Calibre db Files

kaflr · 11-29-2013, 10:33 AM

Greetings - is it possible to have the db files on one computer and the books or library on a NAS? If so can I move my db files to an SSD drive on my local PC?

Thanks.

Adoby · 11-29-2013, 10:59 AM

I do just that. But calibre doesn't support networked filesystems. But it might work, depending on what networked filesystem you use. Test carefully, have good backups and don't complain if/when your library becomes corrupt.

I use Ubuntu Linux and a Synology NAS, shared using NFS. I think SMB and CIFS is more trouble, that's why I use NFS... Also case sensitivity differences between operating systems and file systems may cause problems. For instance if you have a Windows computer and a Linux NAS. Test carefully...

I have / mounted on the SSD, and /home on a mechanical hard drive. And /home/adoby/nas is the NAS, of course.

I have metadata.db in /opt/speedup/adoby and on the NAS I have the calibre library. I replaced the original metadata.db with a symlink to the real metadata.db on the SSD.

I also have various disk caches in /opt/speedup/adoby, instead of in /home/adoby. Also using symlinks. And use part of the RAM as /temp.

Works fine.

There also is an environment variable you can use for this purpose.

CALIBRE_OVERRIDE_DATABASE_PATH

http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/cust...ment-variables

I have two calibre libraries, fiction and nonfiction, so the symbolic link works best for me. Makes it easy to switch libraries.

See also:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho....php?p=2244745

kaflr · 12-03-2013, 10:40 AM

Thanks for the quick and robust reply Abody. Just for an FYI for others in similar situations.

My setup is similar but no Ubuntu, at least not virtualized. Win7 SP1 Ult on the desktop. With a SSD 64GB cache drive, 232 GB SSD boot drive, (2) 1TB SATA drives striped. With a Synology NAS connected to the LAN, mostly for hosting media for HTPC's around the home. It also houses my iTunes and Calibre db/library.

My issue was I would get errors updating metadata or adding books. Errors indicating that the db was locked, I/O errors, so on. All of which were because I was connecting from the Win7 box to the NAS running Linux.

When browsing the library on a Nook or iPad it was slower than I would like also. And of course the auto add feature of Calibre wasn't working like I had hoped since my db was on my NAS. No fault of Calibre's just me trying to be clever.

My library is about 15GB, which is not a ton of books but enough to slow things down. So I wanted to move the db only files to my SSD drive as it is only a few MB's and then leave the content or books of the library on my NAS so that I would not lock up 15+GB of disk on my striped disks. Plus I don't like to have to schedule my reboots of my own desktop with the family, having everything on the NAS allows me that freedom, having anything shared on my desktop prevents that.

With the warnings above I decided that it would be easier, faster and in the long run safer to move the library in whole to my desktop. Instead of trying to use NFS with Windows or override to the db path (which didn't work out).

So that is what I did, I used a utility called ExtremeCopy Pro to move the library from my NAS to my striped SATA drives. It worked like a charm and you get all the features for free for 30 days, well worth the cost if you have done any big file copies in Windows you will be shocked at how fast this works. Better and faster than other copy utils like Xcopy, Fastcopy, Extreme, Tera, etc. I didn't actually benchmark it so maybe it was just that I was busy yesterday but it seem to be much faster than others I have used.

Once it was done I just removed my old library from Calibre and created a new one.

I now need to begin the process of organizing my library. Most of my books are either non-fiction, classic fiction, or magazines but my non-fiction section covers several topics.

Thanks again for the help Abody.

11-29-2013, 10:33 AM	#1
kaflr Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2013 Device: ipad	Calibre db Files Greetings - is it possible to have the db files on one computer and the books or library on a NAS? If so can I move my db files to an SSD drive on my local PC? Thanks.

11-29-2013, 10:59 AM	#2
Adoby Handy Elephant Posts: 1,736 Karma: 26785668 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Southern Sweden, far out in the quiet woods Device: Thinkpad E595, Ubuntu Mate, Huawei Mediapad 5, Bouye Likebook Plus	I do just that. But calibre doesn't support networked filesystems. But it might work, depending on what networked filesystem you use. Test carefully, have good backups and don't complain if/when your library becomes corrupt. I use Ubuntu Linux and a Synology NAS, shared using NFS. I think SMB and CIFS is more trouble, that's why I use NFS... Also case sensitivity differences between operating systems and file systems may cause problems. For instance if you have a Windows computer and a Linux NAS. Test carefully... I have / mounted on the SSD, and /home on a mechanical hard drive. And /home/adoby/nas is the NAS, of course. I have metadata.db in /opt/speedup/adoby and on the NAS I have the calibre library. I replaced the original metadata.db with a symlink to the real metadata.db on the SSD. I also have various disk caches in /opt/speedup/adoby, instead of in /home/adoby. Also using symlinks. And use part of the RAM as /temp. Works fine. There also is an environment variable you can use for this purpose. CALIBRE_OVERRIDE_DATABASE_PATH http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/cust...ment-variables I have two calibre libraries, fiction and nonfiction, so the symbolic link works best for me. Makes it easy to switch libraries. See also: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho....php?p=2244745 Last edited by Adoby; 11-29-2013 at 11:15 AM.

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12-03-2013, 10:40 AM	#3
kaflr Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2013 Device: ipad	Thanks for the quick and robust reply Abody. Just for an FYI for others in similar situations. My setup is similar but no Ubuntu, at least not virtualized. Win7 SP1 Ult on the desktop. With a SSD 64GB cache drive, 232 GB SSD boot drive, (2) 1TB SATA drives striped. With a Synology NAS connected to the LAN, mostly for hosting media for HTPC's around the home. It also houses my iTunes and Calibre db/library. My issue was I would get errors updating metadata or adding books. Errors indicating that the db was locked, I/O errors, so on. All of which were because I was connecting from the Win7 box to the NAS running Linux. When browsing the library on a Nook or iPad it was slower than I would like also. And of course the auto add feature of Calibre wasn't working like I had hoped since my db was on my NAS. No fault of Calibre's just me trying to be clever. My library is about 15GB, which is not a ton of books but enough to slow things down. So I wanted to move the db only files to my SSD drive as it is only a few MB's and then leave the content or books of the library on my NAS so that I would not lock up 15+GB of disk on my striped disks. Plus I don't like to have to schedule my reboots of my own desktop with the family, having everything on the NAS allows me that freedom, having anything shared on my desktop prevents that. With the warnings above I decided that it would be easier, faster and in the long run safer to move the library in whole to my desktop. Instead of trying to use NFS with Windows or override to the db path (which didn't work out). So that is what I did, I used a utility called ExtremeCopy Pro to move the library from my NAS to my striped SATA drives. It worked like a charm and you get all the features for free for 30 days, well worth the cost if you have done any big file copies in Windows you will be shocked at how fast this works. Better and faster than other copy utils like Xcopy, Fastcopy, Extreme, Tera, etc. I didn't actually benchmark it so maybe it was just that I was busy yesterday but it seem to be much faster than others I have used. Once it was done I just removed my old library from Calibre and created a new one. I now need to begin the process of organizing my library. Most of my books are either non-fiction, classic fiction, or magazines but my non-fiction section covers several topics. Thanks again for the help Abody.

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