Linking Unmanic Installations

Multiple installations of Unmanic can be linked. This allows tasks to be processed in a distributed fashion.

Instructions

Requirements

• At least two installs of Unmanic:
• One install has access to the filesystem containing the media to be processed. For the purpose of this guide, we'll refer to this install as main.
• The other install will be called remote. This has to be reachable from main but does not require direct access to the files as they can be transferred to and from main as needed.

Link Setup

On main, setup a library. For the purpose of this exercise, this library will be named Guide.

Linking relies on libraries sharing a common name. Therefore, create a new library on remote with the same name; in this case Guide. Either export the library from main then import it on remote (see tip below) or set it up manually. The library on remote only needs plugins related to making changes, i.e. encoding. "Scanning" plugins, such as filter by size, are not needed.

note

It is recommended to create a new library for this, instead of using the default library.

tip

If both installations can access the same files (for example via a shared network mount), set the remote library path to the same content. When a matching file exists at the remote path, Unmanic will use that path directly instead of uploading the file through the API.

On main, use the plus sign to add a remote installation:

• Enter the service address of remote using either the IP or hostname. For example, 192.168.1.3:8888.
• Accept None for authentication.
• Click Add.
• Click the Configure icon and enable Send tasks to this installation when workers are available.

note

Unmanic does not provide built-in authentication. If you need auth, place Unmanic behind a reverse proxy (for example Nginx) and configure authentication there. See Basic Authentication with Nginx.

Once setup, the once grey logo should now turn blue. This indicates the remote installation is connected. The final result should look like this (as of version 0.2.4):

Pending tasks on main should now be sent to remote. This may take a few minutes, depending on network speed.

tip

You can export the library configuration from main using the export button, copy the code shown in the panel that opens.

You can then use import on remote to paste the code.

Route Tasks with Tags

At this point, this documentation makes the following assumptions about the existing setup thus far:

• 2 installations of Unmanic exist on the network; main and remote.
• Both installations are connected via Link.
• Each installation has 1 library setup.
  • The library on main has either File Monitor, and/or Library scanner enabled (based upon the needs of the reader).
• The library on remote has both File Monitor and Library scanner disabled.

For the purposes of this exercise, our objective now is to ensure all work is sent exclusively to remote. In order to create this pipeline, proceed as follows:

• Add a tag to the library on main. We'll use the string "work" with no quotes. Remember to hit the Enter key after typing the string or the tag won't persist.
• Add the same tag to the library on remote.
• Add the same tag to the worker on remote.
• Ensure this tag is not present on main's worker.

With this setup in place, the work flow operates as follows:

• The library on main will be used to initiate all pending task (based on scans or file monitoring).
• Local workers only process tasks when their tags match the library tags.
• Tasks are sent to a linked installation that has a library with a matching name and is configured to receive tasks.
• Once the file associated with the task is transferred to a valid worker, it will be processed according to the matching library.
• Once processing is complete, the file will be transferred back to main.

In all cases where greater insight is needed (troubleshooting, etc), each Unmanic installation can have EnableDebugging toggled in the Logs section of the Help & Support page.