Running 2 Servers from sync'd media share... - Best Configuration

[OurfamilySpot 5]

I have 2 WD NAS, one is a PR4100 and is my primary NAS and server.  The other is a EX2 Ultra and my backup and test NAS and Server.   

• I have my 2 media shares synced (one direction) from my Primary to my backup box.
• I have Emby Server (same version 4.7.0.19) running on both.
• All of my metadata, configs, collections, etc. are initially setup on my primary server, and then stored in NFO files which are sync'd.
• All my Media has images attached in the media files themselves.

I am struggling with my backup server.   I don't want it going after metadata or the images as that work has already been done.   However it picks up the metadata (I assume from the NFOs), but never shows or updates the coverart.

Can someone share with me an optimal configuration (both server and library) for what should be a dumb copy of the primary server.   What am I getting wrong.    

 

Other than the occasion library scan for new files, I would expect the backup server to basically do nothing but serve the media files to clients.  All the work should be done on the primary server, then sync'd over.

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by OurfamilySpot

[Luke 42080]

Quote

but never shows or updates the coverart.

Hi there, can you please go over an example? Thanks.

[OurfamilySpot 5]

So on my primary server, the artwork for all the videos show up when viewed in a client (the box art that I added to the metadata of all my videos, prior to importing into Emby).  The NFO file is generated, and all my metadata show on the files in the library, along people.    

After the library is sync'd to my other server, and scanned.   All the videos show up but with the colored cards instead of the box art.   All other metadata seems to be there (assuming its coming for the NFO that is synced). 

I have all the metadata providers disabled on the slave server, I have NFO selected as a metadata reading I have NFO deselected in Metadata savers (so it isn't overwritten).

But I never see the box art, (Video covers) on the slave only the colored cards.

I do see that the video preview thumbnails do run and show.

Also I am assuming I can safely sync the metadata/people and collections folders between the servers (again only one direction from master to slave).   Is that fair?

These are from my slave server.

 

Expecting to see this:

Got this: 

 

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by OurfamilySpot

[OurfamilySpot 5]

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Edited January 11, 2022 by OurfamilySpot
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[Luke 42080]

OK the server's internal metadata folder is not really intended to be used by multiple servers. For the one that downloads metadata, the best thing to do actually would be to enable saving nfo and images to media folders, then the other server will be able to read that information.

[OurfamilySpot 5]

I'll give that a try!

[OurfamilySpot 5]

Worked Perfectly. 

[Luke 42080]

Thanks for the feedback.

[adminExitium 355]

Any official way to share the collection info/images & people images too between servers? I don't see a way to store them alongside the media.

 

Thanks.

@cayars

@Happy2Play

[Carlo 4561]

Hi, I myself wouldn't try sharing meta-data between servers unless it's written to the media folder.

If you have one server gathering the meta-data and writing it to an NFO file stored with the media the second server should be able to use the NFO file

which will have collection information in the NFO file.

[adminExitium 355]

Yeah, this was meant for the info that's not stored in the NFO alongside the media files like the people images or collection details.
From what I have seen, only the collection tag is stored in the NFO and the remaining details are stored in a separate file in the metadata folder which make it impossible to share collections without also sharing the metadata folder.
Same for people images since they too are stored only in the metadata folder and it seems like a waste to repeatedly download the same image if there are multiple Emby servers with access to the same media folder.

[Happy2Play 9782]

On 1/12/2022 at 8:33 AM, adminExitium said:

Any official way to share the collection info/images & people images too between servers? I don't see a way to store them alongside the media.

 

Thanks.

@cayars

@Happy2Play

Maybe symbolic link one to the other as you cannot set /metadata path for both servers to same location as /metadata/library will be different on both servers.

Or a one-time copy from one server to the other.

[adminExitium 355]

Just to make sure I understand you correctly: Keep a separate collections & people folder that is symlinked into both the metadata folders (/metadata1 & /metadata2 for the 2 emby servers)? This way they have common people and collections folders but individual folders for everything else (library, views, musicalbum etc.)

This should work without issues? It sounds like a hack-ish way to solve it but if there's nothing better, I will do that.

 

Any near term plans to improve on this?

[Happy2Play 9782]

1 minute ago, adminExitium said:

Just to make sure I understand you correctly: Keep a separate collections & people folder that is symlinked into both the metadata folders (/metadata1 & /metadata2 for the 2 emby servers)? This way they have common people and collections folders but individual folders for everything else (library, views, musicalbum etc.)

This should work without issues? It sounds like a hack-ish way to solve it but if there's nothing better, I will do that.

 

Any near term plans to improve on this?

Well you can do everything except /library as the folderids will not allign per server.  Don't believe /livetv or /views will align either but genres/music/studios/collections/people should as they are all by name folders.

I would assume a feature request to make /metadata universal.  But that would require a complete rebuild for all users.

[adminExitium 355]

Got it, thanks. Will give it a try in a week or so when I rebuild the read-only server.

 

Will leave it open to Luke to comment in case anything is already in the pipeline to improve this else will create a feature request in a few days.

[OurfamilySpot 5]

I am “syncing” my collections and people folders from my master server to the slave and they seem to work just fine

[adminExitium 355]

Great, thanks for the confirmation. I will probably stick with symlinks since it's one less process to monitor for failure but good to know that sharing most of the metadata folders works fine.

[ilyansolo 0]

I hope this is not going to be considered a necropost lol.

I am looking for a way to run 2 emby servers against the same NAS shared folder (SMB).

For the reasons, 1 server is working just fine, but it's hardware is far from perfect. And second i'd want to run when there is an external client need some transcoding, like 68Mbit/s HEVC to something to fit inside a 40Mbit/s outbound Internet connections.

I have a feeling that if I just bluntly do that, i'll screw up something in metadata etc, but maybe i am wrong and it's gonna be fine?

[GrimReaper 4742]

12 minutes ago, ilyansolo said:

I have a feeling that if I just bluntly do that, i'll screw up something in metadata etc, but maybe i am wrong and it's gonna be fine?

It's generally gonna be fine, word of advice would be to save NFOs/artwork with your media and have only single server scraping metadata, i.e. be the main one, while the other(s) would be just reading those (disable all their meta-providers and image fetchers) and they'll happily co-exist, I have at least 2 servers (stable and beta) running concurrently at all times, sometimes joined by third and fourth due to reasons. 

Edited February 17, 2023 by GrimReaper

[rbjtech 5284]

7 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

It's generally gonna be fine, word of advice would be to save NFOs/artwork with your media and have only single server scraping metadata, i.e. be the main one, while the other(s) would be just reading those (disable all their meta-providers and image fetchers) and they'll happily co-exist, I have at least 2 servers (stable and beta) running concurrently at all times, sometimes joined by third and fourth due to reasons. 

The above is good advice but I'd just like to add that sharing metadata across different emby builds (even in this configuration) does have it's risks due to possible NFO and configuration inconsistencies etc and therefore you should try and keep the releases consistent.  ie run Beta for both the 'Production' and 'Backup' server.  This is what I do.

For my multiples test Betas, I actually just use symlinks to a selection of the shared media and keep the metadata local on that emby config - that way, it's not only faster for Beta testing (short library scans etc) but also safer as it has no way to impact the other services.

Edited February 17, 2023 by rbjtech