installing plex

[watts5ive]

Hi, I have had my unraid up for years. Has always worked great, never had to mess with it. I just updated to 5.0 and want to install plex media on unraid. I have never installed a plugin. I have been reading for hours and just cant seem to get all together in my head. Where does the /boot/config/plugins folder go. Do i put on my cache drive. the installing plg script is confusing. Ill read some more tomorrow night. If someone maybe could help me wrap my head around it that would be great. thanks

[TheWombat]

Updated to reflect unRAID's Cache Only Share feature - thanks to S80_UK for the suggestion.

 

The following is assuming you are on unRAID 5.0 final (or similar)

 

1) On flash drive create directory "extra" i.e. "/boot/extra" if you are logged into the console

2) Go to Plex website and download Plex for Unraid e.g. "PlexMediaServer-0.9.8.6.175-88ffbb2-unRAID.txz" if you have PlexPass and access to the Betas or whatever is the latest version available to you

3) Copy "PlexMediaServer-0.9.8.6.175-88ffbb2-unRAID.txz" into the "extra" directory made in step 1

4) Create a Share called "applications" and set it as "Use cache disk:" = "Only"

4.1) On the applications Share create a directory called "Plex" i.e. "/applications/Plex"

4.2) On the applications Share create a directory called "Plex/library" i.e. "/applications/Plex/library"

4.3) On the applications Share create a directory called "Plex/temp" i.e. "/applications/Plex/temp"

5) Log in to the UnRaid Web Gui (e.g. "http://tower") from your web browser

 

Note: This next section will change where Plex Media Server is installed. If you don't see Plex listed then reboot UnRaid and check again.

 

6.1) Select "Settings"->"Plex Media Server" page

6.2) Ensure "Enable Plex Media Server:" is set to "No"

6.3) Set "Library directory" to be: "/mnt/cache/applications/Plex/library" or whatever you named it in step 4.2

6.4) Set "Temp directory" to be: "/mnt/cache/applications/Plex/temp" or whatever you named it in step 4.3

6.5) Ensure "Enable Plex Media Server:" is set to "Yes"

 

7) Do a final reboot and go back to the "Settings"->"Plex Media Server" page and confirm that Status is "RUNNING with version xxxxxxxxx"

 

Note: You are able to skip some of the reboots by using command line commands from the console, however the above is easier if you are less familiar.

 

You should then be able to access Plex Media Server via your web browser with: http://tower:32400/web/index.html#!/dashboard where "tower" is either the IP address or name of your UnRaid Server.

 

Anyone reading - feel free to suggest improvements, this is from memory as it has been a few months since installing Plex.

 

Whenever Plex comes out with a new version you just replace the file as per step 3 and reboot.

 

TheWombat

 

[watts5ive]

Thank you very much, I will give it a go this weekend. I have been trying to find something like this on the forums and wiki. thanks again.

[S80_UK]

Nice write up.  Thanks.

 

But I wondered about this bit...

 

5) Log in to the UnRaid Web Gui (e.g. "http://tower") from your web browser

 

Note: This next step will disable "Mover" which is necessary to stop the "Mover" from moving the Plex installation files from the cache drive. Alternatively you could create the directory "applications" in Step 4 as the name ".applications" which will make it hidden or explicitly exclude the "applications" directory from the "Mover". As I don't use a cache disk for speeding up copying to the UnRaid server I just disable "Mover" instead. Search the forums if you wish to keep "Mover" enabled but exclude the "applications" directory

 

5.1) Select "Settings"->"Share Settings" page

5.2) Ensure "Mover Settings" has a Mover schedule of "#0 0 0 0 0 exit;"

5.3) Select "Apply"

 

Why not set up a share called "applications" and use the Cache Only option.  That way the mover is still available for moving files from cache to regular shares.

[TheWombat]

Nice write up.  Thanks.

 

But I wondered about this bit...

 

5) Log in to the UnRaid Web Gui (e.g. "http://tower") from your web browser

 

Note: This next step will disable "Mover" which is necessary to stop the "Mover" from moving the Plex installation files from the cache drive. Alternatively you could create the directory "applications" in Step 4 as the name ".applications" which will make it hidden or explicitly exclude the "applications" directory from the "Mover". As I don't use a cache disk for speeding up copying to the UnRaid server I just disable "Mover" instead. Search the forums if you wish to keep "Mover" enabled but exclude the "applications" directory

 

5.1) Select "Settings"->"Share Settings" page

5.2) Ensure "Mover Settings" has a Mover schedule of "#0 0 0 0 0 exit;"

5.3) Select "Apply"

 

Why not set up a share called "applications" and use the Cache Only option.  That way the mover is still available for moving files from cache to regular shares.

 

As I don't have a need for a cache drive for caching since I don't require fast writes I just find it easier to disable Mover. As I've mentioned in my post there are other ways of setting up this part and so appreciate the additional option you've mentioned.

 

I also installed Plex based on older instructions on the forum. As Cache Only shares were only introduced in R5 beta 8 it looks like I overlooked this option.

 

I will aim to try it this weekend and update the instructions accordingly.

 

thanks

 

TheWombat

[rpm0068]

Guys I need some additional help.  I have followed all the instructions posted here and downloaded the latest release for NAS but i cannot get plex to start up.  The error message in the logs are shown below.  Please let me know what else i can check.  Any help you could provide would be appreciated.

 

Aug 14 20:39:54 TowerRPM pms: Starting Plex...

Aug 14 20:39:54 TowerRPM su[6715]: Successful su for unraid-plex by root

Aug 14 20:39:54 TowerRPM su[6715]: + root:unraid-plex

Aug 14 20:39:56 TowerRPM pms: Check 1: Plex has NOT started yet, something is maybe wrong!

Aug 14 20:39:59 TowerRPM pms: Check 2: Plex has NOT started yet, something is maybe wrong!

Aug 14 20:40:02 TowerRPM pms: Check 3: Plex has NOT started yet, something is maybe wrong!

Aug 14 20:40:05 TowerRPM pms: Check 4: Plex has NOT started yet, something is maybe wrong!

Aug 14 20:40:08 TowerRPM pms: Check 5: Plex has NOT started yet, something is maybe wrong!

[TheWombat]

Guys I need some additional help.  I have followed all the instructions posted here and downloaded the latest release for NAS but i cannot get plex to start up.  The error message in the logs are shown below.  Please let me know what else i can check.  Any help you could provide would be appreciated.

 

Aug 14 20:39:54 TowerRPM pms: Starting Plex...

Aug 14 20:39:54 TowerRPM su[6715]: Successful su for unraid-plex by root

Aug 14 20:39:54 TowerRPM su[6715]: + root:unraid-plex

Aug 14 20:39:56 TowerRPM pms: Check 1: Plex has NOT started yet, something is maybe wrong!

Aug 14 20:39:59 TowerRPM pms: Check 2: Plex has NOT started yet, something is maybe wrong!

Aug 14 20:40:02 TowerRPM pms: Check 3: Plex has NOT started yet, something is maybe wrong!

Aug 14 20:40:05 TowerRPM pms: Check 4: Plex has NOT started yet, something is maybe wrong!

Aug 14 20:40:08 TowerRPM pms: Check 5: Plex has NOT started yet, something is maybe wrong!

 

Can you post what version of UnRaid are you on and what version of PMS you have installed.

 

FYI - my UnRaid Syslog has:

 

Aug 10 10:00:12 NAS-03 pms: Starting Plex...

Aug 10 10:00:12 NAS-03 su[2901]: Successful su for unraid-plex by root

Aug 10 10:00:12 NAS-03 su[2901]: + root:unraid-plex

Aug 10 10:00:14 NAS-03 pms: Plex Media Server IS running

 

I would also suggest looking at the Plex logs themselves rather than the UnRaid syslog. Depending on your setup they will be somewhere such as:  \\NAS-03\applications\Plex\library\Application Support\Plex Media Server\Logs  where NAS-03 in your case will probably be TowerRPM.

 

The PMS logs rotate so you'll need to see which one has details of the error.

 

hth

 

TheWombat

 

 

[rpm0068]

Hey man,

 

What happened is it is not installing plex on the cache drive.  It is just installing the application support folder, temp, and library but no other files.

 

5.0-rc11 Unraid and PlexMediaServer-0.9.8.4.125-ffe2a5d-unRAID.txz is what i pasted into the extra folder on the flash drive.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

[rpm0068]

Do I have a permissions issue?  I've exhausted everything i've found so far.

 

root@TowerRPM:/mnt/cache# ls -la

total 0

drwxrwxrwx 5 nobody users 104 2013-08-12 22:39 ./

drwxr-xr-x 9 root  root    0 2013-08-14 20:39 ../

drwx------ 6 nobody users 160 2013-08-12 22:48 apps/

 

[watts5ive]

I performed the first 3 steps of wombats instructions. It is up and running, just tested with a MKV file to my roku3, it works fine. what are all the application directories for on the cache drive, i still need the mover for my other shares. Do i need to make a share on my cache drive and name it applications? and cache only. I need a little clarification on this part, thanks again.

[TheWombat]

I performed the first 3 steps of wombats instructions. It is up and running, just tested with a MKV file to my roku3, it works fine. what are all the application directories for on the cache drive, i still need the mover for my other shares. Do i need to make a share on my cache drive and name it applications? and cache only. I need a little clarification on this part, thanks again.

 

The Plex directory contains two sub directories:

  - library = includes log files, plug ins, meta data for your movies/tv shows etc

  - temp = used as a temporary store for transcoding

 

It is typically recommended that you install the Plex directory on the cache drive rather than an Array HDD (e.g. disk1,2,3 etc) or the Flash drive for performance and longevity reasons.

 

It is also suggested (not recommended) that you create a top level directory called 'applications' or '.applications' so that if, at a later date, you install other applications then you can have their working directories also sitting under 'applications' rather than having multiple top level directories you need to exclude from the mover. Taking either approach listed in this paragraph then you need to either disable Mover or ensure that Mover doesn't move the 'applications' directory.

 

You can, as has also been suggested, create a cache only Share, which can also be called 'applications' or whatever you choose as an alternative, although I have not tried this method myself it is also a valid and probably more sensible approach. The advantage of this approach is (I believe) that the Mover should automatically ignore the directory without you having to configure anything further.

 

TheWombat

 

 

[snowboardjoe]

Just got this running this evening and it was pretty easy.

 

The main thing I did differently was create a share called Applications and set Use Cache Disk to "Only".  Fired it up and working perfect so far.  Still have some testing to do and get my library items all sync'd up again.  I'm assuming when unRAID boots it just extracts the contents of /boot/extra/PlexMediaServer...txz to /usr/local/plexmediaserver, so that all runs out of RAM and the config points it to /mnt/cache/Applications/Plex/library for all of the static/persistent stuff?

 

I did notice in the advanced settings (within PMS) the transcode temp directory was blank, so I went ahead and set that to /mnt/cache/Applications/Plex/temp to make sure stuff goes there.

 

During the initialization I was prompted about plug-ins that may be needed for some of the Plex Channels.  Do these plug-ins exist for this Slackware distribution?  I know it depends on what Plex plug-ins to install.  Just wanted to know what others may have found out here.

[TheWombat]

Just got this running this evening and it was pretty easy.

 

The main thing I did differently was create a share called Applications and set Use Cache Disk to "Only".  Fired it up and working perfect so far.  Still have some testing to do and get my library items all sync'd up again.  I'm assuming when unRAID boots it just extracts the contents of /boot/extra/PlexMediaServer...txz to /usr/local/plexmediaserver, so that all runs out of RAM and the config points it to /mnt/cache/Applications/Plex/library for all of the static/persistent stuff?

 

I did notice in the advanced settings (within PMS) the transcode temp directory was blank, so I went ahead and set that to /mnt/cache/Applications/Plex/temp to make sure stuff goes there.

 

During the initialization I was prompted about plug-ins that may be needed for some of the Plex Channels.  Do these plug-ins exist for this Slackware distribution?  I know it depends on what Plex plug-ins to install.  Just wanted to know what others may have found out here.

 

Plugins that use Silverlight e.g. Netflix won't work which is a shame. However Plugins like Pandora work. I don't use many plugins so can't add much more than that.

 

TheWombat

 

[GFOviedo]

I just recently installed Plex in my Win 7 PC to access all my content from my UnRaid server. It works pretty good, and my kids and wife like it since they get to have a nice jukebox and you can play the movies within and outside the network.

 

Further, Plex is much better than AirVideo since I can stream and transcode to multiple devices without any issues.

 

Now, I am thinking of installing....excuse me, try to install Plex in my unraid server, but I'm wondering if this would cause any issues with transcoding power since my UnRaid is only a dual core AMD and my PC is Quad Core?  Second is it recommended to install in a cache drive, which is something I don't have yet?

[TheWombat]

I personally have a cache drive although I only use it for Plex.

 

Plex Media Server will only transcode if your client devices require. I.e if your media is in 1080p MKV and your client device that runs Plex Media Center or Plex Home Theater can handle the 1080p MKV then the media is directly played rather than transcoded. I can't comment on whether your CPU will be sufficient however the question comes up often enough on the Plex forums that a quick search should clarify.

 

TheWombat

[GFOviedo]

Thanks. I'm going to have to buy a drive for cache. Will it be better to get a 7200 rpm drive or 5400 rpm.

[TheWombat]

Thanks. I'm going to have to buy a drive for cache. Will it be better to get a 7200 rpm drive or 5400 rpm.

 

Really comes down to preference and need. Are you just using the cache drive for Plex or will you use it as a proper cache drive and/or for other applications.

 

Some people prefer the slight performance edge 7200rpm has. I use my UnRaid for mass storage and don't have a need for the extra performance that a 7,200 or 10,000 rpm HDD has. I prefer the typically lower heat signature of the slower drives, hence the 7200 rpm drives I have are slowly being replaced with slower/cooler drivers.

 

Having said that, my Cache drive is a 500GB WD Black (7200 rpm) as I had a spare one available and didn't want to buy a slower dive when I already had spare drives. Plex is using less than 10GB of space on it.

 

TheWombat

 

[GFOviedo]

Thanks. I'm going to have to buy a drive for cache. Will it be better to get a 7200 rpm drive or 5400 rpm.

 

Really comes down to preference and need. Are you just using the cache drive for Plex or will you use it as a proper cache drive and/or for other applications.

 

Some people prefer the slight performance edge 7200rpm has. I use my UnRaid for mass storage and don't have a need for the extra performance that a 7,200 or 10,000 rpm HDD has. I prefer the typically lower heat signature of the slower drives, hence the 7200 rpm drives I have are slowly being replaced with slower/cooler drivers.

 

Having said that, my Cache drive is a 500GB WD Black (7200 rpm) as I had a spare one available and didn't want to buy a slower dive when I already had spare drives. Plex is using less than 10GB of space on it.

 

TheWombat

 

I'll be using the cache drive strictly for Plex.  Well, I found a 1TB WD green drive that my WIN 7 PC was using before, I just finished preclearing it, and it passed.  So, I will be using that for cache and Plex.  Hopefully, I will be able to install it.

[GFOviedo]

Update:  Success at installing Plex in my UnRaid server.  When I went to access Plex, I was surprised to have found that all my movies were already scrapped, but then I disabled Plex Media Server from my Win 7 PC, and everything went away.

 

So, at the moment i am scrapping all of the movies and TV shows once again, I will test Plex and if everything works, I will uninstall Plex Media Server from my Win 7 PC, and run it in my UnRaid server only.  Thanks for the instructions.

[henris]

Update:  Success at installing Plex in my UnRaid server.  When I went to access Plex, I was surprised to have found that all my movies were already scrapped, but then I disabled Plex Media Server from my Win 7 PC, and everything went away.

What you actually saw was Plex Media Servers sharing information automatically. If you took a closer look, the library sections had the server denoted below the section name. I personally have three different PMS running in the same network and I can play any movie through any of the PMS web guis. Also the clients pick up all the servers automatically. That's pretty cool in my mind

 

If you wonder why three servers, well the first is running on the original win8 htpc from which I'm moving the PMS to my unRAID server. The third is just for testing purposes.

[GFOviedo]

UPDATE:  My cache drive failed!  I'm back to running Plex in my Win 7 PC.  I will be updating my MOBO, CPU and RAM on Monday to i5, AsRock Z77M and 8 GB DDR3 2133.

[GFOviedo]

20 hrs and 12 min. at 95% preclear almost complete for my new 2TB cache drive.  Why at 2TB as cache drive only for Plex would you ask?  Well, Fry's electronics has the WD Desktop Mainstream 2TB Internal Hard Drive Retail Kit WDBH2D0020HNC-NRSN for $79.99, and Best Buy price matched that.

 

I'll eventually get a smaller drive, but for now that will do.  After the preclear is complete, I've got set the drive to cache and make sure it works, install Plex.  Thereafter, I've got to make sure Plex works.  Thereafter, I am going to take my server apart and replace my current MOBO, CPU and RAM!  I am hoping everything goes well!

[GFOviedo]

I've installed Plex again, to my surprise all of the setting were still there, I only had to crate the shares and folders.  Now, I am scrapping all of my movies and TV shows once again.  Once, I am done with that, I will be upgrading my server.  Crossing my fingers everything works once I do that.

[GFOviedo]

My new MOBO, CPU and RAM is finally running in my UnRaid, and Plex is running well as well!

[TheWombat]

Good to hear it is all going well

 

TheWombat