Home Server questions

[leedog]

I have a few questions after using Daminion Home Server in a trial capacity for the last few weeks. If it would be easier to break these up into separate posts, I can.

 

My use case is my wife and I managing a ~35k image catalog at home stored on a Windows server running Daminion Server Home using Windows clients.

1. Is there any advantage to running a non-free client version to manage the catalog stored on the server? The client versions seem to only be limited by local catalog size.
2. Are there any feature limitations in the Home Server version other than the simultaneous connections and user access control? I understand the license limitations (non-commercial, etc.).
3. What sort of maintenance cost is there after the first year for upgrades to the home server version?
4. Is there a way to hit the Postgres server directly to explore/query the DB? I'm an MSSQL guy, never messed with Postgres much. I might use this as my opportunity to learn.
5. #5 is a little bigger question.

I’m still having some trouble deciding which storage scheme I should use. I'm still torn between scheme B and scheme C. I want to find a happy medium between the two.

 

Our images are stored in a local folder on the server that is shared as \\server\pictures

 

If I import the images into the catalog using the UNC path, then the clients display them using this path and I can use the client UI to "Locate in Explorer" and those sorts of things. My understanding is this is scheme C and I lose version control functionality.

 

If I import the images using the drive letter and path (scheme B), then I get the version control functionality, but the UI is off, since the folder structure in the "Folders" tags are based off of the local path on the server, not the share path. I don't understand why the UI exposes a path that the client can't access. This is a bad UX to me. It may make more sense for a use case other than mine. :)

 

Is there a way to use Scheme B and still have the UI on the client show the folder tags as a share path? Daminion can know both the local path and the share path on the server, but the client would only see them as a share path.

 

I want the version control functionality from scheme C, but I also want the UI to show the paths as a share path like scheme B so "locate in explorer" works and the path is relative to what the client can see, not what's on the server.

[rene]

Hello Leedog,

let me try to answer your questions:

 

1. I guess the Demo Version will not be much of use after these 30 days of trial period Take a look at this Link: https://daminion.net/order this shows different features of the versions. The Home Version, which you are testing right now is perfect for you I guess. You can install the client on as many computers as you like and you have two concurrent connections. (you and your wife)!

 

2. no I don't think so! I mean take a look at the link I posted above that explains it all.

[leedog]

Thanks Rene.

 

#1 was more about client versions.

 

The Daminion clients seem to be limited only by the size of the *local* catalog they can manage. So, that implies to me that I can just use the free client to manage the catalog on my server, no matter how big it is. I just wanted to clarify/confirm that assumption. I couldn't find it stated explicitly anywhere on the site.

 

And for #2, that was my assumption as well. :)

[Murat]

1. Nope. Daminion Free version is designed to work as the client to the Daminion Server and doesn't have any limitations when working with Shared Catalogs in comparison to working with the Daminion Standalone Paid versions. But you will be limited

 

2. Home Server's limitations:

- Can not be used for commercial purposes

- Can not be used by companies

- Limited with 2 connections maximally

- Can't restrict an access to content by User Roles

 

3. Daminion Server maintenance price is 40% from the initial price

 

4. Yep, you can use the PGAdmin for this. But we don't recommend you to edit Daminion's catalogs directly to avoid database integrity. We don't guarantee the stable working of the program in this case.

 

5. We locked the Version Control feature for files that were imported from network locations by direct links, because file versions might be damaged or corrupted by someone in your local network.

[leedog]

Thanks Murat.

 

Thanks for clarifying the maintenance. The form on the website for renewing only starts with 3 connections, so it wasn't obvious what it was going to cost with just the 2 connections, nor how to go about doing it.

 

I don't plan on changing anything in the catalog directly in postgres, i just wanted to poke around (hopefully, non-destructively) and see how Postgres works and see how it differs from MSSQL, what the admin tools are like, and maybe look into maintenance plans, etc. It would just be a learning exercise for me.

 

I can understand the concern with versioning getting corrupted outside of Daminion. At this point, I don't even know how the versioning works, so I'll leave it alone. Once I'm more comfortable with Daminion, I might revisit the issue if it still bugs me. :)

[Murat]

The upgrade page in our web-site refers to the Daminion Team Server orders. The maintenance of the Home Server is lesser: $59 for Home Server with 2 connections.