I'm very interested in using the Plex Media Server (PMS) plugin for UnRAID, but I have a few questions that I'd like to clear up first.  I'm referring to the plugin found on this page:

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/UnRAID_Plugins

which links to the installation instructions found here:

http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/42513-0963-for-unraid/

 

Questions:

[*]Is version 5.x of UnRAID required for this plugin?  The instructions seem to say so, but aren't clear.  If so, does it matter what version of 5.x? The current latest version is 5.0-rc8a

[*]Does the "rc" in "5.0-rc8a" stand for Release Candidate?  If so, how does that differ from 5.0beta1, 2, etc?  I'm assuming there were several "beta" versions of 5.0 that came out before they started putting out release candidates.  Is that correct?

[*]I understand that 5.0 is in "beta" status, but it seems like it has been there for several years (I found some forum posts referencing 5.x from 2010).  Does that mean the latest beta is pretty stable?  I don't want to take unnecessary risks with my media server, but I'd hate to miss out on PMS just because of the 5.x requirement (currently I'm running 4.7)

[*]The installation instructions I linked to just seem poorly written.  I'm not even sure I'd know what to do if I tried to follow them.  Does anyone else have any better instructions?

[*]I found a PMS setup guide at this link http://mymediaexperience.com/unraid-nas-with-plex-media-server-and-tvheadend/, but he points me to a .plg file to download which seems very different than the .txz file that is linked to by the offical UnRAID plugin page.  Can anyone explain the difference between the two files and recommend which approach I should use?

[*]Besides the general disclaimer that "this is software and anything could go wrong, backup your data!" is there any reason to fear that trying out the PMS plugin would put my data at risk?  It sounds like if I make a backup to the contents of my flash drive before installing PMS then I could always just recover from that if needed

 

Thanks a lot!

 

EDIT:  I've posted some notes that helped me understand all the help that I received below.  That post is the second post on the second page of this thread.

First, as a new unRAID user I must say, that all that official/unofficial plugin situation is a little confusing. I'm using plugin that can be obtained from Plex website

 

1. Honestly - I don't know. But unless for some reason You want to use 4.7 version, just install latest 5.0RC and don't worry about it.

2. Yes, it's Release Candidate. As for the changes you can take a look at the changelog available here. Yes, there were several betas before RC

3. It's not several years, but RC8a is out for some time now and i think it's safe to say that most people consider it stable. If you want to use unRAID as a media server you have nothing to worry about, just go ahead and install 5.0RC8a. It's fantastic.

4. Couldn't agree more, managing plugins for new users in unRAID is pain in the ass, and especially install instructions for Plex are terrible. I feel your pain, 2 months ago I was in Your situation and I almost gave up on PMS/unRAID because whole process was so poorly documented and confusing. I'll write the instructions for you in the next post or PM.

5. Did I say the installation was confusing for new users? Well, there you go...

 

edit:

as for the install instructions:

1. Download the PlexMediaServer-0.9.7.3.317-d4217ec-unRAID.txz file available from Plex website (or newest verion, but this one is the most recent right now)

2. Now, either shut down your server, unplug the flash drive and copy the .txz file to "extra" folder, plug the flash drive back and boot again, at this point PMS will be installed, or:

3. telnet into Your server, change directory to /boot/extra, upload the .txz file there and use installpkg command:

 

root@UNRAID:~#
root@UNRAID:~# cd /boot/extra
root@UNRAID:/boot/extra# installpkg PlexMediaServer-0.9.7.3.317-d4217ec-unRAID.txz 

 

That's all there is to it. Pretty simple once you get familiar with it, but REALLY confusing if that's your first time with unRAID

 

edit 2:

you can telnet into unraid, change directory to /boot/extra and use wget or curl (sorry, only one of them is included in standard unRAID install, not sure which, i think curl, but i might be wrong) to download the file directly to unRAID, it looks like this:

 

root@UNRAID:~#
root@UNRAID:~# cd /boot/extra
root@UNRAID:/boot/extra# wget http://plexapp-ssl.r1cd.com/PlexMediaServer/0.9.7.3.317/PlexMediaServer-0.9.7.3.317-d4217ec-unRAID.txz
root@UNRAID:/boot/extra# installpkg PlexMediaServer-0.9.7.3.317-d4217ec-unRAID.txz 

 

or curl, if there is no wget installed

 

root@UNRAID:~#
root@UNRAID:~# cd /boot/extra
root@UNRAID:/boot/extra# curl -O http://plexapp-ssl.r1cd.com/PlexMediaServer/0.9.7.3.317/PlexMediaServer-0.9.7.3.317-d4217ec-unRAID.txz
root@UNRAID:/boot/extra# installpkg PlexMediaServer-0.9.7.3.317-d4217ec-unRAID.txz 

First, as a new unRAID user I must say, that all that official/unofficial plugin situation is a little confusing. I'm using plugin that can be obtained from Plex website

 

1. Honestly - I don't know. But unless for some reason You want to use 4.7 version, just install latest 5.0RC and don't worry about it.

2. Yes, it's Release Candidate. As for the changes you can take a look at the changelog available here. Yes, there were several betas before RC

3. It's not several years, but RC8a is out for some time now and i think it's safe to say that most people consider it stable. If you want to use unRAID as a media server you have nothing to worry about, just go ahead and install 5.0RC8a. It's fantastic.

4. Couldn't agree more, managing plugins for new users in unRAID is pain in the ass, and especially install instructions for Plex are terrible. I feel your pain, 2 months ago I was in Your situation and I almost gave up on PMS/unRAID because whole process was so poorly documented and confusing. I'll write the instructions for you in the next post or PM.

5. Did I say the installation was confusing for new users? Well, there you go...

 

edit:

as for the install instructions:

1. Download the PlexMediaServer-0.9.7.3.317-d4217ec-unRAID.txz file available from Plex website (or newest verion, but this one is the most recent right now)

2. Now, either shut down your server, unplug the flash drive and copy the .txz file to "extra" folder, plug the flash drive back and boot again, at this point PMS will be installed, or:

3. telnet into Your server, change directory to /boot/extra, upload the .txz file there and use installpkg command:

 

root@UNRAID:~#
root@UNRAID:~# cd /boot/extra
root@UNRAID:/boot/extra# installpkg PlexMediaServer-0.9.7.3.317-d4217ec-unRAID.txz 

 

That's all there is to it. Pretty simple once you get familiar with it, but REALLY confusing if that's your first time with unRAID

 

edit 2:

you can telnet into unraid, change directory to /boot/extra and use wget or curl (sorry, only one of them is included in standard unRAID install, not sure which, i think curl, but i might be wrong) to download the file directly to unRAID, it looks like this:

 

root@UNRAID:~#
root@UNRAID:~# cd /boot/extra
root@UNRAID:/boot/extra# wget http://plexapp-ssl.r1cd.com/PlexMediaServer/0.9.7.3.317/PlexMediaServer-0.9.7.3.317-d4217ec-unRAID.txz
root@UNRAID:/boot/extra# installpkg PlexMediaServer-0.9.7.3.317-d4217ec-unRAID.txz 

 

or curl, if there is no wget installed

 

root@UNRAID:~#
root@UNRAID:~# cd /boot/extra
root@UNRAID:/boot/extra# curl -O http://plexapp-ssl.r1cd.com/PlexMediaServer/0.9.7.3.317/PlexMediaServer-0.9.7.3.317-d4217ec-unRAID.txz
root@UNRAID:/boot/extra# installpkg PlexMediaServer-0.9.7.3.317-d4217ec-unRAID.txz 

 

Thankyou very much for documenting this properly, wget method worked for me.

edit:

as for the install instructions:

1. Download the PlexMediaServer-0.9.7.3.317-d4217ec-unRAID.txz file available from Plex website (or newest verion, but this one is the most recent right now)

2. Now, either shut down your server, unplug the flash drive and copy the .txz file to "extra" folder, plug the flash drive back and boot again, at this point PMS will be installed, or:

3. telnet into Your server, change directory to /boot/extra, upload the .txz file there and use installpkg command:

 

root@UNRAID:~#
root@UNRAID:~# cd /boot/extra
root@UNRAID:/boot/extra# installpkg PlexMediaServer-0.9.7.3.317-d4217ec-unRAID.txz 

 

That's all there is to it. Pretty simple once you get familiar with it, but REALLY confusing if that's your first time with unRAID

Thanks so much joyless.  I've successfully installed UnRAID 5.0-rc8a and that seems to be working fine.  I just thought of another question about PMS.  I currently run PMS on a laptop so I know that it downloads a lot of artwork and other data about my movies to the hard drive.  Where does the PMS plugin on UnRAID store all of that data?  Does it store it on the flash drive?  Or do you get to pick a location on the UnRAID hard drives to store it?  My flash drive is only 256MB so there is no way I have enough room on it if that is where the data is stored.  I'm guessing (hoping) the data and artwork is stored on the hard drives, but I'd like to confirm.  Thanks.

One additional question.  You said to put the .txz file into the "extra" folder.  So on my flash drive do I create a folder named "boot" and then a subfolder named "extra"?  Or is the main folder of flash drive already considered the "boot" folder and I just create a single folder named "extra"?

 

In other words, my flash drive only has one folder right now called "config".  What folder do I create on that same level as that folder?

One additional question.  You said to put the .txz file into the "extra" folder.  So on my flash drive do I create a folder named "boot" and then a subfolder named "extra"?  Or is the main folder of flash drive already considered the "boot" folder and I just create a single folder named "extra"?

 

In other words, my flash drive only has one folder right now called "config".  What folder do I create on that same level as that folder?

To answer my own question I found this quote from an unrelated wiki topic.

When installing UnMENU, do NOT create a /boot folder on the root of the flash drive. Only create the unmenu folder. If plugging the flash drive into a Windows or Mac machine or mounting it over the network, ONLY create the unmenu folder and place the unmenu_install file in it. Under Linux, the root of the flash drive is mounted into the system as /boot so that path/folder already exists.

So I'm interpreting this to mean that the "boot" folder already exists and I just create an "extra" folder and that's it.  Let me know if I'm wrong! 

yes. the boot folder is your flash drive. so if you create a folder on your flash drive, you would find it inside /boot. (if you create the "extra" folder on your flash drive, it would be /boot/extra)

 

so, just create the "extra" folder directly on your flash drive (with no subfolder).

if you put the txz file in that extra folder, it will be installed automatically.

Thanks, I successfully installed the PMS.  I'm still wondering about where it will store the movie posters and other artwork it downloads from the internet.  On my flash drive or on the media server?  When I first went to my plex server page to set it up I went to this link:

http://tower:32400/manage/index.html#!/dashboard

It walked me through some initial settings and I think one of those settings was where it would store artwork, but it wasn't clear about that and I don't remember what it said exactly and I can't seem to find that option in the settings menu on the PMS.  Anyone know how to answer that question?

All of your metadata will be stored in your librairy directory.

In my case its /mnt/cache/apps/PMS.  You assign it wherever you want it in the setting page in the unraid ui.

You would not want to store it on your flash.

Excessive read/write would shorten the life of your flash, and possibly fill it up.

All of your metadata will be stored in your librairy directory.

In my case its /mnt/cache/apps/PMS.  You assign it wherever you want it in the setting page in the unraid ui.

You would not want to store it on your flash.

Excessive read/write would shorten the life of your flash, and possibly fill it up.

Is there a way I can view the contents of this folder?  I can't seem to find it using Windows Explorer.  I can find the "tower" folder which shows Disk 1, flash, etc.  But I don't see the /mnt folder or even the /cache folder.  I'd like to understand this in case I want to view those files in the future.

 

Finally, do I delete the .txz file from the /flash/extra folder after successfully installing PMS?  I noticed that when I restarted the server the installation process for PMS executed again and then my initial settings for the PMS seemed to have been reset.  I'm assuming UnRAID simply looks in the /extra folder every time it boots and installs whatever it finds there and so I should delete that file to prevent it from continuously re-installing on each reboot.

Ok I'm having a problem where whenever I reboot my server the PMS resets as well and so I have to set it up from scratch.  I tried removing the .txz file from the flash drive thinking that would prevent it from re-installing after a boot and resetting everything.  Unfortunately, when I rebooted my server the PMS was no longer there, so clearly I need to keep the .txz file on the flash drive, but how do I prevent it from resetting everything when on PMS when I reboot the server?

 

Is there a way I can view the contents of this folder?  I can't seem to find it using Windows Explorer.  I can find the "tower" folder which shows Disk 1, flash, etc.  But I don't see the /mnt folder or even the /cache folder.  I'd like to understand this in case I want to view those files in the future.

 

My meta data folder is located here in Explorer \\TOWER\apps\PMS\Application Support\Plex Media Server\Metadata

 

Finally, do I delete the .txz file from the /flash/extra folder after successfully installing PMS?  I noticed that when I restarted the server the installation process for PMS executed again and then my initial settings for the PMS seemed to have been reset.  I'm assuming UnRAID simply looks in the /extra folder every time it boots and installs whatever it finds there and so I should delete that file to prevent it from continuously re-installing on each reboot.

 

I think you are correct, unraid re installs the app upon reboot and you leave the .txz file in place. The application runs in memory.  If you fail to assign your data fiies containing your configuration settiing to a persistent locatation, ie a user share or a disk, affter reboot your settings will be lost. I am still a bit noobish and these things I am just coming to undestand.

Ok I'm having a problem where whenever I reboot my server the PMS resets as well and so I have to set it up from scratch.  I tried removing the .txz file from the flash drive thinking that would prevent it from re-installing after a boot and resetting everything.  Unfortunately, when I rebooted my server the PMS was no longer there, so clearly I need to keep the .txz file on the flash drive, but how do I prevent it from resetting everything when on PMS when I reboot the server?

 

You have to set your library data file path to a location on your hard drive. It can assigned to an actual disk or to a user share. Example if your only see flash, disk1, disk2... when you view your files on a Windows PC. User shares are not enabled.

 

So in the PMS setttings in Unraid. Something like /mnt/disk1/PMS would work.  When you start the PMS app from the web gui. Unraid will create the folder if it does not exist. A better option would be to make a

directory for all your apps so if you add more apps, they are in one locations.

 

I would suggest you do that.  In my apps folder I have Sickbeard, Sabnzbd, PMS, Headphones and CouchPotato. I can be done many ways. I would make an apps directory on a disk.

I have mine assigned directly to the cache disk.

 

So in summary /mnt/disk1/apps/PMS would fix your rebboot problems.  I would go one step further and create a user share called apps , and direct all applications  there. When you make the share change the default setting to keep all the files on a single disk. To keep your apps from keeping all your disks spun up. Then your install path would be /mnt/apps/PMS.

 

 

 

 

 

So in summary /mnt/disk1/apps/PMS would fix your rebboot problems.  I would go one step further and create a user share called apps , and direct all applications  there. When you make the share change the default setting to keep all the files on a single disk. To keep your apps from keeping all your disks spun up. Then your install path would be /mnt/apps/PMS.

 

a user share would be mounted under /mnt/user. so a user share named apps would be /mnt/user/apps. the install path then would be /mnt/user/apps/PMS.

a user share would be mounted under /mnt/user. so a user share named apps would be /mnt/user/apps. the install path then would be /mnt/user/apps/PMS.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I am still confused about how to properly map shares. I have a question.

My SickBeard data dir is /mnt/cache/apps/sickbeard. The apps share was set to keep all files on the cache disk. SickBeard works fine. Should the path be as I have it now or /mnt/user/apps/sickbeard, and would it make any difference in operation?

 

BTW, thanks for your excellent plugins.

it would not really make a difference. i use the /mnt/cache/SHARE_NAME, too. it would also work with /mnt/user/SHARE_NAME.

i'd guess, the /mnt/cache/... would be one or two milli-seconds faster, since it doesn't has to check, on which drive the files are.

 

so, my recommendation would be, to use /mnt/cache/SHARE_NAME if you use a cache drive.

if you use the array, i'd recommend to use one disk directly (e.g. /mnt/disk1/SHARE_NAME). this way, all files would be kept on that one drive.

 

these recommendations are only for the data dirs. i'd recommend to leave the install dirs at their default (/usr/local/.....).

I've gotten my PMS up and running for a week or so now.  I just wanted to share some lessons learned for any newbies who might come across this thread in the future.

• To download, I used the official version found on the Plex website (not any version found on the UnRAID website)
  
• When you put the file on your flash drive but inserting the flash drive into another computer you simply create a folder called "extra".  This folder lies at the same level as "bzimage" file.  That's it, you just put the .txz file into the "extra" folder and put it back in your UnRAID machine.
  
• If you watch the text on the screen as the server boots up (assuming you have a monitor attached) you will notice that it installs PMS.  Even though it is "installing" it, you do not want to remove the .txz file for as long as you want to keep PMS on your UnRAID machine.  Removing that file will remove PMS from running.
  
• The default settings for PMS will not work.  Login to your UnRAID server through the web interface and click on "settings".  Then click Plex Media Server.  You need to change the path for "Library directory" and "Temp directory".  If it won't allow you to change that text then you either need to disable PMS or you might need to stop your array from running (I can't remember exactly what I did).
  
• For the "Library directory" put "/mnt/user/Apps/PMS" (without quotes).  For the "Temp directory" put "/mnt/user/Apps/tmp".  These exact paths are not necessary, but I think they MUST start with "/mnt".  The rest of the path is just for organizational purposes.  If you do not change these settings then PMS might appear to work (will start to scan library and download metadata, art), but it will soon stop working.  I'm assuming because it the RAM fills up because there is no valid place to store the downloaded data.  The next time you reboot the UnRAID server then PMS will lose all the information and start from scratch.
  
• I think that's it, if I think of anything else I'll add it, or just reply to the thread.
  

I dont think you need to change the temp directory. Mine is set as follows.

 

 

Library directory:/mnt/cache/apps/PMS

Temp directory: /temp

 

The temp directory need not be persistent.  Everything else you stated appears to be correct.

Benni Chan has make a plugin to update plex. See this thread.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=14803.945

 

 

 

 

One should be careful having PMS use the temp directory in volatile memory (i.e., /tmp).  It will use that directory during transcodes, which can quickly eat up all of your available RAM.  IMHO, you should definitely put it on your cache drive (ideal) or on the array.

One should be careful having PMS use the temp directory in volatile memory (i.e., /tmp).  It will use that directory during transcodes, which can quickly eat up all of your available RAM.  IMHO, you should definitely put it on your cache drive (ideal) or on the array.

 

Thanks for the tip. I made that change and the amount of cached memory went down substantially.