Backup and restore

[wollabille 12]

Dear Community

 

I'm starting to get a little frustrated with Emby now with minor stuff, don't get me wrong I love what it can do, maybe I just haven't read up on my home work well enough. But my issue is backing a server up.

 

Yesterday I started to pay the premium because of the backup solution. Which I need since I'm running the server on my PC but want it to run on my main NUC. 

 

It says here : Backup and restore your server configuration with ease, or migrate to a new environment in a snap.

 

OK super that's something even a new user can understand (which I am btw ).

I then dig further. And find out that you need to install a plugin.

Fine I do this as well, Server Configuration Backup is installed. 

I go in to set it up, which needs a backup destination path and the users and user data is not marked. Well I mark those as well and then I ran it. 1 sec was the time it took to run it. Uhhm OK that was fast.

So I go check my destination backup folder and its just barely a MB in size. 

 

So I try to restore it to my NUC. Which "went fine". The only thing I see that has been transferred is the "watched" status, or at least the only thing I could see. So my issues is now, how do I backup the view, the folders that I have tweaked, the folders I have renamed. 

Which is something I have worked quite some on because it doesn't sort "The" and "A" if its the start of a movie/series title.

 

My main concern here is that if my system dies, how will I then back it up and restore it instead of having to work 5+ hours on my movies

And my main question is, how can I back my PC server settings, view, own folder posters that I have chosen, the sort name I have entered etc etc which wasn't backed up.

I even looked into this guide. Which didn't work for me! 

 

 

tl:dr how the frak do i back up everything completely 

Edited November 24, 2015 by wollabille

[Ian-Highlander 145]

I have a scheduled task on my system that runs every night, backing up the entire Emby-server directory and my metadata/IBN/cache directory seperately to another location. In the event of a failure, install Emby, then over-write everything with the backup, job done.

Edited November 24, 2015 by Ian-Highlander

[wollabille 12]

I have a scheduled task on my system that runs every night, backing up the entire Emby-server directory and my metadata/IBN/cache directory seperately to another location. In the event of a failure, install Emby, then over-write everything with the backup, job done.

Which is the same I have done!? But how big is your file folder that it backs up? How has it been setup? Are you using the same backup plugin as me?

Have you tried to restore it to see if it works?

[Ian-Highlander 145]

No, I'm not using any plugin, I physically back up every single file related to Emby myself using a Windows scheduled task, nothing to do with Emby or plugins.

[ebr 14902]

 

And my main question is, how can I back my PC server settings, view, own folder posters that I have chosen, the sort name I have entered etc etc which wasn't backed up.

I even looked into this guide. Which didn't work for me! 

 

This type of information is stored in the metadata not the server configuration.  The configuration backup plug-in only backs up key elements of the servers setup, not any metadata or library content.  If you store your metadata with your media, all of that should not need to be backed up though (for this purpose anyway).

 

As noted above, you could physically back up the entire folder and move that over to a new machine as long as everything about the environment is exactly the same.

[wollabille 12]

As noted above, you could physically back up the entire folder and move that over to a new machine as long as everything about the environment is exactly the same.

 

OK well this is what I already did! And my question now is where did that go wrong? 

On my PC my users folder name there is nnanb\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server where I took all the files from Emby-server and copied over to my NUC. The name of the user folder there is : diablo\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server

And I copied all those files over and followed the guide http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/10427-how-to-migrate-media-browser-server/ (which I don't know why it didn't paste it over in my first post, sry)

 

But still it doesn't work...

[ebr 14902]

We haven't really designed the system with transferring it to an entirely new environment in mind so, as I said, it will only work in very specific situations and, its possible that changes in the latest releases may even make that not possible (it just isn't something we've tested in a while).

 

So, it may be that the best approach is to use the plug-in to do what it can and then just let the rest re-build in the new environment.  But, as I said above, some of what you are looking for is in metadata, not server configuration so, if you don't store that metadata with your media, transferring it may not be possible.

 

This is one of the (many) reasons I always suggest people store their metadata with their media.

[wollabille 12]

Hi ebr do you mean this here? So if i put this on the if i one day should reinstall the server then it would be easier to restore with my original pictures?

[Deathsquirrel 741]

Yes, if your metadata is stored locally with the movies and you reinstall the server it would not need to download it again.  That 'Save artwork and metadata into local media folders' button controls that.  If you haven't had it checked until now though you'd need to do a library refresh from the metadata editor to re-download everything to the new location.  Otherwise only new titles benefit.

[KarterJK 35]

Hi ebr do you mean this here? So if i put this on the if i one day should reinstall the server then it would be easier to restore with my original pictures?

 

Yes, if your metadata is stored locally with the movies and you reinstall the server it would not need to download it again.  That 'Save artwork and metadata into local media folders' button controls that.  If you haven't had it checked until now though you'd need to do a library refresh from the metadata editor to re-download everything to the new location.  Otherwise only new titles benefit.

 

 

This is exactly what I do.   I store all of my artwork, metadata, etc onto another drive actually.  Then use the backup plugin (there is only one).  The plugin will not store the physical files, but what it will do, is store where they are located.  So, when you go to restore your server (using the Backup Plugin restore function), it would reset your server telling it where your files used to be stored.

 

If I remember correctly the key here is to store your Backup Plugin files in a particular place and if you re-install the plugin use the same location.