Docker or Native?

Plex Media Server
,
1

I am currently running 2 PMSs on TrueNAS core boxes. Everything works fine, but when someone needs to transcode the CPUs can get pretty busy since there is no HW transcoding on FreeBSD. So I am thinking of using a NUC as a PMS that can transcode.

This is the NUC I am thinking of using. Intel NUC 13 Pro RNUC13ANKi7000U Intel Core i7-1360P Barebone - Newegg.com with a 1TB NVMe & 32GB of RAM.

I have dabbled a bit w/ Ubuntu but I have to consider myself a noob.

My question is; Is it better to install PMS natively or via Docker (which I have never used)??
My considerations are ease of installation and getting thing working as well as maintenance and upgrades.

All the libraries will be coming from the TrueNAS shares and be running through a 2.5Gb switch so there shouldn’t be any bottle-necking for file transfers. I did a test years ago and was able to get PMS working on a NUC type PC with Ubuntu by using the ‘fstab’ file. As I said, I am noob when it comes to Linux but I can follow how-to-guides well.

Thoughts??

2

Docker can be really handy but in my opinion, for a dedicated PMS Linux server, Docker is an extra layer of complexity that doesn’t help you much. Tasks like backing up your PMS install are not any harder without Docker. Updating PMS under Ubuntu without Docker is also just two commands. I have never regretted running my Ubuntu PMS on “bare metal” in the manner of my forefathers.

Docker is ubiquitous and as you add more services to your PMS box you will undoubtedly learn how to use it but if you don’t do that on day 1 for Plex, the Docker Police won’t come get you. (However, they may scold both of us in this thread.)

1 Like
3

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.