I have been running the Linux.io version for for a while and it is really cool to see an Official PLEX version.
I have a question about using the plexinc/pms-docker:plexpass tag and the use of the PLEX_CLAIM Docker Environment variable.
The README.md states:
… two other tags exist: plexpass and public. These two images behave differently than your typical containers. These two images do not have any Plex Media Server binary installed. Instead, when these containers are run, they will perform an update check and fetch the latest version, install it, and then continue execution. They also run the update check whenever the container is restarted. To update the version in the container, simply stop the container and start container again when you have a network connection. The startup script will automatically fetch the appropriate version and install it before starting the Plex Media Server.
The public restricts this check to public versions only where as plexpass will fetch Plex Pass versions. If the server is not logged in or you do not have Plex Pass on your account, the plexpass tagged images will be restricted to publicly available versions only.
I don’t really understand the bold part - is plexpass checked/verified by having/using a “PLEX_CLAIM” variable when starting the container?
And if the answer to that is Yes – Then my follow up question is:
When using the “PLEX_CLAIM” variable is there a setting or config written somewhere so that if the container is restarted it will still know that it is “OK” for getting the plexpass version and therefore check for and pull the latest plexpass version?
OR -
Will you need to provide a new “PLEX_CLAIM” variable each time you ‘restart the container’ to run and update check to get the latest plexpass version?
What I am ultimately trying to determine the process for is:
Auto-updating pms-docker with the plexpass tag for a valid PlexPass user - via a restart of the container.
The idea of the claim token is you hit https://plex.tv/claim and get a token. This token is valid for 5m and will ensure that during create the Plex Media Server gets connected to your account and signed in. If you don’t have a token during initial configuration it will default to the current public release and install that without claiming the server and you will have to do that step manually.
Once the server is setup and running, during start of the docker container we read the token from the Preferences.xml if it exists and the claim token is no longer needed.
So setup your server with or without the claim token. Make sure its signed in with your plexpass account and the next time a new version of Plex Media Server comes out for Plex Pass run: docker restart plex and it will auto update to latest Plex Pass.
[This is the] claim token for the server to obtain a real server token. If not provided, server is will not be automatically logged in. If server is already logged in, this parameter is ignored.
The account the server is logged in to is what matters. It uses that account to fetch Plex Pass versions from the main download site. If the server is not logged in, then the claim token is a means by which to log it in.
So, ultimately what you want to know is:
If your server is not already logged in, provide a claim token so it can do so automatically.
While your server is logged in (and your account has a Plex Pass), the auto-update mechanism will be able to fetch the Plex Pass versions.
Restarting the container does not log out the server. As long as you don’t change the config location, trash or otherwise modify the preference files, your server will remain logged in, even if you recreated a brand-new container with the same config dir location.
@ziggimon That helps and makes it a little more clear - and I think I am almost ready to mark this as “Answered” but still struggling a bit with I guess some of the “PLEX terminology”
And same to @gbooker02 –
Like I am not really getting the meaning of:
The account the server is logged in to is what matters
If your server is not already logged in, provide a claim token so it can do so automatically.
While your server is logged in
What does “server logged in to” mean?
i.e.
Does that mean “me” being logged into my local PMS?
Does server being logged in = a server being like “bound to my account”
Also this line:
Once the server is setup and running, during start of the docker container we read the token from the Preferences.xml
Seems a little out of sequence - how is the server getting setup and running before the start of the container (that is the server)?
I just think there is some PLEX specific terminology being used that just is making my understanding of the process a little difficult.
But basically if I hit plex.tv/claim >> Get my CLAIM ID >> pass that to my pms-docker:plexpass - create, run or compose yaml file >> I will get the latest plexpass version ~and~ I shouldn’t need to get / provide a claim ID when getting updates by restarting the container. << Is that correct?
When you install a server from scratch it doesn’t have any relation to your personal plex.tv account, nor is it signed in to plex.tv. What we have done with the CLAIM_ID is allow you through a browser to log into plex.tv and grab a claim token thats valid for 5m that you can use during the initial setup of Plex Media Server in Docker to automatically hook it up to your personal plex.tv account.
This saves you the steps of going through the Plex Web UI on the Plex Media Server and signing it into Plex Media Server.
I think I understood your discussion on using the plex claim to obtain the latest plex pass servers. But when i seem to restart my plex docker it does not find the latest server and it keeps telling me there is an update available.
Plex server it runs: 1.10.1.4602
Plex update available: 1.11.0
