UGreen DXP8800 Plus Ways To Access External HDD With Plex

[Octavean]

It sounds like you're delving into a pretty advanced configuration with your UGreen DXP8800 Plus NAS, and I understand that UGOS Pro might not make things as straightforward as other NAS systems. Here's a step-by-step guide that might help you achieve your goal of getting Plex to access external drives:

Step 1: Export the Working Plex Docker Container
Export the Container:
First, you'll need to export your existing Plex container from UGOS. This usually involves stopping the container and using Docker commands to save it as a tar file. The command might look something like this:
bash
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docker export plex_container_name -o /path/to/save/plex_backup.tar
Step 2: Connect Your External HDDs
Connect the DAS:
Physically connect your USB or Thunderbolt DAS to the NAS. Ensure that UGOS Pro recognizes the drives, even if they aren't yet accessible over the network.
Step 3: SSH into the NAS and Discover Drives
SSH into the NAS:

You'll need to SSH into the NAS using a terminal application. You can do this from your computer with a command like:
bash
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ssh username@nas_ip_address
Replace username with your NAS user account name and nas_ip_address with the IP address of your NAS.
List the Drives:

Use the following command to list all connected drives:
bash
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lsblk
This will show you all the block devices, including your internal drives and the external DAS.
Step 4: Mount the External Drives
Mount the External Drives:
You may need to manually mount the external drives if they aren't automatically mounted. You can create a mount point (e.g., /mnt/external_drive) and then mount the drive with a command like:
bash
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sudo mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt/external_drive
Replace /dev/sdX1 with the appropriate device name for your external drive as found in the lsblk output.
Step 5: Edit the Plex Docker Container
Edit the Docker Container:
You'll need to modify the Docker container to include a volume pointing to your mounted external drive. If you’re using Docker Compose, you can add a volume like this:
yaml
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version: '3'
services:
  plex:
    image: plex_image_name
    volumes:
      - /mnt/external_drive:/media
If you’re using Docker directly, you can start a new container with a similar command:
bash
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docker run -d --name=plex -v /mnt/external_drive:/media plex_image_name
Step 6: Set Permissions
Set Proper Permissions:
Make sure that Plex has read/write permissions for the external drives. You can do this with:
bash
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sudo chown -R plex_user:plex_group /mnt/external_drive
sudo chmod -R 755 /mnt/external_drive
Replace plex_user and plex_group with the correct user and group that Plex runs under on your NAS.
Step 7: Restart Plex
Restart the Plex Container:
Once everything is set up, restart your Plex container. The new configuration should allow Plex to access the files on your external DAS.

That is a really great walkthrough.  Thank you Ed.

I have almost no experience with using Linux and the same is true for docker.   I'm currently using UGOS 1.0.0.1366 and it's native docker app.  As such I am not using portainer or anything similar.   So baby steps to start off. I reckon the native UGreen UGOS Pro docker app can export they current Plex container configuration in a usable format ( tar file ) so I'll start there.

I can then load that exported container into an OS like Ubuntu.   I have an Ubuntu VM setup via Parallels on an iMac.  Hopefully I can get somewhere with it.

The latest version of UGOS Pro version 1.0.0.1366 has added support for external drive access via Windows Explorer and Finder.  Unfortunately it doesn't yet seem to have external drive access for VM's or docker and that could be a problem.  That is to say, the UGOS might not pass external drives to docker and containers (or VM's).