Media Systems: Incorporating the TV and the HiFi - Smart Home Automation with Linux and Raspberry Pi - page 97

incrementing number to the devices if possible, because this will make scanning, backup, and maintenance scripts
easier to write as each name is logically created, without arbitrary caveats.
You might want to name the device without any reference to the manufacturer, as in media_nas1 . This is also
fine, but it's recommended that you note to which device this refers. I use a single page on my home's internal wiki
containing all the devices, model numbers, MAC addresses, firmware versions, web forums, and so on, of each piece
of hardware connected to my network. I also use this to note the physical location of each machine.
The shared folder names should all follow a convention such as media_movies , media_tv , and so on. If you have
kids and are providing them with access to the network, then providing separate folders such as media_kids might be
an idea. The reason for splitting all the media into separate shared folders is that each can have distinct Samba access
rights (each with or without passwords) and be unmounted on its own without affecting the rest of the system. It
would be much harder work to control a directory of media/movies if only the root media folder was shared.

Preparing a Master Server
So far we have a number of servers, with lots of technical information and metadata. These names are all for the
purpose of maintenance. No user would want, or should need, to know that the cartoons are on media_nas2 in the
spare bedroom, under media_children . Nor should a family member be interested that you've split the movies folder
across two separate disks 6 because there were too many for the old drive. To this end, you should designate a master
server. It can be one of the media servers or an entirely different machine. It is recommended that this master server
be running the most prominent and important services in the house, one that also stays on 24/7. This allows it to be
used as Node0, which you'll learn about in Chapter 4.
This Node0 machine then mounts each shared folder, from each server, into its own directory structure. And it is
this directory structure that is shared so that each media-streaming device can access the media.

N On first glance, it appears wasteful for NAS1 to connect to Node0, only to be connected back to NAS1, but to
scale up effectively, provide all media in a unified environment, and support dynamic changes in the media architecture,
this is the best way to do it.

Note

The directory structure I use pulls together all the Samba shares like this:

/net/homenet/slug1/media_tv

and local disks like this:

/net/homenet/mediapc1/usb2/media/movies

into a hierarchy underneath /net/homenet as a number of links or Samba mounts. This becomes a self-documenting
report for the media server layout of home. I then create a series of links under the /net/media directory to hide the
structure:

ln -s /net/homenet/mediapc1/usb1/media/tv /net/media/tv
ln -s /net/homenet/mediapc1/usb2/media/movies /net/media/movies
ln -s /net/homenet/itx1/usb1/media/mp3 /net/media/music
ln -s /net/homenet/slug1/usb1/media/videos /net/media/videos

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