Plex brings together all the media that matters to you, organizing your personal collections alongside stellar online content, streaming music, and more, making it all look beautiful in one universal interface.
How to Installing Plex Media Server on FreeNas 11.2
The guide below is the general overview of you to install and run Please Media Server on FreeNas, I recommend watching the video below to make the instructions make sense.
Create Server and Mount Points
- Log onto FreeNas GUI
- Jails –> ADD –> Jail Name –> Latest Release –> Next –> DHCP Autoconfigure IPv4 –> Autoconfigure IPv6 –> Next –> Submit
- SSH to FreeNas Server using Putty –> jls (List Jails) –> jexec # (Number of your Jail)
- make folder in your /mnt folder ready for mount point ( e.g. mkdir /mnt/movies )
- type exit to exit from jail
- In FreeNas GUI Shutdown Jail
- Add Mount Point to /mnt/movies from your FreeNas server
- Start Jail
Installing Plex
While in your jail through SSH run the following:
To receive the newest FreeBSD packages including Plex Media Server packages run:
# pkg update
To Install Plex (Free Version or Paid Plex Pass version)
# pkg install plexmediaserver
or
# pkg install plexmediaserver-plexpass
Checking For Updates
Here are the manual instructions on how to logon and check for Plex media server updates:
- SSH to your FreeNas Server and logon
- jls (To give you a list of Jails)
- jexec # (Number of your Jail)
- pkg update && pkg upgrade -y (To Search for updates and install)
If there are any updates available they will be installed automatically. After any upgrade to your Plex Media Server package you must restart Plex media server service with the following for your upgrade to take affect:
# service plexmediaserver restart
or
# service plexmediaserver_plexpass restart
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Thanks for this, been battling with the “plugin” version not installing, and it was really frustrating, this video help me get it running in 10 minutes.
FreeNAS v10 and v11 are train wrecks really. The quality control around release management seems to have gone to pot. Features that aren’t stable, undocumented behaviours, and all the while the advice from the development team is “ask on the forums” which is such a lame response. Very disappointed in the current state of play, and I’m not the only one.
Can you elaborate on Step 7: Add Mount Point to /mnt/movies from your FreeNas server
I don’t understand what we’re trying to do here. I would think that from within the jail I’d want to mount my NFS share that I have already setup on FreeNAS but you’re saying go to my FreeNAS server and mount my jail’s directory onto (something)? I’m confused. Thanks!
In the video I show how the mount part is done.
But to answer your question, we are not linking NFS share mounts into the jail.
The purpose of mount points in this step, is linking a folder that is on your FreeNAS server to your jail so it has access.
As the jail is isolated on FreeNAS, Plex won’t be able to see the movies saved on your primary NAS.
So when drives are added into FreeNAS it gets pointed to the directory where the movies was mounted into.
The video should visually what I mean.
But please feel free to ask more if required.
3 days I spent fighting with the plugins and 10 mins watching your vid cured it…I need a drink.
One question I had, and its likely pretty dumb, is do you go back and create more mount points for “TV Shows” and “Music” folders? I attempted this and couldn’t get the jail to start again, it said there was no clear path. I deleted those mount points and it fired right up…
Thanks!
You just need to ensure you create the folder inside your jail, so when the paths are created they should have a clear path, but you may have already fixed this since, sorry it took so long to reply to this one.
Great tutorial!
Generally i find i need to create the folder first, then point it from my freenas server into the jail, the video shows this linkage more clearly, let me know how you go.
I keep getting this error { jexec: execlp: /usr/local/bin/zsh: No such file or directory}
when I type jexec and the JID for the Plex jail listed when i type jls.
This guy had the same issue, in the end he needed to rebuild his freenas server
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/cant-access-jails-via-ssh.27004/
Don’t rebuild your server.
jexec # /bin/tcsh
For some reason the z shell isn’t available in a jail.
Trying to get Plex setup per your video and ran into a snag;
I am sure I am missing something simple…
New install of FreeNAS-11.2-U3 this week, above post stated a complete reinstall was done to resolve problem.
root@freenas[/mnt]# jls
JID IP Address Hostname Path
1 Plex /mnt/reds/iocage/jails/Plex/root
root@freenas[/mnt]# jexec 1
jexec: execlp: /usr/local/bin/zsh: No such file or directory <— cannot figure out why I am getting this error
root@freenas[/mnt]#
root@freenas[/mnt]# echo $PATH
/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/root/bin
Try
jexec /bin/csh
That worked! Thank you
I’m on 11.2 u5, and was having trouble with pkg update / install commands.
I used iocage console jailname instead of jexec jailnumber, and pkg worked like a champ…
Hope this helps…
I used iocage console jailname instead of jexec jailnumber, and pkg worked like a champ. I’m on 11.2-u5…
Hope this helps…
Thanks for these videos and guides mate, really helpful! Just having a little problem when setting up the libraries in the Plex GUI.
When I go to add libraries the /mnt/movies folder is greyed out/unselectable. If I type the path manually I get there are no items in this library when I scan it. Any ideas?
I’ve followed your instructions exaclt as far as I can tell, so I’m all out of ideas.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
after the mount points are added into your fails, make sure auto mount is selected and ensure you restart the jail, all going well you should be able to browse, let me know how you go
root@Plex:/ # service plexmediaserver start
Starting plexmediaserver.
su: /bin/csh: Permission denied
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/plexmediaserver: WARNING: failed to start plexmediaserver
Try changing the permission on plexdata to plex: plex and restarted the jail
Can you please explain how to change the permission on plexdata? I am also having this problem.
In short generally your Plex Server will only see files that are on your current NAS no where else, that is why this part here https://youtu.be/76vJcR6EdvE?t=238 shows pointing the data to your freenas mounted folder that you configured, this guide here https://www.myrandomtips.com/linux/freenas/freenas-11-2-setup-new-hard-drives/ will show how i setup the initial folders that youll be able access on your network to put the files into. Now sometimes you may find permissions on shared folder just check that under Sharing –> Windows (SMB) Shares –> that allow guest access is allowed. just check that under Sharing –> Windows (SMB) Shares –> that allow guest access is allowed. Then one time i needed to restart the jail to ensure that it was working. If you have issues browse into your mount point in the jail and check 1 that you can see the files, 2 test writing to the folder a test file, e.g vi test.txt and put in some text and then cat the file and test you can read it.
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I have followed this exactly to the letter and when i navigate to the localhost:32400/web address i get No soup for you, any ideas?
Check if your Plex Jail has an IP address through the gui, the weburl should be IP:32400