Need a new OS for my PMS.

General Discussions
1

Looking for some assistance with updating my current Plex server OS.
I have been using Synology for several years and very familiar with it. However, Synology doesn’t make their NAS’s to run as a “server”. So I built my own. Currently I am running XPEnology and I just have not been satisfied with it do to its lack of support. I want to move to a more stable Linux system.
This build is strictly a server. It’s lightweight and does not contain the media. My media is on my Synology RS814.

My current build:

  • CASE: iStarUSA 1U Rackmount
  • CPU: Inel Pentium G3258
  • MOBO: ASUS H81T/CSM
  • PSU: HDPLEX 160W
  • RAM: 4GB DDR3 1333
  • INTERNAL STORAGE1: 60GB mSATA SSD
  • INTERNAL STORAGE2: 1TB HDD(Database Backup)
  • BOOT: 16GB USB

I am looking for a headless system that has a web interface. Based on this I was looking at FreeNAS. It had the User Interface that I was looking for, but then was turned off by the “Minimum” requirements of “8GB” of RAM. Seemed a little steep for my minimal requirements. Will FreeNAS still work on this build?

Or is there any other OS out there that you can think of that will better meet my needs on my current build?

2

Just my thoughts ,

FreeNAS is based on FreeBSD unix and, as such, have you considered a more mainstream Linux distribution Redhat or Debian based which has wider acceptance and binary image portability?

As an alternative to Synology which is Debian based (I really like DSM’s UI), QNAP makes some very strong boxes also with the headless Web-UI interface like Synology.

Synology’s NAS products do run as a server but everything you add must be installed as a ‘Package’ (you can roll your own or look at Syno Community)

I picked up a QNAP for the CPU power which Synology historically lacks. I miss DSM already. I have to unload and reload ALL the data because the QNAP volume wizard creates a static volume by default (Synology knows better).

3

Asustor is another alternative, and with the right models can run PMS very effectively. You want the higher ended models, though. The older 20x, 30x, 60x and newer 100x models just haven’t got enough CPU to be a worthwhile server machine for Plex. Stick with the 500x+ models. (510x, 610x, 620x, 700x, etc.) and then, even the lower of these needs the media in the right containers and codecs to be truly effective.

The older models can function as media storage, but you need an outside machine running PMS to do a decent job of handling PMS in a real world environment.

4

I am really just looking for Software. I already have the hardware as noted above. Just looking for an Operating System that will operate in a similar way as the machines you guys noted.

5

@mshoward82 said:
I am really just looking for Software. I already have the hardware as noted above. Just looking for an Operating System that will operate in a similar way as the machines you guys noted.

Go with what you know. If you’ve already got the hardware, the last thing you want to fuss with is learning a new OS.

6

maybe I’m just stubborn but I go with ubuntu. Since you’re just looking for a server than ubuntu works but if you have other items you’re trying to do like storage then maybe freenas is what you want.

7

@ChuckPA said:
Go with what you know. If you’ve already got the hardware, the last thing you want to fuss with is learning a new OS.

What I know is Synology, but I can’t get that on my own box. Was looking at FreeNAS since it has a Web User Interface similar to Synology. But FreeNAS is more geared toward a NAS environment. Which my setup will be strictly just to run the Plex Media Server. There will be no storage on this device.

@dreisler said:
maybe I’m just stubborn but I go with ubuntu. Since you’re just looking for a server than ubuntu works but if you have other items you’re trying to do like storage then maybe freenas is what you want.

Ubuntu is definitely my in my top choices. I am just not aware if Ubuntu has the ability to access it via web with a GUI. FreeNAS is my other option. FreeNAS has the style of User Interface that I am looking for. Just wondering if it is worth it for just being used as a Server and not an NAS.

8

unRAID. Run Plex in a Docker, job jobbed.

Use your 60GB SSD as a cache drive (which also holds the Plex database and metadata for quick access), and your media on your 1TB drive. You can add a parity drive for protection, and then just keep adding drives as you need them. unRAID boots quickly off USB.

9

@ChuckPA
If you like synology but already have your own hardware. Then roll your own and rung xpenology which is a port of synologys os.

You could run napp-it on bare metal if the reason you were looking at freenas was for zfs … latest release supports running jails I believe but either way can run plex and has a web gui for Mgmt

You could run ubuntu server no gui or ubuntu with mate or unity for a gui and VNC into it for a headless machine

Really the choices are endless really depends on what you really want and or need

10

@mshoward82 said:
Ubuntu is definitely my in my top choices. I am just not aware if Ubuntu has the ability to access it via web with a GUI. FreeNAS is my other option. FreeNAS has the style of User Interface that I am looking for. Just wondering if it is worth it for just being used as a Server and not an NAS.

Well, there are several solutions to this. One could be to use tools such as - http://www.webmin.com/
Another would be to use GUI such as the default Desktop version of Ubuntu, and VNC to it (or use other remote desktop tools). A third could be to do a x11 forwarding in order to display the applications you need to have a GUI for.

I would not suggest using unRAID, FreeNAS, Docker, Vmware or such if this will purely handle Plex and nothing else besides that (including no storage of any media). The overhead (CPU etc), the complexity (you mention that xpenology is too far “out there”), the drawbacks (such has no premium music under FBSD) leads me to this conclusion and advice. But each to his own. As has been stated, best if you get an OS you are comfortable with.

11

I use FreeNAS for my storage on a HP Microserver, and Windows 10 Pro for my consumption and PMS. Tried Linux, but it’s just too finicky for my tastes.

12

Thanks for all the awesome feedback guys!

  • XPEnology - I like the ease and familiarity of the DSM. I don’t like that it is still DSM 5 and noticing that Plex is starting to build for DSM 6. There are ways for DSM 6, but nothing solid that I want to mess around with and hope to get running smoothly for my PMS. The development is above my level to get too involved in. Not as user friendly as I would like.
  • unRAID/FreeNAS - I did some comparing between the two and really like the style of FreeNAS over unRAID. Also I was turned off by the $$$ for unRAID. The downfall for FreeNAS is the resources and that I’m not actually building a NAS. So no need for ZFS.
  • Ubuntu - Big fan. But, I am looking to go headless and I know nothing about command line access stuff. Which is why I am looking for the web interface.
  • Lightweight Linux - Anyone have any thoughts on some lightweight systems such as: Linux Lite, DSL, LXLE, Lubuntu, etc…

@dragonmel said:
You could run ubuntu server no gui or ubuntu with mate or unity for a gui and VNC into it for a headless machine
I have no idea what you just said, but you peaked my interest. Please tell me more. :slight_smile:

@Peter_W said:
Well, there are several solutions to this. One could be to use tools such as - http://www.webmin.com/
This is interesting as well. Any idea how this would work with installing/updating PMS on Ubuntu or other?

13

I assume that through the Software package module in Webmin, http://doxfer.webmin.com/Webmin/Software_Package_Updates , you should be able to upgrade if you’ve enabled repository update https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/235974187-Enable-repository-updating-for-supported-Linux-server-distributions - though I can’t promise anything of this since I haven’t done it myself.

Though, if you have no intention of learning anything shell related in the Linux world I’d suggest best thing would be to use one of the more wide-spread dists such as Ubuntu with a GUI and a remote desktop program such as VNC to reach it. You will regardless have a tough time since many things still depend on having a certain degree of knowledge in terms of shell commands, so limiting your choice by going to as smaller dist and no GUI is not something I’d recommend.

14

Any ‘lite’ linux is like ‘lite’ beer… NOT happening! haha

It’s ok if you want something completely stripped down but it’s asking for trouble because its premise is a minimalist ‘spin’ of the mainstream. If they didn’t include what you need then it’s on you to fatten it up.

15

in all honesty, if this box is dedicated to plex, windows 10 is your best option, I know its not Linux, however it will function 10-10 if you just load what you need and your hardware will support it

if you have an old windows 7 license you could load it, and maybe still get free win 10 upgrade, they had been running the upgrade free for users who needed accessibility services, however they have no idea if you need them or not and its the same windows 10 as the rest.

windows 10 works very well with plex, better than windows 7, ive had issues with plex and properly matching titles on windows 7, but then rebuilt the library on windows 10 and it was 99% right instead of 85-90%, not sure why but in windows 7 it seem to just skip over some titles and mark them matched but never actually matched them fully and pulled info and artwork.

ive ran a lot of Linux 10 years ago, and I find while its very fun to work with being a techie, its not what I would run on a server to perform a single function and stand alone by itself, you are going to find the biggest support will go to windows 10 for plex, the bugs all checked with win 10 vigorously and such, I even find IE11 is dropping out and has a few bugs and ive had to switch the default to edge for the server interface to work 100%

16

@mshoward82

I run ubuntu server for plex and other media reatated tasks… it is headless and runs as a esxi VM along with others but thats inmatereial

Plex running on ubuntu is your gui per se for media but you still have to feed it and maintain it … so you are going to have to learn command line as I did. Even with a gui desktop on ubuntu or any other linux there will be no gui for zfs which I highly reccomend using if you care a bout your data… and have backus…

Given that you need a graphical and or web based environment, want something stable as you said you dont want to mess with xpenology until they are up to 6.0… freenas in my opinion is in the shitter…they aborted the upgrade to 10, and lost a lot of senior engineeers and its a mess

Your best choice would be a prebuilt plex type environemnt that also does storage, or at least provided some interface…

I use napp-it on esxi to host my zfs storage pools… you will probably want it pony up for a license to get all the goodies, I run what is missing via command line for zfs but it will do fine from the web interface without a key too… and it can host your plex server in a solaris jail…

Zfs can be installed on bare metal… it has used omnios (solaris) as its reccommeded os but that is changing since omnios is discontinuing developement and will likely shift to openindiana (illumos solaris) and it even has a version with a desktop.

Amahi is interesting but I have not used it personally…

Honestly, there are just too many different ways to go… more brutally honest is that none of it is dead simple, easy enough to teach my parents stuff if you have more than one drive worth of media and you want a server with any kind of reliability …

You could just jam drives into a box running windows and plex media server and pray. But you will loose data at some point without a good raid (software/hardware/zfs/btrfs) etc and a backup drive array… just a fact of life… a couple weeks ago during that solar flare event I had 2 very stable low hour hard drives develop a bunch of bad sectors and read error areas that needed to be replaced… because I was using zfs the errors were caught corrected and drives replaced without even taking down the system…

Just depends on what you are comfortable living with … but you are going to have to hit the books and internet and learn… and be willing to roll up you sleeves and get dirty with the command line or shell out for expensive storage suites that will do the work for you…

Lots of good suggestions here… and if you are planning to use plex new live TV and tv dvr stuff or transcode more than a couple simultaneous sessions… a pre build synology or NAS box is out of the question… not enough horse power so you will have to roll your own…

17

@dragonmel
Dude! You have a special kind of hard on for ZFS… haha
If I needed the data reliability I would go with the ZFS. But since all that will be on this box is an Operating System and the Plex Media Server, I personally don’t feel the need for it. I completely understand what you are saying about it. But I also don’t have ECC memory. So I will pass on ZFS.

It’s looking that I might not be able to find exactly what I am looking for. But I did want to put the feelers out there to see if there was anything that I did not know about. Learned a few things along the way.

Right now I am leaning towards Ubuntu. Possibly Ubuntu Server, just depends how much time I want to put into learning command line. I just want a basic lite system that I can “Set it and Forget it.” And be able to do updates/mx with minimal effort. Preferably remotely, since I spend a lot of time away from home.

I won’t be able to actually get to work on this until September, so I have some time to try and learn some more.

Thanks to everyone for all the input.

18

@mshoward82

if the only thing on your server is the plex media server where is your media coming from?

if all you need is a compute server and all it manages is plex media server which has its own front end that is childsplay…

now when you are managing 12TB of data to go with it… that is when you put on your big boy pants and go with an enterpise quality file system…

good luck with your build… I am out…

19

It’s coming from my Synology RS814… as noted in my Original Post. :wink:
The details are there.

This build is strictly a server. It’s lightweight and does not contain the media. My media is on my Synology RS814.