Docker Plex Server¶

This lab uses a Raspberry Pi to run a Plex server as a Docker Container that's connected to a remote file share for media files

Goal¶

Setup a Plex server as a Docker container hosted on a Raspberry Pi.

Create a target mount point¶

On the Raspberry Pi, create a directory that will act as the mount point for the remote file share. In this example, we'll create a directory called /media-share in the root of the file system:

$ sudo mkdir /media-share

Add the NAS media share username and password to a file named cifs-credentials so it can be used when you mount the drive as it's more secure to store your SMB/CIFS username and password in a credentials file instead of directly in the /etc/fstab file.

$ sudo nano /etc/cifs-credentials

In the editor, enter your username and password like this:

username=<username>
password=<password>

Next, change the permissions of the credentials file to ensure that only root can read and write it:

$ sudo chmod 600 /etc/cifs-credentials

Now you can mount the share using the target mount point and the credentials file. Once mounted browse to the mount and check you can see the contents.

$ sudo mount -t cifs -o credentials=/etc/cifs-credentials //path/share /media-share

$ cd /media-share

$ ls -lh

To ensure that the remote share is automatically mounted at startup, add an entry to your /etc/fstab file and add the following line at the end of the file:

$ sudo nano /etc/fstab

//path/share /media-share cifs credentials=/etc/cifs-credentials,nofail 0 0

Run Plex as a Docker container¶

Create the docker-compose file¶

Create a new directory to save the Docker Compose file for the Plex container.

$ mkdir /docker/plex

Change directory into the new directory and create a Docker Compose file.

$ cd /docker/plex

$ nano docker-compose.yml

Paste the Plex Docker Compose configuration into the file. This Docker Compose file references the Docker container detailed in the referenced Docker Hub link below.

# Plex Server
# https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/plex
#
# Notes:
# - Web server is found at http://<your-ip>:32400/web
# - Media files are stored on a NAS
# - A path to the NAS is mounted as /media-share

version: "3"
services:
  plex:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:latest
    container_name: plex
    network_mode: host
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Europe/Copenhagen
      - VERSION=docker
      - PLEX_CLAIM= #optional
    volumes:
      - /opt/plex:/config
      - /media-share/tv:/tv
      - /media-share/movies:/movies
    restart: unless-stopped

Start the Docker container¶

Run the Docker Compose command to start the container and include the -d so it runs it as detached from the CLI.

$ sudo docker-compose up -d

Connect to the Plex web interface¶

Connect to the plex server¶

http://<ip-docker-host>:32400/web

As part of the Plex setup you can browse to the media files using the media folder that is mapped to the media-share mount point.

References¶

Docker Hub linuxserver/plex

Grinntec GitHub

Docker Plex Server¶

Goal¶

Mount the media share¶