TechTalk – Tagged "Storage"– TechMikeNY

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Thanks for your comment, Steve. Haven’t tested any of those out before, but the more solutions the merrier — would you mind sharing the scripts you found?

— TechMike

There are also scripts available for this that can run all these commands and set fan speeds based on an available temperature reading and be run via a cron command at minute, five minute, etc intervals.

— Steve

Nice basic virtualization primer. Thank you!

— Zach

Thanks for sharing! Yes, the fix in that Reddit thread will work; as we mentioned in Step 11, you’ll need to make sure that the top fields are correctly filled out when you go to disable host path safety checks in “Advanced Settings”, aka “Kubernetes Settings”. (This also includes selecting “0.0.0.0” from the “Node IP” dropdown.) Otherwise, if your port forwarding isn’t set up properly, Plex will not be able to see the server remotely.

— TechMike

In order to see my server from app.plex.tv and also use the mobile apps, I had to change the settings in Plex and the apps settings in Truenas apps (interface and gateway fields) like explained here: https://reddit.com/r/truenas/s/h1irnAB2Fm

— Michel

Hey Logan, 

Thanks for your question. Start by making sure that “Plex Data Volume” and “Plex Config Volume” settings for Plex are pointing to the correct datasets (see step 13). If that’s all set properly, you may be running into one of a few things. 

We found that in order for Plex to recognize our media, we had to create subfolders for each individual piece of media and give the subfolders whatever name we wanted the media to appear as in Plex. 

If it’s a folder structure issue, here’s what you can do: Let’s say you want to add Jaws to Plex, for example. Your structure would need to be Media > Movies > Jaws > Jaws.mkv. If you want it to show up as, say, “Scary Shark Movie”, your structure could be Media > Movies > Scary Shark Movie > Jaws.mkv. (Note that changing the folder name will also change what Plex searches for to populate the movie info/poster.) 

Now, if that doesn’t solve the problem, then it may have to do with the permissions for your Media dataset. To check what your permissions are set to, go into the “Datasets” menu on the left, select your Media dataset, and click “Edit” on the permissions box. First, double check that Owner is set to “apps” for both User and Group. Then, make sure that the “Read”, “Write”, and “Execute” permission boxes are checked for both User and Group. 

Let us know if you need help with anything else!

— TechMike

Hey TechMike,
Thank you for the detailed guide, I made it through to the last step without issue, but seem to be having problems adding media to my server. Like in the other comment you responded to, I can’t get plex to recognize my media whatever I do.

I tried separating the files out into folders inside of Media called Movies and TV Shows, but Plex won’t seem to recognize anything past one folder deep.

It also doesn’t add the media (even if it shows up when I click the Data Tab when selecting a library) if they are in the root of the SMB Media folder.

Any help is appreciated.

— Logan

Excellent guide! Everything went very well with my first foray into using TrueNAS scale using this. I had used OMV with docker and Portainer before and this is even easier.

— Josh

Hey Trey,

Thanks for your question. In the final step of adding a Library to Plex, selecting “/data” during the last step is not actually adding data to Plex; it is directing Plex to look for media within the location, “/data”.

Backtracking to Step 8, we set up 2 datasets; 1. “Plex Config”, for Plex’s configuration files, and 2.“Media”, to store your videos, pictures, and any other content that you want Plex to access.

How does content end up in “Media”? That’s where the SMB share comes into play. The purpose of the SMB share is to be able to easily transfer your media files from your computer and into the “Media” dataset. This dataset is what Plex will access through the designated folder called “data.”

During Step 13, when configuring Plex’s “Storage” settings, you need to check the “Enable host path for Plex Data Volume” and set the host path to the “Media” dataset. By doing this, you’re essentially telling TrueNAS to link the “Media” dataset to the “/data” folder.

Then, when you go to add a Library and hit “Browse Media Dataset”, you’ll need to select the “/data” folder. You’ve set everything up so that whatever is in “Media” ends up in “/data”.


Hope that helps!

— TechMike

Last step to add Library to Plex doesnt work. If media is the directory and shared via SMB then why you adding data to Plex.

— Trey

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your question. The R640 does in fact support both PCIe SSDs and PCIe Bifurcation. However, it is dependent on the operating system containing the correct drivers for the PCI card or PCI SSD adapter. 

We cannot guarantee any part which we cannot test for compatibility, and we haven’t tested these servers with the 3rd party PCI NVME cards or 2.5" NVME adapters. Installing one of these cards may cause the server to run in safemode, spinning the fans up to 100%. Usually, the 2.5" NVME adapters are not compatible with the SAS/RAID controllers used in these model servers.

— TechMike

What do you think of those NVMe M.2 adapters which plug into a PCIe slot? You can find many inexpensive PCIe adapters on eBay which support 1, 2 or 4 NVMe M.2 drives. The ones which support 2 or 4 NVMe drives require a motherboard which supports PCIe bifurcation, but the R640 apparently does. Here are a couple of search strings you can use on eBay:

PCIe M.2 NVME profile -SATA

PCIe M.2 NVME “supports 4” -SATA

Alternately, if you want to go the U.2 route, there are M.2 NVMe to U.2 enclosures for under $10. What do you think of them? Here’s an eBay search string:

M.2 NVMe PCIe to U.2 2.5 SSD

— Dave Burton

To the techmikeny.com webmaster, Your posts are always informative and well-explained.

— Joellen Snoddy