Mount points and storage for Plex media server

[Krutet]

I've been waiting for this release for a long time and finally its here, it makes me very happy! But now I have a slight problem.

Im using x64 latest stable build 9.1.1 release of freenas.

The problem is that after installing I'm trying to add a storage so my media files folder is pointing to the a folder inside the jail. What I've done is to add storage like this:

Source: /mnt/"MyNasDatasets/SomeFolder/AllMyMediaFiles
Destination: /ThePlexMediaServerJail (mnt)/media

where the media folder in destination already existed in the plex media server jail. I've also tried making a new folder named mediafiles in the jail and pointing that to my source but in both cases when i try to add a section in the plex media server webgui all that shows up is the filesystem within the jail.

What am I missing here?

 

[Krutet]

Okay it seems like it has been resolved, I had to "chmod 777" (giving it all the permissions (more about chmod here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod ))the folder I created inside the jail to be able to see the nas storage..

How do I mark this as resolved?

 

[amires]

I am using chmod 744 on my share and it is working perfectly. It should be more secure since plex does not need write access to media shares.

 

[Krutet]

I am using chmod 744 on my share and it is working perfectly. It should be more secure since plex does not need write access to media shares.

True that, I will change that as well or try to get user permission going..

 

[MuddSkipper]

What does 'adding storage' to a jail actually do? As a test, I added a single movie folder and it showed up in the jail folder. I deleted the file in the plex jail and it also deleted the file in the FreeNAS 'mnt' folder. I assume that 'adding storage' creates a link. However when I tried to add the entire 'Movies' directory, in a couple seconds it said it finished but nothing showed up in the plex jail movie folder I created. Any ideas? Is there a folder size limit? My FreeNAS movie folder is quite large.

 

[Krutet]

What does 'adding storage' to a jail actually do? As a test, I added a single movie folder and it showed up in the jail folder. I deleted the file in the plex jail and it also deleted the file in the FreeNAS 'mnt' folder. I assume that 'adding storage' creates a link. However when I tried to add the entire 'Movies' directory, in a couple seconds it said it finished but nothing showed up in the plex jail movie folder I created. Any ideas? Is there a folder size limit? My FreeNAS movie folder is quite large.

I'm not entirely sure but I use to think about it as a link as you say. And there are never duplicates of the files. Files that you download to the jail, for example with transmission, only end up on the freenas mount. The same goes for plex, when adding storage to the plex jail, plex sees the files as they are in the jail folder but they're really not there, they are only in the freenas folder which is linked.

Correct if I'm wrong!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

[amires]

I have /media/movies and /media/tvseries inside plex jail and they are pointing to my real movies and tvseries folders outside of jail and I dont have any problem accessing them inside jail. My movies collection is 1.2TB and my tv series collection is 1.8T so I dont think there is any limitation on the size nor number of media files.

 

[MuddSkipper]

It seems to be fixed and is now scanning media. I went back into FreeNAS and deleted the several links I created since I didn't know it was creating a new link everytime I attempted to add storage. I rebooted and added my folder and everything went perfect.

 

[Cosmo_Kramer]

Okay it seems like it has been resolved, I had to "chmod 777" (giving it all the permissions (more about chmod here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod ))the folder I created inside the jail to be able to see the nas storage..

How do I mark this as resolved?

If you go inside the jail, you can run the command ee /etc/group
Then you can see the group that owns your media and simply add plex to the list of users after it (make sure there is a comma between users).
That way you don't have to let everyone be able to read and execute your media.

 

[scarter74]

Hello,

First time I added the storage MOVIEs and TV Shows. Open the PLEX webgui and I was able to see the MOVIEs folder and the sub-folders contained within, but not the TV Shows folder or sub-folders. So I decided to remove it and restructure how I had the folders setup on the server. So my setup now goes as follows:

MAIN
->MEDIA
->->MOVIEs
->->MUZIK
->->TV Shows
->->COLLECTIONs

Now when I go to the webgui all I see is /media NO FOLDERS or SUB-FOLDERS...smh I'm lost here. I'm fairly new to this and permissions have been a learning curve for me.

 

[Cosmo_Kramer]

Hello,

First time I added the storage MOVIEs and TV Shows. Open the PLEX webgui and I was able to see the MOVIEs folder and the sub-folders contained within, but not the TV Shows folder or sub-folders. So I decided to remove it and restructure how I had the folders setup on the server. So my setup now goes as follows:

MAIN
->MEDIA
->->MOVIEs
->->MUZIK
->->TV Shows
->->COLLECTIONs

Now when I go to the webgui all I see is /media NO FOLDERS or SUB-FOLDERS...smh I'm lost here. I'm fairly new to this and permissions have been a learning curve for me.

This is because you don't have permission to view the folders. Sometimes, you have to restart the jail/plugin when you are dealing with permissions and Plex. For some reason, if you made permission changes after you tried to browse, it doesn't like it.

 

[scarter74]

This is because you don't have permission to view the folders. Sometimes, you have to restart the jail/plugin when you are dealing with permissions and Plex. For some reason, if you made permission changes after you tried to browse, it doesn't like it.

I restarted the server and stopped and started the plex_1 jail. Maybe I have to go back and redo the permission or something. That may be tonight's project.

 

[Krutet]

If you go inside the jail, you can run the command ee /etc/group
Then you can see the group that owns your media and simply add plex to the list of users after it (make sure there is a comma between users).
That way you don't have to let everyone be able to read and execute your media.

That's a good tip. I also happend to see that of you press "display system processes" in the webgui of freenas you can see what appears to be the uid of the plex media server..

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Krutet]

I restarted the server and stopped and started the plex_1 jail. Maybe I have to go back and redo the permission or something. That may be tonight's project.

That's a good tip. I also happend to see that of you press "display system processes" in the webgui of freenas you can see what appears to be the uid of the plex media server..

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

If you see what I posted above and then create a user with that uid and after that adds the group who owns your media files as a auxiliary group to your newly created plex user (the group need read and execute permissions) and restart everything, it should work.. I think .. Depending on if you got the storage set up right..

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Cosmo_Kramer]

I restarted the server and stopped and started the plex_1 jail. Maybe I have to go back and redo the permission or something. That may be tonight's project.

Check where your mount points are located.
If for instance you don't have permission to execute the directories before them as plex, that is your problem.
For instance, if your mount point is:
/mnt/Plex/Music
If Plex folder is owned by root:wheel, you need to ensure it has 701 permissions or higher. The 1 is the execute bit and allow anyone to traverse, then your mount point permissions would be relevant.

 

[TVAN007]

I seem to have the same issue. Media folder built like this:
/mnt/Data/Media
/Movies
/Music
/Pictures
/TVShows

When Plex_1 is mapped to /mnt/Data/Media I get the folder above to show up but empty through Plex web and in plex...../media.
Re-mapped Plex_1 to /mnt/Data/Media/Movies and it works great! I checked all the perms and I have 777 root:wheel on all files and folders.... I created a user Plex UID 972 with primary group wheel, and that does not fix the issue of seeing all data when Plex_1 is mapped to /mnt/Data/Media...

Been at this for 2 days now! :-( I have always been a windows guy....

 

[Krutet]

I seem to have the same issue. Media folder built like this:
/mnt/Data/Media
/Movies
/Music
/Pictures
/TVShows

When Plex_1 is mapped to /mnt/Data/Media I get the folder above to show up but empty through Plex web and in plex...../media.
Re-mapped Plex_1 to /mnt/Data/Media/Movies and it works great! I checked all the perms and I have 777 root:wheel on all files and folders.... I created a user Plex UID 972 with primary group wheel, and that does not fix the issue of seeing all data when Plex_1 is mapped to /mnt/Data/Media...

Been at this for 2 days now! :-( I have always been a windows guy....

Try set your plex user to some other primary group, other than wheel, and add wheel as an auxiliary group instead. Restart and test!

 

[TVAN007]

Krutet, Thanks for reply! Tried switching groups and no luck. uninstalled everything then rebooted and re-installed. No luck! Then changed perms on volumes from owner:root to owner:Plex. Restated the Plex_1, and /mnt/Data/Addins/Plex_1..../Media still shows old perms of owner:root. Just about to rebuild to see if that will fix the problem!! I had this working a few weeks ago when I was testing before I rebuilt on new machine, so I know it can work.

 

[TVAN007]

Update: I built my media shares as ZFS Data Sets:
/mnt/Data/Media
/mnt/Data/Media/Movies
/mnt/Data/Media/Pictures
/mnt/Data/Media/TVShows
/mnt/Data/Media/Music

I created a new ZFS Data Set called Mediadata and then created folders under the Data Set (not individual data sets under the Media data set). I then use cp -rv /mnt/Data/Media/Mvovies/ /mnt/Data/Mediadata/Movies to get the data from the old data sets to the new directories. Everything is working perfect..... Not sure if that is in the manual, but I finally got it!

I hope this might help someone else.

You gatta love FreeNAS!!!!

 

[statsumi]

Update: I built my media shares as ZFS Data Sets:
/mnt/Data/Media
/mnt/Data/Media/Movies
/mnt/Data/Media/Pictures
/mnt/Data/Media/TVShows
/mnt/Data/Media/Music

I created a new ZFS Data Set called Mediadata and then created folders under the Data Set (not individual data sets under the Media data set). I then use cp -rv /mnt/Data/Media/Mvovies/ /mnt/Data/Mediadata/Movies to get the data from the old data sets to the new directories. Everything is working perfect..... Not sure if that is in the manual, but I finally got it!

I hope this might help someone else.

You gatta love FreeNAS!!!!

TVAN007... Thanks for the post. I just installed Plex and I had the exact same problem. The mistake that I made was creating Data Sets for the Movies, TVShows directories. I deleted the datasets and just created folders in the Media directory and Plex was able to see my library. Working on this problem the last 2 days... finally got it up and running, thanks.