Two equal but sync'd (mirrored?) Plex Servers

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Not sure if this is the place, but I will try.

Was a Kodi user. I had two full sync’d (resilio) version running on the same network. There are two reasons, one was backup, the other was convenience. In the middle of the night I could turn on the one in the bedroom and just watch something without having to go downstairs and turn on the house file server. It worked great. I would just have to refresh the libraries from time to time. Then my wife added a firestick. Now my sons want them. Kodi would not work on the firestick due to storage limitations. So I started moving to Plex.

At first I was just going to add the plex plugin to Kodi. All I could make happen was to have Kodi launch Plex, so why do I need Kodi? Anyway.

Plex is different. I like it a lot, but I think the metadata management could use help. For instance, if a title could not be found, it would be nice to add a id tag that would point it in the correct direction for the agents to pick up. But there is a lot I like. A better theater experience would be nice, but I am still figuring this thing out.

I have read a number of threads and still have not come to a conclusion of whether I can or how to set up what I want.

I would like to have two computers, with two copies of data, and two libraries that are sync’d. Basically so if a change is made in one system, it would show up in the other. Basically a movie change (add/delete), a poster added, rating change, title correction - that type of information. The watch/un-watched, continue watching could be local, or synced - that really does not matter to me.

Would I setup two accounts, each for one computer and then sync the data and the “plex media server” folder? Just parts of the that folder? One account?

Currently I have plex server setup on one computer. Plex viewer on another computer (office) and plex on firestick. The other duplicate computer is still running Kodi.

Your help is appreciated.

Welcome to Plex.
Would you mind elaborating your point/question?

Thanks for the welcome.
Sorry, hit enter before I typed in my details. It should be up there now.

Plex does not have a concept for multi-node servers or redundancy.

There’s a feature suggestion to allow syncing 2 servers – but to be fair that hasn’t seen much support / interest

This is supported. For a one-time “Fix Match” you can search by the IMDB ID instead of the show name.

And if you’ve upgraded to the new Movie Scanner/Agent, you can add the IMDB ID to the file/directory name. {tt........}

https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-movie-media-files/


As far as the duplicated/sync’d/mirrored Plex Servers … I don’t understand your use case. You have a main server, but you turn it off? Why do you turn it off? I don’t mean to make the “Doctor, it hurts when I do this _________” joke, but I don’t understand.

One thing you might consider is the ability to Download/Sync content to clients. If you watch episodes of Grey’s Anatomy at night on an iPad, you could set up a Sync job so that you always have a few unwatched episodes available on that client.

That wouldn’t apply to a Fire Stick, however.

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t80 - Interesting, but that OP was looking to send media files as best I can tell. A number of sync programs can do that with minimal effort. I I have that part handled. It is the metadata I want to sync.

Volts, I will look at that. I just have not figured how to add that in.

Let me try my case again. It does not hurt.

I am trying to kill a couple birds with one stone (redundancy and convenience). Yes, I usually shut down my server at night. Why, cause it is not doing anything. Just like turning off my lights, I do not leave them on either. But if I need one in the middle of the night, I do not want to go turn the one on in the kitchen light so I can go turn on the one in the bathroom. I would just like to turn on the bathroom light.

Same with Plex. I would like to be able to turn on one location and just have it work without the other location having to be on. I used to have the Kodi set up between two houses. It synced new files every morning. When I went to the other house (on DSL), I could turn it on and everything would work locally. No downloading or streaming. It was not a huge load to sync, only new large files a week. Maybe a 2-5 Gb a week.

The same applies in the home. But I do not have to worry about data on the LAN.

As I said, having the data in two places is easy. It is the setup in Plex that I would like to be the same.

Just upgrade the libraries for the Movies. Huge difference. Thanks

Some people have used WoL/Wake-on-Lan for this sort of thing. You might find some references for that if you search the forums.

Or they leave the server on, but configure their media drives to spin down, and then they will wake up once accessed.

I’ve shared mine with others, so I leave it on. I also want Plex to be able to do scheduled tasks and media analysis, and the other “stuff” the server does.

I mean, if you sync media, and have two Plex servers and a “Movies” library in both places, Plex will work. It will just be two different servers.

My recommendation: with Plex you leave the server running.
Not only is it available instantly, but also remotely.
And it has to do some housekeeping during the night as well.

There is a big difference between Kodi and Plex: Plex uses a server. You need to forget the concept that the media server has to run on a machine which is near the screen where you are watching.
Once you have grasped this fundamental change, you can unleash the full power of Plex. And the structure of your home network will look differently.

O, I understand the pros and cons of a server based program. However, if I do put this back into the house with (very slow) DSL, I most likely will have to go with the two seperate systems with common media files and each their own metadata. The service there is too inconsistent for decent streaming. Maybe I will look at a way to sync the “Plex Media Server” file when the servers are not being used. In concept it seems simple enough just to share some jpgs and file info.

V, will have to look in to the WoL. But I would really prefer just to turn it off when not in use.

I am also playing with the idea of a small computer in a camper that would be able to sync up when in wifi range, buy be able to play everything.

I still would like to find a way…

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