Is there a way to have a "pass through" Emby server?

[Sludge Vohaul 23]

Hi,

 

I want to access filesystems on a NAS holding the media files from a networked device on the same intranet w/o NFS or the like. This device should be the one running the Emby server.

 

Current state:

A home installation, intranet only. A FreeNAS system with multiple datasets mounted inside a Jail running the Emby server. Each dataset is mounted readonly and mapped to an Emby library. One dataset is mounted readwrite for the database, logs and stuff. The datasets are not accessible over the network (i.e. no NFS or SMB). This means new movies or whatever have to be copied to the NAS via ssh or similar, rm/mv/whatever has to be done through the NAS' CLI.

I would like to keep the dataset configuration the way it is.

 

Target state:

- Getting rid of transcoding on the NAS system, and doing it on a new dedicated device running an Emby server (Intel NUC or something). This Emby server instance is the one clients should use.

- All important Emby data (DB, whatever) should still be kept on the NAS (as currently done via the readwrite mounted dataset). 

- "streaming logs" may be created on the new dedicated device.

- The OS on the dedicated device should be BSDish.

 

 

Is there a way to realise this with Emby only (i.e. without introducing NFS, SMB, ...)?

 

Thanks in advance,

sv

 

 

 

 

[legallink 187]

Just to clarify, you basically want all transcoding to take place at the client but all settings and related to be stored on the nas? I don't know if emby supports that.

[Sludge Vohaul 23]

@legallink:

 

Nope.

I want to have the media data stored on the NAS and do all transcoding on a dedicated device in the same subnet. This device should have access to the media data w/o using NFS or similar. Sort of a proxy.

The clients are still just dumb clients, being served from the Emby server on the dedicated device.

[aptalca 71]

Nfs and smb are protocols for accessing files over the intranet. That is their main purpose. How do you propose that the server access these files on the nas without nfs or smb?

[Sludge Vohaul 23]

@aptalca:

Via http:

1. client requests chunk x

2. Emby server on dedicated device (d1) receives request

3. d1 sends request to Emby server in NAS jail (d2)

4. d2 sends response to d1

5. d1 sends response to client

Edited April 30, 2017 by Sludge Vohaul

[Brandon4466 0]

I don't this is possible without integrating something like SMB.

 

What are your reasons for not wanting to use something like SMB?

[legallink 187]

As far as I am aware, the way that emby works is that the server and ffmpeg are required to be on the same machine. That being said, I know you can have a custom ffmpeg location and that could possibly be on a separate dedicated machine if there were a way for nas based install to start/stop run ffmpeg on a separate machine.

 

I don't believe that is possible right now unfortunately but I can always be wrong.

[Martum 2]

I've a Linux server for emby and a Synology NAS for the media files. The server is using a SSD and gas only emby and the OS installed, while the NAS share is mounted via NFS as a folder on my server.

Other solution I could think of is using iscsi, both iscsi and NFS are the recommended way to connect 24/7 systems in my experience.

 

That way you have a dedicated server just for emby with good performance thanks to the SSD and a dedicated storage for the media files.

[Sludge Vohaul 23]

Sorry to everyone who replied for the long delay (kids, job, garden,...)

 

@@Brandon4466

The reason is simple - currently the media files are only accessible via shell on the NAS. No NFS, SMB whatever (i.e. I have to copy them over to the NAS via scp). The Emby server (running in a jail) has a read only access (via nullfs).

As I have no direct access to the files I cannot delete any by mistake, nor cannot a bug in Emby server cause any problems as the files for Emby are read only.

If I put a NUC or whatever "in front of" the NAS to act as a Emby server, then the media files would have to be accessible to the NUC-Emby-server via NFS,SMB,... or, the existing Emby server in the NAS jail would have to act as a proxy. And that's what my question was. I know that I could export the NAS filesystem via SMB, NFS, but this adds additional configuration which I's like to prevent. 

Edited June 16, 2017 by Sludge Vohaul