I have been running a Plex server for a while now on a single 64bit Centos machine and have been using the DVR / Live TV functions using 2 HD Homerun Primes on my Comcast cable. I currently have port forwarding enabled to that server for external access.
I decided to install a second Plex server on a Windows box in order to try out using a HDHomeRun Quad Connect to see how OTA broadcast live tv and recording would work. Everything set up fine - and I set up a couple of shows on our CBS local channel for recording to try that out. However - as I didn’t want to expose this server to the outside world - I elected to not have a second set of port forwarding rules set up for that - as I really didn’t want or need to access this server directly on the network - but rather I was just going to use it to record some programs OTA to the same NAS location as I use for my other server so that the shows recorded by this new one would become visible to main main Plex server.
Things seemed ok for maybe a day - don’t remember exactly how long it took before I noticed a problem - but pretty soon after this server was installed - I noticed that I was suddenly not seeing my original plex server while at home on my local network. I also noticed that I was at times not able to access my original plex server from an external network as well. But this was sporadic - and not necessarily consistent across all my clients. I also found that if I restarted the Centos Plex server - it would become available again for a while.
I rebooted the server again last night and as before it became available again. I checked it from my iPad during the day while I was at work - and it was still accessible. However by this evening - my daughter complained that her Nvidia shield (external network location) could not access the original Centos Plex server. I checked and the same was true if I tried to access it from my local network using the Plex Media Player on one of my Windows clients. However - my iPhone 8’s IOS app was in fact able to access it - and resume a show I had been watching previously - both on an external network and on my internal network.
Some additional pertinent technical details:
Both servers are running Plex Media Server 1.11.1.4730.
Both servers are on the same subnet.
Both servers are logged into my account and set up to update on Plexpass channel
The servers have very distinct names.
Both servers show up in Settings - Devices - Server.
One server (main - original one) is running on Centos V7, the second one is running on Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. Both are current and up to date on all patches.
I see no evidence of my router’s firewall logs showing any blocking of traffic for either server.
I run a pfSense router with Snort installed - and as with the firewall logs - I see no evidence in Snort’s logs that it has triggered any alerts/blocks on either of the IP addresses used by these 2 servers.
As a further test this evening - when I was unable to access the original server from a Plex Media Player Windows client and my Plex app on one of my Nvidia shields (on my local network) - after repeated attempts on both over a 10 minute period - I decided to shut down my Windows Plex server. Once I did that I was immediately able to access my original Plex server from both of those clients - and in fact any other client that I tried as well - all at this point from my local network.
From the above observations - I am beginning to think there is some sort of network traffic conflict between these two. I plan to keep the second server down through the day tomorrow to make sure the problem does not recur without the second server running. Is there some known issue that perhaps points to a necessary change in my router setup to allow the co-existence of these 2 servers? I know many others successfully run multiple Plex servers in their local network without issues - so I am sure it is something in my network setup that needs to be tuned/changed.
I would appreciate any pointers to possible solutions or perhaps specific things to look for in the server logs that might help.
I am currently having the same issue. My library is growing exponentially, so I have added 3 Windows 10 computers with Plex server running on all 3. I do have a Plex Pass account and a full license right to the plex server. But for some reason I am experiencing what this person is experiencing. Every so often some servers will show as 'unavailable" and i have to remote to the computer and refresh the remote access. I have 2 of them running on the same network and another running on a totally different network and yet still the problem persist and its never the same server. It always changes. I choose to have multiple servers due to the growth of content and growth of family members using it. It gives me the ability to have multiple transcoding sessions at a time. I am running 1.11.3.4803 on all 3.
Two things… Make sure Remote Access is disabled on the second server. It sounds like they’re competing for the same space.
Settings > Server > Remote Access > Disable Remote Access
Also, you could try to disable IPv6 on both. This is just a guess.
Settings > Server > Network > Uncheck the “Enable server support for IPv6” option
@jdavila0507 said:
I am currently having the same issue. My library is growing exponentially, so I have added 3 Windows 10 computers with Plex server running on all 3. I do have a Plex Pass account and a full license right to the plex server. But for some reason I am experiencing what this person is experiencing. Every so often some servers will show as 'unavailable" and i have to remote to the computer and refresh the remote access. I have 2 of them running on the same network and another running on a totally different network and yet still the problem persist and its never the same server. It always changes. I choose to have multiple servers due to the growth of content and growth of family members using it. It gives me the ability to have multiple transcoding sessions at a time. I am running 1.11.3.4803 on all 3.
Make sure you have only one local network subnet that they are all connected to and no multiple NICs
For remote access it is more reliable to setup port forwards and manually specify the public port for each in server setting
Example
PMS1 - WAN Public Port 32410
PMS1 has local IP 192.168.1.10 which is DHCP Reserved in the router
Port Forward tcp port 32410 to local tcp port 32400 to PMS1 with local IP 192.168.1.10
PMS1 Remote Access Settings: Manually Specify Port ticked and entering 32410 in the box
PMS2 - WAN Public Port 32420
PMS2 has local IP 192.168.1.20 which is DHCP Reserved in the router
Port Forward tcp port 32420 to local tcp port 32400 to PMS2 with local IP 192.168.1.20
PMS2 Remote Access Settings: Manually Specify Port ticked and entering 32420 in the box
PMS3 - WAN Public Port 32430
PMS3 has local IP 192.168.1.30 which is DHCP Reserved in the router
Port Forward tcp port 32430 to local tcp port 32400 to PMS3 with local IP 192.168.1.30
PMS3 Remote Access Settings: Manually Specify Port ticked and entering 32430 in the box
@jdavila0507 said:
I am currently having the same issue. My library is growing exponentially, so I have added 3 Windows 10 computers with Plex server running on all 3. I do have a Plex Pass account and a full license right to the plex server. But for some reason I am experiencing what this person is experiencing. Every so often some servers will show as 'unavailable" and i have to remote to the computer and refresh the remote access. I have 2 of them running on the same network and another running on a totally different network and yet still the problem persist and its never the same server. It always changes. I choose to have multiple servers due to the growth of content and growth of family members using it. It gives me the ability to have multiple transcoding sessions at a time. I am running 1.11.3.4803 on all 3.
As the original reporter of this issue I can tell you that my problem was not multiple subnets or the fact that both are turned on for remote access. I think my problem may have been due to an old and no longer active server showing up in my devices list. I deleted that device and restarted both Plex servers and since that time I have not had a problem. I have also updated the server levels several times as well since that problem occurred so I can’t rule one of those updates out as also contributing to the problem going away.
