OK. This may have been asked before, but I was unsure how to search for (or even to ask for) it. In my house, I am currently running 4 HTPCs that connect to the PC in my den, which is running as the server. I spend a lot of time tweaking the settings on XBMC on the server PC, always trying to get everything just right. Then, when I get to a point where everything is just right (for now), I go around and apply these changes, one by one, to all 4 of the HTPCs. This obviously takes a lot of effort.
What I am wondering is if I can somehow sync the HTPCs to the settings of the server PC. Changes I'd like "synced" are media sources, add-ons and add-on settings, skins and settings etc. I have thought about using XBMC backup in some way, but I am not sure how I could accomplish this or if I could automate it all.
Well... If you are not setting up sources locally on the server you can just copy the userdata and addon folders.
But it will only work if you use the exact same settings for sources (network and not locally).
That is something I did think about. The only difference between the setups should be the sources. The server PC gets all of it's video sources locally, while all the HTPCs get the same sources over the network. I guess there is maybe one or two files that contain that info that I could choose to skip?
Also, would like to find a way to automate this process. Ideally, I would like each HTPC to sync at startup. The real goal here is to make updating and improving the HTPC experience easier for those in my family not too tech savvy.
If you are not syncing addons and other settings than sources, have you tried Upnp?
Otherwise;
I would try to set everything up on all computers to have the exact same settings.
I don't know if setting the server to point to itself in network is the best idea, but it is what I would try at first stage.
If you have the exact same settings it wouldn't be a problem to just copy the userdata and addon folders.
My guess is that sources is not only used in sources.xml and mediasources.xml but also in many of the database files and if so it wouldn't work.
Correct me if I am wrong anyone.
OK. I copied the folder over to each computer and it worked quite well. All I had to do then was to change the media sources back, without refreshing info for all items. Then a library update took care of the rest, It's not automated, but for now it will save me a mess of time.
Does anyone have any ideas on how this could be automated though. Maybe a script that copies the files from the network and then refreshes the media sources on demand?
why dont you use SyncBack to sync the required folder/files over lan.
i use SyncBack for backup purpose to sync the required folders over my many pc's in lan.
there is a free and pro version, you can use as per your requirements.
http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/
A thought just came to me. If I was to backup my user folder (users/<name>/appdata/roaming/XBMC) twice (once when the setup was just the way I want the HTPCs setup and once when I had it just right for the server) I could then just switch between them on the main PC (the server). Then I could always have an updated version ready to go. Would it be possible to then point XMBMC on each HTPC to the backup folder? In other words, can I set XBMC somehow to use a different folder than the default, especially if that folder is on the network?
This would be fully automated at each HTPC with no need to manually update them all right?
If I remember correct this is not supported, the reason was (if I am correct...) it´s not a good idea to have several clients writing to the same source at the same time.
Anyhow, it would be awesome if you could have a "client" option in XBMC where you point to a server.
This way you would only keep the essential stuff to run XBMS locally and have everything else on the server such as libraries, fan-art and addons which the clients would only read from.
The server would handle all updates etc. Awesome for someone like me who has 6 installs on different systems.
Feature suggestion perhaps?