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So, I have a UGreen DXP8800 Plus NAS and have chosen to use the UGOS Pro OS. Why? Gluten for punishment one would think. Anyway, UGOS doesn’t allow a USB drive (or Thunderbolt drive) to be accessed in the same way most other NAS manufacturers typically do. Such external drives are accessible from within UGOS but not discoverable on the Network.
I was reading an article and watching some videos on how to export, backup and edit docker containers. Then an idea struck.
On to the question:
Since the UGOS interface doesn’t provide a way for Plex in a docker container to access external HDDs (say a 5 bay or 8 bay DAS), maybe there is a manual way.
Perhaps one could:
1) Export the known UGOS working Plex container.
2) Connect the USB or Thunderbolt DAS containing multiple HDDs (JBOD / RAID)
3) SSH into the UGreen NAS and use Linux commands (bugger, I don’t know any) to discover all internal and all external drives attached to the NAS.
4) Edit the Plex docker container to provide paths to the external drive
5) Use the new manually edited container which will now hopefully allow Plex to see these external drives.
That’s the plan anyway. I question if I can even attempt it because I have to look up the commands and am totally new to this.
Anyone one have any suggestions on this?
Much appreciated.
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I just realized there is an additional necessary step. Even if internally a user like Plex can access a USB drive, Thunderbolt drive or DAS, permissions would also need to be set to do so. I’m not sure how that would be done. I’m not sure if UGreen UGOS Pro allows permissions to be set for external drives in this way. If not that might be accomplished via a command line and I don’t know how to do that. One would think SSH into the UGreen NAS and use Linux commands to assign the proper permissions to Plex but I’d have to research that.
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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.
