[SOLVED] Problem with Transcoding with kubernetes deployment

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

I just finished migrating plex (latest version, 1.13.4.5271) to my home kubernetes cluster, and all works great with direct play, but when anything tries to transcode, it just spins and spins.

I found this linkhttps://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoder-fails-when-transcode-is-on-a-network-share/186681/38 that seems similar but that was fixed a while back.

Basically, I have the following set up:

NAS:\ssd store ->plex data mount
local kubernetes node:\tmp\transcode -> /transcode

Plex data is stored on an NFS mount on an SSD datastore, while /transcode comes from the local kubernetes node.

apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: pms
spec:
  replicas: 1
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: pms
    spec:
      volumes:
      - name: nas-rabbit-pms
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: nas-rabbit-pms
      - name: localhost
        hostPath:
          path: /tmp
      - name: media
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: nas-media
      containers:
      - name: pms
        image: plexinc/pms-docker:1.13.4.5271-200287a06
        volumeMounts:
        - name: nas-rabbit-pms
          mountPath: /config
        - name: localhost
          subPath: transcode
          mountPath: /transcode
        - name: media
          mountPath: /nfs/media
          readOnly: true
        env:
        - name: CHANGE_CONFIG_DIR_OWNERSHIP
          value: 'false'
        - name: PLEX_UID
          value: '1001'
        - name: PLEX_GID
          value: '1001'
        - name: TZ
          value: 'America/Los_Angeles'
        ports:
        - name: pms
          containerPort: 32400
        - name: webtools
          containerPort: 33400
        readinessProbe:
          tcpSocket:
            port: pms
          initialDelaySeconds: 5
          periodSeconds: 10
        livenessProbe:
          tcpSocket:
            port: pms
          initialDelaySeconds: 15
          periodSeconds: 20
        lifecycle:
          postStart:
            exec:
              command: ["/bin/rm", "-f", "/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Relay"]

I’ve tried making the /transcode folder 777 thinking it was a permissions issue, but that didn’t fix it. When a transcode starts, nothing logs except the following:

<SessionReport version="2" startTime="0" startTimestamp="Jul 25, 2018 11:24:31.211" key="/library/metadata/51436" session="5ee99426-7ea7-41f6-8842-006aa352c6b5" transcode="446f1284-34c6-4635-86f7-c4c4c973ca1e">
<User id="1" thumb="https://plex.tv/users/<removed>/avatar?c=<removed>" title="<removed>" />
<Player address="10.32.0.1" device="x64" machineIdentifier="5ee99426-7ea7-41f6-8842-006aa352c6b5" model="" platform="Windows" platformVersion="10.0.17134.165" product="Plex for Windows" remotePublicAddress="69.222.xxx.yyy" state="" title="Gaming Desktop" vendor="" version="3.2.20.0" local="1" userID="1" />
<Variants>
<Variant id="c59cb63d-fc50-416a-88cd-bdc1f125cede" targetBitrate="1071" context="streaming" sourceVideoCodec="hevc" sourceAudioCodec="aac" videoDecision="transcode" audioDecision="copy" protocol="hls" container="mpegts" videoCodec="h264" audioCodec="aac" audioChannels="2" transcodeHwRequested="0" transcodeHwFullPipeline="0">
<Media audioProfile="lc" id="186824" videoProfile="main" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="aac" bitrate="890" container="mpegts" duration="2555021" height="360" protocol="hls" videoCodec="h264" videoFrameRate="PAL" videoResolution="SD" width="720" selected="1">
<Part audioProfile="lc" deepAnalysisVersion="2" id="202898" indexes="sd" requiredBandwidths="2422,2008,1742,1742,1742,1742,1742,1742" videoProfile="main" bitrate="890" container="mpegts" duration="2555021" height="360" protocol="hls" width="720" decision="transcode" selected="1">
<Stream bitrate="890" codec="h264" default="1" displayTitle="Unknown (HEVC Main)" frameRate="25" height="360" id="452853" requiredBandwidths="2292,1878,1613,1613,1613,1613,1613,1613" streamType="1" width="720" decision="transcode" location="segments-av" />
<Stream bitrateMode="cbr" channels="2" codec="aac" displayTitle="English (AAC Stereo)" id="452854" language="English" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="130,130,130,130,130,130,130,130" selected="1" streamType="2" decision="copy" location="segments-av" />
</Part>
</Media>
</Variant>
</Variants>
<SegmentList />
<PlaybackReports />
<StateReports />
<StateReports />
</SessionReport>

I can see the transcode temp folder being created:

root@pms-646bd6cdb4-xtqm4:/transcode/Transcode/Sessions# ls -la
total 12
drwxrwxrwx 3 plex plex 4096 Jul 25 11:36 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 plex plex 4096 Jul 25 10:39 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 plex plex 4096 Jul 25 11:36 plex-transcode-m43xxmmvgmlmyrkzzisdlcs6-25794ae4-b919-4189-9a61-3227a7c66d4b

and i can even see the thumbnail preview updating in “current activity” but nothing ever plays on the player. any thoughts?

2

If this is a kubuntu base as I suspect, that’s the source of your problem. Too many folks have tried kubuntu without success. Officially, it’s not supported.

3

Its your official docker image: https://hub.docker.com/r/plexinc/pms-docker/~/dockerfile/

FROM ubuntu:16.04

ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND="noninteractive" \
    TERM="xterm"

# Install required packages
ADD ["https://github.com/just-containers/s6-overlay/releases/download/v1.17.2.0/s6-overlay-amd64.tar.gz", \
     "/tmp/"]

ENTRYPOINT ["/init"]

RUN \
# Extract S6 overlay
    tar xzf /tmp/s6-overlay-amd64.tar.gz -C / && \

# Update and get dependencies
    apt-get update && \
    apt-get install -y \
      curl \
      sudo \
      wget \
      xmlstarlet \
      uuid-runtime \
    && \

# Add user
    useradd -U -d /config -s /bin/false plex && \
    usermod -G users plex && \

# Setup directories
    mkdir -p \
      /config \
      /transcode \
      /data \
    && \

# Cleanup
    apt-get -y autoremove && \
    apt-get -y clean && \
    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* && \
    rm -rf /tmp/* && \
    rm -rf var/tmp/*

EXPOSE 32400/tcp 3005/tcp 8324/tcp 32469/tcp 1900/udp 32410/udp 32412/udp 32413/udp 32414/udp
VOLUME /config /transcode

ENV VERSION=latest \
    CHANGE_DIR_RIGHTS="false" \
    CHANGE_CONFIG_DIR_OWNERSHIP="true" \
    HOME="/config"

COPY root/ /
4

Thanks for adding that. I thought you were trying to run native.
Relocating this to the docker forum where they can help you better

5

thanks! FWIW, I tried with the linuxserver/plex docker image as well, same thing. Wherevewr I put the transcode folder, it never works.

Also, if i do a “watch ps aux | grep -i trans”, i never see the transcoder process start.

6

You might want to check whether your kubernetes installation has general issues with inotify (e.g. minikube has issues https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/issues/1551)

As you are already bound to local storage, I whould remove the /transode volumeMounts and see whether it works with an implicit volume. It was the initial workaround for the link you posted earlier.

7

Would inotify affect the transcode process though? I’m not an expert here by any means. I also tried switching the /transcode mount to a “emptydir”

- name: transcode-volume
  emptyDir:
    medium: "Memory"

but this didn’t work either. upon spinning up a transcode, it creates the directory structure (/transcode/Transcode/Sessions/plex-garaklfjaskfjsldkjfas…) but then never begins transcoding. all folders are owned by plex:plex and have at least 755 perms.

Edit: I also see this in plex media server.log when debug is turned on:

ERROR - [Transcoder] Unknown decoder ‘h264’

does that have anything to do with it?

8

Well shoot. Turns out it was the “noexec” on my nfs mount. Solved via:
https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoder-crashing-unknown-decoder-h264/205798/2

removed the noexec in my pv yaml, reapplied, redeployed pod, all works now.

Thanks guys!

9

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