ITunes as a Home-Based Media Server - Large Library Storage, etc...

Question

So, my iTunes library is approaching a size where it will soon be able to declare its own gravitational constant. But that's because besides all of the numerous TV seasons included there, I 'ingest' a good number of my own movies and shows (for backup purposes you understand), and so I can see a time where my library will outgrow the single internal 2TB drive I have in my G5 tower.
The last time I tried to store my library on an external drive, I had nothing but problems, so I moved it inside the desktop, which solved that problem, but now I'm worried about space. I'd rather not have to dump files to optical storage, because loading it back in is a real pain. I'd rather be able to 'add' storage when it's needed and on-the-fly.
Is it possible to store your iTunes library on a network storage device (drive array like a drobo, etc) which would be sufficient to feed at least one appleTV, and 1 desktop computer (simultaneously if necessary) with no real trouble like lag or pauses or constant re-syncs? And if so, is there one that would allow me to just drop in another drive to add space?
Anyone have any experience with this? I'm looking at bumping the ceiling, but I don't want to have to start dumping stuff...
Thanks!
-Tony

Answer 1

No one seems to be answering your original question, so I'll try based on my own findings.
As a qualifier, I have three Macs, an Apple TV (old style) iPhone, iPad and a variety of external drives and 4 NAS drives at my disposal.
Assuming you use a fairly new type of NAS drive you should be able to run the Mac (and from it, the Apple TV) using either the NAS set to an AFP or SMB share, which you would point your iTunes Media folder location to.
The only problems I've encountered so far, are that if you are streaming a movie from Apple TV you can't import Music or Movies into iTunes without the movie stuttering.
Playing music on two Macs at once has no problems and if you use a NAS with a new version of Firefly or Twonky, you can stream direct to iTunes or other uPNP devices.
Out of the NAS drives I've tried, the newer WD MyBookWorlds are ok although if you want to get the maximum protection and drive upgradeability I'd suggest a RAID 5 setup like the Netgear ReadNAS pro series.
As far as iTunes 10 goes, Both Netgear and WD work fine from the shared folder, although the ReadyNAS needs beta RAIDiator 4.1.7 if you want to use the iTunes Server, the WD needs a firmware upgrade which WD say is in the works.
On my older Buffalo Terrastation NAS drive, because long filenames aren't supported under AFP, this causes problems if you want to just copy your iTunes folder using the Finder, the same kind of issues occur on the Lacie NAS.
As far as getting your iTunes from your Mac to the NAS, I find the best way is to first make sure your iTunes is working a 100% on your local Mac, mount the NAS as an SMB share (unless you are never going to use 3rd party kit like Sonos, iTunes Windows etc.) then go to iTunes/Preferences… and change the location of your iTunes Media folder from it's default of ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music or iTunes Media and point it to the shared media folder on the NAS drive.
Make sure you select both 'Keep iTunes Media folder organised' and 'Copy files …'. Click OK and then select File/Library, Organise Library. This will take a while as it copies all the local media files over to your NAS drive, but most importantly, it changes the filenames to suit any NAS SMB share restrictions and won't hiccup halfway through the copy just because it encounters a filename the PC/SMB share won't accept.
Finally, keep regular backups of the NAS, as any new music will only be stored there.
Mike