2nd Plex Server - Cloud Based

Plex Media Server
1

Hello,

I have the Plex Pass Life Time Subscription. My understanding is I can deploy as many servers as I’d like.

I have a local Plex Server running on Windows, and will continue to keep this as is.

I don’t have the bandwidth to stream to family members.

So, I wanted to create a new headless Linux Based Server on a VPS.

I got everything installed, but that’s where it started getting weird.

I had some challenges “Claiming” the server. I finally got it walk through the setup process, I named it, then went to add libraries, it showed my two libraies from local server, I tried to “add” new libraries to the VPS folders, but when I clicked on it showed me directories of my local server instead. It was really odd.

Even when I look at the left side, it had the new server name, but the libraries from local server were listed under it. Super confusing.

I don’t want the two servers talking to each other.

I want it to be a completely separate stand alone server.

Any thoughts?

2

See the “On a Different Network” section of this support article:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200288586-installation/#toc-2

3

Your VPS should not be hosted by Hetzner (or one of their affiliate resellers).

4

@pshanew

Thank you. I wasn’t understanding that yesterday. That’s getting me closer. I didn’t have much luck with a local windows systems. So I fired up a local Ubuntu VM and was able to get that SSH tunnel connected doing the following per the guide:

  1. ssh -L 8888:127.0.0.1:32400 ip.address.of.server

  2. Open a browser window

  3. Type http://127.0.0.1:8888/web into the address bar

I go through the first step of naming the server. However now when I get to the Add Libraries window. I click “TV Shows” or “Movies”. It doesn’t populate the language drop down (like it did previously), but it doesn’t allow me to click “Next” to select a directory.

I confirmed plex is running under the user “plex”.

I ran these commands:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/media/movies /mnt/media/tv

sudo chown -R plex:plex /mnt/media/movies /mnt/media/tv

So. I figure it had permissions, but I must be missing something.

@OttoKerner Thanks. I’ll have to look into who their affiliates are.

5

If you were able to successfully claim your server, access it via https://app.plex.tv now.

This will ensure you’re using the most recent version of the web app. You can access your new server via More > at the bottom of the side panel. Click the + when you hover over your new server name to add your libraries.

6

I had decided to reboot, but even access it through 127.0.0.1 it is still looking at my local server and files. I can see two serves (now with the same name) in app.plex.tv. One says Near By the other doesn’t so I selected that one and the same thing. It won’t let me add the libraries.

7

Did you try app.plex.tv, as I suggested? And why do they have the same name? Did you try to migrate data or did you just decide to name them the same?

8

Yes. I tried the app.plex.tv that’s where it got really weird.

So, somehow during the setup process of the new server, it named the local server, so they end up with the same name now. No I’m not wanting to migrate or share or any of that. I want the VPS to be it own separate entity. It keeps attaching to the my local server though.

I was able to rename the LocalServer, so now they have different names. When I return to the CloudPlex server either through 127.0.0.1 or the plex app web. It does this when I try to add a library.

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9

Ok. This seemed to fix it:

sudo systemctl stop plexmediaserver

sudo chown -R plex:plex “/var/lib/plexmediaserver”
sudo chmod -R 755 “/var/lib/plexmediaserver”
sudo chown -R plex:plex “/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources”
sudo chmod -R 755 “/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources”

sudo apt update
sudo apt install --reinstall plexmediaserver -y

sudo rm -rf “/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Caches/”
sudo rm -rf “/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Data/”
sudo rm -rf “/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Preferences/”

sudo systemctl start plexmediaserver

10

However, it still shows both sets of libraries from both servers. :frowning:

11

Additionally, when I go into the server directly or through the plex web app. It won’t allow me to share the Cloud Plex libraries with others; only the local server. Remote access is enabled and ports are open. I even disabled remote access on my local system too.

12

This is how the permissions for /var/lib/plexmediaserver should be

sudo bash
find /var/lib/plexmediaserver -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find /var/lib/plexmediaserver -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

I you’d like, I can remove either “Local” or “Cloud”.
If you’d like that, please let me know.

(Local is a VMWare windows host, Cloud is a native Linux host?)

Did you copy any of the Preferences / ID info from one to the other ?

13

Thank you Chuck. I’ll update the permissions.

Yea. Local is Windows on VMWare. Cloud is Ubuntu Server on probably KVM, not entirely sure what infrastructure is for the VPS.

No. Not a single file, config, or anything was shared with either server. The only connecting point seems to be that the only way to complete the server installation is logging into my plex account, which then links two.

So, what would make sense is for me to see both servers if I login to the plex web app directly.

However, if I logging into the server directly through IP, I didn’t want it showing both servers.

Additionally. After I finally got the libraries configured on the cloud server it wasn’t allowing me to Share Library access with other Plex Users, but it seems to be working today… Not quite sure what happened there.

What would be entailed with the removing Local or Cloud”?