Two servers, one media folder (temporarily only)

[Strudo76 7]

So I have a very happy Emby server running on a Windows 7 PC (for WMC) that accesses the media folder on a Synology NAS via Windows File Services shared folders.

 

I have just been playing with a Raspberry Pi 3, and set up a Emby server on that device, accessing the media folder via NFS.

 

My plan is to use the Pi server as my main server, and relegate the current server to the back room, and have it only fire up when WMC is recording TV without the Emby server running.

 

While I'm mucking about with this setup to see how it will perform and if it will be feasible, can a point both servers to the same media folder without breaking either of them. Ideally, everything will be happy happy happy and I'll continue my plan. However, in case things go a little pear shaped, I'd like to know that my media library will still be viable to return to the existing setup.

 

I won't be accessing the media store from both servers at the same time. I plan on shutting down the Windows server while playing with the Pi server. Or would I be better off removing the media folder from the Windows server first? I would like to retain my watched status if possible, as that's kind of the point of even running the server in the first place.

 

Anyway, if anyone has tried something like this, or even has any thoughts, let me know before I bungle up both systems 

Regards

 

Simon

[clarkss12 304]

I have 4 servers running on my network and they share my NAS's and the same TV recording folders without any problems.  And I have no idea why I am running 4 servers at the same time.

[ebr 16185]

Just make sure only one of them is set to save metadata with the media.  Otherwise the two servers could start racing each other.

[blade005 185]

So I have a very happy Emby server running on a Windows 7 PC (for WMC) that accesses the media folder on a Synology NAS via Windows File Services shared folders.

 

I have just been playing with a Raspberry Pi 3, and set up a Emby server on that device, accessing the media folder via NFS.

 

My plan is to use the Pi server as my main server, and relegate the current server to the back room, and have it only fire up when WMC is recording TV without the Emby server running.

 

While I'm mucking about with this setup to see how it will perform and if it will be feasible, can a point both servers to the same media folder without breaking either of them. Ideally, everything will be happy happy happy and I'll continue my plan. However, in case things go a little pear shaped, I'd like to know that my media library will still be viable to return to the existing setup.

 

I won't be accessing the media store from both servers at the same time. I plan on shutting down the Windows server while playing with the Pi server. Or would I be better off removing the media folder from the Windows server first? I would like to retain my watched status if possible, as that's kind of the point of even running the server in the first place.

 

Anyway, if anyone has tried something like this, or even has any thoughts, let me know before I bungle up both systems 

Regards

 

Simon

@@Strudo76,

 

I did something similar recently without any issues. I moved from an Emby install on a Win7 machine to a new clean install of Emby on a Minix Neo Z83-4 Win10 box.

 

1. I used the Configuration Backup utility to save off configuration, user, library and playstate information from Win7 Emby install.

2. Installed Emby Server on Minix Neo Win10 box and restored Configuration backup and scanned library to populate new Emby install on Minix box.

3. As ebr noted in Post #3, if you plan to run them in parallel for any length of time, you should only set up one of the libraries to save metadata information.

 

I gave each machine (Emby Server) a unique FRIENDLY SERVER NAME in the Dashboard and ran them in parallel for about a week to test out how the new Minix Box would perform against my various media types, while still letting my Win7 machine perform library scans and metadata management. This allowed me to switch from each Emby Server (Win7 and Minix Win10) across the various clients I use and see if there were any unacceptable performance hits.

 

Once I was satisfied with Minix performance, I transitioned metadata and library management over. I then shut down the Win7 Emby server and just use that machine for WMC Recordings that I move over to Emby library on Minix Neo box.  

 

I still need to transition / move all of my external drives over to the Minix Neo box, but it worked out well for me as I tested and then transitioned over. Once all drives are moved over, then I plan to uninstall Emby Server from Win7 machine completely and then do a clean install on the Win7 machine that I will keep there as a fail-over option in the event that the Minix Neo box fails or becomes a performance issue down the road. I would then start up the Emby Server on Win7 machine, restore from latest Configuration Backup (nightly) for user, library and playstate information and be back up and running in the Emby ecosystem with minimal downtime.

[Strudo76 7]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

 

I've had a few issues running the server on the Pi 3, so I might just abandon that idea anyway. It's possible I had it configured as ebr said not to though, so I might give it another try soon and make sure only one server is saving the metadata to the folder. All I'm getting at the moment is the Pi 3 server stopping responding. It doesn't seem to pick up the library content without a scan, but the scan gets to 60% pretty quick, then will stop responding before reaching much past 65%, if it gets that far. At that point I pretty much have to power cycle the Pi just to regain control, as the device has completely stopped responding on the Raspbian desktop and through SSH.

 

Is the Pi 3 a viable device for running the server even? I'd be wanting to run the server and kodi with the emby plug in.

 

As far as I can tell, the main advantage to continuing to use the server side is to have consistent watched status and resume from multiple device. I don't need those things in particular, so would I be better off just running kodi without running a server at all.