Thanks everyone for their help. It seems that tripping the power button on my PS Audio Dectet fried the ability to run ethernet on my old Intel Nuc (Hades Canyon). It’s a very strange issue, the Nuc in question has two ethernet ports, both of which just show “Unidentified Network” when plugged in, and won’t access the internet or intranet (though everything else that is attached to that switch does). Even a USB-C to ethernet adapter didn’t work (which I had been using so I could run 2.5GBE). It was clear that the Nuc was the issue as moving it to any ethernet connection in my house didn’t work.
I initially looked for another Nucs on the recommended list so I would have the option of running Rock (I typically use Win 10 Pro for my Roon Server so I can run it headless, and remote in), but I ended up getting the Asus PN63-S1 with an 11th gen core i7. In addition to having 2.5GBE on board, it has two NVME storage slots, AND an internal sata connection for a 2.5 inch drive. This was most appealing to me, as many of the Nucs I looked at had 1 or two at most. My music library is only a little over 1 terabyte at the moment - and living on a 2tb NVME - but if/when that eventually runs out, I can just pop in another SSD for significantly cheaper than buying a 3 or 4 tb NVME and moving all my files to there. And, I love keeping the core all contained in one box. I don’t want to use external hard drives, or a NAS. Having my music local to my roon core works best for me, after trying a number of configurations. So, right now, one NVME runs the OS, and the other runs the music. The music drive is shared throughout my network, so I can easily put new albums on quickly, at 2.5GBE speeds.
My backup, no matter what I tried, won’t work. It’s not the end of the world, as my albums and Qobuz favorites populated as soon as I pointed to the music folder and signed into Qobuz. I have about 10 zones. I have Martin Logan 13As and a Pass Int 60 as my main listening zone, a headphone setup, a pair of KEF LS50w in another room, a pair of KEF LSX wall mounted in a small gym, and I have sonos amps driving in ceiling speakers in most rooms of my house and backyard - so it took a little while to enable and set each zone. I had some eq profiles for my LCD-5, which I lost - but again - not the end of the world.
I love Roon, and as I mentioned, I switched to a lifetime subscription just days ago. It’s been rock solid for me, which I think is part of the reason I was so upset that I ran into so many issues trying to move my roon core and setup a new pc. I was already frustrated that my NUC died after just losing power (it’s the second time I lost a Roon Core this way). This part is obviously not roon’s fault but it added to my frustrations; Roon has been rock solid for me, and I haven’t experienced any thing close to the problems I did in the past couple days over my past 5 years of use. I expected that I’d have to get a new Nuc and set it up, just not that I’d lose my backup - and run into numerous other issues in initially connecting to my new roon core.
It’s great software. I love Roon Arc as well, and don’t regret for a second opting for a lifetime subscription finally, a couple days ago. I can’t imagine using anything else. That said, as the software has become more complex, clearly some bugs have surfaced around backups, and moving the roon core, which is crucial nuts and bolts functionality. And, I’m not the only one - after a search of the forum, every single issue I experienced has been experienced numerous times by other users. When stuff like this doesn’t work, AND you must rely on a support forum rather than being able to speak to a human being - it exacerbates the issue.
I don’t expect Roon to start offering phone support; it’s wildly popular amongst audiophiles - but still a niche business and their company is not constructed like that. I do hope they take a look at some of the functionality described. The cost of the software means mission critical items, like backups, need to work nearly flawlessly. After I backup my library, roon should verify that backup. If it tells me the backup completed successfully, I need to feel confident that it has.
That is all. Thank you all for your help and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.