PMS Migration - Linux

General Discussions
1

Hey guys , pretty noobish question , but never needed to , ive outgrown my plex server and need to migrate to a More powerful server, had a Ridiculous library very large don’t want to start my new server from scratch having to re-do all meta data and library’s ect, how can i export all of plex from Ubuntu 18.04 lts ,

i will then be re-importing to ubuntu 18.04 lts , ive been looking on forums and videos “YouTube” but can only find windows migrations no Linux sadly , help would be massively appreciated

2

It’s going to be hysterically simple:

  1. Replicate the /etc/fstab media mounts from the first on the second.
  2. Install Plex ( plex.tv/downloads ) but don’t open it. This creates the user , services, and directory.
  3. Stop Plex. (fresh installs automatically start
  4. Go to the original system
  5. Stop Plex
  6. cd /var/lib/plexmediaserver
  7. sudo tar cf /path/to/somewhere/PlexClone.tar ./Library
  8. When it finishes, take it to the new system.
  9. Decommission the original (delete Preferences.xml at absolute minimum)

On the new.

  1. Verify user plex:plex (or ‘other’) can read the media
  2. cd /var/lib/plexmediaserver
  3. sudo mv Library Library.unused
  4. sudo tar xf /path/to/PlexClone.tar (the file you brought over from the original)
  5. sudo chown -R plex:plex ./Library
  6. sudo rm -rf Library.unused (you don’t need it now)

If you’ve got all the mounts and permissions correct,

sudo systemctl start plexmediaserver

It will spin up and resume as if nothing ever happened.

2 Likes
3

@ChuckPa thanks ill give it a go hopefully it works

sorry for the noobish question

just a matter of copy and paste from your commands?

4

thanks for them detailed commands

5

Pretty much just a copy/paste. (except for where the PlexClone.tar file is going to be written)

While copy/paste is the easy way… May I recommend you understand what each is doing so next time you can think your way through it?

hint: man command (e.g. man tar – to see all the documentation about tar)

We’re here to help with Plex on Linux but there aren’t enough hours to teach linux nor are we staffed for it.

6

haha of course plexclone wont exsist im not that bad at linux lol

7

damm its giving a error

8

my paths normal?

@ChuckPa

9

You can copy/paste text here. It’s a lot easier to read that way.

This is what you should have when done

[chuck@lizum plexmediaserver.587]$ ls -la
total 16
drwxr-xr-x  4 plex plex 4096 Jan 16 23:16 ./
drwxr-xr-x 77 root root 4096 Dec 15 22:17 ../
drwxr-xr-x  3 plex plex 4096 Dec  1 09:15 Library/
drwxr-xr-x  2 plex plex 4096 Jan 16 23:16 Library.unused/
[chuck@lizum plexmediaserver.588]$ ll Library
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 3 plex plex 4096 Dec  1 09:15 ./
drwxr-xr-x 4 plex plex 4096 Jan 16 23:16 ../
drwxr-xr-x 3 plex plex 4096 Dec  1 09:15 Application Support/
[chuck@lizum plexmediaserver.589]$

Notice threre is the Library.unused which is what the installer created. We don’t use this.

When extracting the .tar file, tar xf /path/to/PlexClone.tar, it will create Library for you and populate it with everything from the old system.

10

didnt get any of that :frowning:

11

it didnt even backup

12

You didn’t follow my instructions?

Steps 6 & 7 are the two key steps for capturing the “source” system data files to take to the new system.

13

image
image956×99 3.16 KB

got this , but i had a tar file from july which is over 50gb so dont really understand why this is so low

image
image959×124 4.43 KB

14

@ChuckPa what do you reckon

15

@ChuckPa was created instantly is this normal?

i was expecting it to take a while and be a much larger file

16

There’s a HUGE difference between those two.

5 MB tar file is indeed nearly instantaneous.

Did you create that tar file on the system you’re copying FROM ?

17

hi @ChuckPa i created it on the original system yes

18

How are you creating it?

The screenshots you’re showing look like you’re using a windows tool?
Is that correct?

Everything I’m giving you should be done on the Linux “Terminal” command line.

How skilled are you with Linux?

19

that screenshot was so i could see the size of the File in Filezilla ,

everything else is done in linux

20

The ls command will show you everything.

[chuck@lizum ~.592]$ ls -la *.tar
-rw-r--r--. 1 chuck chuck   276480 Jun 16  2019 Debian-Packaging-files.tar
-rw-r--r--. 1 chuck chuck    92160 Aug  9  2019 debian.tar
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck 24084480 Feb 23  2020 DOT-filebot.tar
-rw-r--r--. 1 chuck chuck   460800 Feb  1  2018 redhat-ci.tar
[chuck@lizum ~.593]$ ls -lah *tar
-rw-r--r--. 1 chuck chuck 270K Jun 16  2019 Debian-Packaging-files.tar
-rw-r--r--. 1 chuck chuck  90K Aug  9  2019 debian.tar
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck  23M Feb 23  2020 DOT-filebot.tar
-rw-r--r--. 1 chuck chuck 450K Feb  1  2018 redhat-ci.tar
[chuck@lizum ~.594]$