Folks,
Rather than try to put a square peg (SMB) into a round hole (where NFS is needed),
I’ve decided to write this out.
You need NFS because most Linux hosts & NAS systems do not offer the needed SMB services PLUS you’re on a Linux host where SMB support is marginal and non-native.
This post is the combination of two existing server-linux-tips which I’ve authored for tasks such as this.
- Your mileage will vary . This is not supported because we cannot guarantee the integrity of the NFS server.
- It will work beautifully , albeit it a bit slower -or-
- It will crash horribly and corrupt your data on the NFS server
So, it’s time to ride the wild software 
This is not for the faint of heart.
- Server must support NFS v4 - prefferably NFS v4.2
- A share must be exported with R/W for the IP address of the PMS host where this runs from with no-squash
- Use of SMB on a Linux host, which uses POSIX file locking for database operations, will fail every time.
Here’s how it works. This is a working example. You are free to use it as-is.
A. Stop Plex
sudo systemctl stop plexmediaserver
B. Make a directory anywhere which isn’t a pre-existing directory (this means no use of /media regardless the state of Gnome)
sudo mkdir /PlexMetadata
C. Set the ownership to plex and set permissions
sudo chown plex:plex /PlexMetadata
sudo chmod 755 /PlexMetadata
D. Create the /etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service.d/override.conf
sudo sytemctl edit plexmediaserver
- In this file place:
# Move Plex's metadata storage to the NAS
[Service]
Environment="PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR=/PlexMetadata/LibraryApplication Support"
- Save and exit the text editor
E. Create and test the NFS mount entries for /etc/fstab
- In /etc/fstab, editing as appropriate:
ip.addr.of.server:/metdata-share-name /PlexMetadata nfs defaults,vers=4,rw,auto,sec=sys,nofail,bg 0 0
(( The above is ONE line))
F. Test the mount
sudo mount /PlexMetadata
mount | grep PlexMetadata
(if errors, or if vers=4 is not shown, iterate here until working and can write to the NFS share (suggest ‘touch’ command) )
G. Transfer existing Plex metadata to network share
cd /var/lib/plexmediaserver
sudo bash
tar cf - ./Library | (cd /PlexMetadata ; tar xf - )
(If errors, correct the Network share export and/or the mount. Repeat process until tar completes without errors)
H. Verify final path exists as it should:
ls -la “/PlexMetadata/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml”
( If the above lists as owned by plex:plex then you are ready. )
I. Update systemctl
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
J. Restart Plex
sudo systemctl start plexmediaserver
