[mythtv-users] building a duplicate backend

[James Abernathy]

On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 11:48 AM James Abernathy <jfabernathy at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> 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
>

Here's an odd one.  So I have the duplicate backend up and running on my
travel BE which is an Intel NUC.  Everything I've tested works and I can
play all those recordings I did on the production BE.  However, I installed
Kodi and Kodi-pvr-mythtv and it can launch livetv, but it can't play any of
the previous recordings from the old backend. mythfrontend can but not
kodi. I looked in the log and it can't connect with the backend.  However,
it connects fine for all the new stuff. Even new recordings that get setup
on the travel BE. Just can play the ones brought over from the Production
backend.  I wonder what in the database is confusing the Kodi system.

Not a big deal since I'll probably use mythfrontend or Leanfront on a
FireTV most of the time, but Kodi is nice for videos and music.

Jim A
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