plex Installation Guide Installation Guide

plex is a free and open-source media server for streaming. Plex organizes media and streams to devices, though the server is proprietary with some FOSS clients available

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 2+ cores

RAM: 2GB minimum

Storage: 100GB+ for media

Network: Streaming bandwidth

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 32400 (default plex port)

Various streaming ports

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install plex
sudo dnf install -y plex

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now plex

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=32400/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
plex --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install plex
sudo apt install -y plex

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now plex

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 32400

# Verify installation
plex --version

bash

# Install plex
sudo pacman -S plex

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now plex

# Verify installation
plex --version

bash

# Install plex
apk add --no-cache plex

# Enable and start service
rc-update add plex default
rc-service plex start

# Verify installation
plex --version

bash

# Install plex
sudo zypper install -y plex

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now plex

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=32400/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
plex --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install plex

# Start service
brew services start plex

# Verify installation
plex --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install plex

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'plex_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service plex start

# Verify installation
plex --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install plex

# Or using Scoop
scoop install plex

# Verify installation
plex --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/plex

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
plex --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable plex

# Start service
sudo systemctl start plex

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop plex

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart plex

# Check status
sudo systemctl status plex

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u plex -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add plex default

# Start service
rc-service plex start

# Stop service
rc-service plex stop

# Restart service
rc-service plex restart

# Check status
rc-service plex status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'plex_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service plex start

# Stop service
service plex stop

# Restart service
service plex restart

# Check status
service plex status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start plex
brew services stop plex
brew services restart plex

# Check status
brew services list | grep plex

powershell

# Start service
net start plex

# Stop service
net stop plex

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service plex
Stop-Service plex
Restart-Service plex

# Check status
Get-Service plex

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream plex_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:32400;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name plex.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name plex.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/plex.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/plex.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://plex_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName plex.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://plex.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName plex.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/plex.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/plex.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:32400/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:32400/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend plex_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/plex.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend plex_backend

backend plex_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server plex1 127.0.0.1:32400 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R plex:plex /etc/plex
sudo chmod 750 /etc/plex

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=32400/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status plex

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u plex -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep plex)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/plex"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/plex-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/plex /var/lib/plex

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/plex-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop plex

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/plex/plex-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start plex

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u plex -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/plex/plex.log

# Check configuration
plex --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/plex

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 32400

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 32400

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep plex)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep plex)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 32400

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  plex:
    image: plex:latest
    ports:
      - "32400:32400"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/plex
      - ./data:/var/lib/plex
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update plex

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade plex

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu plex

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade plex

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update plex

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade plex

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/plex-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/plex

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart plex

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/plex

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/plex -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/plex

Official Documentation: https://docs.plex.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/plex/plex

Community Forum: https://forum.plex.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.plex.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

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