Plex Media Server stop working randomly with the last updates

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Hi all! and thanks in advance.

With latest updates of the Plex Media Server, it becomes unstable everyday. Some data versions:

  • Synology DS3615xs with DSM DSM 6.1.4-15217 Update 3.
  • Plex Media Server Versión 1.13.0.5023
  • Plexpy V2.1.4 on Docker

The server works well for hours, ( I have between 1 - 8 simultaneos streamings), but randomly the server become inaccessible. But in Package Center appears “running”, but doesn’t load in dashboard.
The only way to restart the service is:
- Stop Plex Media server in Package Center
- execute through ssh "sudo kill -9 $(ps aux | grep Plex | awk '{print $2}')"
- Start Plex Media server in Package Center.

This only work for several hours o with some luck a whole day. Some weeks before happens once a week.

I try to optimize databases, uninstall all Plug-ins (except Service.bundle), check errors with sqlite3, even make a dump.sql and restore. But nothing of this fix that.
I attach logs without debug ON.
In logs appears a WARM about PMP (NAT: PMP, got an error: Not Supported by gateway) but I have manually set the default port on server.

The server was still working over 2 years everyday 24/7 without problems.

Many thanks.

3

Thanks so much trumpy81 for your fast response, I try and come back with results.

Thanks!

4

Well, after check all the steps that trumpy81 gave me, I have to reinstall server from scratch. The summary that I tried:

  • Reboot router (IP is static in synology), was ok for 22 hour, then crash.
  • FAQ Q17/Q28: check video files and all OK. But server crash.
  • FAQ Q18: reset permissions of media files, server crash.
  • Repair Database - Restore Database: with no problems, but server still crash.

Now is time to reinstall. Thanks trumpy81 for your time.
I’ll come back to tell if finally fix it or not.

5

New advance in diagnostics.

After install Plex Media Server again into Synology in a new SSD, it was working for 3 days, and now come back to get unstable. I attach the server logs if someone can help me. I add too the summary of “ps ax | grep Plex” command, because I found some rare ports assigns like:

Plex Media Server Relay -p 443 -N -R 0:localhost:32401 (my server is config in port 32400)

Thanks in advance.

7

Thanks trumpy81,

Well I check a lot of points that you give me. And I’m very thankful.

On undetermined date from october '17 the file .spk of Plex Media Server that was donwload from the link Media Server itself, was a x86 version not a x64 that was installed before that date. I take some actions trying to fix the servere:

  • First of all I change the version to a x64 for Xpenology DS3615xs.
  • Second I delete a lot of stuff from libraries to reduce the databases and the items managed by the server.
  • Last action, I change the router for another model.

After these 3 actions, the Plex Media Server appears to be running without problems more than one week. I hope the problem was fix.

Thank you so much!

8

never mind.

9

Sorry for that Froberg.

In my case after more than 10 days working Plex without problems it crashed again. I found some rare things with the service inside Synology:

  1. The clients that are streaming aren’t affected, they can play stream til finish. They can connect to server after the play.
  2. Some related Plex processes are running like that: /volume2/@appstore/Plex Media Server/Plex Relay -p 443 -N -R 0:localhost:32401 ............. -F /dev/null 139.162.247.112 But my server is running on 32400 and the last IP doesn’t match with any of my clients.
  3. The only way to restart Plex without restart Synology is: 1. stop service in Package Center 2.Kill processes Plex related through SSH. 3 Start service in Package Center.

For the last step I create a bash script that can be executed from Task Scheduler:

#!/bin/ash
/usr/syno/bin/synopkg stop Plex Media Server
kill -9 $(ps aux | grep Plex | awk '{print $2}')
/usr/syno/bin/synopkg start Plex Media Server

I hope this can help you in some way.

10

@bluesnow01 said:
Sorry for that Froberg.

In my case after more than 10 days working Plex without problems it crashed again. I found some rare things with the service inside Synology:

  1. The clients that are streaming aren’t affected, they can play stream til finish. They can connect to server after the play.
  2. Some related Plex processes are running like that: /volume2/@appstore/Plex Media Server/Plex Relay -p 443 -N -R 0:localhost:32401 ............. -F /dev/null 139.162.247.112 But my server is running on 32400 and the last IP doesn’t match with any of my clients.
  3. The only way to restart Plex without restart Synology is: 1. stop service in Package Center 2.Kill processes Plex related through SSH. 3 Start service in Package Center.

For the last step I create a bash script that can be executed from Task Scheduler:

#!/bin/ash
/usr/syno/bin/synopkg stop Plex Media Server
kill -9 $(ps aux | grep Plex | awk '{print $2}')
/usr/syno/bin/synopkg start Plex Media Server

I hope this can help you in some way.

Is the storage local to the DSM XPEnology? Are you running it in an ESX server?
Do you have other things installed that are downloading into Plex directories etc? Sickrage, couchpotato?
If the storage is remote to the server and you are mounting it run a ping and see if it has issues. I had swapping that was chewing up disk resources and causing ping issues and responsiveness issues. Other things downloading into the plex directories or chewing up all of your disk IO capacity can cause some interesting things too.
Look at utilization for disks and processes inside DSM and see if it shows you anything interesting.

11

Hi @cul8rmom1, thanks for your advice.
At this time the server seems to work stable, with no errors for now. But answering your questions…

Is the storage local to the DSM XPEnology? Are you running it in an ESX server?
The storage is in local Xpenology wich is a baremetal.
Do you have other things installed that are downloading into Plex directories etc? Sickrage, couchpotato?
I do not download directly in the library folders, I use temp folder and after downloads script moves files to the specific library.
Look at utilization for disks and processes inside DSM and see if it shows you anything interesting.
There is no anomalous processes or high cpu/disk utilization. The only related thing about is what I related before about the Plex process running: "…Plex Relay -p 443 -N -R 0:localhost:32401 … " that never seen before except when Server hangs.

But fortunately seems to all back to normal, and all runs well after install version x86_64 of Plex Server and make some purge of media content of libraries.

Thans for your attention.