How to install Plex Media Server on Ubuntu Server 20.04

Plex is a free feature-rich media library platform that provides a way to store all your movies, shows, and other media in one place. You can access Plex from any device, whether you’re at home or on-the-go. There are many different media tools available in the world like, Kodi, Xmbc, OSMC and Mediatomb, but the Plex Media Server is perhaps one of the most popular solutions for managing media. Plex runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD and many more. Plex is a client-server media player system made up from two main components, 1) The Plex Media Server, which organizes music, photos and videos content from personal media libraries and streams it to their player, 2) The Players that can be the Plex web UI, Plex Apps or Plex home theater. Plex Media Server supports Chromecast, Amazon FireTV, Android, iOS, Xbox, PlayStation, Apple TV, Roku, Android TV and various types of smart TVs. If you are looking for a way to watch your movies from anywhere, then Plex is best choice for you.

In this tutorial, we will learn how to install and configure Plex Media Server on Ubuntu 16.04.

Requirements

• A server running Ubuntu 20.04
• A not-root user with sudo privileges setup on your server.
• A static IP address 192.168.0.227 setup on your server.

Getting Started

Before starting, make sure your system is fully up to date by running the following command:

sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get upgrade -y

Once your system is updated, restart your system to apply all these changes with the following command:

sudo reboot

After restarting, log in with sudo user and proceed to the next step.

1. Install Plex Media Server

First, you will need to download the latest version of the Plex from their official website. You can download it by running the following command:

wget https://downloads.plex.tv/plex-media-server/1.7.5.4035-313f93718/plexmediaserver_1.7.5.4035-313f93718_amd64.deb
 

Once Plex is downloaded, run the following command to install Plex:

sudo dpkg -i plexmediaserver_1.7.5.4035-313f93718_amd64.deb

Next, start Plex Media Server and enable it to start on boot time by running the following command:

sudo systemctl start plexmediaserver
sudo systemctl enable plexmediaserver
 

You can check the status of Plex Media Server at any time by running the following command:

sudo systemctl status plexmediaserver
 

You should see the following output:

? plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server for Linux
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2017-08-05 11:48:52 IST; 17s ago
Main PID: 3243 (sh)
CGroup: /system.slice/plexmediaserver.service
??3243 /bin/sh -c LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver "/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Media Server"
??3244 /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Media Server
??3288 Plex Plug-in [com.plexapp.system] /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources/Plug-ins-313f93718/Framework.bundle/Contents/Resources/Versions/

Aug 05 11:49:04 Node1 systemd[1]: Started Plex Media Server for Linux.
Aug 05 11:49:04 Node1 sh[3243]: Error in command line:the argument for option '--serverUuid' should follow immediately after the equal sign
Aug 05 11:49:04 Node1 sh[3243]: Crash Uploader options (all are required):
Aug 05 11:49:04 Node1 sh[3243]: --directory arg Directory to scan for crash reports
Aug 05 11:49:04 Node1 sh[3243]: --serverUuid arg UUID of the server that crashed
Aug 05 11:49:04 Node1 sh[3243]: --userId arg User that owns this product
Aug 05 11:49:04 Node1 sh[3243]: --platform arg Platform string
Aug 05 11:49:04 Node1 sh[3243]: --url arg URL to upload to
Aug 05 11:49:04 Node1 sh[3243]: --help show help message
Aug 05 11:49:04 Node1 sh[3243]: --version arg Version of the product
 

Next, you will need to create a directory to store your Plex media. You can create this by running the following command:

sudo mkdir -p /root/plex/movie
 

Or if you already have shares on your server, skip this step

Once you are finished, you can proceed to the next step.

2. Configure Plex

Now, all the components are installed on your system, it's time to configure and access Plex.

Open your web browser and type the URL http://192.168.0.227:32400/web, login and follow the setup wizard.

Congratulations! your Plex Media Server is ready, you are now ready to connect to it from your Plex client application or Web browser.