Is there any way to make a redundant/backup Plex Server? For instance, if my main Plex server has to be brought down for updates, repairs, etc. I would like to still have access to my content during this time. I know that I can have multiple servers with one account, but my main concern is the sync-ing of user watch history.
While it is mostly possible using UNC paths or exactly duplicate drive mappings and copying the Plex database from the primary server to the backup on a schedule (with the primary being temporarily shut down) I really would not recommend it.
There are many things that can go wrong and you really gain nothing or at least very little.
If you really want a backup server just set one up and do not try to sync watched status and let your users remember what they were watching and where in the event of a disaster.
I have redundant plex servers set up and it works great. I have not had any issues at all. However, I utilize this for an “emergency” backup only. I only go one direction, ie I only copy my primary to my backup but not my backup to my primary. So in the event that I lose my primary Plex server I can use my backup server while I fix whatever is wrong with my Primary, but none of my watched statuses etc during that time will make it back to the primary automatically.
I have on several occasions manually rsynced the other direction and it worked just fine, it is just that I designed my setup as disaster recovery so I am not too worried about watched status unless I have to rebuild my primary from scratch for some reason.
I am running Linux (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS) as my front-end Plex servers. I am running a primary and a backup FreeNAS server with over 40TB of media files on each. The data is replicated pretty much anytime it changes (snapshots every 10 minutes followed by replication).
My primary Plex server has a 10Gbe connection to both my primary and backup FreeNAS servers. My backup Plex server has a 10Gbe connection to both my primary and backup FreeNAS servers.
I utilize NFS for all connectivity between the servers.
The configuration is identical on both Plex servers and every single mount point is identical on both servers.
I use rsync every 10 minutes to rsync /var/lib/plexmediaserver/ to my backup plex server. I do not even bother to shut down my primary server. I have never had a problem rsyncing while plex is running on the server.
If I have a problem with my primary Plex server, I shut it down and start Plex on my backup Plex server. I have even used a VM under proxmox as a backup server after a hard drive failed on my primary server. (this was one of the times I rsynced the backup back to the primary, all watched statuses stayed intact.)
It took me quite awhile to get everything running the way I wanted it, but it seems to work well now. Your mileage may vary.
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