PlexMediaServer Web Access

[Jath]

Hello,

I have been waiting for PMS to come to FreeNAS for a while so I could build a server for it. I finally built the server after I saw FreeNAS got the plugin.

I followed this guide to set my server up for PMS. I tried this guide on both 9.1.1 and 9.2.0 of FreeNAS (I'm currently using 9.2.0).

At this moment, I got PMS to actually Start and turn on, but I can't actually get to the web access. I already forwarded ports, etc, to the appropriate IP. Chrome just says could not connect, and IE says page couldn't be displayed.

Does anyone have any tips on troubleshooting this, or have an idea as to why I can't actually access the web manager?

Thank you.

 

[krisjrodz]

Are having problems trying to access Plex page from the Internet or your internal network?

 

[Jath]

I apologize. This is internally. Not even externally.

 

[krisjrodz]

Hi Jath,

Someone had a similar problem to yours in another thread which might help in your situation. Check out this thread: http://forums.freenas.org/threads/cant-access-plex-web-interface.17583/#post-94384. If this doesn't resolve your issue we could trouble shoot it some more.

 

[Jath]

Hi there!

I just tried the blog, and it's already running.

After trying to connect again, I noticed in the console the below.

Jan 25 14:53:41 freenas kernel: pid 9847 (Plex DLNA Server), uid 972: exited on signal 3
Jan 25 14:53:41 freenas kernel: pid 9837 (python), uid 972: exited on signal 3

 

[krisjrodz]

I have same messages in my message buffer but it I can still access the Plex webpage so I don't think that it is related to your problem. There are a few things I would like to to check. Could you ping the ip address of the plex jail from the PC your are trying to browse the Plex webpage from? If you can't, try these steps to make sure it isn't a network configuration issue

1. Verify that your jail has the correct network setting. Go the Jails --> Configuration. Make sure network config is valid for your LAN
2. If that checks out fine, click on the '+' sign to expand your plex jail, then go to Edit. Verify that your Plex jail has a valid IP address, subnet mask and gateway.
3. If that checks out fine then select view jails, select your plex jail in the window on the right, then look at the bottom of the window. You should see an option to stop the jail. Stop the jail, then start it.
4. After restarting the jail try accessing the Plex page again

 

[joeschmuck]

My first question would be... How are you trying to access Plex over your LAN? Specifically lay it out, step by step. What exact hardware and software are you using? For instance my Samsung smartTV has a Plex application which allows me to use Plex very nicely. My Vizio Co-Star streaming player has an app for Plex for Google TV.

As for your network configuration of Plex jail, ensure your gateway has been set up, by default it is left blank. I don't like this but that is how the developers created it.

 

[Jath]

I'm trying to access the server for the very first time. So to add the movies folder and all to it. I'm trying to do this by the web browser, so I'm typing in the LAN IP address that it acquired into Chrome or IE, with :32400/web at the end. Just says
Oops! Google Chrome could not connect to 192.168.1.*:32400

As for the Jail config, it didn't have a gateway configured, but I did add it. After I did that, I stopped and started the jail and tried to connect again to no avail.

I'm using a server I custom built with VMware ESXi 5.5 on it.

Edit: I couldn't ping the jail IP. I'll see what I can find with the jails. I'm new to FreeNAS at the same time, so I am sorry if I didn't troubleshoot a certain way right away.

 

[joeschmuck]

you can type your LAN IP address, it's not your WAN address. Are you connecting your Google Chrome via Wireless and your Plex through wired? Maybe your router is setup to isolate the two networks? I have not used Google Chrome for Plex, I do have one so I think I'll have to give it a try.

 

[Jath]

I've tried IE and Firefox also to no avail. It seems like for some reason, I just can't load that browser to manage the server. Everything is wired. My computer I'm on right now is a Windows 8.1 machine, server is wired also. It's really weird, honestly. Not really sure why it's not allowing me to access it or ping it or anything.

 

[joeschmuck]

Okay, let me walk you through it quickly...

1) Open the FreeNAS GUI, in the left hand pane you should see a PlexMediaServer under Plugins, click it.
2) This opens up up a window which says PlexMediaServer. Inside this the text reads "Click here to access your Plex Media Server!"
3) Click on the blue "here" to open the Plex GUI page.

If this doesn't work, report the error code. You may have an antivirus program of firewall stopping you. Also, Firefox is very compatable with FreeNAS, I.E. is not.

 

[Jath]

You are correct. Those are the exact steps I take. It automatically opens up a new tab with the IP of the Plex Jail and attempts to connect. The console at the bottom shows the below.

Jan 25 20:36:35 freenas kernel: pid 69318 (Plex DLNA Server), uid 972: exited on signal 3
Jan 25 20:36:35 freenas kernel: pid 69313 (python), uid 972: exited on signal 3

I tried disabling the only antivirus I have (Avast), still nothing. Firefox reports the below:

he connection has timed out

The server at 192.168.1.25 is taking too long to respond.

The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments.
If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network connection.
If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

 

[joeschmuck]

The error message you get with the 972, I get that also but it has no affect on PLEX that I can tell. I can use Plex and Plex DLNA service.

Your ports you forwarded are likely screwing things up, remove or disable them and try again.

The last thing I can think of throwing at it is to eliminate any network issue and that means a direct Ethernet cable from your NAS to your computer. Most Gb ports have auto crossover so as long as one of your ports has that, a direct cable will work. Then try to access it again.

 

[Jath]

I just tried deleting the ports and redoing them, but still nothing. Ports 32400 TCP/UDP just to make sure to 192.168.1.25. Nothing.

I'll have to attempt to do the Ethernet straight too. I have some things to do for work on the computer today, but later on I'll probably get there.

So, going into troubleshooting mode, from what I heard Jails are like lightweight virtual machines, correct? I highly doubt this is the cause, but I don't know enough about FreeNAS to know. Could it be because FreeNAS is a virtual machine also and we may need a bridge network connection? It's like it's host, virtual, then virtual again.

Just trying to troubleshoot myself. Lol.

 

[joeschmuck]

When you install the plugin the jail is configured except for one thing, the gateway must be setup and of course your shared files. After that you should be able to run Plex without issue. Okay, there could be other issues but that has to do with media permissions and has nothing to do with accessing the Plex GUI.

Good luck and I'm on travel starting tomorrow so I doubt I'll be online for a week. You may be on your own.

 

[Jath]

Yup, got the gateway configured. So I'm not sure why it's having so much issues, honestly.

Oh well. Have a good trip!

 

[Jath]

So, I did a bit more and I noticed something. From the FreeNAS web GUI, opening up the shell, and pinging that Jail, I can ping it. Pinging it from my computer, I cannot. So it seems like coming from the FreeNAS VM to the entire LAN network isn't working appropriately. I'm wondering if I have something configured wrong with the Jail or with FreeNAS to not allow it to go out properly.

Interesting...

Edit:

When I stopped and started the Jail, here is an error I got:

Jan 26 10:37:12 freenas notifier: Performing sanity check on nginx configuration:
Jan 26 10:37:12 freenas notifier: nginx: the configuration file /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok

Jan 26 10:37:12 freenas notifier: nginx: configuration file /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
Jan 26 10:37:12 freenas notifier: Stopping avahi-daemon.
Jan 26 10:37:12 freenas kernel: bridge0: Ethernet address: 02:9a:9c:99:05:00
Jan 26 10:37:12 freenas kernel: bridge0: link state changed to UP
Jan 26 10:37:12 freenas kernel: em0: promiscuous mode enabled
Jan 26 10:37:12 freenas kernel: epair0a: Ethernet address: 02:68:f0:00:05:0a
Jan 26 10:37:12 freenas kernel: epair0b: Ethernet address: 02:68:f0:00:06:0b
Jan 26 10:37:12 freenas kernel: epair0a: link state changed to UP
Jan 26 10:37:12 freenas kernel: epair0b: link state changed to UP
Jan 26 10:37:13 freenas kernel: epair0a: promiscuous mode enabled
Jan 26 10:37:14 freenas ntpd[1838]: bind() fd 22, family AF_INET6, port 123, scope 5, addr fe80::68:f0ff:fe00:50a, mcast=0 flags=0x11 fails: Can't assign requested address
Jan 26 10:37:14 freenas ntpd[1838]: unable to create socket on epair0a (461) for fe80::68:f0ff:fe00:50a#123

 

[joeschmuck]

I changed your quote from that horrible green to black font so I could read it.

You are confusing me, are you running FreeNAS in a VM or are you talking about the jail again? When talking about the jail, don't call it a VM because it adds to confusion. And if this is a metal machine, did you ever try a direct Ethernet connection without the router?

Lastly, are you using IPV6? I don't know how well it's been tested and I though I'd heard of some issues with it but that could have been corrected by now. I'm not on top of IPV6 since I don't use it.

 

[JoeBeaver]

I am having a similar problem. When I check ifconfig in the jail, I'm getting this back nothing which seems to point to it's having an issue setting it's IP? This is what I see in /var/log/messages when I try to start the service:

Jan 26 15:39:51 storage kernel: epair0a: Ethernet address: 02:da:d5:00:0d:0a
Jan 26 15:39:51 storage kernel: epair0b: Ethernet address: 02:da:d5:00:0e:0b
Jan 26 15:39:51 storage kernel: epair0a: link state changed to UP
Jan 26 15:39:51 storage kernel: epair0b: link state changed to UP
Jan 26 15:39:51 storage kernel: epair0a: promiscuous mode enabled
Jan 26 15:39:52 storage ntpd[1828]: bind() fd 28, family AF_INET6, port 123, scope 13, addr fe80::da:d5ff:fe00:d0a, mcast=0 flags=0x11 fails: Can't assign requested address
Jan 26 15:39:52 storage ntpd[1828]: unable to create socket on epair0a (9) for fe80::da:d5ff:fe00:d0a#123
Jan 26 15:39:55 storage kernel: arp: 10.10.10.6 moved from 02:08:59:00:0e:0b to 00:1c:10:29:19:cf on age0
Jan 26 15:40:00 storage manage.py: [freeadmin.navtree:522] Couldn't retrieve http://10.10.10.3/plugins/plexmediaserver/1/_s/treemenu: timed out
Jan 26 15:40:17 storage manage.py: [plugins.utils:87] Couldn't retrieve http://10.10.10.3/plugins/plexmediaserver/1/_s/status: HTTP Error 502: Bad Gateway
Any thoughts? Maybe replicating the issue might add some value.

 

[JoeBeaver]

Seems like I have solved my problem. In the Jail Configuration (Jail Tab -> Configuration Button), the start IP address assignment was set to my gateway (10.10.10.1). I changed it to something that wasn't the gateway and am now able to start the Jail and access plex. Here are the settings that I'm using now:

Try this Jath? Let us know how it goes.