PMS Library won't work on mergerfs with direct_io

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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I was following this guide: [Moving PMS 'Library'](Moving PMS ‘Library’), but ran into quite a perplexing situation. The server just wouldn’t start. After tinkering for a while and finally found the syslog option, I saw that sqlite complained about mmap. A few Google searches led me to the fact that mergerfs with direct_io does not support mmap and a few workarounds were suggested:

  • Mount your mergerfs without direct_io
  • Use a direct path to mergerfs member drive instead

I went with the second option and things are working fine now.

Server Version#: 1.16.4.1469-6d5612c2f
Debian Stretch (9)

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Please do not tag in server-linux-tips until verified.

Please give me a configuration example / verification test case so I may verify this with multiple distributions.

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As the author of mergerfs I can say that the above is correct. Plex server appears to use sqlite with mmap enabled and doesn’t try to fallback if the filesystem does not support it. Given the limitations on using mmap with a FUSE based filesystem with direct io enabled the above are the recommended workarounds. If Plex could be smarter about the situation that’d be great but it is a somewhat niche problem.

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