Turtle Beach Audiotron and FreeNAS

[DonaldR]

I'm looking to connect my Turtle Beach Audiotron to a NAS device in order to read the radio station file which is saved as a .txt, and the ability to play music files saved in mp3, wav etc.

The last compatible O/S which the Audiotron operated with easily by use of an IP address or web link to was Windows XP.

With the advent of Vista and beyond (I'm using Windows 7 and WHS 2011) I have found this is not a easy as the access protocols are quite different in Win7, WHS2011 (Server 2008) and digging into the gray area of loosening things up a would make them quite vulnerable.

In additional reading I have done it seems that FreeNAS would save me lot of hair loss (so to speak).

In a quick search it also seems that FreeNAS will run on a Intel4200-E/EHW easily.

For those interested and to save space here I've uploaded the Audiotron documents to my business website.
Links here:
http://hammondorganservice.com/downloads/AudioTronManual.PDF
http://hammondorganservice.com/downloads/AudioTronManual.PDF
http://hammondorganservice.com/downloads/ATSetupGuide.pdf
http://hammondorganservice.com/downloads/TurtleRadio-3Enablinglocalfileaccessof.pdf

Thanks
Don Resor
Los Angeles

 

[joeschmuck]

Maybe you should run FreeNAS in a VM to give it a try.

 

[nightshade00013]

For the Intel NAS box you are intending to use, we will need to know how much ram you have in it. What I have found says that it will not work unless you upgraded to a lot more ram as the default I saw was 512 MB and even then it would not be ideal. No Error Correcting Code RAM, possibly a forced hardware raid(which is a no-no) and the cpu will probably be at the bare minimum so long boot up times and not much other than a SAMBA file server is going to happen.
As far as the Audiotron, what exactly are you trying to do with it that requires computer access. From what I can tell there is an option to use it to play media files from a windows share. If that is what you are wanting to do FreeNAS should be able to do that as an OS since you can select which version of the protocol you want to use as a minimum and maximum.

A lot of this will depend on hardware and how you're going to use it but to start off with a VM and see if you can get something rolling before committing to a final setup will help you to understand more about FreeNAS as well as give you an idea if it will work.

 

[DonaldR]

A lot of this will depend on hardware and how you're going to use it but to start off with a VM and see if you can get something rolling before committing to a final setup will help you to understand more about FreeNAS as well as give you an idea if it will work.

I do not have a SS4200EHW presently. There are several available at a greatly reduced price.

The Audiotron is a stand alone digital tuner running Windows CE with a NIC jack on the back. You can both access music files saved on other computers as well as play from 100s of digital stations available through the Turtle Beach network. The Turtle Beach network server had been offline for a long time as this product is end of life. There is an alternate upgraded software version which allows you to maintain your own list of digital stations on a computer along with the music media. The Audiotron loads the list in ram. It also stores a list of available music files in ram. It has no non-volatile memory to read from or hard drive for storage. It has limited ROM which Windows CE is read from to boot. If there is a power failure everything in ram is wiped out. When power is restored it must boot Windows CE and re-read the external files.

I'd only using the Intel NAS to store music files and the digital station txt file.

I'm not sure where I might run FreeNAS in a virtual environment to test it as I'm very new to all of this.

As I am sure you all know WHS2011 support ends April of 2016. I run a WHS2011 on another box which contains a i5-3570K 3.40Ghz (64bit) and 8GB of RAM, 2TB mirrored with an external 3TB back-up drive. It's used to back up two computers in the house, store all that which is digital I've accumulated over the years and operate my music on hold via the Win7 interface/shell. Winamp set-up play randomly and cross-fade in between a "continuously growing library" (now at 6000+) selections to prevent dead air..

This new "Sell the user's information and flood you with advertising" idea being foist upon everyone with Windows 10 not the least bit palatable to me. I think FreeNAS will be a great replacement and much less headache. If I can figure out where I can also run Music On Hold. MS has launched a Telemetry/Win10 nagware KB which interrupted the my automatic back-ups in WHS2011. I found and removed it which restored the automatic backups. That really annoyed me to no end. I've confirmed with one other person they experienced the same thing. Not Kosher on Microsoft's part.

TMI I know....

 

[nightshade00013]

https://www.virtualbox.org/ would be a good place to start for running a virtual machine. Download the latest FreeNAS iso and take it for a spin. While you are testing it out see how the jail system works, add some storage and install Plex. A lot of people here like to use it for media and if you have a lot of music it may be something you will be interested in.

If you don't already have the SS4200EHW then I would basically stop thinking about it. You would be better off going to ebay and picking up a server that is already together minus hard drives. http://stores.ebay.com/MrRackables would be a decent place to start if you want something that is as cost effective as possible yet still good enough to run the FreeNAS software. Must haves for a basic system is a 64bit intel cpu that supports ECC along with at least 8GB of ECC ram. You can find that in their listings for less than 200, then just add drives. If you want to runs some jails it will require more ram. The bad thing with the older hardware is it may be cheaper now but will cost more to run in the long run as it will use more power.

And for a little light reading material:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hardware-recommendations-read-this-first.23069/
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Read it all a couple times and then decide what you want direction you want to go. Everyone here has a little different way of doing things and as far as hardware the sky (or your budget) is pretty much the limit. If you're confused but still want to DIY then post what you think will work and the people here will generally try and help figure it out. And while you're at it look at some other people's builds. If you still want to go the FreeNAS route but don't have the time or knowledge to figure the hardware let the people who maintain the FreeNAS os do it for you https://www.ixsystems.com/truenas/

 

[DonaldR]

https://www.virtualbox.org/ would be a good place to start for running a virtual machine. Download the latest FreeNAS iso and take it for a spin. While you are testing it out see how the jail system works, add some storage and install Plex. A lot of people here like to use it for media and if you have a lot of music it may be something you will be interested in.

Okay this is making a bit more sense.

I intend on hosing WHS2011 on the i5 box when the end of life date approaches. Off the top of my head, the HighPoint RocketRAID 2720SGL 8-Port SAS 6Gb/s PCIe 2.0 x8 RAID HBA may be a compatibility hurdle or maybe not.

Reading is a good thing as well as tinkering and I intend on doing both.

Thanks
Don Resor

 

[jgreco]

Not to be a negativity spreader, but if you don't have a lot of stuff to share, you'd probably find a different alternative to be suitable and cheaper. There are a lot of small NAS boxes available from vendors. They typically use Samba, as does FreeNAS, in order to provide the CIFS services. The WD MyCloud's and Seagate Personal Cloud's are typically in the $100-$200 range and include the drive.

FreeNAS basically offers the same exact service (Samba) but on a nicer platform. The cost to entry on FreeNAS is pretty high, though, so if you don't have other reasons to look at FreeNAS, please at least be aware that other options are probably open to you. We're happy to have you if you want to go the FreeNAS route, of course!

 

[DonaldR]

I read the first article "hardware recommendations read this first" I see that my HighPoint RocketRaid controller was a bad choice. I suppose if I care about my data which I do, I need to use something else.

I remembered that the gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H has a raid controller on it. I looked at the book and it is the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Option ROM - 11.0.0.1339. I guess it is time to back up the data to another drive and make that change to using the Intel controller and place the RocketRaid into the scrap heap.....

Any objections?

At least (I think) I didn't skimp too much on the power supply which is a Corsair AX760i and the case, a Thermaltake Urban T81.

 

[jgreco]

We have no objections to scrapping the RocketRAID. But you don't want any other sort of RAID controller, either. ZFS is your RAID controller and anything that gets between ZFS and raw hard disk is a bad thing. Using a consumer grade motherboard robs you of ECC data protection and opens you up to problems with things like that crappy Atheros LAN adapter.

 

[DonaldR]

We have no objections to scrapping the RocketRAID. But you don't want any other sort of RAID controller, either. ZFS is your RAID controller and anything that gets between ZFS and raw hard disk is a bad thing. Using a consumer grade motherboard robs you of ECC data protection and opens you up to problems with things like that crappy Atheros LAN adapter.

Maybe I should have been more clear. I meant "in the interim" until I figure out my next big step, should I eliminate the Rocket Raid card and use the intel RAID integrated within the motherboard. I saw the note which explained that "The High Point works until it doesn't, and all data is lost"

 

[nightshade00013]

So you're wanting to repurpose the system to do a the freenas till you get something final together I am guessing.

Anything that is setup in raid mode is just plain bad news for FreeNAS so just let the raid card be happy outside the system. The onboard "raid" should be able to be set into AHCI mode which is what FreeNAS will want so it can access each drive rather than a raid array.

A word of warning though, if you install FreeNAS and start making these changes you very well could lose your data, hair, pet and family jewels. Especially true if you had things in a raid configuration. Have backups that you can recover all the data from before you start making changes.

But plan on this being as temporary as possible and keep everything backed up so you don't lose all your music and such.

 

[DonaldR]

So you're wanting to repurpose the system to do a the freenas till you get something final together I am guessing.

Anything that is setup in raid mode is just plain bad news for FreeNAS so just let the raid card be happy outside the system. The onboard "raid" should be able to be set into AHCI mode which is what FreeNAS will want so it can access each drive rather than a raid array.

A word of warning though, if you install FreeNAS and start making these changes you very well could lose your data, hair, pet and family jewels. Especially true if you had things in a raid configuration. Have backups that you can recover all the data from before you start making changes.

But plan on this being as temporary as possible and keep everything backed up so you don't lose all your music and such.

I guess again I have not been completely clear. The current box runs WHS2011. I am considering getting rid of the Rocket Raid controller and using the Intel raid controller in the INTERIM. I am not considering installing FreeNAS using the present motherboard, memory etc.

I run my own service business which unfortunately comes first. :p I am researching FreeNAS as time permits.

 

[pirateghost]

I guess again I have not been completely clear. The current box runs WHS2011. I am considering getting rid of the Rocket Raid controller and using the Intel raid controller in the INTERIM. I am not considering installing FreeNAS using the present motherboard, memory etc.

I run my own service business which unfortunately comes first. [emoji14] I am researching FreeNAS as time permits.

Raid configs and windows home server is basically out of the realm of these forums....

 

[jgreco]

I guess again I have not been completely clear. The current box runs WHS2011. I am considering getting rid of the Rocket Raid controller and using the Intel raid controller in the INTERIM. I am not considering installing FreeNAS using the present motherboard, memory etc.

I run my own service business which unfortunately comes first. :p I am researching FreeNAS as time permits.

No, I'm sure the RocketRAID is perfectly fine in the environment for which it was designed, as is the Intel integrated technology. These devices were designed to work in the Windows environment, and as such should work as designed when you're running Windows. The problem with many devices is that FreeBSD driver support for oddball devices isn't always as great as it could be, and then, further, with FreeNAS, anything which gets between ZFS and the raw disks can interfere with proper operation as well.