Remote Emby Server - Local Storage

[dcook 299]

I have been using Emby for Windows on my local server for a couple years now and for various reasons I am looking to change my setup.

Current Setup:

Emby setup on Windows 10 server at my home

All Media stored on QNAP NAS at my home

 

I would like to decommission my Windows 10 server and install Emby on my Linux VPS located in a remote data center.

 

New Setup:

Emby setup on Linux VPS in remote datacenter

All Media stored on QNAP NAS at my home

 

My thought is that I can use path substitution, so that people in my house when clicking on play the media will actually play from \\qnap-nas\Movies instead of trying to stream over the internet, because obviously there would be no media files actually stored on the EMBY server

 

Is there anything that I am missing that would cause this setup not to work?

 

I assume I can transfer my premiere key over to the new server once I power off the windows 10 machine?

 

Since the EMBY server would now be outside my local home subnet, would my premiere license still work with my ipads and other apps in my home?

 

Thank you in advance

Duane

 

[ebr 16184]

How will the remote VPS server "see" your media in order to catalog it and manage the library?

 

No issues with the Premiere key.

[Happy2Play 9780]

What benefit are you getting by doing this?  Hope you have a large upload connection from your home..

[dcook 299]

There a few benefits that come to mind:

 

VPS is automatically backed up and its using SSD I can access it from anywhere.

I can get rid of my computer that I have in my home that is currently running EMBY, this will give me electricity savings, as well as piece of mind, since this computer is old and its days are numbered.

 

I don't need large internet pipe as all my media is still stored at my home on my QNAP, so I won't be uploading or downloading any media to the VPS

 

In order to have EMBY build my library and metadata it needs to know what media I have, in order to do this, I was thinking of a few options:

- Webdav connection from my VPS to my QNAP at home

- ssfs connection from my VPS to my QNAP

- create copy of my file structure on my VPS using bash commands and create empty files with same names so EMBY will think the media is on the VPS but in reality its just a text file of the same name.

 

 

Since I have path subsittion setup my theory is that anyone in my house who access EMBY even though EMBY is on the VPS the media is local, it should connect directly to the QNAP NAS, is that correct?  Or am I not understanding the path substitution?

[Happy2Play 9780]

But your home upload speed is still going your limits.

[dcook 299]

Yes that would be the weak point, but I don't see it as being an issue as I am not going to be uploading anything.

 

Browse EMBY located on VPS via Browser or Roku/iPad App while in my house.

Click Play, EMBY should start to play and using Path Substitution would be playing from \\QNAP-NAS\Media\file.mkv

 

So performance should be the same as what I have now as media is being played from NAS, there would be nothing uploaded or downloaded.

 

 

 

But your home upload speed is still going your limits.

[maegibbons 1287]

What about if there is a need to transcode?

 

The vps would be handling that!

 

Krs

 

Mark

Edited February 5, 2017 by maegibbons

[Happy2Play 9780]

Sounds good in theory.

[Happy2Play 9780]

What about if there is a need to transcode?

 

The vps would be handling that!

 

Krs

 

Mark

 

As for transcoding why yes the server has to pull all the information (home upload) convert it the push it back (home download) .

[dcook 299]

That is why I am posting the question if this setup would work?

 

To be honest I don't know much about trans-coding and I am seeking advise from the community if this would work

 

Ideally it would be nice of EMBY was broken into a two pieces, a Front end interface server, and a backend media player and then you could have 1 front end interface and multiple backend servers defined which you could then configure as you like.  

 

 

What about if there is a need to transcode?

The vps would be handling that!

Krs

Mark

[ebr 16184]

Honestly, I don't think this will work for you.

 

The Emby server will need access to the actual media files.  We analyze them with ffprobe to know what they contain in order to make decisions about transcoding.  And then there is the case where transcoding is needed as noted above.

 

I think you would have a much better experience simply running Emby on your Qnap.

[maegibbons 1287]

My advice:

 

Keep the data as close to the server as possible.

 

That can be local or in a datacentre.  If you are serving multiple locations then a datacentre is better because of connectivity.

 

However, if your primary usage is at home, which is the scenario for most users, then keep everything at home.  Only use your upstream when absolutely necessary when you are away from home or serving other users.  Protect your internet bandwidth because that is usually where bottlenecks and capacity issues are.

 

Local networks are very fast.  Just buy a dedicated small server box such as a NUC.  These are really low power and will not impact your energy bill compared to older desktops/towers.

 

Krs

 

Mark

[dcook 299]

I tried in the past running it on the QNAP, I find that its much slower, the QNAP is excellent as a NAS, but when you add more services on it, it seems to get slower and slower.  Also I find the QNAP version of EMBY was always well behind the Windows or Linux ones.

 

So it seems I will need to have my VPS server access my QNAP somehow so it can access the files with ffprobe

 

 

 

Honestly, I don't think this will work for you.

 

The Emby server will need access to the actual media files.  We analyze them with ffprobe to know what they contain in order to make decisions about transcoding.  And then there is the case where transcoding is needed as noted above.

 

I think you would have a much better experience simply running Emby on your Qnap.

[dcook 299]

I was considering a NUC as well, but since I already had the VPS I thought this might work instead, so I don't have to buy a NUC to replace the existing EMBY server at home.

 

 

 

My advice:

 

Keep the data as close to the server as possible.

 

That can be local or in a datacentre.  If you are serving multiple locations then a datacentre is better because of connectivity.

 

However, if your primary usage is at home, which is the scenario for most users, then keep everything at home.  Only use your upstream when absolutely necessary when you are away from home or serving other users.  Protect your internet bandwidth because that is usually where bottlenecks and capacity issues are.

 

Local networks are very fast.  Just buy a dedicated small server box such as a NUC.  These are really low power and will not impact your energy bill compared to older desktops/towers.

 

Krs

 

Mark

[ebr 16184]

I tried in the past running it on the QNAP, I find that its much slower, the QNAP is excellent as a NAS, but when you add more services on it, it seems to get slower and slower.  Also I find the QNAP version of EMBY was always well behind the Windows or Linux ones.

 

So it seems I will need to have my VPS server access my QNAP somehow so it can access the files with ffprobe

 

I'm with maegibbons.  I think you are using a hammer when an inexpensive screwdriver will do a much better job...

[Happy2Play 9780]

There are posts where users had better luck with Docker instead of QNAP.

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/43348-what-is-this-qmono-thing/?p=413585

[dcook 299]

If anyone has any ideas on how to setup a Emby server in Location A and the Media Data in Location B I would appreciate it.

 

Thank you

[dcook 299]

Is there a setting somewhere to disable trans-coding all together?  

I would like direct play only.

 

 

 

 

Honestly, I don't think this will work for you.

 

The Emby server will need access to the actual media files.  We analyze them with ffprobe to know what they contain in order to make decisions about transcoding.  And then there is the case where transcoding is needed as noted above.

 

I think you would have a much better experience simply running Emby on your Qnap.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Is there a setting somewhere to disable trans-coding all together?  

I would like direct play only.

 

No there isn't.  But it isn't possible to direct play everything on all devices so what would you want the server to do if the device doesn't like what you are sending to it?

 

You can tell the server per user to not allow transcoding or reencoding, but that just means any media that requires it will not play at all.

[dcook 299]

Looks like I will be rebuilding my home server and forgetting the VPS idea.

Thanks everyone