Plex No Media Server

[BrennanK]

I am having an issue where FreeNAS is running the Plex App, but not the Plex Media server. I just installed the Plex plugin in FreeNAS and setup the jail. I browse to the URL and it prompted me to login, not the initial setup wizard that usually accompanies a new Plex media server.
This is what I should see:

This is what I did see (after logging in):

Why is FreeNAS not starting the media server also? I am out of my element here with plex, so any advice would be awesome. All this is done on what is basically a fresh FreeNAS 9.3 install.

I tested FreeNAS in ESXi before I went live with it and had no issues with Plex, but this time around I am running into problems.

 

[pirateghost]

??

Are you doing this from a Plex client? or the browser?

 

[BrennanK]

I am navigating to the IP address specified in the freenas jail, so in a web browser.

IPADDRESS:32400/web/

I don't even know what a Plex client is, I have done everything in the browser so far.

 

[pirateghost]

--A Plex client would be an app that plays media from the server....

Have you tried restarting your Plexmediaserver jail?

 

[BrennanK]

I have tried restarting services and reinstalling several times. Both the jail and the plex plugin.

 

[nightshade00013]

Literally just installed it with the plugin to check and see. Installed just fine and did everything it should have.

What version of FreeNAS are you using and system information?

 

[BrennanK]

Build FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201602031011
Platform Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU L5630 @ 2.13GHz x2
Memory 24541MB
Volumes 4 - 3TB drives in a raidz2
Anything else you need?


Yeah, I am perplexed. It is not hard. I literally just installed FreeNAS a few days ago and copied over my data. I tested Plex in a ESXi VM to see and it all worked just as expected there. Not sure what the issue is.

How can I remove all traces of the Plex plugin and Jail? I noticed that the actual jail directory is removed when I delete the files, but there must still be some traces left else wear. It is pretty frustrating to be tripped up with such an seemly simple thing.
The Plex Media Server.log didn't contain much either which is disheartening.

 

[nightshade00013]

Honestly instead of installing the plugin just do the jail install.

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...all-plex-in-a-freenas-9-3-jail-updated.19412/

That way even if the plugin is messed up you can bypass it without risking other problems.

 

[BrennanK]

I'll try that tomorrow.
Does that install Plex like you would on a stand alone server, but in a FreeNAS jail? Is that the idea with the jail install?
I am not overly familiar with FreeNAS jails and the documentation wasn't super clear to me.

Thanks for the assistance.

 

[nightshade00013]

Basically the same instructions for the installation would work on a bare metal install of FreeBSD, the only thing that would not be the same is the attachment of storage to the jail. So the answer is pretty much yes.

The plugin system makes it a simple click click done but has its caveats as when things goof it seems to be harder to figure out. My only suggestion with the jail is set up a snapshot once a week or so. Then if something happens during an upgrade or you change something that breaks it you can just roll back to a previous version.

 

[danb35]

I can't say if this is your problem or not, but Plex can be pretty RAM-hungry, and you have less than 1/3 the required minimum RAM to run FreeNAS alone. That can't be helping.

Edit: Disregard, I obviously can't read numbers this morning.

 

[pirateghost]

I can't say if this is your problem or not, but Plex can be pretty RAM-hungry, and you have less than 1/3 the required minimum RAM to run FreeNAS alone. That can't be helping.

24gb RAM...

 

[danb35]

You know, I thought I counted those digits carefully, and I still obviously missed one. Oops.

 

[BrennanK]

UPDATE:

I removed my plex plugin and insured the jail was removed.
I then followed this guide exactly:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...all-plex-in-a-freenas-9-3-jail-updated.19412/

The exact same issue is happening. When I go to the jail URL for the first time it prompts me for a plex login, not a first time server setup wizard.
What should I look for to solve this issue?

 

[nightshade00013]

Which "Jail URL" are you using. Sounds like you may be using the same one or something that is being generated wrong.

Go into the FreeNAS UI and go to the "Jails" button at the top. Should come up with a list of jails with different IP's use the one listed there and :32400/web

What browser are you using as well?

 

[BrennanK]

There is only one jail. I just created from scratch to install Plex in. You can see that it is number 6 because I tried using the plug in jails several times.

Code:

[root@freenas] ~# jls
   JID  IP Address      Hostname                      Path
     6  -               plex                          /mnt/removed/jails/plex

I am going to the correct URL. Here is a screenshot before login. This is the FIRST thing I saw after installing plex. I SHOULD see a 'welcome to plex media server getting started page' like in the picture in the first post.

Here is after signing in:

Notice how it cannot find the server. The freeNAS box is running on 192.168.10.40 and the freeNAS jail I just made is running on 192.168.10.45
I am using Chrome Version 46.0.2490.71 m

 

[nightshade00013]

Ok, I am assuming a couple things here and may have a way to figure it out. You are manually setting the IP address each time and you have not rebooted the system.

Reboot the FreeNAS, and clear your browser cache or use another browser and see what happens. I think what has happened is one end or the other has cached something and it's not letting go of it so you are getting the same information which isn't exactly correct.

 

[BrennanK]

Solved the issue. It was pretty stupid and I think Plex should fix it in a future release.

Let me lay out some background here. I have two subnets one for servers (192.168.10.0/24) and one for client machines (192.168.50.0/24). My FreeNAS machine had an IP address of 192.168.10.40 and the FreeNAS jail had an IP address of 192.168.10.45. My client machine that I was configuring FreeNAS from and going to the Plex Jail IP with has an IP address of 192.168.50.55 - in the other network.

If I went to the Plex Jail on a machine in my 50 network it would only load the Plex Web App and tell me there was no Plex Media Server. After a lot of troubleshooting and trying several different machines (all in the 50 net) to eliminate caching issues I tried going to the Plex Jail on a VM I have running in an ESXi server (which exists in the 10 network). Whamo - works no problem. When I connected to the Plex box on the same network it worked no problem, but if I connected to it via router it wouldn't work correctly. I configured Plex via the VM and linked it to my Plex account. Then I was able to access the Plex Media server from any machine in both networks.


TL;DR - You must be on the same network as the Plex Media Server during initial configuration otherwise it will not work.

 

[pirateghost]

Solved the issue. It was pretty stupid and I think Plex should fix it in a future release.

Let me lay out some background here. I have two subnets one for servers (192.168.10.0/24) and one for client machines (192.168.50.0/24). My FreeNAS machine had an IP address of 192.168.10.40 and the FreeNAS jail had an IP address of 192.168.10.45. My client machine that I was configuring FreeNAS from and going to the Plex Jail IP with has an IP address of 192.168.50.55 - in the other network.

If I went to the Plex Jail on a machine in my 50 network it would only load the Plex Web App and tell me there was no Plex Media Server. After a lot of troubleshooting and trying several different machines (all in the 50 net) to eliminate caching issues I tried going to the Plex Jail on a VM I have running in an ESXi server (which exists in the 10 network). Whamo - works no problem. When I connected to the Plex box on the same network it worked no problem, but if I connected to it via router it wouldn't work correctly. I configured Plex via the VM and linked it to my Plex account. Then I was able to access the Plex Media server from any machine in both networks.


TL;DR - You must be on the same network as the Plex Media Server during initial configuration otherwise it will not work.

This isn't something Plex needs to fix. It is not intended to broadcast across subnets.

 

[Joshua Parker Ruehlig]

Solved the issue. It was pretty stupid and I think Plex should fix it in a future release.

Let me lay out some background here. I have two subnets one for servers (192.168.10.0/24) and one for client machines (192.168.50.0/24). My FreeNAS machine had an IP address of 192.168.10.40 and the FreeNAS jail had an IP address of 192.168.10.45. My client machine that I was configuring FreeNAS from and going to the Plex Jail IP with has an IP address of 192.168.50.55 - in the other network.

If I went to the Plex Jail on a machine in my 50 network it would only load the Plex Web App and tell me there was no Plex Media Server. After a lot of troubleshooting and trying several different machines (all in the 50 net) to eliminate caching issues I tried going to the Plex Jail on a VM I have running in an ESXi server (which exists in the 10 network). Whamo - works no problem. When I connected to the Plex box on the same network it worked no problem, but if I connected to it via router it wouldn't work correctly. I configured Plex via the VM and linked it to my Plex account. Then I was able to access the Plex Media server from any machine in both networks.


TL;DR - You must be on the same network as the Plex Media Server during initial configuration otherwise it will not work.

The plugin has a setting "Disables security. May be needed for initial access." in its configuration menu (FreeNAS WebUI > left panel Plugins > Plex).
Did you try changing changing that?

I think this is needed when accessing plex from a different broadcast domain, before setting a password.