We’ve got a LOT of media – upwards of 12 TB of it. Much of it is ISO images of our DVD library (DVDs do die, sometimes!). Others are AVI or MP4 dubdowns of VHS, lots of music, images, epubs, you name it. It all doesn’t need RAID backup, but I would like it to have a central library management system, one that is smart enough to keep track of media files being on external drives.
As I see it (and I may have this wrong), a lot of time is taken in building the databases that are the library management information. THESE need a nice RAID solution. The media files (that might get accessed every few days, but not altered very often if at all) need a good offline backup, like a mirrored drive put on a closet shelf (so to speak).
One can attach up to seven external USB hard drives to the My Cloud using a powered USB hub. The My Cloud User Manual (http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/?id=439&type=25) specifically mentions this in Chapter 12 Connecting a USB Hard Drive. Once a USB hard drive is attached and is properly mounted the drive will show up as a Share where one can set the Public/Private option along with the Media Serving option. When Media Serving is enabled the Twonky media server embedded within the My Cloud will catalog the supported media on the drive.
If one wants to have the Twonky media server “aggregate” the media stored on another Twonky media server or Windows Media Player, they can access the Twonky media server’s aggregation page via the Twonky administration page usually found at http://wdmycloud:9000. From that page:
Aggregation
When Aggregation is enabled, Twonky Server collects information from any other device running Twonky Server or Windows Media Player and presents all available media from your network in one comprehensive view. With this feature, you will not need to switch between different servers when searching for a particular media item. Twonky Server will automatically hide duplicates.
One should review the following link for more suggestions on how to get the best use out of the Twonky media server.
One can use the Safepoint / Backup option of their My Cloud to backup any data on their My Cloud to a separate My Cloud, USB hard drive or other network location. See the My Cloud User Manual for more information on how to setup and use Safepoint / Backup.
If one needs a dedicated content management system they will have to look elsewhere, the single bay My Cloud doesn’t officially support any sort of content management system or other media server other than Twonky and iTunes (music only). Twonky is a limited basic media server. Unofficially there are a number of software packages one can install to the older v4.x single bay My Cloud units. See the following link.
