Plex Errors with FreeNAS-11.1-U4

[Tartan88]

Hello,

I have been using FreeNAS for quite some time (with Plex), but am still relatively unfamiliar with the intricacies of managing it. I recently upgraded to FreeNAS-11.1-U4 and also just upgraded my ZFS pool. When I moved to FreeNAS 11, I started getting some weird errors with Plex. Attached is a screenshot of the errors I am receiving now, but, in addition, in the "Plugins" section, the "plexmediasever" icon is broken and the service status won't change from "off," but I can still access the Plex Media Server on my LAN. When I try to flip it to "on," it says "Some error occurred" [see screenshot attached]. It says my PBI for Plex is plexmediaserver-1.10.1.4602-amd64 and the Jail is plexmediaserver_1.

Any thoughts/ideas on how to fix this? I haven't been able to update Plex for a while too, as the Plex screen on the LAN says an update is available.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[shamo316]

Hello,

I have been using FreeNAS for quite some time (with Plex), but am still relatively unfamiliar with the intricacies of managing it. I recently upgraded to FreeNAS-11.1-U4 and also just upgraded my ZFS pool. When I moved to FreeNAS 11, I started getting some weird errors with Plex. Attached is a screenshot of the errors I am receiving now, but, in addition, in the "Plugins" section, the "plexmediasever" icon is broken and the service status won't change from "off," but I can still access the Plex Media Server on my LAN. When I try to flip it to "on," it says "Some error occurred" [see screenshot attached]. It says my PBI for Plex is plexmediaserver-1.10.1.4602-amd64 and the Jail is plexmediaserver_1.

Any thoughts/ideas on how to fix this? I haven't been able to update Plex for a while too, as the Plex screen on the LAN says an update is available.

Thanks in advance!!

The plugin version of plex is bad for this reason, slow updates and instability when updating freenas versions. The best thing to do is backup your plex database and then create a jail and install plex that way. A lot for stable and can update plex a lot quicker..


1. Manually create a generic jail.
2. Create/link storage for that jail.
3. Select plex jail you've created and then select shell command.
4. type "pkg upgrade" then press Y then "pkg update" then press Y
5. type "pkg install plexmediaserver-plexpass" or "pkg install plexmediaserver"
6. Once done type "sysrc plexmediaserver_plexpass_enable=YES" or "sysrc plexmediaserver_enable=YES" depending on what version you installed.
7. Once done type reset your plex jail you've created, navigate to your plex jail's assigned IP:32400\web
8. Login into plex.

To update: It gets pulled from this link https://www.freshports.org/multimedia/plexmediaserver-plexpass/ or https://www.freshports.org/multimedia/plexmediaserver/, you gotta wait 24hrs after the site gets it to get update

1. Go to the main jails tab
2. Select plex jail and then select shell command.
3. type "pkg upgrade"
4. type "pkg update"
5. then reset your jail, you are now updated

 

[DrKK]

I'd like to second that.

For me, the "plugins" have always been very unsatisfactory. I spent some time learning how to deal with FreeBSD jails, and I began making my own jails, and updating them several times per week. There's no substitute for actually knowing what's going on and how things are working, versus clicking some button for a "plugin" and hoping for the best.

 

[nojohnny101]

+1 I don't use plugins for the reasons stated above. Here is the guide that I believe is still relevant to creating a plex jail:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...to-install-plex-in-a-freenas-11-0-jail.19412/

 

[Tartan88]

All,

Thanks a lot!! A few follow-on questions:

1) Isn't my Plex server already installed in a jail since it is listed as "plexmediaserver_1" jail?
2) Do I just delete the jail and plugin then start from the guide that @nojohnny101 posted above?
3) Anything else to consider before following the guide?

Thanks, again!

 

[chrisada]

All,

Thanks a lot!! A few follow-on questions:

1) Isn't my Plex server already installed in a jail since it is listed as "plexmediaserver_1" jail?
2) Do I just delete the jail and plugin then start from the guide that @nojohnny101 posted above?
3) Anything else to consider before following the guide?

Thanks, again!

You could also follow the guide and create a new jail, make sure Plex work on it before deleting the Plex plugin.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[Tartan88]

I am going to try this this weekend. To clarify:

1) The current Plex jail I have needs to be deleted first.
2) A backup of Plex isn't necessary, correct? It is basically just utilizing the data that is already on my FreeNAS pool. If I delete Plex/the jail currently associated with it, it will not remove the DATA, correct?
3) Anything else to be mindful of before I start this process?

Thank you!

 

[Tim Smit]

Hi, I was also having issues with the Plex plugin. I followed shamo316's guide to create a generic jail, which wasn't too difficult. However, Plex cannot find my media files. I added storage to the jail in two ways:

• Mapped my media folder "/mnt/myVolume/Users/Tim/TV" to the media folder in the jail "/mount/myVolume/jails/plex/media". In the Plex GUI I navigated to this folder by typing the path manually in the "Add library" dialogue. The folder was added but Plex says "There are no items in this library."

Since that didn't work. I deleted the jail. Reinstalled everything. And then:

• Mapped my media folder to the "Plex Media Server" folder in "/mnt/myVolume/jails/plex/usr/local/plexdata-plexpass/Plex Media Server. In the Plex GUI that folder immediately showed up in the dialogue. But again "there are no items in this library"

Looking at my FreeNAS logs I found that same errors that I had with the regular Plex plugin:

Code:

freenas afpd(6407) get_nfsv4_acl (/mnt/myVolume/jails/plex/proc/13) : Function not implemented
freenas afpd(6407)  solaris_acl_rights(obj, path, st, ma, NULL) failed: Function not implemented

These errors just keep repeating, only the number in the first error changes.

Anyone have any suggestions?


EDIT:

Maybe I have done something wrong with the jail installation because when I restart my NAS I can't reach my Plex jail via the IP address?

 

[chrisada]

My guess would be permission issue.

In a jail setting, you have to think about permissions from 2 perspectives. FreeNAS main system perspective, and from inside the jail perspective.

This means the user, group, and permission must be set from both perspectives in order for Plex to see the files. Note that it is the uid and gid that is important, not the name of the user and group.

If Plex has uid 1001 and gid 1002 (find this out inside the jail). From inside the jail you must give these uid and gid access to the storage shared to the jail. Then from outside the jail (main FreeNAS system) you must make sure the same uid and gid has access to the actual path. Only then will Plex be able to see the files.

The plugin does this for you, which makes it easier to get up and running. But I would still highly recommend the standard jail route.


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[pschatz100]

I am going to try this this weekend. To clarify:

1) The current Plex jail I have needs to be deleted first.
2) A backup of Plex isn't necessary, correct? It is basically just utilizing the data that is already on my FreeNAS pool. If I delete Plex/the jail currently associated with it, it will not remove the DATA, correct?
3) Anything else to be mindful of before I start this process?

Thank you!

- The current Plex jail does not have to be deleted, but you have to make certain that you use a different IP address for the new jail, or else you will have problems.
- A backup up of Plex usually refers to the database where you have your preferences stored, thumbnails for the libraries, etc. If they are backed up, then you can restore from the back up without having to rescan everything. If you do not have a lot of data, then it is not much of an issue. The DATA itself will not be affected.
- Creating a jail and manually installing an application like PLex is a good way to learn something about FreeBSD and FreeNAS at a lower level. If you do not have much experience with the Shell and command line, then go slow and be patient. Read documentation and make certain you understand what you are doing.

If you don't want to mess with all of this, and your Plex instance is working OK, then just keep using it. Hopefully, this will be fixed by V11.2;)

Unless you are using the latest features of PLEX, being a couple of versions behind the current version is not that big a deal.

 

[Tartan88]

Good afternoon all...

I wanted to re-visit this thread as I am having problems. I followed the instructions that @shamo316 provided and something doesn't seem right. When I created the jail in the new GUI, I selected 11.2 version and gave it an IP of 192.168.1.3 (old Plex jail was 192.168.1.2). I then went through the shell commands he provided. When I navigate to the new IP (and in my mind, the new jail), it seems to load the OLD jail and plex version...To test, I stopped the old jail, while keeping the new one running, and it doesn't load (says it can't find server). Any ideas on why this is happening? FYI - I used the Plex Pass version when I ran the commands.

Thanks!

 

[pschatz100]

Did you create the new jail manually from the Shell, or did you use the Jails interface in FreeNAS? I suspect that something is not quite right with your networking.

Let's start with some basic information:
1) List your system specs (as per forum rules)
2) From the Shell, run the following command: "iocage list" (without quotes), and post the output
3) From the Jails interface in Freenas, capture a screenshot of Basic properties and Network Properties for each jail.

Once we have some insight into your system, we can begin to offer suggestions.

 

[Tartan88]

@pschatz100,

Thanks for getting back with me. I created the new jail via the 11.2 WebGUI interface and not the shell...I agree with your suspicion, but am kind of stumped. To answer your questions...

1) System Specs:
FreeNAS -11.2-U6
Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G3240 @ 3.1GHz (2 cores)
16 GiB
4x2TB SATA HDDs in ZFS Pool

2) Running the command you provided from the UI shell provided no results (it gave JID/NAME/STATE/RELEASE/IP4 headers, but nothing else? Should I run it from within the jail shell?)
3) I deleted the jail I tried to create for this new instance of PLEX, but within the old/legacy interface (and within the shell for my old jail for Plex) I looked at the basic jails screen and the settings for the legacy PLEX jail I currently have. They are attached.

Does this help? Thanks in advance!

 

[pschatz100]

System specs includes hardware...

At any rate, I am confused by what you did. If you run the command iocage list from the Shell, and it does not list any jails, then you do not have any iocage jails set up. Also, I suspect that you do not have your networking set up properly. From the screenshots you provided, it looks like you are using an old Warden jail (from old release of FreeNAS) - which has been end-of-lifed, so there are no more updates for that. Also, you are missing the parameter for Default Gateway. There could also be other issues with your setup. You could try setting the default gateway on the old jail using the Legacy interface - you might get lucky and things will begin to work again. But you still won't get updates to new versions.

The old jail will not interfere with any new jails as long as the IP addresses are unique.

I would start over. Install the Plexpass plugin according to the guidelines in the documentation. There are a couple of things you need to do for proper networking with Plexpass: 1) select VNET option when you create the jail, and make sure you have both ipv4 address and default gateway specified properly. If you get that far, things will be looking up.

 

[Tartan88]

@pschatz100,

Thanks a lot. So I re-did the install and selected VNET and used DHCP for the networking. Went through the rest of the steps as identified above and it seems to be working? I added all of the media through the Plex setup process and now it is currently cataloging and indexing all of the folders and media (the "working" icon is spinning for each "library.") However, on the home screen it says "There was an unexpected error loading the dashboard." Is this because it is still indexing all of the media?

What should I do with the old jail and instance of Plex? Is there anything else I need to do?

Thanks so much for the help!

 

[pschatz100]

However, on the home screen it says "There was an unexpected error loading the dashboard." Is this because it is still indexing all of the media?

What should I do with the old jail and instance of Plex? Is there anything else I need to do?

For now, just let the Plex indexing finish. There is no real hurry to do anything with the old jail. It doesn't take up much space. Focus on getting everything up and running the way you want. Eventually, you can remove it.

 

[Tartan88]

@pschatz100 ,

Everything is done indexing and the home page/libraries are all loaded OK. The page DOES say there is an update available, but when I run the upgrade/update commands, it says all are up to date?

Other than that, do I just delete the old jail?

Thanks for all of the help!

 

[pschatz100]

@pschatz100 ,

Everything is done indexing and the home page/libraries are all loaded OK. The page DOES say there is an update available, but when I run the upgrade/update commands, it says all are up to date?

Other than that, do I just delete the old jail?

Thanks for all of the help!

I presume you are referring to the server update message that displays within the Windows Plex client. I would not worry about updating Plex server every time an update is available. Functionality doesn't change much from one update to the next. For now, run for a couple of weeks to make certain everything is stable and working properly. You can dismiss the update message so that it doesn't bother you.

There are two sets of software repositories for getting applications. One of them is updated frequently, and the other is updated once per quarter (more-or-less.) By default, the system uses the quarterly repositories - which tend to be more stable, but updates less frequently. You can always check the update documentation to see whether any new features have been added that matter to you.

As for the old jail, there is a process for removing it properly. You will want to do this from the legacy interface - search the forum for the proper commands, something like "remove FreeNAS Warden jail" should turn up useful advice.

 

[Tartan88]

@pschatz100,

Thanks! I searched for the terms you mentioned and nothing really came up? Can I just delete the jail from the old UI?

 

[pschatz100]

Yes. You might have to stop the jail or delete the plugin before you delete the jail. Definitely do it from the old UI.