Plex is a media server that allows you to create and organize all your video, music, and photo collections and stream them to your mobile devices, TV, and computer from anywhere. It has two main components: Plex Media Server and a client application that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux and almost all mobile devices. In most environments, a Plex server is installed on a computer that has a lot of storage space or has a NAS attached to it to store and access a large collection of a variety of media. If you’re a student or a new user looking for an easy tutorial to guide you in installing and using Plex, this post should come in handy. When you’re ready to install Plex Media Server, follow the steps below:
Install Plex Media Server
Plex is proprietary software, and it is not included in the Ubuntu default repositories. If you need to install Plex in Ubuntu, you will have to manually download or add its repository. To add Plex’s repository to Ubuntu, use the commands below to add its APT repository and import the GPG key for the repository. Once the APT repository and key are added above, run the commands below to update the Ubuntu APT package list and install Plax Media Server. To check and validate that Plex is installed, run the commands below. You should see its status info as shown below: Also, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the Plex media server.
Adjust Ubuntu Firewall
If you have an Ubuntu firewall enabled, you will want to adjust the firewall rules to allow the Plex server to be accessed remotely. The easiest way to adjust the Ubuntu firewall to allow traffic to the Plex server is to create a firewall profile for the Plex server. To do that, run the commands below to create a UFW Plex server profile. Copy the lines below and paste them into the file and save. Save the file and exit. Update the firewall profile and apply the new rules. Now you can check the firewall rules to see if traffic is being passed to the Plex server. That should output similar lines as shown below: Now go and create a Plex catalog directory to store its content. For this post, we’re creating Plex’s folder in the /opt/plexmedia directory. They give Plex users access to the directory.
Access Plex Web Portal
Now that Plex is installed, open your browser and browse its portal. You can use the portal to manage your media and other settings. That should open its portal page. Create an account and log in. Of use Facebook or other authentication methods. However, for Plex to work well, you should create an account. Continue with the setup wizard. Make sure to check the box to allow Plex to be accessed outside of your home. Plex will attempt to automatically configure your network to allow Plex apps outside your home to access Plex Media Server on this computer. Remember this computer will need to be turned on to access your media. On the browse for media folder, make sure to select the path created above: /opt/plex media/movies. When you’re done with the setup wizard, go and begin enjoying your media content.
Update Plex Server
When newer versions of the Plex server are available, simply run the commands below to update. Conclusion: This post showed you how to install and configure Plex Media Server on Ubuntu. If you find any error above, please use the comment form below to report.
