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Configuring Plex Media Server with Scaleway Object Storage

Reviewed on 04 November 2024 • Published on 24 September 2018

Plex-Media-Server
streaming
s3fs
lucidlink

Plex is a client/server media player system comprising two main components:

The Plex Server application, which is available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and even including some NAS devices.
Plex clients that can be either a web-based interface, an application on smart TVs, streaming boxes, or other third-party applications.

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

A Scaleway account logged into the console
Owner status or IAM permissions allowing you to perform actions in the intended Organization
An SSH key
An Instance running Ubuntu Focal Fossa (20.04 LTS)
An Object Storage bucket
sudo privileges or access to the root user

Installing the required software

Connect to your Instance using SSH.

ssh root@<your-instance-IP>

Update the APT package manager and the software already installed on the system:

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Add the Plex repository:

Add Plex’s GPG key to the apt sources keychain and create a new file containing an entry to the Plex repository by running the following commands:

curl https://downloads.plex.tv/plex-keys/PlexSign.key | apt-key add -
echo deb https://downloads.plex.tv/repo/deb public main | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/plexmediaserver.list

Install Plex and s3fs:

Now, as the Plex repository is enabled, update the APT package list and install the latest version of Plex and s3fs, which is needed to mount the Object Storage bucket.

apt update
apt install -y plexmediaserver s3fs

Configuring s3fs

Create the folder on which you will mount the bucket.

mkdir -p /mnt/media

Enter your API keys in the password file and set owner-only permissions.

echo $ACCESS_KEY:$SECRET_KEY >  ~/.passwd-s3fs
chmod 600  ~/.passwd-s3fs

Uncomment user_allow_other in the /etc/fuse.conf file to allow other users to access the server. You can use a text editor of your choice. In this tutorial we use nano.

nano /etc/fuse.conf
  [...]
  user_allow_other

Mount the bucket in the local file system.

s3fs plexmediaserver /mnt/media -o allow_other -o umask=0002 -o passwd_file=${HOME}/.passwd-s3fs -o url=https://s3.nl-ams.scw.cloud

Note

Replace plexmediaserver with the name of your bucket and nl-ams with the region of your bucket, if necessary.

(Optional) To mount the bucket automatically during boot, create a systemd script, called /etc/systemd/user/s3fs.service:
```
[Unit]
Description=S3FS mounts
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target
[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/usr/bin/s3fs plexmediaserver /mnt/media -o allow_other -o umask=0002 -o passwd_file=${HOME}/.passwd-s3fs -o url=https://s3.nl-ams.scw.cloud
ExecStop=/bin/fusermount -u /mnt/media
[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
```

Enable the script by running the following commands:

systemctl --user enable s3fs.service
systemctl --user start s3fs.service

If you ever want to disable the automatic mounting, run the following command:

systemctl --user stop s3fs.service

Configuring Plex

Check that Plex is running before continuing:

systemctl status plexmediaserver.service

The output should look like this example:

● plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server for Linux
  Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service; enabled; vendor
  Active: active (running) since Sun 2018-09-23 14:16:52 UTC; 1min 53s ago
  Process: 882 ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c /usr/bin/test -d "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APP
Main PID: 889 (sh)
[...]

If the status is active (running) everything is fine.

Access the Plex interface through an SSH tunnel:
- On Linux or macOS computers, you can create the tunnel with the following command:
```
ssh root@plex.server.ip -L 8888:localhost:32400
```
- On Windows computers, you can create the tunnel by using PuTTY:
  - Open PuTTY, and enter your server IP address in the hostname and SSH port. Or, if you already have your server session set up and saved, just load the existing session.
  - Go to Connection > SSH > Tunnels.
  - Fill in Source port as 8888 and Destination as localhost:32400.
  - Click the Add button.
  - Navigate back to the session homepage now and click the Save button, then Open to connect to the server.
Open a web browser on your local computer and navigate to http://localhost:8888/web. The Plex login screen displays:

Note
In order to use Plex, you must create an account.

Once you are logged in, you will be automatically redirected to the setup of the server:
Access the Plex interface with your server IP address:
- Open a web browser on your local computer and navigate to http://<plex.server.ip>:32400
- The Plex login screen should display.
Note
The port 32400 is the default used by Plex for the interface.
Enter the required parameters and click Next to complete the setup.

Note
Make sure the checkbox Allow me to access my media outside my home is ticked, so you can access your media files from any device.
Click Add a library to create a new media gallery.
Select the type of library you wish to create and click Next.
Click Browse and select a multimedia folder to do so.
- Plex recommends creating separate folders for each type of media. For example, if your library is about movies, create a folder Movies in your bucket, through the /mnt/media mounted folder or the Scaleway console.
- You should see the Movies folder inside Plex, in the browse window.
Select /mnt/media/<Folder name> as the media folder.

Tip
You can upload additional content to your server with any Amazon S3-compatible tool, like Cyberduck.
Click Next and then Finish to conclude the set-up.
Add media to your bucket and trigger a scan of your media folder in the Plex interface. Your media should display. If so, it is all set up. For more information about Plex, refer to their official documentation.

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