I am looking for what I believe is going to be two things but I can’t seem to find references to them.
Some hidden configuration (neither under the Library nor the Media) on a linux plex server that uniquely identifies a server.
Hopefully a setting restricting Plex to binding to a specific IP.
The setup:
I have two Linux servers existing on the same network that share a VIP and run a host of services one of which is Plex Media Server. I have the Library and the Media synchronized as talked about in the moving the server guides. There is one hole through my firewall for outside access to plex to the VIP. Only one server is capable of running plex at a time.
What works:
Plex works on either system I have currently engaged and the web part is fine. After some amount of time on a given server all clients I have used (roku, web, android plex, android plex amp) all work fine.
What doesn’t work:
After swapping several clients end up having problems accessing plex for some amount of time. The worst of these is android plex amp which spends significant time unable to access anything (media, lists of songs, or even the configuration settings tends to hang).
Observations:
Plex appears to know the difference between the two systems. All clients that display the server names show the transition once they start working.
Plex names are the same as the the hostname on the box
Plex and/or Clients seem to be somewhat inconsistent on what IP they connect to. Most things happen with the VIP but some random one-off connections seem to happen via the other static IP (which would obviously be able to see the difference between the servers).
Interesting that you say using the same Preferences.xml (which I am) will make them have the same “identity” as that was the goal but not what appears to be happening. Under the web client (which appears to be the most helpful in seeing what is going on) the list of servers clearly shows the change from one server to the other after I swap. While I can’t be sure this is what is confusing other clients it is one of the two differences I can detect. Is there a way to override this so I can see if just the name change is what is confusing things (not the various IDs stored in Preferences.xml)?
Thank you for the above link it sent me down several interesting paths.
As follow-up for anyone who might review this thread in the future.
Here is a link on how to set a preferred IP on plex ( Network | Plex Support ). While Plex Amp appears to ignore this (in some cases) the other apps (Roku, Web, Android Plex) look to adhere to it. In my case I have set this to my VIP.
With these modifications all of the clients except for Plex Amp will fail between servers as fast as I can sync the Library. The Plex Amp application however appears to beat on the unselected IP for about 30 seconds further and then seems to perform some form of reset and gets the updated IP. I think this is where if that ‘FriendlyName’ isn’t the same between the original and failed over server it seems to have issues.
Mostly no. I checked some devices and only the Roku for my daughters has the IP configured. In fact the Plex Amp app (the only one acting poorly) doesn’t even seem to have a place where this could be configured.
