[SOLVED] how to install plex in unraid & Fix Most of related issues

[ammar577]

Hi guys I'm new to Unraid. I just built myself a new unraid and bought the registration key. I have 12b and 128 ssd f

As cache drive. Till now all went well.

 

My only issue is that I don't know how to add plex media server to unraid.

Can someone please help me,  or guide me to a step by step tutorial for noobs

 

I look forward to hear from you

 

Regards,

 

Ammar

[gtroyp]

Installing Plex isn't all that difficult. However, as I kind of figured it out as I went, I don't have the greatest start on writing it down into steps. The first step is to install the plugin. Actually, the first step is making sure you are running the latest beta (5.0 rc11, I am pretty sure) of unraid. Then go to the http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/UnRAID_Plugins page on the Wiki and get the Plex plugin. I would also strongly recommend installing the SimpleFeatures Plugin first (and honestly, unmenu too). These make running Plex easier, and unraid is generally better with them.

 

Once the plugin is installed, you will want to set the library and data directories to your cache drive. I created two folders, you do whatever works for you. But, point the plugin to those folders within the settings page within unraid. You will probably also want to create user shares for movies and tv separately, but that is just a matter of taste of personal organization.

 

You will need to probably spend one night just reading the Plex page on the forum start to finish to get an idea of the issues and workarounds that have been used. It is a good primer for the unexpected issues you will face. But keep posting here and I will try to help (others will join in too, I promise).

[BillyJ]

I find downloading the PKG from the Plex website to me more reliable. Simply drop into the Extra's folder and reboot your box.

 

Watch out for....

1. If you have a cache drive make sure you have setup a new share that is cache only so the mover scripts doesn't kill plex.

2. Change the transcode directory to your cache drive or hdd within the plex app.

 

 

Updating plex is annoying but you just get the new PKG from plexapp.com and replace the old one in the Extras folder on your USB>

 

 

[ammar577]

Thanks guys i followed your advices to the DOT!

and it worked

 

i do have a chache SSD drive can you please tell me how should i do the libabry and temp folder in it  ?

 

im getting a little confused in that part now

 

Thanks again, your help is much appreciated

 

Regards,

 

Ammar

[BillyJ]

This is a screen shot of my setup where "Applications" is a share I added from the GUI and choose Cache only. It comes down to personal preference about the name of the cache only share. some prefer ".apps" I like to keep it simple as i'm pretty new to using linux.

 

[ammar577]

You guys have been a big help for me. I followed all your steps and it worked!

I have PMS installed on my mac mini but I wanted the unraid to take care of it for me.  So I copied some tv shows and movies to the unraid but pms is not updating them and syncing!  And the same folders worked perfectly on pms on the my mac mini. It kept saying "some information  still on the Internet" !

 

Does anyone know how to fix this? 

[BetaQuasi]

It sounds like perhaps the plex user doesn't have appropriate rights to do what it needs to do - you are probably better off posting this on the Plex forums to be honest.. however you can check your log files to see what is happening.  I'm not sure where exactly these files live when using the unRAID plugin, however in a standard linux PMS install, they are here:

 

/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs

 

If they're not in that location, on the unRAID console, you could type:

 

find / -name 'Plex Media Server.log'

 

The particular log to look for is 'Plex Media Scanner.log', however if it is a permissions issue, the media scanner may not even be being invoked correctly, in which case 'Plex Media Server.log' should shed some light.  Zip them both up and post them here if you want, I'd be happy to take a look - as mentioned though, you are probably best heading over to the plex forums, specifically the unRAID plex forum.

 

Note that if it was a large amount of files, it may just be taking a while to get all the metadata from the various sites.

[ammar577]

thanks "BetaQuasi"

i will take your advice and post in the plex fourms and i will uplaod the log file for your review (thanks again).

 

just for your information i acctually just added 5 movies, and 2 tv shows which contain only 2 episodes..

 

it i left it to run for six hours, keeping in mind that i have a High Speed internet connection of 80MB/s. so fetching the metada is not a problem. the main issue is it just doesnt scan the contents of the Movie folder and TV Shows Folder

 

 

Regards,

 

Ammar

[BetaQuasi]

Can I have your internet connection?

[BillyJ]

Did you use the plugin or drop the txz file in extra folder?

 

are you accessing the plex interface via htp://unraidIP:32400/manage?

 

 

[ammar577]

i downloaded the file from the plex website and created the extra folder, i put in there, and rebooted unraid and it was there!,

 

i access it using the WEB GUI from there i go to settings then i click on plex media server

 

FYI, all my plex clients see the server online on my local network but its not updating or syncing the metada of anything anymore

 

do you think i should delete and reinstall it again ?

if yes how to i delete the plugin ?

 

by the way i went over to the plex forums and chat, i didnt get any help! you guys are much more helpful and i really thank you for that

 

Regards,

 

Ammar

 

 

[BetaQuasi]

Can you try and upload your logs?  No point reinstalling if it's a permissions issue.  We should be able to quickly see the problem in the log files.

[ammar577]

i will do that thank you,

 

i understand the this will take me to my log

 

find / -name 'Plex Media Server.log'

 

 

is that in telnet ?

and how do i copy it and upload it here ?

 

im really, please bare with me im very new to this im still learning how to use linux with your support

 

Regards,

 

Ammar

[BillyJ]

Not sure if this would be the best way but you can use cp in telnet when you find the file. (If its not on your cache drive)

It would be something like "cp /var/blah/blah/Plex Media Server.log /boot/config/Plex Media Server.log"

 

Then just browse your flash drive through finder and look at the log that way. I'm sure there is any easier way but my skills are pretty basic.

 

 

My plex log is located here "/mnt/user/Applications/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/Plex Media Server.log"

 

"Applications" is a share setup on my cache drive. and Library is the path setup in the plex plugin.

 

Cheers

Will

[BetaQuasi]

Yep that's in telnet - give it a few moments to find the file and when it does, it will display the full path of it on screen.  Then what BillyJ suggested would be fine - copy the logs to a shared location, like /boot/config, and then access via \\tower\flash.

 

Copy them to your Windows PC, then you can either just zip and attach to a post in this forum, or go over to www.pastebin.com, open the log file and cut and paste the contents into the New Paste window.  Give it a name and hit submit, and post the resulting link here.

 

You'll want both Plex Media Server.log and Plex Media Scanner.log - the 2nd is probably the most relevant, but please add the first as well.

 

BQ

[ammar577]

thank you so much

 

you guys a very supportive i and i really appreciate that,

 

im at work now, i should be home in an other 90 minutes so i will do it right away and report back

 

thanks again

 

 

Ammar

[ammar577]

Alright guys i think i might have figure it out,

 

now when i came back home i turned on the plex client and i noticed that my tv shows and movies have been added,

 

since im a extreamly new to unraid & lunix (3 days only) i decided to fiddle around with my unraid setting before i start trouble shooting useing your guidances (all of you that help me  )

 

i looked at the my share file which i called "Media" in my unraid web GUI and clicked on it the i scrolled down and noticed that i chose "yes" in an open which said "use cache drive"

 

then i went to the settings tab - and clicked on share settings,

 

i found some called "Mover" at it was set to 3:40 AM by default!!

 

so i decided to add more tv shows in my tv shows folder then i went back and clicked move now ( just to see what would happen)

 

and all the files were added in to the Array! then i went to plex server GUI and i clicked on Deep scan and THERE IS WAS

everything was added

 

im actually embarresed about it and i apologise for asking for everyones input in such a dum matter, but lesson learnt and i hope this will help the next noob who searches for this problem.

 

i hope to learn more and help ad Value to the Great forum and Software (Unraid)

 

Thank you All for your kind assistance and support

 

Regards,

 

Ammar

[BillyJ]

I'm glad you got it working not sure how but anyway, i'll explain a few things to hopefully help you out for the future. I'm no expert at this stuff but after a few months of mucking round I have a pretty rock solid setup these days.

 

My Plex App and Library  directory are located in a folder called Applications which was made through the unraid web GUI and set as "Cache Only" - The mover script will run at the default time of 3.40am and transfer any files on the Cache drive to your array. The mover script would kill plex every night for me. If your Applications directory is setup as "Cache Only" then mover will ignore it. ( some people use .applications as its hidden and I think the mover script ignores it)

 

I have created several other shares e.g. TV Shows, Movies, Music Videos etc.. through the unraid web gui. And then added these to plex as /mnt/user/TV Shows, /mnt/user/Movies etc...  ( I set my plex scanning to detect on folder changes &  once daily, )

 

Within the Plex settings you can set the Transcode directory. If I had this set as the default it would use quite a lot of RAM and occasionally crash plex. Make sure you change your Transcode directory to your SSD ( Cache Drive ) I just point mine to the Temp folder plex created in my Applications folder.

 

If any one has other tips please let me know

 

Cheers

Will

 

 

[BetaQuasi]

Ah so that was the issue - @Ammar, when you add sources to plex, make sure you are referencing the user share as BillyJ eludes to, i.e. /mnt/user/movies if you have a user share called movies, /mnt/user/tv etc etc - this will ensure both the array drives and the cache drive are looked at for content

 

It sounds to me like you have added disk shares to plex, ie /mnt/disk1 - these will never see anything on the cache drive, therefore nothing will show up until the mover invokes.  As you don't really want to have to manually invoke the mover, nor invoke the mover more often than needed (why bother with a cache disk otherwise), you are best to add user shares only to your plex sources.

[ammar577]

Ah so that was the issue - @Ammar, when you add sources to plex, make sure you are referencing the user share as BillyJ eludes to, i.e. /mnt/user/movies if you have a user share called movies, /mnt/user/tv etc etc - this will ensure both the array drives and the cache drive are looked at for content

 

It sounds to me like you have added disk shares to plex, ie /mnt/disk1 - these will never see anything on the cache drive, therefore nothing will show up until the mover invokes.  As you don't really want to have to manually invoke the mover, nor invoke the mover more often than needed (why bother with a cache disk otherwise), you are best to add user shares only to your plex sources.

 

yes i just understood,

 

mine is looking like this "/mnt/disk1/Media/Movies"

how do i change it to the way you and BillyJ described

i keep trying different things but its not happening

 

can you walk through it please

 

do i need to change the split level ? or somthing ?

 

i just attached some screen shots please tell me what to do

 

Regards,

 

Ammar

[ammar577]

here are some more screen shots from plex

 

is this how its supposed to be ?

[Automatic]

here are some more screen shots from plex

 

is this how its supposed to be ?

 

No, that'll only get data off your first disk (Disk1), not cache/other drives. Use:-

/mnt/user/Media/Movies

/mnt/user/Media/TV Shows

 

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Basically:-

/mnt

is where all your mounted drives go (That unraid mounts, mounted drives can technically go anywhere)

 

 

/mnt/drive\d+/

are your physical drives, your data drives. Not your parity/cache drives.

 

 

/mnt/cache/

is your cache drive, and only your cache drive.

 

 

/mnt/user/

is where all your shares go, and, this includes all data. (E.G. all data drives & cache drive)

 

 

/mnt/user0/

is where all your shares go, and, this excludes your cache drive. (E.G. it'll only have shares that have been written to the data drives/parity).

[ammar577]

"Automatic"

 

is the right now

 

i have attached again some screen shots

[Automatic]

"Automatic"

 

is the right now

 

i have attached again some screen shots

 

By my knowledge of unraid, yes. Although, I've only been using it for ~ a week so I'd recommend someone else confirms it.

 

Anyway, that's the exact set-up I have on my plex set up and it works fine with my T.V. shows/movies/music branching over three drives (Soon to be seven, once I finish copying over all my data).

[ammar577]

are you using High-water ?

and what split level are you using  ?

 

Regards,

 

Ammar