Hey there, I have moved all of the Plex directories to my external RAID setup (data, temp transcode, transcode, backup, meta) but I’m wondering if it would make any sense to move the temptranscode directory back to the main SSD that the OS runs on.
Would that help serve content better with less resource drain? Or does it not really matter that the temp transcode directory is on the same RAID that the data and everything else Plex related is on?
It matters quite a bit.
a) Latency inherent to the network and the RAID.
b) file locking. Certain codecs require it. Without file locking support, transcode sessions will fail
Optimal location if you can handle it, is a simple sata-3 HD. the OS handles the file locking and you’ll never need 100 MB/sec of I/O (1000 Mbps video )
Thanks for the reply ChuckPA!
Okay, so if I understand correctly, I should be moving the temptranscode dir back to the SSD.
This dir is only used to transcode the files that can’t direct play/stream then files are deleted after playback has ended? I’m asking because the SSD is not very big.
Having any of your PMS library over the net is hazardous. The PMS database is multi-threaded and PMS relies on thread-locks (semaphores) and other mechanisms to keep from corrupting it. If those mechanisms aren’t extended into the db itself (which happens over a LAN) then corruption ensues.
My best recommendation is, if you want performance, put your PMS main directory (/var/lib/plexmediaserver) on the SSD. Your transcoder temp directory is in there. I don’t know how big your SSD is but surely it has enough room for your library? ( du -ms /var/lib/plexmediaserver to get the size of your library now in megabytes and convert to gigabytes )
With the PMS data (metadata and database local and on SSD, it will “Snap to” and be super crisp.
SSDs can perform 100,000 I/O per second where a HD can typically perform 100-125 and a RAID array is limited by the controller/HD combination and latency of the transport.
Keep your media on the RAID. That’s more than fast enough with a Gigabit LAN. if you need to read media at more than 117 MB/sec, I can advise you there when that time comes.
As side note. You can place the Plex Directory (/var/lib/plexmediaserver) anywhere you want it on the local system. I can show you how to do this. If you want to mount the ssd at /mnt/ssd that’s fine and totally your choice.
Currently my setup is like this,
PMS installed at default location for linux, data/meta/transcode/temptranscode are all on a RAID 0 array connected via esata. I also have 4 other drives in a second sata box that is not RAID. Each of those drives are 4TB each. All HDD’s (in both boxes) are 10k rpm drives.
I’m at a total of just under 24TB so there’s no way I can keep my data folder on my SSD. I might be able to move the meta folder over, but as it sits right now it loads decently fast. I’m serving content from a quad core i5 at 3.10 GHz, over a 500Mbps fiber connection.
I’m trying to find a way to help the processor while transcoding video&audio at the same time.
I believe we mis-communicated.
I’m only speaking of the contents of /var/lib/plexmediaserver where Plex keeps all its operational data.
If you have placed your media in there, I MOST STRONGLY advise you to move the mount points.
I have 29TB of media (some 44000 indexed files). My Plex metadata is 11.3 GB. This is what I’m saying to put on the SSD, not the media itself.
Are you running out of CPU power? Putting temp on SSD won’t help that.
Maybe it better you help describe what you’re experiencing and we’ll get to the root cause
You are correct, I misunderstood. The PMS data (not the video data) is on the SSD. The meta folder is not on the SSD currently. I’m going to move the meta and temptranscode folder back to the SSD, it should be able to handle both of those.
I’m not running out of CPU power just yet, but just trying to optimize the setup as best as possible for the hardware set I have it operating on.
Thanks for the help!
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