ROCK Accessing NAS Often [Expected Behavior]

Hello @TKelley ,

Thank you for trying the direct IP connection method.

I’ve just taken a look over the latest log set from your ROCK and the mount error is not present, but there are a few other strange metadata traces here.

Looking over the thread, I don’t believe we’ve tried a fresh database on the ROCK yet, can you please try to use these instructions and confirm if the same scanning behavior is occurring on a fresh database?

  • Stop RoonServer from running in ROCK’s WebUI
  • Navigate to your ROCK’s Database Location
  • Find the folder that says “RoonServer”
  • Rename the “RoonServer” folder to “RoonServer_old”
  • Restart the RoonServer in the WebUI to generate a new Roon database folder
  • On the Roon Remotes, press “Use another Core” and connect to the new database
  • Verify if the fresh database also has the same behavior

Thanks!

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Okay I followed your instructions EXACTLY.
I got to the “Choose your Roon Core” screen on my IPad.
Which one do I connect to". There are 2 of them and they are both EXACTLY the same! How do I know which ROCK has the new database? So…I decided to shut down and restart my IPad. I logged into Roon again and this time there was only one roon core. So I chose that one. I got to the “Add your music” screen. Clicked on add folder. Network Share location==> \\192.168.1.100\TimKelley. Left username blank, left password blank, left workgroup blank and clicked on Add network Share. Chose my Music Folder which is Music. Clicked on Continue. Said no thanks to Add a music Service. Enabled my MOON 680D DAC and clicked Finish.

No change in behavior. ROCK unneccesarily bangs on my NAS causing hard disk accesses about every 5 seconds 24 x 7. After the NAS accesses, the disk LED on my NUC lights up indicating that it is accessing my SSD. I have my re-scan interval set to 12 hours. @noris

Am I the only one that is experiencing this weird behaviour? I find that hard to believe. Maybe nobody else has noticed that this is happening. Or maybe nobody cares. I have a very simple setup. An IPad running the user interface. A SimAudio/MOON 680D DAC that is Roon ready. A QNAP NAS with all my music on it. An Intel NUC running my Roon core ROCK.

4 posts were split to a new topic: Roon accessing NAS share when disabled under settings → storage

ping??? anybody there?? @noris

PLEASE HAVE THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE GIVE ME A CALL
I AM NOT ENJOYING MY ROON EXPERIENCE. YOUR SUPPORT IS TERRIBLE.
AT THIS RATE MY PROBLEM WILL BE RESOLVED IN 2025.

Tim, a question if I may? How large is your music library in TB?

Instead of a NAS, it is a more effective option to have the music library as direct attached storage via USB to the core. There is a performance improvement going this route rather than the core having to access the library via (at best) a 1Gbit/s interface combined with the delays caused by network latency.

As stated previously in this thread…(started February 11 BTW)

Having a NAS sitting on my network is a PERFECTLY reasonable normal thing to do…
I’m not going to re-architect my network just because ROON doesn’t like to play well with people’s NASs.
Why are so many people defending ROON on this matter? There are millions of NAS out there sitting on peoples home networks. THE issue here is NOT why have I chosen to use a NAS.
The issue here is that
ROON continues to bang on my NAS 24 x 7. Why does ROON do this? It should NOT be doing this. If I turn my Intel NUC running ROCK off my NAS just sits there happy and the hard drives go into standby mode like they should. ROCK should be able to figure out that it should eventually STOP banging on my NAS if it has nothing to do. This cant be that difficult. I’m a software guy. Send me your source code and I’ll fix it myself. Hard drives have a life expectancy and my SSD inside my NUC has a life expectancy. Banging on my SSD and hard drives every 5 seconds 24 x 7 is ridiculous. Why does it take sooooo long to get an answer from @noris or @support. Their support is just terrible and why yes I am angry and upset. Nobody from support has even answered my question. The least support could do is acknowledge my issue that yes ROCK will bang on your SSD and hard drives every 5 seconds 24 x 7. That would be a good first step.

Hi Tim, I’m not defending Roon at all. There are other threads around where it’s clear that Roon openly admits that supporting NAS music libraries was not a good idea.

Having a directly attached music library to your core is a far better option than a NAS music library.

I’m at the opposite end of the spectrum. My core runs on my NAS. I have 12 spinning drives in RAID10 that do various things including running a Plex server, managing off-site backup, providing local backup of my music library and recording 6 IP cameras.

A 12 drive expansion bay holds the music library and database on RAID0 SSDs, plus hot spare HDDs for the main array. Drives are consumable/expendable and I assume that they will fail and I will have to pay to replace them.

The best enterprise SSDs do 3DW per day over a 5 year warranty period. At those rates, my Seagate Nytros more than likely have a longer remaining life span than I do. If you’re really that worried about drive longevity, don’t run a NAS. Run your library on DAS on a single drive, back it up elsewhere and replace it when it fails.

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Also - you say the ROCK is shut down after usage. First question - is that done gracefully so the database remains ok in any case? Secondly - why? There is a chance these scans of the library are triggered by this.

Roon, as far as I know, will always undergo a full rescan on startup. That is one reason to never shut the core down.

@rugby @Bernd_Kurte @Graeme_Finlayson @noris
What I was trying to say is that IF I were to shut down my NUC running ROCK then my hard drives DO go into standby mode. This tells me that ROCK is the guilty one that is banging on my hard drives and preventing them from going into standby mode. ALL I really ever wanted is for ROCK to leave my NAS alone if I haven’t listened to any music in an hour. This is NOT a difficult requirement to understand is it?

Tim, my understanding of how Roon operates is that it looks at your library and provides you information about the music in your library - main artist, contributing artists, discography, artist info etc. All of this information is saved in the database. Your ‘library’ comprises your local/networked music plus any streaming service provided music you have ‘added’ to your library. Roon uses various online sources to keep this information accurate and up to date. It also keeps track of what you’ve listened to, hours listened etc. etc

Presumably, this means regularly scanning your music library (NAS) storage plus streamed stuff added to your library and updating the database (SSD) on your ROCK.

All of this means that your NAS HDDs and your ROCK SSD are going to be accessed frequently.

I stand to be corrected, but I don’t suspect anything is broken here - it’s just how Roon works.

And honestly, drives aren’t that fragile. I have Seagate Ironwolf Pro HDDs in my main NAS array. I have 12 drives which have been running 24/7 for 4 years. I have had 2 drives fail in >420,000 drive hours, or 1 drive in >210,000 drive hours. For a single drive, at current use rate, that’s a lifespan of ~24 years.

Stop worrying about it.

Where is @noris.??? He KNOWS how ROCK works. You guys are just guessing at how ROCK works?
I want NORIS to tell me that this is HOW ROCK works. My digital music files are on my NAS. My ROON library is a SSD drive installed into the intel NUC. My Re-scan internal is set to 12 hours. There is no reason ROON needs to scan my library (or whatever it is doing) every 5 seconds which is EXACTLY what it is doing. I have my re-scan interval set to 12 hours. We don’t even know that re-scanning is what ROCK is doing? I would like to KNOW EXACTLY why ROCK is banging on my NAS every 5 seconds. Its been over 2 months and NORIS has refused to answer my questions.

Tim, please turn off your Caps Lock and stop shouting :wink:

The Re-scan interval is how often Roon checks for changes in your music library. That’s different from Roon checking for amended information on the music in your library from its various online information sources.

@danny @brian could you shed any light on this issue?

Tim, you’re a software guy. Have you fired up WireShark yet and captured the packets going to and from the NAS? It would be good to know just what SMB packets are coming from the Nucleus to cause this behavior. If you have, maybe sharing the packet traces here, or parts of them, would let us help you?

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Thanks, Michael. Yes, I’m kind of a protocol nerd, so I’d love to see some traces. But the real key is that post by @mike from 3 years ago, on exactly this issue:

And everyone should feel free to open a feature request related to us changing how storage works in Roon – this would be a big change, so we would want to see real interest in this kind of use case.

Roon support doesn’t see this as an issue. I can just picture the dialogue at the support desk:

“Hey, this guy TKelley has a problem with his set-up. The Core keeps banging on his NAS.”

“Yeah, that’s not a configuration we do well.”

“Where should I prioritize it?”

“Is his system still running? Can he play music?”

“Yeah, it looks like everything works, he just doesn’t like this part of it, and doesn’t want to change his configuration.”

“Well, if everything’s working, it’s a feature request, isn’t it?”

“Oh, yeah, I see. OK, I’ll send it to the development team to add to their queue.”

And let me say again: from three years ago. Don’t hold your breath.

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Hi Tim,

Back on March 1, Michael-W posted a link, I will re-post it for you, in case you missed it. It might answer some questions.

Edit: re-saved the link to make sure it pointed to the specific post in that thread.

@Bill_Jansen its not by job to setup wireshark and debug ROON’s software for them.
That is what THEY are supposed to do. They do get paid real money right? My money?
Are they volunteers? Are they summer interns? Have their system architect call me and we can
debate this “feature”. I spend ALL day long staring at WireShark traces. Do you think I want to come home and look at ROON’s WireShark traces for them. Where is @noris? is he on vacation? Does he have covid? Does he care less that a customer is unhappy with their support? It’s just a simple thing? I’m a little shocked that ROON doesnt care. It’s not really a difficult thing to fix either. There are alot
of other software packages out there that do some incredible things with a NAS. Why is it so hard for ROON developers to get it right? It’s not hard. I have come to now understand ROON’s philosophy on their customer support. Don’t respond for 14 days and maybe he’ll let the topic close out.

Hello @TKelley ,

Thank you for your patience here while your case reached the queue again.

I spoke to the team today regarding your case and we have just enabled an advanced diagnostics mode for your ROCK which should make the NAS background activity a bit clearer.

Can you please reboot your ROCK Core when you have a chance and we can take another look at the advanced diagnostics just to make sure we aren’t missing something else here?

Thanks!

Okay thanks @noris.
I rebooted my NUC running ROCK via the ROCK web user interface
I will try to be more patient. Its hard when a week goes by and I haven’t heard anything from anybody!

I’m okay with checking on a regular basis, but do you need to do this EVERY 5 seconds? How about every 15 minutes? How about only doing it during the configurable re-scan interval. Why do you care whether the NAS is on or not? You should only ping the NAS if its time for the re-scan interval or the user wants to play some music or when the user picks up his iPad.

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