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Plex

Plex media server allows you to aggregate all your personal media and access it anywhere you go.

Upgrading

Upgrading your PLEX instance is a simple process, login to the webui/dashboard we provide for your service, find the "Service info" section in the page you are presented with, from there simply click "Restart" next to plex, that will restart the app and also check for updates, please note that we are usually 2-3 days behind on updates!

Initial Setup​

First you must connect to your slot via ssh. If you need help connecting to the server, please read the help article here.

Installing Plex on your slot is easy. Simply issue the following command:

box install plex

After you issue this command, you'll receive the following notice:

Please visit https://www.plex.tv/claim, login, copy your plex claim token to your clipboard and paste it here. This will automatically claim your server! Please note, you will be unable to tunnel to your slot later if you do not claim it now.

It's not necessary to claim your server now, but it will make your life a bit easier after installation, as you can avoid having to claim your server after it's setup.

For convience sake, the link to grab a claim token is here. If you're not logged into Plex, the page will ask you to login. Once you're logged in, you'll be redirected to a page with a claim token on it. Copy this to your clipboard and paste it back in the terminal.

Tip

On Windows, under PuTTY, you can paste with a right-click. On Linux, you'll need to use Control-Shift-V.

Installation will take a few moments. Once it's done, you'll receive a notice that the installation is complete and the installer will let you know where you can access the application. (e.g. https://app02.hostingby.design:7777/web).

How to Access​

As above, the Plex installer will output your personal port access at the end of the installation. Since Plex doesn't have outstanding support for reverse proxies, access to Plex will be through the port it was setup on. For instance, 7777. To access the application directly, you can use the link https://serverhostname.io:port/web, or, for example: https://app02.hostingby.design:7777/web

Tip

If you forgot your personalized port, you can always access Plex from the "Plex" link on your dashboard, or you can re-discover your port programatically with the command cat ~/.install/.plex.lock. However, as long as your server has been claimed, it should always be viewable from your Plex Web dashboard at https://app.plex.tv/dashboard

Service Management​

Like all box configured applications, you can manage Plex via SSH with box with start, stop, restart, enable and disable commands.

box start plex

Configuration​

caution

You are welcome to change most of the settings under the server configuration; however, you should never touch the Plex remote port, nor the manual port mapping mode under the "Remote Access" settings. Doing so will likely result in you losing access to your plex instance.

Libraries​

During the setup of Plex, we automatically configure two media Libraries for you. These correspond to two directories in your home folder:

  • TV Shows > ~/media/TV Shows
  • Movies > ~/media/Movies

Furthermore, if you are needing to create a custom folder to your Library (in the instance of rclone or plexdrive), you will find that your entire home directory has been mounted under the /data folder of your Plex instance.

Manual claiming​

If you skipped claiming of your Plex server during installation, you can still claim it manually, but you'll need to create an SSH Tunnel to your server to appear as if you're using the same network as your Plex instance.

If you've gotten this far, I'll assume you don't need any reminders on how to connect to the server via SSH ;) However, creating an SSH tunnel takes a bit more effort than simply creating an SSH Connection.

1. Open up your PuTTY client again.
2. Under gateway, enter the hostname of your server, e.g.: `yourhostname.ltd`
3. Configure the tunnel:
    1. On the left hand side, navigate to `Connection > SSH > Tunnels`
    2. Under source port, enter 8888
    3. Login via SSH and issue this command without the quotes "cat ~/.install/.plex.lock"
    4. Under destination, enter localhost:<plex-port> (plex-port is the number shown in step 3 with the command)
    5. Click `Add`
4. Connect to the server by clicking `Open`
5. PuTTY will prompt you for your username and password like a regular SSH session.
6. Once connected, open your browser and navitage to http://localhost:8888/web
7. The browser will connect to your Plex server and let you know that there is an unclaimed server on your network.

Connect to other clients​

If you need to link your Plex instance to another application, such as Sonarr or Tautulli, you can use the following details:

Host: 127.0.0.1
Port: <your plex port>