Linux Plex server migration - can I run and access two physical servers?

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.30.0.6486-629d58034 (dpkg --list)
Player Version#: 4.87.2 (Plex Web - General)

Hello,
First post here. I’ve been running Plex for about 2 months and it’s worked well. However the machine I initially put it on has other uses and the library has outgrown disk space I was willing to dedicate at the time so I’ve built a Ubuntu Server with more disk space and less noise. I’m not clear about different levels of Plex but I’m just using whatever is free at this time.

My goal is to bring up the new server (it’s up and running) and then over the next few weeks COPY the video files to the new machine. I’d like to keep both machines running in parallel until I am more confident that the new server is stable and robust. During this time period I intended to point different TV’s at one or the other and use them both, as well as test both from my Kubuntu and Windows desktops.

Is there anything about this plan that won’t fundamentally work? I’m trying to get to the point where, if using a browser pointing at one machine I see the library physically on that machine and play from that machine, and if pointing at the other I see what is physically residing on that machine and playing from that machine.

Currently the new server (named ‘plex’) seems to be presenting the file system on the old server (named ‘science’) and not presenting the files I copied over to ‘plex’.

When on science I see both names in the pulldown at the left. plex is ‘Nearby’ and has a green lock symbol. science is in orange, is ‘Remote’ and has an orange check mark.

When on the new ‘plex’ server I see both names. Plex is again Nearby and has the green lock. science is in orange but is ‘indirect’ has an orange check but has an exclamation symbol.

Thanks in advance for any help. As I’m new here I’m not sure what other info would help but I will try to provide it once asked.

Cheers

2

There is no restriction on how many servers you can link to your Plex account. Many users have more than one server running at times.

3

Thanks for the response. I appreciate it.

Is it possible (I suspect it is) to have movies and TV shows on both servers and to the user have it look like one database? Right now I believe I have both servers functioning and I have movies and TV shows on both but I am unclear how to verify I’m streaming a movie from one server or the other. When I turn off science - the original server - from Chrome on my Kubuntu laptop I’m just told Plex is offline.

4

May I ask what the IP addresses of the machines are?

5

Both here on my home network:
science - 192.168.86.98
plex - 192.168.86.113

Currently science has plex in /etc/hosts file. As plex is new it doesn’t have any of my local machines in its host file. I will remedy that now.

6

I looked at Plex.tv

Both ‘science’ and ‘plex’ are connected to your account

‘science’ was last seen 2 hours ago
‘plex’ was last seen 3 hours ago.

Does this make sense? Plex should normally update ‘last seen’ each hour.

7

Depending on the meaning of ‘last seen’ that’s reasonable. I have them both up and running right now.

8

Also, right now both say ‘nearby’, both have green locks and the orange check mark is the same as the machine I pull up in Chrome

http://science:32400/web/index.html#!/settings/web/general
http://plex:32400/web/index.html#!/settings/web/general

9

PERFECT! - except for the orange check. Show me please ?

10

So maybe my problem is I copied files from science to plex and didn’t delete them from science? If I move the copied files out of the library area then either plex makes them available or it doesn’t?

11

“Library” area ?

are you putting them in /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library ??

12

On science the movies are in /srv/video/Video, TV shows are in /home/mark/TVLib. This was based on where science had storage space.

On plex I currently have them in /home/mark/PlexData with 2 subdirectories, TVShows and Movies.

On plex there’s one hard drive large enough to hold everything and I just mounted it in my home directory.

/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library exists on plex. There is currently one subdirectory called ‘Application Support’. I can create a directory and mount the drive there if that’s better for Plex (the program) I’d need to give it a mount point, like /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/md1 and then mount my RAID1 there.

13

Also, if I look at a TV season I copied to plex, drop down and look at one show, the path name under Info is the science path name, not the new plex path name

14

Is this OMV or Proxmox ?

You mention `/srv’

  1. /var/lib/plexmediaserver shouldn’t be touched. That’s where PMS lives. It keeps all of the server internal data. We only go in there on special occasions (won’t start and need logs – type occasions)
  • DO NOT mount your RAID 1 in/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/md1.
    At some point, you’ll make a mistake and end up breaking plex.
  • Put it in a safe place now, as you setup. You can mount it as “/md1” if you want.
  1. IF I remember correctly, normal shared folders work perfectly.
    Mounting volumes under a shared folder should also work too.
15

plex is nothing more than an Ubuntu Server install I did yesterday. Nothing special at all.

  1. Installed Ubuntu Server
  2. Created a 4TB RAID1
  3. Formatted as ext4 with whatever the defaults were. Changed nothing.
  4. Mounted the RAID at /home/mark/PlexData and created TV and movie directories
  5. Exported /home/mark/PlexData as an NFS export
  6. Mounted the export on science
  7. Copied a few movies and TV shows into the appropriate directories.

I am having trouble on plex. In the STATUS area on the left, when I choose ‘Library’ it tells me 'Server settings are unavailable. Same thing when I drop down to the MANAGE section.

16

COOL. I run Ubuntu Server as well… Loving it too.

May I make some suggestions?

  1. Don’t mount media in your home directory. Give it a proper home but you CAN put it under /home.
    – example: /home/PlexData

  2. I prefer to put volumes in the root.

[chuck@glockner ~.2001]$ df
Filesystem        1K-blocks        Used   Available Use% Mounted on
udev              131833064           0   131833064   0% /dev
/dev/md0          243421052    26148316   217272736  11% /
/dev/sda1            523248        5348      517900   2% /boot/efi
/dev/md1          976032144    24026068   952006076   3% /home
/dev/md2         1999168256   865340368  1133827888  44% /vmssd
/dev/md3       117185445888 56857611616 60327834272  49% /vol
[chuck@glockner ~.2002]$
17

OK, I can make that change easy enough.

I wonder now if I am doing the setup incorrectly? Do I need to put the paths into my database at plex.tv or on plex and science independently? I’ve been doing it at the machine level. Maybe I need to do that on Plex’s web site?

18

And on your system who owns the mount at /? root or your user account?

19

  1. I have all the volumes mount in /etc/fstab
    Ubuntu mounts all volumes before services start (plex)

  2. My username owns all the media files AND owns the mount point (important)

  3. I fix all the permissions for my media this way:

sudo bash
chown -R chuck.chuck /vol/media
find /vol/media -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find /vol/media -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Now I can point my Movies library section to /vol/media/movies

20

OK, I changed the mount point. My use account appears to own all the files

mark@plex:~$ df
Filesystem      1K-blocks     Used  Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs             1224532     1316    1223216   1% /run
/dev/sda2       960300048  7607700  903838028   1% /
tmpfs             6122644        4    6122640   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs                5120        0       5120   0% /run/lock
tmpfs             1224528        4    1224524   1% /run/user/1000
/dev/md127     3844420408 40125088 3608934664   2% /PlexRAID1
mark@plex:~$

I am making a headway. With the RAID mounted at /PlexRAID1 I was able to edit the library settings under the ‘plex’ name. Now, using a different computer if I point at plex I see 2 TV and 2 movie options on the left and the plex options have the movies and shows I copied over so that’s complete.

On science however I only see the science movies and shows. That’s not a big deal as science currently has everything and eventually I will retire science if plex proves reliable.

I need to edit the Plex app settings on one of the TV’s and see how that’s working.

Will get back later but this is a big step forward. Thanks!