Migrating to Docker (beta) question about restoring from app

[Sparker 43]

Can I use the restore from backup if I migrate from Synology DSM 7.2x app to Docker?

I will be using the same version of Emby (4.9.0.42 beta) and the media files will be the same path /volume2/data

I've read the documentation and I am ready to go, but it is late here and I want to watch some TV before bed   (I did not uninstall the app yet either).

Here is my docker-compose

version: "2.3"
services:
  emby:
    image: emby/embyserver:beta
    container_name: embyserver
    environment:
      - UID=1027 #dockerlimited
      - GID=65536 #dockergroup
      - GIDLIST=937 #retrieved from ssh intel igpu device group id
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/emby/config:/config # Configuration directory
      - /volume2/data:/data # Media directory
    network_mode: host
    devices:
      - /dev/dri:/dev/dri
    restart: unless-stopped

I use Watchtower for my other containers, so Emby will be auto-updated and take the hassle out of updating once every x weeks/months.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, the backup and restore process isn't quite perfected across different platforms yet, however since this is still linux to linux there's a good chance it will work. So yes, it couldn't hurt to try. I think I saw someone mention that they did a migration like this the other day.

[Sparker 43]

Thanks, I will try it and report back!

[Carlo 4560]

16 hours ago, Sparker said:

Thanks, I will try it and report back!

Did you try it yet?
How did it go?

[Sparker 43]

22 hours ago, Carlo said:

Did you try it yet?
How did it go?

Yes, it seemed to work!

• I stopped the EmbyServer package in DSM (I did not uninstall it)
• I built the EmbyServer docker project
• skipped setting up a library
• Logged into Emby and added my premiere key
• I set backup path to the same one as from Package install
• I was offfered Full recent backup and a couple of metadata snapshots

Before

After

It looks like a bunch of images are missing @Lukewhat task should I kick to repopulate the metadata? Or is there a path I could copy all the metadata from the app install on DSM to the Docker config directory to repopulate images/subtitles etc?

Then I need to add the new Docker instance api key to Sonarr, Radarr, Watchstate etc etc

[Happy2Play 9780]

Does your backup include all Metadata folders?

Otherwise you will probably need to do a complete Refresh of all your media somewhat the same as a new install.

You could manually copy this folder over and run the Metadata Folder task.

Edited March 18, 2025 by Happy2Play

[Sparker 43]

1 minute ago, Happy2Play said:

Does your backup include all Metadata folders?

Otherwise you will probably need to do a complete Refresh of all your media somewhat the same as a new install.

You could manually copy this folder over and run the Metadata Folder task.

Yeah it did, but unfortunately for me the path to the media was not exactly the same

/volume2/data/media (DSM app) vs /data/data/media (Docker) I am updating libraries with the correct path now

[Sparker 43]

Is there a way to modify the media paths in the full backup directory?

I just need to remove /volume2 from the media library paths and then reimport the backup.

[Happy2Play 9780]

11 minutes ago, Sparker said:

Yeah it did, but unfortunately for me the path to the media was not exactly the same

/volume2/data/media (DSM app) vs /data/data/media (Docker) I am updating libraries with the correct path now

Okay yah with media path changes these cross platform path issues exist and somewhat require database hack or removing/readding libraries.

Discussed in many topics but here is one example

 

Edited March 18, 2025 by Happy2Play

[Sparker 43]

Ugh, I overthought this. I just trashed the Docker container and simply changed the media path to the "old" DSM package one,

built it

reimported the backup again, and everything is there, metadata and all.

Hardware transcoding also enabled fine!

Edited March 18, 2025 by Sparker

[Sparker 43]

Just to add, I discovered this morning that the daily backup task failed. It seems that the restored server can't overwrite the main embyserver-full backup files. I just moved the folders from the package install into a new "old" sub folder and manually ran the task and it completeed fine.

[Luke 42077]

8 hours ago, Sparker said:

Just to add, I discovered this morning that the daily backup task failed. It seems that the restored server can't overwrite the main embyserver-full backup files. I just moved the folders from the package install into a new "old" sub folder and manually ran the task and it completeed fine.

What did you configure as the backup location?

[Sparker 43]

The same path: /volume2/data (I checked folder permissions were good).

I moved the old backup folders into /volume2/data/old

then I reran the Backup task, and this time it ran without issue.

I suspect that Emby Server couldn't backup over itself? Because it was the same Backup files I used to restore the server.

[Luke 42077]

9 minutes ago, Sparker said:

(I checked folder permissions were good).

How did you do that?

[Sparker 43]

12 minutes ago, Luke said:

How did you do that?

Via DSM Shared Folder permissions. Everything that is supposed to have access works.

[Luke 42077]

11 minutes ago, Sparker said:

Via DSM Shared Folder permissions. Everything that is supposed to have access works.

Can you please show a screenshot of that? Thanks.

[Sparker 43]

Why? there isn't a problem here. Access works like it should.

[Luke 42077]

OK so what is a specific example of a problem you are having?

[Sparker 43]

On 3/20/2025 at 12:13 AM, Luke said:

OK so what is a specific example of a problem you are having?

Hi Luke, I'm not really having a problem.. I was updating the topic with an issue I ran into after restoring the server (rebuilding from DSM package to Docker) in that after restoring the config and metadata to the new Docker instance everything worked, however, the first backup of the new Emby (now hosted via Docker) failed. I presumed it failed for one of two reasons:

1. The existing full backup was not old enough (mere few hours between restoring and the full backup job running)
2. A restored Emby Server cannot backup over its own restored data (see first point)

These were guesses on my part, so I was merely updating the topic with my personal experience.

I discovered (based on my thinking about the two above points) that if I completely deleted the previous backup (which was also restore data for the Emby Server that is now on Docker) then the Backup task would run like it was the first time.

The backup path was the same for DSM package and Docker, so it had old data in it from the package install.

Hope this helps someone who migrates from DSM package to Docker