Migration from macOS to Synology

[hamah 4]

Hi, I've done a fair bit of searching and reading on this forum and elsewhere and I think I'm fairly comfortable with the topic but still want to make sure I have this correct.

I currently run my macOS Emby server (4.7.14) and want to move over to my new Synology NAS running DSM 7.2.1. I was initially going to try an install use Container Manager/Portainer and a pulled container image but with some challenges I faced using this approach with other apps I use such as Transmission and SABnzbd, I think I'll go the recommended approach of installing the app from  Package Centre (also currently at 4.7.14).

In preparation I've migrated all my media from my Drobo DAS to a shared folder on the NAS. I've also upgraded to Emby Premier and have a server configuration backup from the plugin ready to use.

My main concerns are around paths. Obviously the folder structure will not be identical but really only differ at the top level (at least for media). As an example right now my movie library is /Volumes/Drobo/Movies but will now be /volume1/media/movies. Playlists and other config info I believe is currently in  /Users/steve/.config/emby-server/data. I don't yet know what the new path will be.

I have a small number of users with pretty much full library access. Currently they use Emby Connect to find my server but as this has not been particularly reliable I'm thinking of just using local account username/passwords, an SSL cert and reverse proxy on the NAS, and pointing the users to https://emby.mydomain.com.

When I've installed the app and installed the Premier license key will I just need to do a restore pointing to the latest backup? Will there be any other config changes I'll need to make such as adding new libraries or will I be prompted to browse to the new media locations for the existing Movie and TV libraries I have?

Am I missing anything? Any additional steps or suggestions?

Thanks in advance and I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday season.

 

[Luke 37071]

Hi, since you're changing platforms, my suggestion would be to use the backup plugin only to import users, user data, and nothing else. I know that's probably not the answer you want to hear but I think that will give you the best result.

[hamah 4]

Not having used the plugin before (or done a migration) what additional tasks will I need to do? I'm not as concerned about having to do more tasks manually as I am about messing things up by doing something I should not have.

I only have a few users and they don't have playlists or saved progress that I know about. Would I be best off just adding 2 new libraries for TV and Movies using the new top level folder? All .nfo and images are with the media content. Will they get picked up with a new library scan or will I end up with a ton of duplicate files? 

[Luke 37071]

On 12/22/2023 at 2:38 PM, hamah said:

Not having used the plugin before (or done a migration) what additional tasks will I need to do? I'm not as concerned about having to do more tasks manually as I am about messing things up by doing something I should not have.

I only have a few users and they don't have playlists or saved progress that I know about. Would I be best off just adding 2 new libraries for TV and Movies using the new top level folder? All .nfo and images are with the media content. Will they get picked up with a new library scan or will I end up with a ton of duplicate files? 

@hamahyou're going to have to reconfigure the rest of the server outside of what I mentioned. Did you do that? How did this go?

[hamah 4]

Hi Luke, thanks for the follow up and apologies for not having provided an update.

I did the restore from backup which covered off the users. The reconfiguration of the rest of the server was simply recreating the movie and TV libraries. The scanning of the existing folders did not result in any duplicate srt files, images etc. To make a long story short it was a painless and successful migration.