can plex plugin connect to an already existing plex instances

[aihysp]

I have a VM running plex can I point to it?
or I should go the other way around and just create share and I am set?
what are the benefits of the plugin? any cool dashboards? :)
and what can I gain from switching to a "Jail"(sorry I have no clue in this)

I want to run it on a separate machine so I will not have issues with hardware acceleration
can a jail do

Proxmox > FreeNas > Plex + hardware GPU

i am new to Plex and FreeNAS so if i got something wrong please correct me , Thank you!

 

[ornias]

I think you first need to understand what a plex server actually 'is'.

Plex server does 2 things:
1. Serve files from local storage
2. Serve a webbased copy of the plex client UI.

The UI is simply put a webbased version of the same thing you will have on your windows PC or console as an application. Nothing more nothing less. It doesn't have much to do with the serving of files.
So yes: You could have a plex server just to serve the UI and not have it serve files.
Because you can also have multiple servers listed on the client application of plex, can't you? ;)

what are the benefits of the plugin? any cool dashboards? :)

No, just a update button and a one-click install for a jail that works with default freenas installs. To be honest, plugin sounds nicer than it actually is imho :p

and what can I gain from switching to a "Jail"(sorry I have no clue in this)

You have more controll over the jail settings and plex config in a normal jail. A plugin is just a not-so-fancy install-and-update script for a jail. (and a pretty bad one at that, no offence to IX )

I want to run it on a separate machine so I will not have issues with hardware acceleration

hardware acceleration is VERY dependend on your hardware, without any information no one could say if FreeNAS supports your hardware for hardware acceleration.
Current version of FreeNAS (11.3) supports Intel Quicksync acceleration for Intel Gen 4-7 CPU's. But only using a custom(ised) jail:

GitHub - kern2011/Freenas-Quicksync: How to guide for getting Intel Quicksync working on Freenas

How to guide for getting Intel Quicksync working on Freenas - kern2011/Freenas-Quicksync

github.com

Proxmox > FreeNas > Plex + hardware GPU

I don't want to sound like a douche: but thats a pretty "meh" idea of a setup you got there:

Why would you want to run plex on FreeNAS (which doesn't have the greatest hardware acceleration support), while the underlaying system (proxmox) supports LXC containers with (simply put) great hardware support?!
Why would you want to have to deal with hardware passthrough from Proxmox to FreeNAS and then ALSO have to deal with the not-so-great and not-well-documented hardware acceleration support on FreeNAS?!

Sorry but I honestly don't get why you would think this is a good idea in any way, shap or form... (and I really tried)

i am new to Plex and FreeNAS so if i got something wrong please correct me , Thank you!

I think we can at least expect some basic research from you yourself to evaluate why you would want to do something and a general understanding which technologies (passthrough, hardware, jails vs containers vs vm's, what is a plex server, etc). Not because I want to shout at you or blame you, but because you are dealing with multiple quite custom configurions here and it seems that you don't grasp the basics of a not-custom configuration at the moment.

So what I would suggest:
- Give us an overview of your hardware (you want to deal with hardware acceleration right ;) )
- if you run FreeNAS in proxmox, thats fine. But explain why you think you want any VM or Jail on FreeNAS (there are reason I can think of, but I doubt this is one of those)
- Give us an idea which steps you think you would need to use hardware acceleration in a jail, when the FreeNAS host is virtualised inside proxmox

 

[aihysp]

Hi thanks for the long answer!

and for your Q.... no, i don't want to run plex on the "free nas", i just asked what will be the benefits if i did
not sure where you got the idea that this is what i am aiming for, but ok :)

my system goes like this ... please remember that this is a testing system, i am moving to a new house and i am
trying to get my shit together before i get there

i have dome old dell desktop pc optilux980 with the first I7, 16 Gigs of ram(Top that i can get in)
i am running Pfsense and routing my entire network to one PCI slot (i want to be 10Gis one day )
Proxmox is the hypervisor and take cares of the network cards bridge

i have some VMs running for home auto and some small stuff that doesn't require much memory or cpu power
i want to combine my NAS + Plex server there .... for many reasons

i have some old Radeon hd 6850... but i have access to allot of hardware i can make swap if needed
as i said this is a testing platform

" think we can at least expect some basic research from you yourself to evaluate why you would want to do "

and this is me trying to do research , i already got one pro answer !!!

again thank you sir!!!

 

[sretalla]

Radeon hd 6850

You're not going to get what you want from FreeeNAS (FreeBSD version of Plex) with a non-intel (integrated) GPU, so you can just stop entirely on this endeavour and look into a VM on Proxmox passing through the GPU which can work on Linux if I understand right.

 

[aihysp]

You're not going to get what you want from FreeeNAS (FreeBSD version of Plex) with a non-intel (integrated) GPU, so you can just stop entirely on this endeavour and look into a VM on Proxmox passing through the GPU which can work on Linux if I understand right.

Yep this is my plan all along

 

[Yorick]

I question the utility of FreeNAS on Proxmox. Not to say it isn’t useful, I’m serious when I say “questioning”.

Proxmox, based on Linux, supports ZFS. HBAs are supported. NFS and samba are supported.

Maybe FreeNAS has nicer middleware, so you’re looking to avoid needing to manage pools from command line, and use the UI instead. That’s legitimate, if that’s the thinking, as long as it’s architected in such a way that FreeNAS gets an HBA passthrough and direct access to the physical disks. If that’s not the plan, I’d advise to change the plan.

To my mind, fewer layers are desirable. So, ZFS on Proxmox and ZFS on FreeNAS are both great, but ZFS on FreeNAS on Proxmox adds a layer, and that inevitably adds some complexity.
Which may be worth it if that comes with a greater reduction in complexity from UI use, I don’t know Proxmox or how it handles ZFS, just that it does.

 

[ornias]

I question the utility of FreeNAS on Proxmox. Not to say it isn’t useful, I’m serious when I say “questioning”.
...

I tend to agree, one thing that (simply put) is not done nicely is iscsi support. I read some people want FreeNAS for the easy creation of ISCSI zvol shares... (if anyone has some info for me on the right proxmox way to do ISCSI zvol shares, feel free to pass allong via DM though :) )