Moving PMS from Ubuntu to new hardware

Plex Media Server
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Hi everyone, looking for some input/advice.

I’m moving my primary PMS instance from a 3rd gen Intel laptop running Ubuntu Server to a low power desktop with an 8th gen CPU.

Id like to retain my current library and metadata + associated covers/ordering that have been manually selected. Are the following links still my best bet or am I asking for trouble trying to clone an instance?

Clone instructions '18 - Linux Tips - #7 by ChuckPa
Also came across this - Moving PMS from Synology to Linux Ubuntu - #2 by ChuckPa

I just want to add that I have some experience with bash/Python, but nothing substantial. I can install packages, use the text editor and things like that. I would have to research syntax on tar for unzipping though.

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The Linux tips post should do the trick. If you can follow the procedure you should be able to have an exact copy of that old server.

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If not, you can always complain to the author… but be advised, he’s a rude and lazy jerk :rofl:

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I’d say you come by it honestly, you deal with people like me… :smiley:

Nick, you do have a bit of a luxury in that you’re more or less performing a forklift migration. Chuck’s directions are good, I did something similar a few months ago (moved from a CentOS 7 system to an OpenSuSE Leap 15.2 system.) You can have both operating systems up at once to use as a reference. There is a caveat: If your intent is to have the new system assume the PMS identify of the old system, be careful to only have PMS running on one system at a time, this will keep plex.tv’s servers from getting confused, etc. Oh…if you have remote access available on the original system, don’t forget to update your router’s port forwarding to the new system once you’ve copied over the Plex meta stuff.

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Well the intent is to rename the new server, but I did want to run the old alongside the new for a while with remote access. Unfortunately that hasn’t been as easy as I expexted.

See this other thread I have going: Secondary PMS instance port forwarding issue (FIOS Quantum gateway)

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AFAIK, there’s 2 things that will need to be unique for each server. The easy one is the externally visible port. The 2nd one (and @ChuckPA will chime in to correct me if I’m wrong,) is at least one of the various machine identifiers in Preferences.xml. Actually… it may be as simple as untarring your /var/lib/plexmediaserver tarball, and moving Preferences.xml out of the way before starting the daemon. You will need do some reconfiguring, but you can have your original server started at this point for reference. This method should bring over all of your libraries with metadata, users, history, etc.

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I planned on looking into the Preferences.xml to see if it was able to be modified, or if that should be a fresh copy and then configured for the new system.

Probably safer to recreate a preferences.xml and adjust it manually.

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I will confirm

  1. Move Preferences.xml out of the way before starting the cloned PMS
  2. Start PMS
  3. Claim it (if on the same LAN) using a private window
    -or-
  4. Claim it via SSH (doesn’t matter where it is) using
    a. ssh into machine
    b. Using browser go to https://plex.tv/claim
    c. Copy Claim token
    d. Within the next 4 minutes (the token is valid for 5 minutes)
    e. With the new PMS running but unclaimed
    f. curl -X POST 'http://127.0.0.1/myplex/claim?token=PASTE_TOKEN'
    g. PMS will use this claim-xxxxxxx token value to talk to Plex.tv
    h. After a short delay of validation, PMS will print out features flags
    i. Server is now claimed.
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Chuck, your instructions worked beautifully. I VERY much appreciate the replies.

HW transcoding is no joke!

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