Raspberry Pi NAS and Plex (with PiHole)?
Discussion
Guys,
I have a Raspberry Pi 2 B. It is headless and runs PiHole (which rocks bigtime) but not a lot else.
I also have a desktop machine running a SAMBA server and Plex, both of which are occasionally called for over the network. All well and good, but I have set the desktop such that it sleeps after 30 minutes of inactivity meaning that the SAMBA shares and Plex both stop working. The desktop machine runs Linux Mint.
The obvious solution would be to move both of these to the Pi. Given that the SAMBA shares are on separate disks to the system disk in the desktop machine this would seem to be fairly easy - presumably I'll need some kind of SATA-to-USB hookup and all will be well. Please let me know if this is not the case.
My question is whether the Pi will be able to run these things. I don't think that PiHole stresses it much (if at all) and I don't use the others much so the load should be small but am I being optimistic?
If I am to try this caper out then where should I start? OpenMediaVault seems to be the NAS of choice but I am unsure whether I can install or or whether I need to cook up a new ISO with it. Can anyone enlighten me?
And running Plex on a headless machine ... where to start?
All suggestions welcome - thanks!
Yes, I could look in the Raspberry Pi - whose going to have a dabble? thread but it's very long and discursive and I'm in need of answers. Thanks!
I have a Raspberry Pi 2 B. It is headless and runs PiHole (which rocks bigtime) but not a lot else.
I also have a desktop machine running a SAMBA server and Plex, both of which are occasionally called for over the network. All well and good, but I have set the desktop such that it sleeps after 30 minutes of inactivity meaning that the SAMBA shares and Plex both stop working. The desktop machine runs Linux Mint.
The obvious solution would be to move both of these to the Pi. Given that the SAMBA shares are on separate disks to the system disk in the desktop machine this would seem to be fairly easy - presumably I'll need some kind of SATA-to-USB hookup and all will be well. Please let me know if this is not the case.
My question is whether the Pi will be able to run these things. I don't think that PiHole stresses it much (if at all) and I don't use the others much so the load should be small but am I being optimistic?
If I am to try this caper out then where should I start? OpenMediaVault seems to be the NAS of choice but I am unsure whether I can install or or whether I need to cook up a new ISO with it. Can anyone enlighten me?
And running Plex on a headless machine ... where to start?
All suggestions welcome - thanks!
Yes, I could look in the Raspberry Pi - whose going to have a dabble? thread but it's very long and discursive and I'm in need of answers. Thanks!
I use pi-hole (and Adguard) and I also have OMV running on my homemade NAS (built around https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/N3700-ITX/) and have previouly run Plex on it. Plex worked ok but I had the benefit of hardware acceleration (QSV) whereas a pi2 will not. I've since moved Plex to a i-6700 machine which is primarily set up to run Blue Iris for 9 cameras - it is more capable even with the Bue Iris overhead.
Where am I getting to? Unless you are direct playing video to clients, I'd be concerned that the pi 2 would quickly come to a grinding halt. PI-hole and OMV may well be fine, though.
Where am I getting to? Unless you are direct playing video to clients, I'd be concerned that the pi 2 would quickly come to a grinding halt. PI-hole and OMV may well be fine, though.
Why not just set the plex server to wake on lan?
What do you use the plex server for? if movies with encoding the pi2 will struggle if its just music setup a DLNA thing on the pi and a samba share will cover all your needs.
I have a pi4 with pihole and my storage drive is shared on it via samba. I can then share this drive on my set top box and it is also shared in my Home assistant setup (on another pi4) for music. I can then play music on any device in my house via home assistant. For videos I just map the samba share to my set top box. I also have logitech media server on the first pi in case anyone / anything needs a DLNA server.
What do you use the plex server for? if movies with encoding the pi2 will struggle if its just music setup a DLNA thing on the pi and a samba share will cover all your needs.
I have a pi4 with pihole and my storage drive is shared on it via samba. I can then share this drive on my set top box and it is also shared in my Home assistant setup (on another pi4) for music. I can then play music on any device in my house via home assistant. For videos I just map the samba share to my set top box. I also have logitech media server on the first pi in case anyone / anything needs a DLNA server.
Guys,
Thanks for the replies.
PaperLawyer, Thanks. That board you linked to is quite a lot bigger than a Pi and (I suspect) will use a chunk more power. The aim of the exercise is to reduce the power needed for the continuous IT overhead. Plex currently runs on my main desktop computer (a slightly old Gigabyte Z77-DS3H) was was permanently on but which I have changed to hibernate after 30 minutes. This is what has precipitated the need to move both data storage and Plex elsewhere.
somouk, thanks. All good stuff, but once I've bought a full-fat NAS then the power savings will be wiped out ...
ARHarh, I've never got to grips with WOL on my motherboard (Z77-DS3H). Perhaps I just need to go and bash my head against that brick wall a bit more. I use Plex to serve movies to a Firestick in the lounge. However for the amount of times it is used (once every 6 weeks or so) then it's not worth a lot of faff; I could just change the power settings on the desktop computer whenever I want to watch a film and change them back again afterwards.
Thanks for the replies.
PaperLawyer, Thanks. That board you linked to is quite a lot bigger than a Pi and (I suspect) will use a chunk more power. The aim of the exercise is to reduce the power needed for the continuous IT overhead. Plex currently runs on my main desktop computer (a slightly old Gigabyte Z77-DS3H) was was permanently on but which I have changed to hibernate after 30 minutes. This is what has precipitated the need to move both data storage and Plex elsewhere.
somouk, thanks. All good stuff, but once I've bought a full-fat NAS then the power savings will be wiped out ...
ARHarh, I've never got to grips with WOL on my motherboard (Z77-DS3H). Perhaps I just need to go and bash my head against that brick wall a bit more. I use Plex to serve movies to a Firestick in the lounge. However for the amount of times it is used (once every 6 weeks or so) then it's not worth a lot of faff; I could just change the power settings on the desktop computer whenever I want to watch a film and change them back again afterwards.
2Btoo said:
Guys,
Thanks for the replies.
PaperLawyer, Thanks. That board you linked to is quite a lot bigger than a Pi and (I suspect) will use a chunk more power. The aim of the exercise is to reduce the power needed for the continuous IT overhead. Plex currently runs on my main desktop computer (a slightly old Gigabyte Z77-DS3H) was was permanently on but which I have changed to hibernate after 30 minutes. This is what has precipitated the need to move both data storage and Plex elsewhere.
somouk, thanks. All good stuff, but once I've bought a full-fat NAS then the power savings will be wiped out ...
ARHarh, I've never got to grips with WOL on my motherboard (Z77-DS3H). Perhaps I just need to go and bash my head against that brick wall a bit more. I use Plex to serve movies to a Firestick in the lounge. However for the amount of times it is used (once every 6 weeks or so) then it's not worth a lot of faff; I could just change the power settings on the desktop computer whenever I want to watch a film and change them back again afterwards.
Wake on lan could be tricky 15 years ago, but it is easy these days. just pop into the Ethernet card setting and make sure the settings for wake on lan are enabled and maybe pop into bios and check in there as well. Then no doubt your firestick plex plugin thing will have an option to wake server.Thanks for the replies.
PaperLawyer, Thanks. That board you linked to is quite a lot bigger than a Pi and (I suspect) will use a chunk more power. The aim of the exercise is to reduce the power needed for the continuous IT overhead. Plex currently runs on my main desktop computer (a slightly old Gigabyte Z77-DS3H) was was permanently on but which I have changed to hibernate after 30 minutes. This is what has precipitated the need to move both data storage and Plex elsewhere.
somouk, thanks. All good stuff, but once I've bought a full-fat NAS then the power savings will be wiped out ...
ARHarh, I've never got to grips with WOL on my motherboard (Z77-DS3H). Perhaps I just need to go and bash my head against that brick wall a bit more. I use Plex to serve movies to a Firestick in the lounge. However for the amount of times it is used (once every 6 weeks or so) then it's not worth a lot of faff; I could just change the power settings on the desktop computer whenever I want to watch a film and change them back again afterwards.
2Btoo said:
Guys,
somouk, thanks. All good stuff, but once I've bought a full-fat NAS then the power savings will be wiped out ...
The energy usage is mostly the spinning disks which you have anyway, the enclosure itself uses similar to the Pi. I don't think there would be much difference but the user experience would be much nicer. somouk, thanks. All good stuff, but once I've bought a full-fat NAS then the power savings will be wiped out ...
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