New Plugin Available: Plex Media Server!

[GaiusBaltar]

It's updated now.

first off, thanks for all the hard work, as a relatively new freeNAS convert, i can't say that enough.
but to be that guy, hopefully this will get updated (yet again) to the latest 0.9.9.5 build for 2 reasons:

• 0.9.9.3 is technically only for PlexPass users according to Plex's own release blog. that puts those of us without a plexpass membership in a grey area, no?
• additional chromecast support fixes :)

hopefully i dont sound like "that guy". I'm truly grateful for the support of Plex as a PBI for freenas in and of itself (and for the other hardwork that's been put in with the last few releases).
if that's not the case i do understand. I see it as plugins being merely a bonus to the freeNAS environment and not priority #1 given the mission of creating and supporting freeNAS. as seen in my and other's earlier posts, there is a manual method to update Plex itself from within the current plugin jail if one is impatient.

 

[zfrank]

It's updated now.

My FreeNAS 9.2.1.2 find in plugins only the old version. Not the updated version. Also if I do an refresh.

 

[sef]

first off, thanks for all the hard work, as a relatively new freeNAS convert, i can't say that enough.
but to be that guy, hopefully this will get updated (yet again) to the latest 0.9.9.5 build for 2 reasons:

• 0.9.9.3 is technically only for PlexPass users according to Plex's own release blog. that puts those of us without a plexpass membership in a grey area, no?
• additional chromecast support fixes :)

Okay, it's been updated to 0.9.9.5.411_1, although it will take a while for it to show up due to caching.

ETA: It shows up now; I seem to get a segv when it starts up the first time, but not the second.

 

[ThreeDee]

just updated via gui to latest freenas as of 3/2/14 .. and then did the update for latest PMS via update button in gui ... and everything updated without issue! ... Thanks for ironing out the wrinkles guys! The bigger my movie collection becomes, the more of "hassle" it was to set up Plex from scratch of which I was perfectly fine with being that we are getting such a great product for free in FreeNAS. :)

..but then you guys go and make a free thing even better ... sheeesh .. :D

 

[GaiusBaltar]

just updated via gui to latest freenas as of 3/2/14 .. and then did the update for latest PMS via update button in gui ... and everything updated without issue! ... Thanks for ironing out the wrinkles guys! The bigger my movie collection becomes, the more of "hassle" it was to set up Plex from scratch of which I was perfectly fine with being that we are getting such a great product for free in FreeNAS. :)

..but then you guys go and make a free thing even better ... sheeesh .. :D

how long did it take? did you stop the jail or the PBI first before pressing update? some of us have had issues with the update (at least with the prior update) hanging or failing out. I've been hesitant to click update again after the first few failed attempts.

 

[ThreeDee]

how long did it take? did you stop the jail or the PBI first before pressing update? some of us have had issues with the update (at least with the prior update) hanging or failing out. I've been hesitant to click update again after the first few failed attempts.

I turned plex off first via the gui and then clicked the "update" button on the same page .. it hung on 50% and I thought .. "darn .. same issue as before .." .. but I didn't have time to redo anything so I just left it churning on 50% and came back only about 20 minutes later and it had finished updating .. so it took less than 20 minutes but I don't know how long exactly..

I pulled everything up in plex just fine .. watched a part of a movie .. update some metadata ... and it's showing the updated version .. only thing I did was turn the plugin off before the update and it worked for me ..of which is the first time that it has.

 

[mka]

Does anyone use an automated backup script or something to save the plex database in case an update or something fails and one has to start from scratch?

 

[GaiusBaltar]

Does anyone use an automated backup script or something to save the plex database in case an update or something fails and one has to start from scratch?

All of the Plex database data can be found in:
/mnt/[ZFS_pool_name]/jails/plexmediaserver_1/usr/pbi/plexmediaserver-amd64/plexdata.
There is a subdir named "Plex Media Server" that holds all the metadata, etc that you'd want to back up (it can be quite big depending on your collection. mine's currently 6.7GB). there are a few folders in there (like "cache", "plugin support") that you don't need, but don't hurt to have.

something like this should work for you as cron job:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
#takes a compressed backup of the plexdata directory via having tar run the dir through bzip2 algorithm 
tar -cjf /[Path_to_save_plexbackup]/plexdataBKUP.tar.bz2 /mnt/[ZFS_pool_name]/jails/plexmediaserver_1/usr/pbi/plexmediaserver-amd64/plexdata

when you need to restore the database (say after deleting the plex plugin and installing a fresh one), this should work:

Code:

tar -xjf /[Path_to_save_plexbackup]/plexdataBKUP.tar.bz2 /mnt/[ZFS_pool_name]/jails/plexmediaserver_1/usr/pbi/plexmediaserver-amd64/plexdata

 

[mka]

Thank you very much!

 

[Magnus33]

I actually got it to upgrade but it took 14 hours to do so after i went to sleep and forgot about it.

Not really useable unless your doing the upgrade before bed or work and don't mind making the better half mad (gulp).

 

[GaiusBaltar]

I actually got it to upgrade but it took 14 hours to do so after i went to sleep and forgot about it.

Not really useable unless your doing the upgrade before bed or work and don't mind making the better half mad (gulp).

how big is your plex database? at that point it would be quicker to backup the plex DB manually, delete the PBI outright, install the new one and just restore the database from the backup.

 

[Magnus33]

16 Tb so its clear the upgrade process is simply not up to the job.

It did work and everything functional but this level of delay makes it highly impractical to use.
Its the same when deleting plex servers for many there is a insane delay for something that should take minutes at best.

We know from here that a simple script can update plex to the latest in under a minute so there should be a way to do so without killing the database and informing plex of the change.

 

[mka]

Hi, it did finally update after I let it run vor a while but the plex server won't start.

I did a reboot of the freenas, stop/start jail etc and the plugin is running. Clicked on it reports the usual (although the latter part is new):
"Click here to access your Plex Media Server!
Disable remote security:"

But at the IP address nothing reacts. I did open the appropriate jail shell and top doesn't show any plex processes. Any ideas what went wrong and how can I debug this?

PID USERNAME THR PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE C TIME WCPU COMMAND
4445 root 6 20 0 151M 30552K usem 1 0:00 0.00% python2.7
4165 root 1 52 10 18600K 3184K wait 1 0:00 0.00% sh
9613 root 1 20 0 17532K 3388K pause 1 0:00 0.00% csh
9615 root 1 20 0 16560K 2324K CPU0 1 0:00 0.00% top
4124 root 1 20 0 12052K 1812K select 0 0:00 0.00% syslogd
4241 root 1 20 0 14128K 1800K nanslp 1 0:00 0.00% cron
4237 root 1 52 0 46744K 4804K select 1 0:00 0.00% sshd
9450 root 1 52 10 3776K 1424K nanslp 0 0:00 0.00% sleep

 

[GaiusBaltar]

did you try starting the service manually from within the jail?

Code:

jls    #to find the plexJail ID number
jexec [plexJail_ID#] tcsh
service plexmediaserver start

failing that, take a look at the plex logs located at: "/mnt/[ZFS_pool]/jails/plexmediaserver_1/usr/pbi/plexmediaserver-amd64/plexdata/Plex Media Server/Logs"

edit:
even though I manually updated plex within the older PBI via the manual process referenced earlier in this thread by member mstinaff, my OCD got the better of me and I ran the pbi update. took 45mins to complete.

After the update, i noticed the jail's dataset was now double the size it was originally.

the update ended up creating a 2.3GB backup of the old .pbi file (which i subsequently deleted after ensuring plex was up to date and working correctly).
the backup was found at:
"/mnt/[zpool]/jails/plexmediaserver_1/.plugins/old.[old_plugin_version].pbi"

additionally, i deleted the compressed old install (another ~3GB) that was found in:
"/mnt/[zpool]/jails/plexmediaserver_1/var/tmp/pbi/old"
(i just deleted the entire "old" directory)

i think there are still some errant files laying around as the jail is now still 2GB larger than it was before the update.

 

[Mario084]

Hi guys,

tried to install the plex plugin on my new freenas 0.9.2.1.2. Clicked on install but I get no plugin, also in the tab "installed" there is no plex plugin. The jail has been created but the plugin not. Can someone help me?
Thanks.

 

[GaiusBaltar]

Hi guys,

tried to install the plex plugin on my new freenas 0.9.2.1.2. Clicked on install but I get no plugin, also in the tab "installed" there is no plex plugin. The jail has been created but the plugin not. Can someone help me?
Thanks.

is the jail itself running? if not, try deleting the jail, then try installing again.

 

[mka]

did you try starting the service manually from within the jail?

Code:

jls    #to find the plexJail ID number
jexec [plexJail_ID#] tcsh
service plexmediaserver start

Thank you!


It reported I should enter plexmediaserver_enable="YES" to /etc/rc.conf or try "onestart". I did try onestart and it did actually work, the media server did came up.

However... then I edited the rc.conf accordingly and restarted the jail. Now the plex media server does start but always reports when accessing the web UI and after logged in with "This media server is unavailable to you.
Please check that you have permission to access this media server".

 

[GaiusBaltar]

Thank you!


It reported I should enter plexmediaserver_enable="YES" to /etc/rc.conf or try "onestart". I did try onestart and it did actually work, the media server did came up.

However... then I edited the rc.conf accordingly and restarted the jail. Now the plex media server does start but always reports when accessing the web UI and after logged in with "This media server is unavailable to you.
Please check that you have permission to access this media server".

jexec into the jail again, stop the plexmediaserver service.
then delete (well just rename for now) the "Preferences.xml" file located in the jail under:
/usr/pbi/plexmediaserver-amd64/plexdata/Plex Media Server/
then restart the service.
(might have to redo a few preferences via the PlexWeb interface after that.)

 

[mka]

Thanks again! That worked... :)

 

[Fran Aquino]

16 Tb so its clear the upgrade process is simply not up to the job.

OMG 16TB Plex database? What's your media library size then, I'm just curious?

My db is around 2.5GB. Plex plugin updated in 30 minutes approximately.