[mythtv-users] building a duplicate backend

[James Abernathy]

On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 11:10 AM Stephen Worthington <
stephen_agent at jsw.gen.nz> wrote:

> On Tue, 17 Jan 2023 09:07:44 -0500, you wrote:
>
> >I want to confirm what I think I need to do to create a duplicate backend
> >so I can take it with me.
> >
> >My production backend has a lot of TV recordings that I have not
> >watched yet. I thought I would take a snapshot of my production backend
> >with me.
> >
> >Both my production backend and traveling backend are v32 on Ubuntu 22.04
> >derivative Distro's.
> >
> >I think all I have to do is move the contents of the production backend
> >Storage Group directories to the same relative directories on the
> traveling
> >backend and then take a backup of the production mythconverg database and
> >restore that to the traveling backend's database.
> >
> >Since the tuner hardware on the production backend is a Hauppauge WinTV
> >Quad PCIe card and the traveling backend is HDHomeRun tuners, I have some
> >setup work to do but am I missing anything else?
> >
> >Jim A
>
> If you want fully identical duplication, you can backup the production
> database and restore it on the traveling machine.  But that means that
> you will need to have both machines using the same hostname and
> possibly also the same IP address.  This makes it difficult to have
> both machines on the same network.  It is better to use different
> hostnames and use the --change_hostname option of
> mythconverg_restore.pl to change the hostname when doing the database
> restore.
>
> Personally, I use my laptop as my traveling machine, and it has two
> hard drives in an external dual USB mount that I just transfer
> recordings onto to take with me.  I use mythexport/mythimport to do
> that.  So the laptop has an independent setup and just gets imported
> recordings added to its database.  There is no way I would want to
> take my production box's hard drives away with me, as I need them on
> that box doing recordings while I am away.  My laptop is capable of
> recording using a couple of USB tuners, but I rarely do that as two
> drives of recordings is quite enough for a few weeks away from home.
> And if I am staying somewhere there is decent enough Internet, I can
> just download some new recordings from home and import them.  I run an
> OpenVPN server on my home network and VNC servers on each PC so I have
> full control of the PCs at home as long as I have even a basic
> Internet connection.  The four drives that store my videos, photos,
> music and so on are on a quad SATA/USB drive carrier that I can just
> disconnect from the production system SATA port and plug into the
> laptop via its USB port, so I also take that with me.  One of the USB
> tuners has an IR receiver onboard, so I can use an IR remote just like
> at home, and I have a long HDMI cable to plug into any big screen that
> is available.  But the laptop has a 17" screen anyway, so it is fine
> for a couple of people to watch at the same time.
>

So does the mythexport/mythimport preserve metadata for the recordings?

I might do that next time as this was more work than I had anticipated.
Since the backends had different names and different hardware, mythtv-setup
after the restore did the usual crash 3 times until I got serious and ran
mythtv-setup.real -v most:debug and that scared it into working. But I did
have to do a complete setup to get all the parameters right.

But in the end I have all the recordings with metadata, and schedules on my
travel backend. They will run in parallel for a few weeks before I leave
and I'll move the travel BE to my RV and set up the antenna system to the
HDHR. I use Mobile Data and a tethered AP/Router.

I'll have all the recordings on my production BE when I return, but can
delete the ones I've already seen on the travel BE.

Thanks, all,

Jim A
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