Plex - "destination"

[rangopango]

Hey everyone, what is "destination" meant to be for Plex? Can I have the same destination as source? Or does it have to be in a different volume?

 

[nightshade00013]

When adding storage to a jail you are taking data from the pool and linking it into the jail. Think "shortcut" on windows but a little different. So say you have a pool that is named "tank" and you created a "Media" dataset to hold everything with directories underneath for the different media types like movies and music.

So you would want to take and set the source as something like:

Code:

/mnt/tank/Media

Now you want it to be accessible in the jail, there is a couple places you can put it. It used to work just fine to put it anywhere but now it's a little different unless you type the location in unless it's already in the "Plex" directory where you can browse it.

Anyway so for me I put the destination as:

Code:

/mnt/Media

Then in Plex when you want to add your movies you would type in:

Code:

/mnt/Media/Movies

This is because the movies are stored in the Movies directory. If you create multiples datasets under the Media dataset then you will have to create each source and destination separately. I do this as it's easier for me to track usage that way. It means more storage added but gives me the ability to look at which one is using the most data as well as the ability to snapshot each dataset as I see fit, so I can do pictures a whole lot more often than I do movies.

 

[rangopango]

I don't get it. Assume I have two drives, would I need one drive for one pool and the second drive for another pool for Plex itself?

If I have one pool with a dataset called "Plexmedia", it'd be /mnt/pool/Plexmedia. Then I'd have to put destination as /mnt/Plexmedia to grab everything inside /mnt/pool/Plexmedia?

 

[nightshade00013]

It doesn't matter how many drives there are. You could have every jail in a system on a separate pool (don't think in drives think in pools.) You could also have your media strewn across multiple different pools. Each pool needs a different name.

You are mounting the data inside of the jail. Where you choose to place it is YOUR choice. You select the jail in question from a drop down and you have to think of that jail as a separate computer. The source has NO CORRELATION with the destination.

The pool is tank, using something with "pool" in the name can bite you. In fact I would specifically shy away from naming the pool anything that is similar to any command you may ever issue.

So yes you analogy is correct but I will take it a step farther. You can mount

Code:

 /mnt/tank/plexmedia

into

Code:

/usr/local/plexdata-plexpass/Plex Media Server/Media/

(which is the location point for my jail's plex media storage location) and have it work just fine. Now when you have the system setup however you have actually put the link into something like

Code:

/mnt/tank/jails/PlexMediaServer/usr/local/plexdata-plexpass/Plex Media Server/Media

as it is a mount point inside the jail you are creating a symbolic link (think shortcut) from one place to another. The jail thinking it is in effect it's own computer sees the data at /usr/local/plexdata-plexpass/Plex Media Server/Media/ but the data is actually /mnt/tank/jails/PlexMediaServer/usr/local/plexdata-plexpass/Plex Media Server/Media in the system.

Now to take a step farther a pool is setup with multiple drives as media storage and it is called tank with a directory called media and a sub directory called movies. Another pool is setup for jails and vm's and it is called systems. The FreeNAS it'self mounts both of them in the mnt directory. so you have:

Code:

/mnt/tank
/mnt/systems

You have a Plex jail setup and want to mount the media into the jail. So the source would be:

Code:

/mnt/tank/media

and the destination would be

Code:

/mnt/media

What you have actually done though is create a link from /mnt/tank/media to /mnt/systems/jails/PlexMediaServer/mnt/media

Hopefully this helps to explain it all a little bit. The simple explanation is just select the jail and put the directory somewhere you can remember. And as far as a symbolic link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link may help.

 

[rangopango]

OK now I get, so it's just a soft link, and it won't duplicate the data at all. Basically the "direction" is just a virtual folder inside the jail/VM that'll add references to the actual source

 

[nightshade00013]

Yep, pretty much. And FreeNAS handles all the major troubles if you do it using the GUI.