[mythtv-users] Multiple Frontends / Backends

[John Goerzen]

Kevin,

Thanks for the helpful mail.  I have a few follow-up questions.

On Thu, Jul 01, 2004 at 09:35:32AM -0500, Kevin Kuphal wrote:

> John Goerzen wrote:
> Each backend has a configuration screen that says where to place 
> recordings.  If you specify this to be a local folder to the backend, 

Yup, have seen that.

> the files will be on the slave backend.  If you NFS/samba mount a 
> directory from another server, the files will physically exist on that 
> server.  Since MythTV streams the files when it needs to, it doesn't 
> matter physically where the files are as long as some backend has access 
> to them.   I think most people tend to keep their files all in one place 
> to make it easier and also take advantage of disk arrays like RAID 5 or 
> LVM when needed to manage multiple hard disks.

Yes, I'd like to keep all the files in the same place.  I gather that it
is permissible to mount the "main" storage area on the slave backend,
and thus share the exact same directories with the master.

Now, let's say something like this happens:

1. Slave records a program, stores it in NFS.
2. Slave then is turned off/goes down/whatever.
3. Files are on master but slave is unreachable.

Will I be able to watch the recorded programs still?

How about this:

1. Slave records a program, stores it using NFS to master.
2. mythfrontend is run on master machine, recorded program is played.

Will the master's mythfrontend attempt to stream the program from the
slave?  If so, the slave in that case would be reading it via NFS from
the master.  Content that is then local to the master's mythfrontend
would be sent across the network twice.  Does Myth have some mechanism
to prevent that problem?

> Just remember that a computer that runs mythbackend is a backend machine 
> and manages capture cards and a computer that runs mythfrontend is a 
> display machine that drives a TV.  You can have these two running on one 
> machine or different machines and have multiple of both. 

Is it required to have a mythbackend on a machine that runs mythfrondend
and has no capture cards?  I couldn't figure out how to make
mythfrontend talk to a different backend server, especially since
mythtv-setup is part of the backend package (!).

-- John