[mythtv-users] building a duplicate backend

James Abernathy jfabernathy at gmail.com
Tue Jan 17 20:17:38 UTC 2023


On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 2:43 PM James Abernathy <jfabernathy at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 2:13 PM James Abernathy <jfabernathy at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> 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
>>
>
> It appears that the Recording Host is kept in the database.  If I look at
> the information "I" key twice in the List of recordings, my new recording
> on the travel BE has its correct name.  The recordings brought over had the
> Production BE name.  mythfrontend doesn't care but Kodi does.  Interesting.
>

For those playing along at home:
mysql> UPDATE recorded SET hostname = "den-pc";

This set the hostname of all the old recordings to the new hostname and now
kodi works as well as mythfrontend.

Jim A
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