[cyber7]

Hi Guys

Background:
I have lost my Movie Raid system (+1800 movies lost from 1996-current) and decided to protect my TV Series by running two systems, one being the master and one being the slave.

Setup:
1. P4-Quad 2*1TB and 1*2TB (+500GIG for system)
2. P4-Duo 2*1TB and 1*2TB (+500GIG for system)

So far I did:
1. rsync every hour to duplicate anything new from one system to another. (Works 100%)
2. manually export library to individual files to not re-download fanart etc...

What I am about to do:
Due to the fact the two systems are basically the same, the databases should be the same and the content of the drives are the same. I am about to change the DB to MySQL (according to thread: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=70603) and rather sync the cache files of the UserData\... files.

Questions before starting:
1. Is this the best way to not only syncronize, but also backup all my movies and tv series?
2. Is it as easy as thread (mentioned above) to centralize the DB?
3. Is there not a utility that does an AUTO EXPORT of the MOVIE/TV database? Or is it OK to just sync the UserData\... files?

Thanx and cheers
Aubrey
Cape Town
South Africa (Soccer 2010 city )

[wstewart]

If you set up a cron job to dump your mysql database periodically and store the dump on the other server, that would give protection against a crash.

Restoring the database is straight forward from the dump file.

Question, how often do you update your video and TV library? Having two systems, redundant, 24/7, seems a bit over kill. Every month or so I rsync my drives to my backups. I have a antec sata swap bay that harddrives can be plugged into.

I have four drives, 2T, 2T, 1.5T and 1T but don't run a raid configuration. Xbmc is configuration to use all drives in a single movie and tv collection.

[cyber7]

Hi wsteward

Yes, it is an overkill
BUT, after loosing so many movies I am now at the point where I am a bit like a 'rabbit in it's hole' I have more than 2TB of TV series and not prepared to loose any of it! The other reason for the rsync of the systems is to always have everything available, anywhere in my house...

I have 2 more systems (and is about to build a 5th) to enable me to reach any movie/tvseries I would like from any room I want too!

Now regarding the 'other' testing, I am about to go out (Friday night in Cape Town) and will start buulding tomorrow on the syncronization of the systems. Hopefully I can get the sync of the artwork (without exporting and re-importing) going.

To developers:
MySQL has the ability to save 'picture' files into a table. Will it be possable to add another field into the XBMC database to lookup the artwork? I am running on a 24GIG switch, so the speed of the network 'sould' not be a problem. The only other way I can see how to do this is to sync the userdata directories and force all the XBMC-Live boxes into no updating the DB, but for one... (I hope this makes sense)

Cheers
cyber7 (aka Aubrey) - out

[charrua]

They're already planning to include the thumbs in the db.
For more info, check here and here.