I was in the position early on with Plex that I wanted to try it out quickly and see if I liked it. In the end I had to spend hours learning how to configure it. Long story short, I rolled up everything I learned here so others could benefit (and because it was fun). In contrast to other "Plex in Docker" projects, this one attempts to take a high-level view of what you are trying to accomplish and automatically configure Docker and Plex to achieve that.
Clone or download this repository, then cd to it and follow the instructions below.
If you don't have Docker, install it per your OS instructions and add yourself to the docker group so that sudo is not required to use Docker. On Ubuntu or Debian, do:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker.io
sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker
To have Plex automatically restart when the system reboots, you need to enable Docker to start on boot. In Ubuntu, do:
sudo systemctl enable docker
You edit the conf file to customize your Plex server installation.
First configure your media folders. In conf you will see:
media_folders=(media media1 media2 media3)
media=""
media1=""
media2=""
media3=""
Set these up however you like. For example, if you are starting from scratch, you might do:
media_folders=(music pix videos)
music="/home/user/Music"
pix="/home/user/Pictures"
videos="/home/user/Videos"
Then in Plex when you go to add a library folder, your music will be in /music, pictures in /pix, and videos in /videos.
If you have an existing non-Dockerized Plex setup, and want to keep your existing meta-data without re-scanning all your media, you might do:
media_folders=(home)
home="/home"
Then in Plex your music will still be in /home/user/Music, pictures in /home/user/Pictures, and videos in /home/user/Videos.
At this point you can proceed to Starting the Plex container below, or you can tweak these settings in conf:
This is where Plex maintains its media database and configuration. Default is database/config under the current working directory. If you already have a Plex media database, or want to specify a different location, change config to the full path name.
This is where Plex keeps temporary files during transcoding. Default is database/transcode under the current working directory. If you want to specify a different location, change transcode to the full path name.
The name of your Plex server as displayed in Plex. Defaults to Plex Server.
The name of the container that Plex runs in. Defaults to plex.
The port on which Plex will listen for incoming HTTP traffic. Plex's normal port is 32400, but if you are running two or more Plex servers, each will need a different HTTP port. port should be greater than 1024.
The mode to run Docker in, host, bridged, or http-only. host and bridged modes expose all the normal Plex network ports. See What network ports do I need to allow through my firewall?. You can only run one Plex server in either host or bridged mode on a given host machine.
http-only runs in bridged mode and only exposes the HTTP port defined above. You can run one Plex server in either host, bridged, or http-only modes, and add additional Plex server(s) in http-only mode. Ensure that each Plex server has a unique port, servername, and containername; and that mode is set appropriately.
mode defaults to host. In host mode the port is always 32400.
Indicates whether you plan to "claim" this server by logging it in. Defaults to true. Set plexlogin to false if you don't plan to access this server from https://app.plex.tv/.
The number of milliseconds a slide remains on-screen before switching to the next slide. Since this relies on a change to the Javascript of the Plex Web Interface, it is only applicable when viewing the slideshow from your local Plex server (for example from http://10.0.1.15:34200/web, not from https://app.plex.tv). See Opening Plex Web App for more info. Defaults to 5000 milliseconds (Plex's default).
Since this feature relies on undocumented information, it could stop working any time there is a Plex upgrade.
Set this to your time zone so that Plex's time for running scheduled tasks reflects your time zone. By default tz is set to America/New_York.
See https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-set-or-change-timezone-in-linux/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones for more info.
By default Plex runs in the container under the user plex with your uid and gid. If your uid or gid doesn't have read/write privileges to your media directories, set uid and/or gid to a value which does have read/write permissions in the media directories.
The IP address of the host machine that Docker is running on. Normally leave this blank unless the start script can't figure out the correct host IP address.
Docker's bridge network address range. Normally you won't need to change this.
This is the Docker image that is used to run Plex. By default it is plexinc/pms-docker:public. This image will update to the latest version of Plex Media Server every time the container is run. If you want the beta version of Plex, change public to beta. Note, beta versions are only available to Plex Pass subscribers.
The restart policy for the Plex container. Defaults to always. If you don't want the container to restart on reboot, set it to no.
If your Docker host has access to a supported CPU with the Intel Quick Sync feature set and you are a current Plex Pass subscriber, you can enable hardware transcoding. Set hardware_transcoding_device to the name of the kernel device, for example:
hardware_transcoding_device="/dev/dri:/dev/dri"
See Intel Quick Sync Hardware Transcoding Support for more info.
The claim token for the Plex server to be automatically logged in to your Plex account. If the server is already logged in, this is ignored. You can obtain a claim token by visiting https://www.plex.tv/claim.
After configuring settings in conf, run:
./start
to start Plex. You will see some log output similar to:
$ ./start
36f7cbac3839852bcef92efdf834e8cb2f7a29e30f353812162cf37915abc986
[s6-init] making user provided files available at /var/run/s6/etc...exited 0.
[s6-init] ensuring user provided files have correct perms...exited 0.
[fix-attrs.d] applying ownership & permissions fixes...
[fix-attrs.d] done.
[cont-init.d] executing container initialization scripts...
[cont-init.d] 40-plex-first-run: executing...
Plex Media Server first run setup complete
[cont-init.d] 40-plex-first-run: exited 0.
[cont-init.d] 45-plex-hw-transcode-and-connected-tuner: executing...
[cont-init.d] 45-plex-hw-transcode-and-connected-tuner: exited 0.
[cont-init.d] 50-plex-update: executing...
Attempting to upgrade to: 1.18.9.2578-513b381af
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 190 0 190 0 0 307 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 307
100 86.2M 100 86.2M 0 0 14.3M 0 0:00:06 0:00:06 --:--:-- 16.7M
Selecting previously unselected package plexmediaserver.
(Reading database ... 7569 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack /tmp/plexmediaserver.deb ...
PlexMediaServer install: Pre-installation Validation.
PlexMediaServer install: Docker detected. Preinstallation validation not required.
Unpacking plexmediaserver (1.18.9.2578-513b381af) ...
Setting up plexmediaserver (1.18.9.2578-513b381af) ...
PlexMediaServer install: Docker detected. Postinstallation tasks not required. Continuing.
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu11) ...
[cont-init.d] 50-plex-update: exited 0.
[cont-init.d] done.
[services.d] starting services
[services.d] done.
Starting Plex Media Server.
Plex Server started in container plex (http-only mode) at http://10.0.1.15:34200/web
First time setup (see README.md for more info):
o Using an incognito browser on the Docker host machine,
do initial setup at http://localhost:34200/web
o On the Remote Access settings page,
you can Manually specify public port as 34200 (or another port of your choosing)
o If you are a Plex Pass subscriber, on the Network settings page
set LAN Networks to 10.0.1.15/24,172.16.0.0/12
Slideshow speed set to 4000 milliseconds
Plex should be up and running!
When you start a new Plex server, it's a good idea to do initial setup by first browsing to localhost on the Docker host machine in an incognito browser, as described in the First time setup instructions in the output above. If your server is headless you can try this. Follow these steps for best results:
-
Before starting the server, delete all of its config files that may be left over from previous attempts to run it.
-
After starting the server, during initial setup, use an incognito browser that is on the same machine as the server. Clear cache in the browser for good luck, then go to http://localhost:port/web, where
portis as configured above. Don’t use the machine’s actual IP address. This will give you the option at the app.plex.tv login screen to sign in (do this ifplexloginin theconffile istrue) or to skip logging in by clicking on “What’s this?” (do this ifplexloginisfalse). -
At the first Server Setup screen, if running in
bridgedorhttp-onlymode, uncheckAllow me to access my media outside my home. You will have to configure this manually later, see Remote Access settings page below. -
If you did not log in at app.plex.tv during step 2, you must add a library during initial setup. If you don’t, the browser just sits there with a spinner at a link that ends with
client-setup. -
If you did log in, you should see the new server listed under MORE on the left side.
To stop Plex, run:
./stop
After you stop Plex, it will not restart again until you restart it with ./start as described above.
Once the server is up and running, go to its settings pages and finish configuring it.
If the server is logged in, on this screen you will be able to manually enter the port (as configured in conf) for remote access. You may also need to configure your router to pass that port through.
If mode is bridged or http-only, and you are a Plex Pass subscriber, pay particular attention to the LAN Networks setting. Set it to ip/24,docker_network, where ip is the ip address of your host machine, and docker_network is as configured in conf.
The plexlogin setting, described above, directly affects the values of these Network settings:
If plexlogin is true, and mode is bridged or http-only, this will be set to http://ip:port/ where ip is the ip address of your host machine and port is as configured in conf. Otherwise this will be set to blank.
If plexlogin is false, this will be set to ip/24,docker_network where ip is the ip address of your host machine, and docker_network is as configured in conf.
Otherwise this will be set to blank.
If you get a server update notice, just ./stop then ./start the server to get the update.
You can run zero or one Plex server(s) in host or bridged mode on a given host machine. You can also run zero or more Plex server(s) in http-only mode.
To run a second Plex server, make a copy of these Github files in another directory and configure the conf file for the additional server. Be sure to give the server a different servername, containername, and port. Set mode as well.
For more information, or to help debug any issues, see the Official Docker container for Plex Media Server documentation.