Chapter 10

Moving the Server, and rescue

The Server is the part of Scenic that owns the Show. This chapter covers where it runs, how to move it to a location Mac and back, how the Show is backed up, and what to do if the Server's Mac dies mid-day.

The rule that makes all of this safe: Players keep their picture. If a Controller quits, the Server stops or the network drops, every screen keeps showing what it showed. Nothing goes black because something upstream went away.

#Where the Server runs

On your Controller Mac (the default). Open Scenic Controller and it starts the Server in the background. What happens when you close the Controller is set in Server ▸ Server Status…, under When the last Controller closes:

On a location Mac. On a bigger show, or one where the operator's laptop comes and goes, give the Server its own Mac: a Mac mini on the cart or in the rack. It runs headless, starts again by itself after a restart, and every Controller joins it over the network. Operators can come and go; the Show stays put.

The Server Status… window shows the Server, its Show, when it last backed up, how many Players and Controllers it has, and its health. Stop Server… stops it; it asks first, and the screens keep their last picture.

#Making a location Mac the Server

1. Install Scenic on the location Mac. Fleet Setup's Server-ready option does this for you (see The Network window).
2. Open the Network window and select that Mac.
3. Choose Server ▸ Make This Mac the Server….
4. Read the sheet and press Make It the Server.

Scenic shows each step as it goes:

1. Start the Server on the location Mac.
2. Check the backup.
3. Move the Show and its content.
4. Take over the Players.
5. Point every Controller at the new Server.

The screens keep their picture throughout. When it says Finished, the Players take their cues from the new Server and your Controller is attached to it.

If a step fails, the sheet says where it stopped. Steps already done stay done, and nothing is retried behind your back. If it fails before it starts, the Show is where it was.

#Bringing the Show back to your Mac

At wrap, or when the location Mac is going back to rental, open Server Status… and choose Bring the Show Back to This Mac…. It is the same move in the other direction.

#Backups

Three kinds of copy keep the Show safe. You do not have to set up the first two.

A copy on every Mac Controller. While the Server runs on another Mac, each Mac Controller keeps a recent copy of the Show, every five minutes by default. Change how often in Settings ▸ General ▸ Backup copy on this Controller. This copy is what Take Over as Server uses.

Automatic backups on the Server's Mac. Turn on Automatic backups on the Server's Mac in Server ▸ Shows…. The Server then saves the Show at most once an hour, only when something changed, and keeps 24 hourly, 7 daily and 4 weekly copies. The newest are listed in the Shows window with Restore. These hold the Show (Players, groups, Snapshots, cues and settings) but not the decks and media, which stay in the Server's Library on that Mac.

Back Up Now. Server ▸ Back Up Now… writes a full backup to a folder you choose, ~/Documents/Scenic Backups unless you change it. Leave Include content (decks, videos, images) on, and the backup can rebuild the Show on any Mac. It is checked after it is written. Make one at the end of every shoot day and keep it off the Server Mac.

To restore, use Server ▸ Restore from Backup…, or double-click a .scenicbackup file. Restoring never overwrites a Show that is already on the Server; the restored Show appears beside it, ready to open.

#When the Server Mac is gone: Take Over as Server

If the Server's Mac crashes, loses power or leaves the building, every Controller shows a red bar: Server unreachable, with a timer. The screens keep their picture.

If the Server cannot come back in time, take over from a Mac Controller:

1. On the red bar, or in Server Status…, choose Take Over as Server…. The bar tells you how recent this Mac's copy of the Show is.
2. Read the sheet and press Take Over.
3. This Mac starts a Server from its copy and takes the Show's Players.

From that moment the Players answer only to the new Server. If the old Server comes back, the Players refuse it, so two Servers can never fight over the same screens.

What you can lose: anything changed on the old Server after this Mac's last copy, such as a Snapshot saved seconds before the crash. The screens themselves lose nothing.

After a Take Over:

• Check that every screen reads Live.
• Select your current Snapshot and look at what differs before the next cue.
• When the old Server Mac is back, do not reopen its Show to run cues. Move the Server back in an orderly way with Make This Mac the Server….

Rescue onto Another Mac… does the same onto a third Mac you name, using its Remote Login account and password once. Use it when the Controller you are holding should not become the Server, such as an operator's laptop that is about to leave.

#Phones during an outage

While the Server is unreachable, live controls are off on every Controller and read "Waiting for Server". One exception can be switched on beforehand: Allow emergency blackout from phones, in Server ▸ Shows…. With it on, an iPhone or iPad Controller shows a Hold to Blackout button for each screen it can reach directly. Hold it for just over half a second to black that screen out.

Emergency blackout can only black out. Revealing needs the Server, and a screen blacked out this way shows EMERGENCY BLACKOUT on every card until someone presses Reveal. It is off unless you turn it on, because it is the only command that does not go through the Server.

#Updating the Server

When a newer Scenic Controller is installed, Server ▸ Update Server… updates the Server to match. It is the same Server afterwards, with the same Show, and the Players stay with it. The Network window's Update (N) offers the Server last, after the Players.