[weak_pig]

Hi guys, Hope you could help me on this little issue I have.

<TL;DR version>
will there be any problem caused to XBMC reading my database if I swap the IP address of a old NAS to a new NAS?

<Long Version>

--Current NAS--
1TB x 4HDD NAS drive running Raid5
IP : 192.168.0.100
Server Name : 3TB-NAS
XBMC connects to existing NAS database via SMB

--Current Situation--
3TB of space is fast running out. In addition, need a method to back up data, as currently only have limited redundancy, but no backup.

--Plans for the Future--
- To get a new NAS with upgraded capacity (possibly 12TB of space)
- File transfer all data from old to new NAS
- New NAS will be the 'live' server, while old NAS will become a backup of the new NAS (for additional redundancy)
- Server Name : 12TB-NAS
- IP address - Ideally, I would want to use 192.168.0.100 for the new NAS while assigning a different IP address to the old existing NAS (maybe 192.168.0.99)
- XBMC will still connect to 192.168.0.100 via SMB, but now, it should be connecting to the new NAS.

My Question - Will it cause any data access problems for XBMC by swapping the IP address 192.168.0.100 to the new NAS, in theory, there should none since it is connected via SMB. Unless XBMC keeps some record of the Server name, or MAC address? Which will be different... thus giving me potential problems.

--Alternative--

The other method would be to assign a new IP to the new NAS while keeping the IP of the old NAS intact. This may be a better option as I will point XBMC to the new IP address and there should not be any conflicts as its a new IP connection... only issue is I have to re-point all my data paths to the new IP.

So guys, what do you think? Let me know if you need more information if I am not clear.

---

running on XBMC Eden by the way...

[Prof Yaffle]

Not sure about Eden - can't recall - but generally, no, so long as the data is in the same structure so the paths are valid then XBMC won't notice. If you keep the file dates/times the same then it won't even upset the Recently Added.

Belt and braces would be to export your library first, just in case you need to re-import and save all that scraping.

Again, not sure of Eden, but you could also edit sources.xml if you do change the IP address.

XBMC doesn't cache the MAC address, but your OS might (stress: *might*). It shouldn't be a problem, though, as IP addresses change all the time in a dynamic environment.

[surfinbox]

In my linux-based world I had OS-level NFS connections defined to mount the NAS for the XBMC clients. At the right moment I turned off all the XBMC clients, swapped new NAS for old NAS and gave new NAS the old IP and NFS export details (exactly the same filesystem, etc). XBMC clients were fired up again and were none the wiser to the change.

I didn't have my MySQL DB in play but that would have followed the change approach.

I do NOT normally define my mount points within the XBMC file setup/config, I just give it the local OS mount path to to the NFS (I use the same NFS mount path on all XBMC clients). I am not sure if that's a favored approach by the XBMC devs anymore, but it works, I understand it, and can manage it... so until it becomes a problem I'll leave it as-is. Thus, your mileage using XBMC mount config might vary.

I presume that SMB will function the same way in both cases (OS or XBMC config for mounting)

You did not mention that you might have (foolishly) shared certain XBMC client config folders onto the NAS to share between the clients. That makes more complexity, hope you didn't do that. There's been a bit of a spike in questions recently on the forums about doing that, so just wanted to mention it.

[weak_pig]

In my linux-based world I had OS-level NFS connections defined to mount the NAS for the XBMC clients. At the right moment I turned off all the XBMC clients, swapped new NAS for old NAS and gave new NAS the old IP and NFS export details (exactly the same filesystem, etc). XBMC clients were fired up again and were none the wiser to the change.

I didn't have my MySQL DB in play but that would have followed the change approach.

I do NOT normally define my mount points within the XBMC file setup/config, I just give it the local OS mount path to to the NFS (I use the same NFS mount path on all XBMC clients). I am not sure if that's a favored approach by the XBMC devs anymore, but it works, I understand it, and can manage it... so until it becomes a problem I'll leave it as-is. Thus, your mileage using XBMC mount config might vary.

I presume that SMB will function the same way in both cases (OS or XBMC config for mounting)

You did not mention that you might have (foolishly) shared certain XBMC client config folders onto the NAS to share between the clients. That makes more complexity, hope you didn't do that. There's been a bit of a spike in questions recently on the forums about doing that, so just wanted to mention it.

Hi thanks for the answers. Seems like using back the same IP might work. I'll give it a shot.

And I didn't share any client config folders on NAS so I should be fine... hopefully.

[jacintech.fire]

Generally I DO NOT use <ip addresses>, relaying instead on FQDN...does your router provides any basic DNS service? If so, using FQDN can make managing several independent storage storage pods a lot easier...