Emby Server on Windows repeatedly commits suicide with latest update

[mcartoixa 0]

Hi,

I could not connect to Emby Server today. It has been installed on Windows Server in a custom location for several months now (using the portable download), and runs as a service through nssm.

To my surprise I found that the service could not start anymore because the exe file could not be found. Indeed the system folder has been nearly emptied yesterday (coherent in timing with an automatic update to the latest 4.6.0.50 version), as if only the newest files remained. I could find what looked like a backup of my original files in system.old.

Not to be dismayed I downloaded the complete 4.6.0.50 version from the website and extracted it in place of the crippled system folder. I restarted the service succesfully and thought I would be good to watch my series but alas: the system folder disappeared, and I only found a new system.old backup. Log file is nearly empty (joined).

I manually deleted the update files found in programdata\updates and reinstalled the latest version manually (same procedure as before). It now seems to work alright....

embyserver-63757117578.txt

[Abobader 3469]

Hello mcartoixa,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[Carlo 4561]

That's really strange because if you run as a service it can't auto update.

It almost sounds like you had 2 versions of Emby trying to run (one service and one non service).

We appreciate the feedback for sure, but just to make sure.
Is everything back up and running for you now?  

[ebr 16187]

This smells like anti-malware trying to "protect" you...

[mcartoixa 0]

Hi, thanks for the answers.

• Can you point me to the piece of documentation that says it cannot auto update as a service (if it exists)? I'm pretty confident my installation was updated before (but I may be wrong).
• It's a plain Windows Server with nothing else on it (and especially not anti-malware).

It might not be important, but I find it strange that the update file I found in programdata\updates had a replacement token in its name (cf. log file): it was literally embyserver-win-x64-{version}.7z.

My fresh installation seems to be working now.

[Happy2Play 9783]

12 minutes ago, mcartoixa said:

Hi, thanks for the answers.

• Can you point me to the piece of documentation that says it cannot auto update as a service (if it exists)? I'm pretty confident my installation was updated before (but I may be wrong).
• It's a plain Windows Server with nothing else on it (and especially not anti-malware).

It might not be important, but I find it strange that the update file I found in programdata\updates had a replacement token in its name (cf. log file): it was literally embyserver-win-x64-{version}.7z.

My fresh installation seems to be working now.

It could be location, but I have never tested in "C:\Program Files".
 

As for updates it is not possible when run as a service and shown on the dashboard.

[Luke 42083]

That's correct about the service.

Additionally, if you put the portable install under programfiles then the server will be denied write access and will therefore never be able to auto-update.

[mcartoixa 0]

Well it seems to me that it is able to write logs, download update files and delete folders alright

[Luke 42083]

2 minutes ago, mcartoixa said:

Well it seems to me that it is able to write logs, download update files and delete folders alright

Because program data is stored elsewhere.

[mcartoixa 0]

Not edited

[Luke 42083]

OK that's interesting, I'm glad for you that it is working, but that's not consistent with what we've historically seen with the program files files folder on windows.

[mcartoixa 0]

It's only a matter of giving full control on this specific folder to the service account that runs the service (a gMSA in my case). SQL Server does exactly the same, and I would rather have data in my Program Files than programs in a user profile.

How about my problem? How does the server know that it runs as a service and should not auto-update?

[Luke 42083]

Our doc about running as a service says to use the -service command line argument. 

 

[mcartoixa 0]

I guess I went too quickly on that bit when I installed. Thank you.

[Carlo 4561]

1 hour ago, mcartoixa said:

It's only a matter of giving full control on this specific folder to the service account that runs the service (a gMSA in my case). SQL Server does exactly the same, and I would rather have data in my Program Files than programs in a user profile.

How about my problem? How does the server know that it runs as a service and should not auto-update?

You can do that but it's generally not a good idea.

 

[mcartoixa 0]

It might not be the easy way, but I think this how Windows was meant to be used. but of course I would be delighted to be proven wrong.