Using FreeNAS only as a Plex server

[Mylex]

Trying to get better transcode performance (remote streams to family members in other houses) compared to Ubuntu server 16.04. I currently have my setup as an i7-8700 with 32GB of RAM running off a small SSD. I have all devices in my house direct playing, most at once here would be three but I have two remote users that are frequently streaming. My library is about 75%-1080/25%-4k and slowly moving towards more 4k. Just wondering the overhead of FreeNAS compared to Ubuntu server. If I replace Ubuntu with FreeNAS my media will still be fed from my DS916+ with 8GB of RAM. I'm just wondering if I would get rid of the slight stutter when all are going at once. My CPU hits about 80% with memory not even 50% used. My internet speeds are 150/20 and they are limited to one 8meg stream each.

 

[MatthewSteinhoff]

Moving to FreeNAS from Ubuntu will not improve your situation in any meaningful way.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Mylex]

Moving to FreeNAS from Ubuntu will not improve your situation in any meaningful way.

Cheers,
Matt

That's what I was thinking but just hoping it would be a little leaner.

 

[MatthewSteinhoff]

Are you running Ubuntu with a fancy GUI or a basic shell? If a basic shell, nope, they'll be comparable on the same hardware. If you're using a fancy GUI, turn it off.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Mylex]

Are you running Ubuntu with a fancy GUI or a basic shell? If a basic shell, nope, they'll be comparable on the same hardware. If you're using a fancy GUI, turn it off.

Cheers,
Matt

Basic shell all CLI with any service that are unused turned off. I like the low power draw of my current setup and how its near quiet, dont really want to pay for more compute power. I guess I'll see if I can find a ebay deal on a 1060 to see if that helps.

 

[MatthewSteinhoff]

I guess I'll see if I can find a ebay deal on a 1060 to see if that helps.

GeForce GTX 1060? Adding a GPU should not help you at all. Plex doesn't do hardware decoding.

If I had to guess, I'd say the problem is the DS916+ being able to pass video quick enough to the Plex server where you have a monster CPU and plenty of RAM. Pretty much any network is going to have plenty of bandwidth. I don't know much about that Synology unit but it seems like the bottleneck. You could prove this out yourself by copying a few videos to the Plex server itself and seeing if you can stream them simultaneously. If so, you've identified the problem device.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Chris Moore]

I guess I'll see if I can find a ebay deal on a 1060 to see if that helps.

What would that do?

The only way you might see an improvement in your situation is if you build a proper NAS and move the storage into the same physical system as the Plex by having FreeNAS do the storage and run Plex in a jail so there is no network traffic between two devices to get the video from the

DS916+

over to the system running Plex. If it is all inside a single system, it might be a little more efficient, but it wouldn't change much. The trouble is that FreeNAS has pretty strong hardware requirements. You might want to review the hardware guide, but FreeNAS is not always the answer.

FreeNAS® Quick Hardware Guide
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/freenas®-quick-hardware-guide.7/

Hardware Recommendations Guide Rev 1e) 2017-05-06
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

 

[Mylex]

GeForce GTX 1060? Adding a GPU should not help you at all. Plex doesn't do hardware decoding.

If I had to guess, I'd say the problem is the DS916+ being able to pass video quick enough to the Plex server where you have a monster CPU and plenty of RAM. Pretty much any network is going to have plenty of bandwidth. I don't know much about that Synology unit but it seems like the bottleneck. You could prove this out yourself by copying a few videos to the Plex server itself and seeing if you can stream them simultaneously. If so, you've identified the problem device.

Cheers,
Matt

I am not saturating the NIC on the DS916, my last step of trouble shooting before I came here was moving files for testing over to the server to see if I needed to move everything internal and similar results.

As far as the Hardware transcode my rig can't do more then one 4k transcode and three directs without. I was told to try FreeNAS or a 1060 or higher GPU.

Linux system requirements[/b][/size]
Hardware-Accelerated Streaming on Linux requires:

• 64-bit Ubuntu (16.04 or later) or 64-bit Fedora (26 or later) distributions. (Other distributions may be capable, but are not officially supported.)
• A recent Intel CPU meeting these requirements:
  • 2nd-generation Intel Core (Sandy Bridge, 2011) or newer
  • Supports Intel Quick Sync Video (Not sure? Look up your processor)
• Plex Media Server 1.9.3 or later
• Plex Pass subscription

If your Linux computer also has a dedicated graphics card, the video encoding acceleration of Intel Quick Sync Video may become unavailable when the GPU is in use. If your computer has an NVIDIA GPU, please install the latest Latest NVIDIA drivers for Linux to make sure that Plex can use your NVIDIA graphics card for video encoding (only) when Intel Quick Sync Video becomes unavailable.

 

[Mylex]

I know FreeNAS does not do hardware transcoding, was just hoping it was more efficient.

 

[Nick2253]

It's hard to troubleshoot your problem, since we don't have a ton of information here. However, what is clear is that FreeNAS will not help your cause.

I would first make sure that your network is capable of handling the load. Check your latency and bandwidth between your Plex server, your NAS, and your client. That will provide any red flags that could explain the buffering/stuttering. The fact that you mention the internet makes me think that you're streaming over the internet.

Next, I would check your assumption that everything is direct playing. If they are all really direct playing, should be easily handled by a RaspberryPi. The fact your CPU gets to 80% tells me that something (or somethings) are being transcoded.

You also mention limiting to a single 8Mbps stream for each client. And you mentioned that you might have up to three users at once, which would be more than your 20Mbps upload speed. It's not clear exactly how your clients are connecting to your Plex server, but if they are connecting over the internet, that could be your cause. 8 Mbps might also be insufficient depending on the format and bitrate of the media you are streaming.

Plex does support some degree of hardware acceleration, however I don't think this is the correct solution to your problem. See this article for more information: https://support.plex.tv/articles/115002178853-using-hardware-accelerated-streaming/

 

[Chris Moore]

I watched a comparison video where the tester decided the FreeNAS system was better but he was using CPU only. If you are using GPU acceleration, that changes things. The Intel Quick Sync is the fastest, but it requires a CPU that supports it. If you don't want to buy stronger hardware, there isn't much to do.
If you are interested in hardware suggestions, I can make some, but they would be about hardware to support a FreeNAS solution.

 

[Chris Moore]

DS916+

There is the problem. A Synology DS916+ only has 4 drives and the documentation says it provides reading speed of 225 MB/s. That won't saturate the network, but it is certainly a bottleneck.

 

[MatthewSteinhoff]

Im not saturating the nic on the DS916

Right. Because the DS916's disk subsystem isn't spitting bits quick enough. Looks like it can't do more than about 110MB/s based on ServeTheHome's testing.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Mylex]

Nick,

Yeah all the devices in the house are direct playing no doubt. DS916+ is setup for link aggregation and is basically bored with the low amount of work when I have all 3 internal clients direct streaming and the two remote clients connected at the same time. Disconnect any one of the clients and the stutters go away even a direct stream. I thought the DS was the issue so I pulled the media in and the same. When every one is on yes 2 streams are being transcoding when it hits 80. The fact that losing a direct stream will even make it go away made me think if I can get a little less overhead it would work without trying the 1060 route. But seems that will just lead to another issue since I wont have enough power to do 2 4k transcodes it seems under freenas.

Ive checked the internet connections and lag between the remote clients and here and they are on the same isp with more then adequate plans. I can get to either location in a few hops with low latency.

 

[Mylex]

just a tracert to the client with the slowest 50/10 connection

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 7 ms 7 ms 6 ms 10.75.0.1
3 17 ms 8 ms 6 ms

 

[Nick2253]

Yeah all the devices in the house are direct playing no doubt.

If this is really the case, your CPU shouldn't be at 80% use. That points to some other kind of problem with your Plex server.

 

[Mylex]

If this is really the case, your CPU shouldn't be at 80% use. That points to some other kind of problem with your Plex server.

So you are telling me 3 devices direct playing while 2 clients remotely are transcoding a 4k file should have my cpu usage lower then 80%?

 

[Chris Moore]

So you are telling me 3 devices direct playing while 2 clients remotely are transcoding a 4k file should have my cpu usage lower then 80%?

What you could do is have some smaller versions of the file "pre-transcoded" so that the system doesn't have to re-transcode the file when a remote user wants to play one of the 4k files. When it is transcoding, it is making that video smaller so it can shove it through the pipe to the internet. Store one big copy for watching at home and a smaller copy to share. That will save all the transcode time and resources, but I still think you are bandwidth limited by the Synology disk controller, not the network interface.

 

[Mylex]

Appreciate the brain storming. Just was trying not to purchase a new power hungry server, but I will at least give the 1060 a try. If not then hey someone else needs to disconnect.

 

[Mylex]

What you could do is have some smaller versions of the file "pre-transcoded" so that the system doesn't have to re-transcode the file when a remote user wants to play one of the 4k files. When it is transcoding, it is making that video smaller so it can shove it through the pipe to the internet. Store one big copy for watching at home and a smaller copy to share. That will save all the transcode time and resources, but I still think you are bandwidth limited by the Synology disk controller, not the network interface.

Now this I didnt even think of, if the remote clients are using 1080 files it doesnt even stutter when I have way more connections to the server. Just didnt want to have extra files if I didnt have to... If throwing everything on the plex server would work I would be happy. I can move the drives over if that was an issue. This one area just has me annoyed.