So I have been running my PMS for almost a year now on Windows 10… at this point I am run down and ready to change up the operating system. I don’t have much/any experience with Linux, but I grew up on Microsoft Windows and have a reasonable knowledge of MacOS. I am playing with going to Windows 7 because “it just works”, or perhaps a copy of Windows Server 2012.
However, what are you guys and gals (I’m sure you are out there) running your PMS on? What are the issues you have had to overcome i.e. Windows 10 automatic restarts, Defender vs Transcoder CPU jacking.?
I have looked into a NAS PMS but they aren’t up to the transcoding I’d need, I have approximately 5 users and 18TB of data planning to expand soon!
Windows server 2008 r2 works just fine for me, I just forgot to enable some features which otherwise forced me to use a virtual machine with windows 8 to run the PMS which has, up until today (not implying any issues) has worked great. So maybe don’t use an old windows server os, but windows server should be good, other than the high cost.
@“retterath.brad@hotmail.com” Were you unable to use server 2008 directly to host a PMS? I haven’t read much into using server OS for a PMS, I used windows 2008 for a network gateway server for a private network in college but that’s about the extent of my exposure.
@interweb-tech I learned about unRAID on Linus Tech Tips, not sure if I will use that in the future but it’s an option. Is this what you are using? I saw they have applications for unRAID but have never used it myself. I have been using Windows 10 and it’s been issue after issue. Any drawbacks to unRAID?
However, what are you guys and gals (I’m sure you are out there) running your PMS on? What are the issues you have had to overcome i.e. Windows 10 automatic restarts, Defender vs Transcoder CPU jacking.?
One thing I had to learn that I think many look past is very basic CPU balancing. I’m on Windows 7 and there are a lot of processes battling for CPU power at various points. Depending how a person chooses to use his Plex server, I think it is good to go over that, as it really can improve things.
For example, I choose to use the server PC to also be a hybrid Plex client and at the same time being able to launch various things, sometimes demanding things like games etc. In my use case, I deprioritise the Plex server in those situations by having its CPU priority set to low. This works wonders in not disturbing me when someone is transcoding, whereas before I learned it, the server would slow down the computer considerably, making me having to wait with what I was doing or tell the person to stop watching.
I could also see the other way around: wanting to prioritise Plex over some other CPU hungry application, making sure it is always snappy and can transcode in a heartbeat no matter what the computer is doing.
On either case I think this is easily overlooked and well worth to learn. I sure don’t regret doing so. It really makes a difference. Just my two cents
@d2freak That’s good to keep in mind, I have a dedicated rig just for Plex and the only additional processes that I have are iTunes which uses separate HDDs and is running in the background with automatic downloads. I have a “file download program”, PlexPy, and that’s it. Everything else is Plex and Windows… where occasionally Windows defender will scan a Plex transcode or something as part of “real time” protection and it kills the CPU and basically stops PMS.
The first fight was stopping Windows 10 from restarting automatically. Like 4 different settings to adjust to stop that.
There really is no need for a dedicated server or worrying about what OS to use nowadays. Either use a NAS with decent clients that can Direct Play e.g. Roku 3 or use Plex Cloud.
Prior to migrating all my new media to Plex Cloud I used a 4TB Seagate Personal Cloud which must be the lowest powered NAS you can buy but it runs PMS & I never had problems playing anything. In fact I tested it successfully with five simultaneous 1080p streams to Roku 3, Amazon Fire TV 4K, web client on MacBook Pro, iPhone 5s & iPhone 6s Plus.
Of course that’s all in my own home with no remote access. Now with Plex Cloud I still don’t need remote access but have tested with a 65GB HEVC H.265 4K UHD Blu-ray rip playing happily on my iPhone 6s Plus over 4G cellular.
Plex Cloud is a game changer. I already had Plex Pass & G Suite for Business (for unlimited storage on Google Drive) so using Plex Cloud literally costs me nothing plus I don’t have to worry about server OS management & updates etc.
You really shouldn’t have a problem running Plex on Windows 10. The key to anything like this is to treat it like a server and only install what’s needed and of course keep current on operating system updates, then leave the machine alone to act like a server.
Personally I’d just use whatever operating system you are most comfortable using. I run a pretty big system on Windows Server 2012R2 as well as a test/backup server on Windows 10 and have no problems with either.
Previously:
MacOS El Capitan: ok-ish. Lot’s of minor bugs and little annoyances (had to reboot once every week just to circumvent some recurring problems). In the end I was fed up with the MacMini hardware. It was just too slow and lacked a powerful graphics chip (was running PMS and PMP on the same machine back then).
MacOS Sierra: total trainwreck … autofs wouldn’t work reliably at all. Video problems with PMP. Tons of bugs.
Now:
Fedora 25: in short: I love it!!! Stable, highly configurable and far better remote accessibility. Also highly stable. For PMP it’s a bit of a hassle because the NVIDIA proprietary driver is difficult during updates. Also there is no official Plex PMP Linux binary available. It’s a shame.
Settings I did … hmmm, not much:
Used a minimal install with LXDE desktop. Switched off lot’s of background processes
Applied a power-saving tuned profile
Added autofs (I’ve Plex set up to scan links that point to auto-mounted filesystems on my NAS. That way I can shield the movie files best from access: files get only mounted if neccessary. Also in all “normal” scenarios I can force the system to mount read-only.)
Added my own scrips (backup, content-upload, sanity-checks with the plex db, …)
But … if you are not familiar with Linux than your experience may be different. I’m a life-long Linux user. So it’s my OS of choice.
Ubuntu… the worst thing I’ve had to deal with is the OS’s permissions and losing root access… Otherwise the OS has low overhead and Plex works great on it.
Running on QTS on a QNAP TS-453Pro NAS. Works great! It can handle most transcoding needs but almost all my media has been encoded in x264 in a MP4 container so transcoding is not much of an issue as almost all Plex clients support this format.
I run Windows on my main server and I test, from time to time, using my Shield as a server.
I have zero problems with my Windows based server but I only run Plex and the needed support programs (Drivepool and a VNC service) on my server. I believe that the fact that I do not try to use my server as a daily use computer contributes to the level of reliability I have.
The few times I have had problems, usually due to me doing something stupid, a simple post if the Plex server forums has led to a quick resolution.
On the other hand my Shield experience has been WAY poorer. There are bugs and weaknesses that continuously impact the Shield and the Plex people in the Shield forum are not responsive even when you give detailed bug info and even with test files and logs included. I think the Shield developers may be some of the most difficult to deal with and that is an important factor to consider as it is important to get good support and Plex’s only support route is the forums and dealing with the Shield people on the forums is unpleasant at best.
On the Linux side: When I considered a move to Linux the Plex folks and the other people in the Limux forums were quite helpful and responsive but I decided to, at least for the present, to remain with Windows. But I have not abandoned the idea of a move to Linux as in many ways it is superior to Windows but, for now, Windows is working very well and a change would be more trouble than I currently want to endure.
I run PMS on an Asustor AS-7004T NAS which uses a flavor of Linux. It’s not anything like your typical experiences with a NAS. This thing has some balls to it. And with the HW Transcoding Beta it can handle a lot more than it has had to so far. (7 streams at a time, 2 transcoded and 5 Direct Play is the most I’ve had going on it at one time, before the Beta.)
It was a bit spendy, but this machine can definitely handle everything I’ve thrown at it. The only issues have been getting Python or Perl running correctly, and I’ve gotten those issues resolved and notified Asustor of them. They pushed out fixes to the App Central installs, so those are no longer a problem.
The only thing I wish I had done differently is getting the 8-bay or 10-bay model instead of the 4-bay… As it is now, I have well over 30TB on it now. (Combined internal and external.)
I’m running PMS on Windows 10, as an in place upgrade from 8.1. No issues at all, apart from the first Windows 10 upgrade setting my network to public rather than private, but that was easily fixed. I’m not running anything else on it apart from Sonarr, Radarr and a few other tools, so it’s pretty much dedicated to Plex. My data is on an HP Microserver running OMV.
I’ve had Plex on OMV for a while as well, but that would regularly bring OMV down due to not enough memory in the box.
As other people said, use what you’re most comfortable with.
Thanks for all of the responses… it seems that there really is more than one way to skin a cat. (sorry PETA) I will definitely look into some of the options you guys posted and work on formulating my next Plex server build. I am definitely curious about the Cloud just not sure I want to pay for storage but you never know, and NAS might be back on the table. Again thanks for the responses and insights!
I’m running on FreeBSD (FreeNAS). And it’s not true that a NAS can’t have more than enough transcoding power… you just need to build the NAS appropriately vs. just taking the off-the-shelf crap which is low-end.
No real hiccups. I’ve had it so long that my jail environment aged out compared to the overall system version so I wasn’t able to update ports (including PMS) anymore, so the other night I made a new jail and moved my config over. It was a lot easier than I thought it’d be, and would’ve gone faster if I had had the foresight to have rsync installed in the original jail.
Experience has taught me to not trust Windows as a server. The only Windows in my house is as a diagnostic VM on my Linux workstation, and as a tiny single-purpose Steam box at the TV.
