Plex suddenly stopped working

[djdwosk97]

Plex has been working fine for a few months now but it randomly turned off and I can't turn it back on (even after rebooting).

When I run (from within the plex jail)

Code:

service plexmediaserver onestart

Here was the output before I rebooted:

Code:

plexmediaserver already running? (pid=52818).

Here's the output after I reboot:

Code:

Starting plexmediaserver.
su: pam_start: system error
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/plexmediaserver: WARNING: failed to start plexmediaserver

I also tried deleting and reinstalling the plugin and I still can't turn the service on.

 

[dlavigne]

Just to confirm, run service plexmedia start from the jail's shell and paste the messages that appear in the jail's /var/log/messages as well as any error that appears at the command prompt.

 

[djdwosk97]

Just to confirm, run service plexmedia start from the jail's shell and paste the messages that appear in the jail's /var/log/messages as well as any error that appears at the command prompt.

Code:

root@plexmediaserver_1:/ # service plexmedia start
plexmedia does not exist in /etc/rc.d or the local startup
directories (/usr/local/etc/rc.d)

Code:

root@plexmediaserver_1:/var/log # less /var/log/messages
Jan 20 15:00:04 plexmediaserver_1 newsyslog[38191]: logfile first created
Jan 20 15:00:04 plexmediaserver_1 syslogd: kernel boot file is /boot/kernel/kern
el
Jan 20 15:07:15 plexmediaserver_1 syslogd: exiting on signal 15
Jan 20 15:13:20 plexmediaserver_1 syslogd: kernel boot file is /boot/kernel/kern
el
/var/log/messages (END)

 

[dlavigne]

Sorry, my bad, I meant service plexmediaserver start (or whatever the name of that startup script is in /usr/local/etc/rc.d).

 

[djdwosk97]

Sorry, my bad, I meant service plexmediaserver start (or whatever the name of that startup script is in /usr/local/etc/rc.d).

Code:

root@plexmediaserver_1:/ # service plexmediaserver start
Cannot 'start' plexmediaserver. Set plexmediaserver_enable to YES in /etc/rc.con
f or use 'onestart' instead of 'start'.
root@plexmediaserver_1:/ #

Code:

root@plexmediaserver_1:/ # less /var/log/messages
Jan 20 15:00:04 plexmediaserver_1 newsyslog[38191]: logfile first created
Jan 20 15:00:04 plexmediaserver_1 syslogd: kernel boot file is /boot/kernel/kern
el
Jan 20 15:07:15 plexmediaserver_1 syslogd: exiting on signal 15
Jan 20 15:13:20 plexmediaserver_1 syslogd: kernel boot file is /boot/kernel/kern
el
/var/log/messages (END)

 

[Allan Wilmath]

When I have had problems with Plex running, it turned out to be network configuration issues in the jail section. If a plug in does not have network access, it seems that the Plug ins GUI can not control them. You can still turn them on and off in the Jails section though.

Just a random idea, any possibility that there is something new on the network with the same IP address as Plex? If so, moving that device and restarting FreeNAS should resolve the issue.

But those are just guesses.

 

[djdwosk97]

When I have had problems with Plex running, it turned out to be network configuration issues in the jail section. If a plug in does not have network access, it seems that the Plug ins GUI can not control them. You can still turn them on and off in the Jails section though.

Just a random idea, any possibility that there is something new on the network with the same IP address as Plex? If so, moving that device and restarting FreeNAS should resolve the issue.

But those are just guesses.

Nope, no other devices are using the IP address, from the jail's shell I'm able to ping my laptop though, so I don't think there is a network issue.

 

[dlavigne]

It's weird that start says it's not in rc.conf. Does onestart still say it's running or does it give a different error now?

 

[djdwosk97]

It's weird that start says it's not in rc.conf. Does onestart still say it's running or does it give a different error now?

As soon as I rebooted it stopped saying it was already running.

Code:

root@plexmediaserver_1:/ # service plexmediaserver onestart
Starting plexmediaserver.
root@plexmediaserver_1:/ #

Now it started and is on....and I haven't done anything....

 

[djdwosk97]

@dlavigne

Okay, so something happened and I think the server crashed -- I wasn't able to access plex or the web gui, nor was I able to connect to the server. So I did a hard shutdown and turned it back on. The plex service was off and I wasn't able to toggle it back on -- the only way for me to turn it on is with the command:

Code:

service plexmediasever onestart

I guess I'll create a fresh FreeNAS install for my new system when it comes in like a week instead of uploading the same (possibly broken) config.

 

[SweetAndLow]

• Starting plexmediaserver.

• su: pam_start: system error

• /usr/local/etc/rc.d/plexmediaserver: WARNING: failed to start plexmediaserver

This error means you changed the permissions of your plex jail. Did you change any permissions in your pool lately? How are your datasets layed out and which ones are you sharing.

No need to reinstall freenas you just need to delete your jail dataset and create a new one with a new jail.

 

[djdwosk97]

This error means you changed the permissions of your plex jail. Did you change any permissions in your pool lately? How are your datasets layed out and which ones are you sharing.

No need to reinstall freenas you just need to delete your jail dataset and create a new one with a new jail.

I didn't change any permissions recently. I originally didn't make any datasets-- I just used the volume as the dataset, I recently went through and added a datasets. I have one dataset for each volume and all four volumes are being shared.

I did that already and that's what got plex working consistently (consistently through several restarts) over the past few months. So you don't think there's any benefit to a fresh install?

What's really confusing to me is that I didn't change anything to break it and I didn't change anything to fix it either; it just suddenly started working (although the service toggle still doesn't work -- I had to start it via the shell).

 

[djdwosk97]

This error means you changed the permissions of your plex jail. Did you change any permissions in your pool lately? How are your datasets layed out and which ones are you sharing.

No need to reinstall freenas you just need to delete your jail dataset and create a new one with a new jail.

any idea what could be going on?

 

[SweetAndLow]

I originally didn't make any datasets-

This...

You shouldn't just use the root dataset because you end up modifying the jail dataset ever time you change your share. You also can't mount your storage in your jail so I'm not sure how you even got plex to play your media.

You are going to need to rebuild your jail. It should be quick and easy. Ideally you would delete your current jail dataset if you don't have other jails. Then create a new dataset with default settings then set your jail root dataset. Lastly create your new jail and install plex using pkg install plexmediaserver

 

[djdwosk97]

This...

You shouldn't just use the root dataset because you end up modifying the jail dataset ever time you change your share. You also can't mount your storage in your jail so I'm not sure how you even got plex to play your media.

You are going to need to rebuild your jail. It should be quick and easy. Ideally you would delete your current jail dataset if you don't have other jails. Then create a new dataset with default settings then set your jail root dataset. Lastly create your new jail and install plex using pkg install plexmediaserver

That was originally though and Plex wasn't really working at all. Then a few months back I created datasets on all my volumes and transffered the data back to the new datasets (as well as deleting the plex jail/plugin and reinstalling/creating it) -- so no longer was I using the root dataset; and that's what fixed Plex and got it working for the past few months.

P.s. I know I have to move some stuff out of Video2 in order to get my usage below 85%.

 

[SweetAndLow]

why do you have so many pools? That is not normal to create a new pool for every disk you add.

 

[djdwosk97]

why do you have so many pools? That is not normal to create a new pool for every disk you add.

Because they're all separate volumes? I have two 1tb drives (mirrored), and then three independent 4tb drives.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Why don't you have them as one big volume?

 

[djdwosk97]

Why don't you have them as one big volume?

You mean why aren't the 4tb drives in some kind of array? I didn't like likelihood of a RaidZ1 array failing upon rebuilding and I didn't want to buy a fourth drive for RAIDZ2.

 

[pirateghost]

You mean why aren't the 4tb drives in some kind of array? I didn't like likelihood of a RaidZ1 array failing upon rebuilding and I didn't want to buy a fourth drive for RAIDZ2.

He was actually asking why you don't have your vdevs in a pool. You're kind of fighting one of the great things about zfs. Pooled storage