[diesel_dave]

So I have (2) Vero4K's and (1) Pi in my travel trailer (3 units total). I don't want to unplug my HDD and transfer it to another device when I want to watch a movie in another room. I have  small wireless router I can use so that all devices running Kodi can be on the same network via wi-fi. Is there a way to hook up the HDD to one of the devices and and route the other devices to it? (a server so to speak, but still able to run Kodi while serving). Understand that power is constantly going on/off in a travel trailer environment due to relocating, nigh-time generator rules, etc., so once I set this up I want to make sure that the set-up will stick every time it sees power and perform the same every time. The set-up I currently have has the HDD fixed on one of my Vero's and it reboots all the time and see the HDD without fail. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

[pkscout]

The simple answer is, "yes, but it's complicated-ish."

If you're not worried about having exactly the same way of getting to the shows on the three devices, then you can use Universal Plug and Play A/V (UPnP A/V).

http://kodi.wiki/view/UPnP

Basically the device that has the drive attached to it becomes the UPnP Server, then the other devices can see that content.  With this option the other remote devices won't show the media in the same way though.

If you want all the devices to look the same, you're going to have to use mySQL to act as the central media database and then use NFS or Samba to share the files.  You can probably have the main Vero act as the server, although I've never tried running mySQL *and* NFS (or Samba) on a Vero before.  So that could end up being a no-go.

http://kodi.wiki/view/MySQL

[d'Wooluf]

The simple answer is, "yes, but it's complicated-ish."

If you're not worried about having exactly the same way of getting to the shows on the three devices, then you can use Universal Plug and Play A/V (UPnP A/V).

http://kodi.wiki/view/UPnP

Basically the device that has the drive attached to it becomes the UPnP Server, then the other devices can see that content.  With this option the other remote devices won't show the media in the same way though.

If you want all the devices to look the same, you're going to have to use mySQL to act as the central media database and then use NFS or Samba to share the files.  You can probably have the main Vero act as the server, although I've never tried running mySQL *and* NFS (or Samba) on a Vero before.  So that could end up being a no-go.

http://kodi.wiki/view/MySQL

Is there any reason why plain old Samba wouldn't work? The server shares the contents of its attached hard drive and accesses its own files through Samba. The other two machines should look exactly the same then. I'm probably missing something very basic though...

[ActionA]

Samba server is available in the MyOSMC addon app store.  Once installed (and probably after a reboot) it will share any connected automount HDDs (probably) without any further configuration of the server necessary.

[MetalChris]

Is there any reason why plain old Samba wouldn't work? The server shares the contents of its attached hard drive and accesses its own files through Samba. The other two machines should look exactly the same then. I'm probably missing something very basic though...

I'm sharing a USB HDD with my movies and TV shows from my RPi via Samba across my network at home. Works fine for me. Be advised, I have no experience with the Vero boxes though.

[Sam.Nazarko]

As @ActionA has mentioned, the Samba server, installed from the App Store on the Vero 4K your drive is attached to should do the trick.

Cheers

[pkscout]

Is there any reason why plain old Samba wouldn't work? The server shares the contents of its attached hard drive and accesses its own files through Samba. The other two machines should look exactly the same then. I'm probably missing something very basic though...  

If you don't use MySQL, then if you watch and delete something on one box the other boxes won't know about that change until you rescan the library on every box manually.  MySQL acts as the central library that all boxes share.  You can certainly do just Samba, but then you have separate libraries on every box that have to be managed separately.

[Sam.Nazarko]

Is there any reason why plain old Samba wouldn't work? The server shares the contents of its attached hard drive and accesses its own files through Samba. The other two machines should look exactly the same then. I'm probably missing something very basic though...  

If you don't use MySQL, then if you watch and delete something on one box the other boxes won't know about that change until you rescan the library on every box manually.  MySQL acts as the central library that all boxes share.  You can certainly do just Samba, but then you have separate libraries on every box that have to be managed separately. 

Indeed. Vero 4K can run a MySQL server (installable via APT if necessary). But if you choose this option then the device has to be kept on permanently for other clients. 

Sam