed picked up significantly. After repairing and upgrading the Nucleus 2 times, I moved over to the Grimm MU1 streamer with Roon built in and still use my NAS for storage despite having 8TB storage in the Grimm. Hope that provides some perspective.

16

Folks in here should be aware that Roon has a history of performing well on NASs, even with large collections.

This is the third in an annual series of surveys where people share their experiences:

17

I have a DS923+ running an AMD Ryzen R1600 processor and 20GB of memory. Library consists of approximately 70000 tracks on an NVMe drive. I also have a 2.5Gb network card fitted. RoonOnNas works nicely and I have no issues with speed or reliability.