Upgrade Media server

[uncle_lazy_at]

Hey Folks,

Hope you all doing well.

So I am planning to upgrade my media server.

Currently below are the components, Rpi 2 (bought back in 2015) - > Seagate HDD 300 GB - > Plex server in Rpi -> Client in Apple TV 4K.

This was working great until recently I started seeing issue.

1. Rpi was not responding.
2. Rpi was responding but Plex stopped responding with below errors
Couldn't create playback session and there was some more error.

I am thinking to upgrade this setup. Planning Rpi 5 along with a new 500 GB pendrive.

Do you have any recommendations ?

 

[bobbyprajan]

Rpi is generally very reliable. Did you check whether the external hard drive is working fine ?

 

[uncle_lazy_at]

Rpi is generally very reliable. Did you check whether the external hard drive is working fine ?

Yeah it working. I get this error randomly. I could still play some movies and I do not see this problem all the time. I do also suspect there is an issue with Plex. I just don't know how to isolate. Just once the Rpi was not responding other times it was responding and I could connect.

 

[bobbyprajan]

I have not used Plex so cant help you with that. I have had issues like this when there was os upgrades / package upgrades. Was there anything of the sort recently ?

Just once the Rpi was not responding other times it was responding and I could connect.

By the above I hope you mean you could SSH to the Rpi. You can use the "top" command to see which process is hogging cpu. You can also use the logs of the programs using "systemctl status <app-name>" or "journalctl -u "<app-name> -r"

 

[rwnano]

i think plex server can be a regular laptop of desktop due to transcoding requirements?

 

[mbhangui]

So I am planning to upgrade my media server.

Currently below are the components, Rpi 2 (bought back in 2015) - > Seagate HDD 300 GB - > Plex server in Rpi -> Client in Apple TV 4K.

RPI2 is just 512 MB memory. Something like plex will require all of that. Get an RPI4 as minimum. RPI4 also has USB 3.0. So IO between RPI and Seagate will be much better. The ethernet too is 1 gbps. RPI2 can go max 100 mbps. A media server needs to have good network and disk IO speeds, both of which are sub-optimal on RPI2. RPI3 B+ has 1gbps network speed but disk io will still be limited by USB 2.0 ports.

You can run the top command and see how much memory is free. The important figures are to look for wa and and Mib Mem: free figure and MiB Swap: free column. In general you will rarely see 0.0 wa on RPI2 when used as a media server and when you start streaming. It cannot even do DSD decoding and music starts stuttering. So any Hi-Res media severely impacts the performance of RPI2.

Also the first figure of the load average is the most important figure. It will indicate if applications are getting starved of any resources. Here in my screenshot, 0.02 is the load average of my RPI4 music server (mpd + squeezebox + airport + upnp)

 

[uncle_lazy_at]

I have not used Plex so cant help you with that. I have had issues like this when there was os upgrades / package upgrades. Was there anything of the sort recently ?

By the above I hope you mean you could SSH to the Rpi. You can use the "top" command to see which process is hogging cpu. You can also use the logs of the programs using "systemctl status <app-name>" or "journalctl -u "<app-name> -r"

No upgrades, it was quite some time back. I coun't do both SSH and RDP (I have enabled and connect to it occasionally). I don't remember If i tried to do a ping. But was not in a mood to troubleshoot and went to sleep. (Sometime when things doesn't work, it will improve your health and sleep )

But I did check top and free the next day but not while playing. Will have to check while playing.

 

[uncle_lazy_at]

i think plex server can be a regular laptop of desktop due to transcoding requirements?

It works actually, am not sure. It can be in rpi as well i guess. I installed and configured based blog posts. It works even though it says min requirement is 2 GB

 

[uncle_lazy_at]

RPI2 is just 512 MB memory. Something like plex will require all of that. Get an RPI4 as minimum. RPI4 also has USB 3.0. So IO between RPI and Seagate will be much better. The ethernet too is 1 gbps. RPI2 can go max 100 mbps. A media server needs to have good network and disk IO speeds, both of which are sub-optimal on RPI2. RPI3 B+ has 1gbps network speed but disk io will still be limited by USB 2.0 ports.

You can run the top command and see how much memory is free. The important figures are to look for wa and and Mib Mem: free figure and MiB Swap: free column. In general you will rarely see 0.0 wa on RPI2 when used as a media server and when you start streaming. It cannot even do DSD decoding and music starts stuttering. So any Hi-Res media severely impacts the performance of RPI2.

Also the first figure of the load average is the most important figure. It will indicate if applications are getting starved of any resources. Here in my screenshot, 0.02 is the load average of my RPI4 music server (mpd + squeezebox + airport + upnp)

View attachment 85726

I wanted to tag you while creating the post but I had a little hope this post would get your attention.

Little bit of a background, I was using Kodi in ACT box then upgraded to Apple TV, which doesn't support Kodi. I thought Plex won't survive in Rpi 2 but it did like for a year now i thought it would fail rite away. I mentioned above as well, I didnt troubleshoot while the issue was happening, honestly I was waiting for this to break to so that I have a reason to upgrade.

I did top the next day but i was looking only memory and cpu, it was ok as expected. But I will check sometime this week while playing from Plex. I am curios to see how much it is utilised out of 1 GB.

Also, I am thinking of using a 500 GB or a greater HDD/SSD or pendrive. Do you recommend any specific model or config?

Current config: Apple TV connected to AVR -> Plex Client -> RPI 2 -> HDD

 

[mbhangui]

Also, I am thinking of using a 500 GB or a greater HDD/SSD or pendrive. Do you recommend any specific model or config?

Never use a pendrive. Pendrives have extremely poor IO throughput and slower than the mechanical hard disks. Use any Hard disk which is 3.5" and minimum 7200 rpm or a SSD from a company like samsung.

I use this for my RPI4, which I got it for Rs 7399 in Dec 2019. Not sure why amazon is showing the price as Rs 46,000 now

https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B07C7V494X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1