Installing Plex in a Jail on TrueNAS 13.3-U1.1

Apps and Virtualization
1

I am trying to configure a plex media server using Truenas core. A tutorial I found had me run the following commands within the jail:

pkg
pkg install plexmediaserver-plexpass
sysrc “plexmediaserver_plexpass_enable=YES”
chown -R plex:plex /usr/local/share/plexmediaserver-plexpass
service plexmediaserver_plexpass start

I completed the steps and my jail appears configured correctly (I could map to plex folder structures), but when I start the plexmediaserver service, it says it is starting but doesn’t actually start. No errors come up. I am new to TrueNas and was hoping for any advice. Thank you!

2

Check top when you are inside the plex jail and confirm Plex is appearing running there.
You can also use htop from an SSH session to TrueNAS itself, but that will show other processes in other jails, too.

Edit:

I just tried your steps for myself.

pkg install plexmediaserver-plexpass
sysrc "plexmediaserver_plexpass_enable=YES"
chown -R plex:plex /usr/local/share/plexmediaserver-plexpass
service plexmediaserver_plexpass start

It worked fine. The chown command shouldn’t be needed. Did you use VNET in the jail setup?

3

Yes I did have VNET in the jail set up, as well as DHCP.

4

So was Plex showing up in the running process list?

5

It was not, after looking through some resources and some chat gpt code, it looks like my permissions aren’t set up properly. Trying to run it in the foreground gives an error that plex can’s access the path “/root/Library/Application Support/ Plex Media Server”

I’m unsure if this is an error with my jail or if it is with user configuration outside of the jail.

6

Start again in a new jail. Don’t bother with the mount points. Wait until you can actually get this running and signed into your Plex account, and then you can go back and change things.

pkg install plexmediaserver-plexpass
sysrc "plexmediaserver_plexpass_enable=YES"
service plexmediaserver_plexpass start

That’s all. I just did it again with a new jail and I was able to access the local web interface fine.

Edit:

Trying to run it in the foreground gives an error that plex can’s access the path “/root/Library/Application Support/ Plex Media Server”

Don’t try to remap where the Plex server databases and metadata are kept if you are brand new at this. Unless your jail pool is really tiny there isn’t a good reason to at this point in Core’s life.