how to make PLEX use just part of NAS

[Bear]

I just completed the installation of my FreeNAS 9.3, using the media Z1 setup. I have an Dell server with a backplane, using 4 3tb drives (i found that this server can only recognize 2tb drives, crap). I followed the guides to create an apple share volume, and a Time Machine volume. I now want to install the Plex Plugin, and am following the video guide. However, it looks as if it will take over the entire 4 disk set, because it is telling me to use all 4 volumes for the plugin, and there is a big red All DATA WILL BE WIPED warning. How do I set it up to use a portion of the FreeNAS?

 

[nightshade00013]

The drives should not be setup as separate volumes. You add all the drives as one large pool of some sort, generally for normal purposes raidZ2 is recommended. After that you then you attach storage to each jail using a directory.

Take some time to read over the stickies on the forums and don't rely on other sites to explain things as you could be getting information that is extremely outdated of for another fork before FreeNAS was taken over by iXsystems.

 

[Bear]

I used the FreeNAS videos for all of the work so far, 9.3, I think this is the mot recent info I can get. I did set it up as a RAIDZ2 in the initial setup. However, the video entitled "FreeNAS® 9.2.1: Plex Media Server Plugin" tells me to do it again, thus erasing everything I have already done. Please advise.

 

[pirateghost]

Once you have a pool, you don't 'do it again' to install a plugin...wtf.

If you have a raidz2, just install the plugin. It isn't hard.

Once installed, add storage to the jail pointing it to your dataset/directory that contains your media

 

[Allan Wilmath]

I used the FreeNAS videos for all of the work so far, 9.3, I think this is the mot recent info I can get. I did set it up as a RAIDZ2 in the initial setup. However, the video entitled "FreeNAS® 9.2.1: Plex Media Server Plugin" tells me to do it again, thus erasing everything I have already done. Please advise.

I don't know about the video. You really don't need one. You just select plug ins at the top win the Web interface. install the Plex plug in. It should not say anything other than ask if you are sure you want to install. There should be NO warnings about erasing anything.

After it is installed you then have to add storage. First you make a directory where you want to store say Movies. I like the command line and so don't know how to in the WEB off the top of my head. but you need the folder created first. Then on the left you choose jails, you will see the Plex plug in as a jail there. Select storage and add the folder you made. It will be a GUI and you can click on the + to find it. Then you have to go up to the Plug ins section, again on the left, the GUI is not well thought out in FreeNAS(sorry guys). And look for connect to server. It should pop a tiny window where you click a link labeled 'here'. Then you can configure Plex as per any of the instructions on the internet. It is worth the effort because once it is working, it works great. I think Plex settings are the trickiest to get right. The only tricky part with FreeNAS to install the plug in is the mapping the folder to Plex in the Jail. And now you know, that should just take searching in the interface. Before I forget, select the /media folder in the jail part for reasons I will simply say are Unix permissions. When you go to add the folder in the Plex web configuration you will have to navigate to /media/(name of folder you created).

Good luck!

 

[we7313]

I followed Allan's instructions above. In my instance I created a jail on an SSD, so my jail is on my ssd. I have a movies volume in a different volume.
I added storage source of /mnt/MainVolume/Movies (where my movies are located) and the destination as /usr/share (the SSD jail).
Checked Create Directory
Checked Mounted?
Readonly False

The problem is when i enter plex through the web interface and try to add my folders for movies, it only sees the SSD jail folder.
Is there something else I need to do to the movies volume to make it accessible by the plex server?

Thanks.

 

[nightshade00013]

If there are sub folders you may have to add each folder separately.

And remember that while you are trying to add the folder into plex you need to change over to / not the root when you want to browse to the storage. You could also add to /usr/local/plexdata/Plex Media Server/library/

I generally add everything to /mnt and then separate everything out to the content type.

 

[pirateghost]

I followed Allan's instructions above. In my instance I created a jail on an SSD, so my jail is on my ssd. I have a movies volume in a different volume.
I added storage source of /mnt/MainVolume/Movies (where my movies are located) and the destination as /usr/share (the SSD jail).
Checked Create Directory
Checked Mounted?
Readonly False

The problem is when i enter plex through the web interface and try to add my folders for movies, it only sees the SSD jail folder.
Is there something else I need to do to the movies volume to make it accessible by the plex server?

Thanks.

In mounting your movie storage as /usr/share you are messing up the system. There are directories already in /usr/share. You need to mount to a directory that DOESN'T contain files/folders already

 

[we7313]

If there are sub folders you may have to add each folder separately.

And remember that while you are trying to add the folder into plex you need to change over to / not the root when you want to browse to the storage. You could also add to /usr/local/plexdata/Plex Media Server/library/

I generally add everything to /mnt and then separate everything out to the content type.

When you say change over to "/" what do you mean? When I am in the Add folder menu of plex it shows the plex home and below that a directory that has the "/". When I click on the folder with the "/" i do not see my mapped movie folder.
It is just a folder with bin, boot, dev, etc...

Its like its not mounted...

 

[nightshade00013]

There are two selections, one will not allow you access to /usr/ the other will. once you click the "/" you can then go to the right hand side and select the directory necessary.

 

[pirateghost]

When you say change over to "/" what do you mean? When I am in the Add folder menu of plex it shows the plex home and below that a directory that has the "/". When I click on the folder with the "/" i do not see my mapped movie folder.
It is just a folder with bin, boot, dev, etc...

Its like its not mounted...

It probably ISN't mounted because you shouldn't be trying to mount to /usr/share...try mounting it to /media

 

[nightshade00013]

Very possible. Someone else was having trouble mounting. https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/cant-update-plex-plugin.39559/page-3#post-245702 might just help.

 

[we7313]

Ok, that link just made this clear as day. I thought the destination dir was where I wanted plex to put the meta data for the movies. I didn't realize that it was where the source was being mounted.
Thanks for your help guys.

 

[nightshade00013]

Ok, that link just made this clear as day. I thought the destination dir was where I wanted plex to put the meta data for the movies. I didn't realize that it was where the source was being mounted.
Thanks for your help guys.

LOL, glad I remembered the post where I put that and was able to find it then.