The last couple of times I have upgraded, it has created a ‘new’ server.
This has caused me lots of grief, and I wish to not have it happen again. Each time it does it, I have to spend the time to set all the shares back up again for friends/family.
What can be done to prevent this from happening???
Have you been modifying /lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service ?
I am doing nothing intentionally… I download the update, move it to my server using SFTP, and run dpkg -i on the file to install the update.
Nothing more, nothing less.
The installer expressly looks for /var/lib/plexmediaserver (Plex’s home directory) by seeing if user plex already exists. If it does, that entire phase of creating the ‘home’ directory is skipped. This is how your existing metadata is left intact.
would you be kind enough to run a search for me?
sudo find / -name Preferences.xml -print
Let’s see where it really thinks it is because something is not right.
Well, i would check for you, but… my server has quit all together now. (the plex server that is)
came home tonight, an I can no longer connect to it. keeps saying its unreachable. I restarted the plex service, and even restarted the actual server, with no luck…
very bummed, after a long hard day, i just wanted to watch something!!
When you’re refreshed, I’ll need the logs to find out what happened.
tar cfz /tmp/Logs.tar.gz "/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs"
ps -ef to verify it’s running. If not, sudo journalctl -xe | grep -i plex to see what happened. Also looking at systemctl status plexmediaserver wouldn’t hurt eitherI’ve never had any reports of PMS creating a new instance during upgrade. The only thing I can think causing this is an uninstall & purge (dpkg -e --purge) type operation before upgrading. PMS just doesn’t wipe out the existing indiscriminately
I finally got things going again - and here is the result of the search:
/data/media/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml
Also logs are attached - hopefully it helps us figure this out.
Logs.tar.gz (2.3 MB)
From the path alone, I have a suspicion what’s happening.
Did you modify /lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service ?
If so, that’s the root cause.
I overwrite that with each installation.
If you want your location to persist, you must do it in accordance with how systemd and apt-get wants it done.
sudo systemctl edit plexmediaserver
Now, in the editor
[Service]
Environment="PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR=/data/media/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support"
Save that temporary file and systemd will create the ‘override’ for you.
You then
sudo systemctl stop plexmediaserver
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start plexmediasserver
It will read the new location from the configuration override file (which points to where you have your Library data) and all will be good again. Most importantly, it will persist from now on.
Alternatively, you can use my documented procedure for how to do it with an editor of your choice.
I do not recall ever editing it?? strange.
Although… my data library has been moved and copied from older versions of servers… maybe thats what has caused the issue.
That might well be.
To your knowledge, which location is the current? (what does ls -la show when you go look at those locations)
Whichever is current, we’ll make certain PMS knows it’s the one to use
I am not sure which is ‘current’ at this point, but I know where I would prefer it to be…
I have always had my media in the /data/media directory - its actually a separate drive set on my VM. That way if something were to happen to the OS, I can always recover it as needed.
so… basically if I create the override, the override will always persist, even through updates, etc.
furthermore, it sounds like if I ever had to replace the OS, and reinstall plex, I would just need to set the override again, and my entire plex server would still be intact.
The odd thing is, through all of this, it has kept track of what has been watched and everything. while I have had to go ‘claim’ the server again, i have never had to set up the libraries… just had to rebuild the shares each time the server gets ‘lost’
so… before I do anything at all, i need to be sure I am doing the RIGHT thing!
specifically - what 2 locations do you want a directory listing from?
The locations using ls -la (so we can see dates, times, and sizes) are:
"/data/media/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server""/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server"What is the mapping from the VM to the real file system? This is important information. Until now, I did not know you used a VM.
VM structure, the OS has its own virtual drive. the media drive is a collection of virtual drives placed into a LVM, which is then mapped to /data
I didnt realize being a VM made a difference really? As far as the ubuntu system knows, its just a computer?
The sticking point there… “The OS has its own virtual drive”.
By default, PMS installs in the root partition where the OS lives.
This is why it’s important to know if you had remapped the OS’s /var/lib/plexmediaserver default home directory (which would be inside the VM’s hd) to somewhere else outside the VM.
Couple this all together and it should now be obvious why I don’t understand how updating PMS can create a new server unless the default service definition is modified. Worst case should be:
Yes, you’re correct, there is little difference between the actual host and the VM guest. Properly configured, it appears as if a completely free-standing host on the LAN. The primary distinction between native host OS and guest OS for PMS is accessibility of Hardware Transcoding. By default, the VM insulates the guest from the host at that level.
To solve this so it doesn’t happen again and make sure you have the correct data,
/data/media/plexmediaserver is your real server ?The choice is yours. Which would you prefer?
I guess I should have clarified something… this is a VM on esx-i. So while there is a ‘host OS’, I do not have one in the sense you are talking about.
Thus, I guess I am confused about what you suggest I do at this point?
In that sense, you don’t.
But in any sense, there is a hypervisor + RTOS (ESXi) which does make the Ubuntu instance a Guest 
How would you like to proceed?
I dont understand at this point. As far as the OS knows that Plex is running on, all the drives are ‘native’ to it?
the Ubuntu system has its normal file system. all of my media lives in the /data directory.
If my system were to ever fail, I would prefer to have all my plex ‘settings’ and information kept in the /data directory so it exists along with my other data.
Does that make sense?
Yep. totally.
very simply:
/etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service.d/override.conf (make the directory if needed)[Service]
Environment="PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR=/data/media/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support"
sudo systemctl daemon-reloadsudo systemctl restart plexmediaserverNow it knows to always look there.
If you uninstall PMS or upgrade it, this file endures. Should you need to reinstall, this is the only ‘configuration’ file (other than your plex data itself) you need worry about
I have made the changes… Time shall tell!
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