Official Docker container for Plex Media Server

plexinc/pms-docker

With our easy-to-install Plex Media Server software and your Plex apps, available on all your favorite phones, tablets, streaming devices, gaming consoles, and smart TVs, you can stream your video, music, and photo collections any time, anywhere, to any device.

Usage

docker create \
--name plex \
-p 32400:32400/tcp \
-p 3005:3005/tcp \
-p 8324:8324/tcp \
-p 32469:32469/tcp \
-p 1900:1900/udp \
-p 32410:32410/udp \
-p 32412:32412/udp \
-p 32413:32413/udp \
-p 32414:32414/udp \
-e TZ="<timezone>" \
-e PLEX_CLAIM="<claimToken>" \
-e ADVERTISE_IP="http://<hostIPAddress>:32400/" \
-h <HOSTNAME> \
-v <path/to/plex/database>:/config \
-v <path/to/transcode/temp>:/transcode \
-v <path/to/tv/series>:/data/tvshows \
-v <path/to/movies>:/data/movies \
-v <path/to/another/media>:/data/mediaTypeA \
-v <path/to/some/other/media>:/data/mediaTypeB \
plexinc/pms-docker

For those who use docker-compose, this repository provides the necessary YML file to be modified for your own use.

Parameters

• -p 32400:32400/tcp Forwards port 32400 from the host to the container. This is the primary port that Plex uses for communication and is required for Plex Media Server to operate.
• -p … Forwards complete set of other ports used by Plex to the container. For a full explanation of which you may need, please see the help article: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201543147-What-network-ports-do-I-need-to-allow-through-my-firewall
• -v <path/to/plex/database>:/config The path where you wish Plex Media Server to store its configuration data. This database can grow to be quite large depending on the size of your media collection. This is usually a few GB but for large libraries or libraries where index files are generated, this can easily hit the 100s of GBs. If you have an existing database directory see the section below on the directory setup. (Note that the underlying filesystem needs to support file locking. Known to not be default enabled on remote filesystems like NFS)
• -v <path/to/transcode/temp>:/transcode The path where you would like Plex Media Server to store its transcoder temp files. If not provided, the storage space within the container will be used. Expect sizes in the 10s of GB.
• -v <path/to/media>:/data/* These are provided as examples for providing media into the container. The exact structure of how the media is organized and presented inside the container is a matter of user preference. You can use as many or as few of these parameters as required to provide your media to the container
• -e KEY="value" These are environment variables which configure the container. See below for a description of their meanings.

The following are the recommended parameters. Each of the following parameters to the container are treated as first-run parameters only. That is, all other paraters are ignored on subsequent runs of the server. We recommend that you set the following parameters:

• HOSTNAME Sets the hostname inside the docker container. For example -h PlexServer will set the servername to PlexServer.
• TZ Set the timezone inside the container. For example: Europe/London. The complete list can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones
• PLEX_CLAIM The claim token for the server to obtain a real server token. If not provided, server is will not be automatically logged in. If server is already logged in, this parameter is ignored. You can obtain a claim token to login your server to your plex account by visiting https://www.plex.tv/claim Note: These claim tokens only last for 5 minutes and they will only be honored if they are generated and used from the same IP address. This is intended for situations where the machines on which they are generated and used are behind the same NAT or home router.
• ADVERTISE_IP This variable defines the additional IPs on which the server may be be found. For example: http://10.1.1.23:32400. This is recommended because the IP address seen within the container is usually not the IP address of the host. This adds to the list where the server advertises that it can be found.

These parameters are usually not required but some special setups may benefit from their use. As in the previous section, each is treated as first-run parameters only:

• PLEX_UID The user id of the plex user created inside the container.
• PLEX_GID The group id of the plex group created inside the container
• CHANGE_CONFIG_DIR_OWNERSHIP Change ownership of config directory to the plex user. Defaults to true
• ALLOWED_NETWORKS IP/netmask entries which allow access to the server without requiring authorization. We recommend you set this only if you do not sign in your server. For example 192.168.1.0/24,172.16.0.0/16 will allow access to the entire 192.168.1.x range and the 172.16.x.x range.

Networking

If --net=host is used, then the port forwarding paramaters (-p …) as well as the ADVERTISE_IP variable may be excluded. This type of networking runs the container using the same networking stack as the host and as such it is no longer hidden behind the docker networking setup. However, many docker implementations do not run docker on the actual host itself but rather run docker within a virtual machine. In this case, the --net-host parameter may not provide the desired results.

(Plex Pass only) If the normal docker networking is used, after the server has been set up, you should configure the LAN Networks preference to contain the network of your LAN. This instructs the Plex Media Server to treat these IP addresses as part of your LAN when applying bandwidth controls. The syntax is the same as the ALLOWED_NETWORKS above. For example 192.168.1.0/24,172.16.0.0/16 will allow access to the entire 192.168.1.x range and the 172.16.x.x range.

Users/Groups

Permissions of mounted media outside the container do apply to the Plex Media Server running within the container. As stated above, the Plex Media Server runs as a specially created plex user within the container. This user may not exist outside the container and so the PLEX_UID and PLEX_GID parameters are used to set the user id and group id of this user within the container. If you wish for the Plex Media Server to run under the same permissions as your own user, execute the following to find out these ids:

$ id `whoami`

You'll see a line like the following:

uid=1001(myuser) gid=1001(myuser) groups=1001(myuser)

In the above case, if you set the PLEX_UID and PLEX_GID to 1001, then the permissions will match that of your own user.

Tags

In addition to the standard version and latest tags, two other tags exist: plexpass and public. These two images behave differently than your typical containers. These two images do not have any Plex Media Server binary installed. Instead, when these containers are run, they will perform an update check and fetch the latest version, install it, and then continue execution. They also run the update check whenever the container is restarted. To update the version in the container, simply stop the container and start container again when you have a network connection. The startup script will automatically fetch the appropriate version and install it before starting the Plex Media Server.

The public restricts this check to public versions only where as plexpass will fetch Plex Pass versions. If the server is not logged in or you do not have Plex Pass on your account, the plexpass tagged images will be restricted to publicly available versions only.

Config Directory

Inside the docker container, the database is stored with a Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server in the config directory.

If you wish to migrate an existing directory to the docker config directory:

• Locate the current config directory as directed here: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/202915258-Where-is-the-Plex-Media-Server-data-directory-located-
• If the config dir is stored in a location such as /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/, the config dir will be /var/lib/plexmediaserver.
• If the config dir does not contain Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/ or the directory containing Library has data unrelated to Plex, such as OS X, then you should:
  • Create a new directory which will be your new config dir.
  • Within that config dir, create the directories Library/Application Support
  • Copy Plex Media Server into that Library/Application Support
• Note: by default Plex will claim ownership of the entire contents of the config dir (see CHANGE_CONFIG_DIR_OWNERSHIP for more information). As such, there should be nothing in that dir that you do not wish for Plex to own.

Useful information

• Start the container: docker start plex
• Stop the conrainer: docker stop plex
• Shell access to the container while it is running: docker exec -it plex /bin/bash
• See the logs given by the startup script in real time: docker logs -f plex
• Restart the application and upgrade to the latest version: docker restart plex