Migrate Local Plex Server + GDrive to Seedbox + GDrive

[davidkain]

Hi there,

I'm considering migrating my existing Plex Server to a seedbox (Seedbox.cc if that's relevant), with media stored in Google Drive. Currently, I have Plex Server running locally on an Intel NUC, with all media stored in an encrypted Drive Pool on Google Drive. This is via StableBit CloudDrive/Pool.

My question is what my migration process would look like. What I'm hoping I can do is simply purchase the seedbox, install Plex Server, and point it at my existing media in Google Drive. Is that feasible given my existing configuration? I'm not entirely sure how I would manage CloudDrive/DrivePool in this process.

For context, I believe my low upload speeds (10/mbps) are causing my remote users issues with their ability to stream. Hopefully, moving the Plex Server into the cloud eliminates that.

Appreciate any insight! I'm a layman, so apologies if this is an obvious question.

Thank you for your time.

[srcrist]

I'm not sure if there is any complication that I'm missing in what you're asking here, but, based on how I'm reading your question (and my read is that you are already using CloudDrive for your data), you should be able to simply detach the drive from the computer that it is presently mounted to and attach it to your remote server once CloudDrive and DrivePool are installed. Note that both applications are Windows only, and Windows Server can be expensive in a data center.

[Firerouge]

It's certainly possible but cloud hosting can be prohibitively expensive if you intend to get a system capable of hardware transcoding (a computational must for more than one or two high resolution streams) along with the bandwidth capacity.

Furthermore, you'll probably want to look at providers who has locality to your client streaming locations.

 

It's also important, since you mention using a (sketchy) seebox host, that you don't attempt to download torrents directly into your cloud drive. You will almost certainly fragment the filesystem and nullify the capabilities of the prefetcher.

 

But fundamentally the cloud drive migration is as simple as unmounting from one location and remounting in another.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

To move to a seedbox, it would need to use Windows.  StableBit CloudDrive is Windows only, and doesn't store the files directly. It uses a virtual drive, which it slices up into chunks and then stores those chunks on the provider. 

As for migration, detach the drive, deactivate the license (if it's the only drive in use). install StableBit CloudDrive on seedbox, activate and mount the drive in question.  Configure plex or what-not on the system. 

[srcrist]

6 hours ago, davidkain said:

Do you have a recommendation for how best to handle the copy? My first thought would be to just open up my CloudDrive and an rClone mount on my machine, and then drag and drop. Is that correct?

That's it, really. That's the only way. You'll just need to manually copy all of your data out of CloudDrive to another storage location that Linux can mount. Note that I am not suggesting that this process is efficient or even wise. It's just the project that you're proposing. It would likely take weeks or even months, if your drive is large. Unfortunately CloudDrive's structure precludes any more simple or expeditious option.

6 hours ago, davidkain said:

And in this case, would the data be moving from datacenter to datacenter, or does it come down to my machine first, and then back up to the cloud? If the latter, I'd be worried about data corruption and just general duration. I've only got 10Mbps up.

The data would have to be downloaded from the CloudDrive and reuploaded to the new location, yes. There is no way to move the data on the provider. No other application can even access CloudDrive's provider data anyway. It's completely obfuscated even if it isn't encrypted.

6 hours ago, davidkain said:

As for the Windows VM, that sounds like a cool approach (assuming the provider offers this capability), but would there performance implications to streaming that media?

You don't want to run Plex on a server to which you do not have root access honestly. If you have root access, you could set up a VM. There really shouldn't be a significant performance impact beyond running an entire Windows VM in the background. Generally you pass drives to the host via a network share over the loopback interface, so it should be relatively fast. Faster, certainly, than a real network share over a real network--and those are perfectly capable of streaming media as well.

[davidkain]

Thank you both for your answers!

@srcrist, Your read is correct. I currently use CloudDrive for my data (a Pool of CloudDrives based on recommendations from one of your posts on this forum), but your callout re: Windows is a great one.

@Firerouge, Appreciate your calling that seedbox host out as sketchy as well. They all feel pretty similar in that regard, based on what I've been able to research so far.

My main concern is freezing/buffering on playback when off-network. I'm experiencing it right now even under these conditions (testing at my buddy's place):

• Video file is 1080p (H.264) (and confirmed it plays correctly on my local client)
• Client is set to play Original Quality (and confirmed via dashboard it's not being transcoded)
• It is the only active stream on Plex
• Client device (NVIDIA Shield) has 100+ Mbps connection

That's one example, but the same issue crops up for everything I try to play. As far as I can tell, my Pool of CloudDrives are configured correctly (and everything is great on my LAN). My best guess at the moment is that my 10Mbps up internet is the bottleneck, hence starting to look into migrating the Plex server off-network . . . but that's just a guess.

Again, I appreciate your responses to my initial question! Unless something in the issue I'm describing above jumps out at you as obvious to solve, I suspect I'm veering off-topic for these forums.

[Chase]

On 7/4/2020 at 12:47 PM, srcrist said:

Note that both applications are Windows only, and Windows Server can be expensive in a data center.

This is what I did...after fooling with all the "seedboxes" and not knowing out how properly mess with linux codes. So it's a dedicated windows server for me.

[davidkain]

13 minutes ago, Chase said:

This is what I did...after fooling with all the "seedboxes" and not knowing out how properly mess with linux codes. So it's a dedicated windows server for me.

Did you go with a hosted solution, or on prem? I'm curious what's out there for windows servers, and what their price ranges (and/or capability to host Plex) are.

[Chase]

1 hour ago, davidkain said:

Did you go with a hosted solution, or on prem? I'm curious what's out there for windows servers, and what their price ranges (and/or capability to host Plex) are.

I went with a dedicated bare bones server and loaded windows 10 pro on it. It has 16gb ram, a 1TB HDD, and a 12 core AMD processor with plenty of transcode power. I've also got a 10gbps connection.

 

$109/mo.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Very nice, and I hope it treats you well!

[davidkain]

@Chase - Wow, that sounds amazing! It's out of my price range, though, unfortunately.

@Christopher (Drashna) - On the migration front, what would the process look like if I did find a Linux seedbox I liked and needed to migrate off from my StableBit Pool of Drives to something on GDrive that the seedbox could read? I'm working with ~20TB of data, so curious what that process would even look like (and/or if I'd need any special utilities to do it properly). I suspect I'm sticking with what I've got, but I'm curious.

[srcrist]

8 hours ago, davidkain said:

@Chase - Wow, that sounds amazing! It's out of my price range, though, unfortunately.

@Christopher (Drashna) - On the migration front, what would the process look like if I did find a Linux seedbox I liked and needed to migrate off from my StableBit Pool of Drives to something on GDrive that the seedbox could read? I'm working with ~20TB of data, so curious what that process would even look like (and/or if I'd need any special utilities to do it properly). I suspect I'm sticking with what I've got, but I'm curious.

You would either have to copy all of the content from your CloudDrive to something with linux support like an rClone mount, or run CloudDrive via a Windows VM and pass the drive out to the host OS.

[davidkain]

On 7/16/2020 at 3:38 AM, srcrist said:

You would either have to copy all of the content from your CloudDrive to something with linux support like an rClone mount, or run CloudDrive via a Windows VM and pass the drive out to the host OS.

Do you have a recommendation for how best to handle the copy? My first thought would be to just open up my CloudDrive and an rClone mount on my machine, and then drag and drop. Is that correct?

And in this case, would the data be moving from datacenter to datacenter, or does it come down to my machine first, and then back up to the cloud? If the latter, I'd be worried about data corruption and just general duration. I've only got 10Mbps up.

As for the Windows VM, that sounds like a cool approach (assuming the provider offers this capability), but would there performance implications to streaming that media?

Thanks again for your help! The community on these forums is absolutely awesome.

[davidkain]

@srcrist Brilliant responses, thank you!

So if I'm reading this correctly, my best bet (if I want to move forward with all this) is to:

1. Find a VPS that allows root access
2. Use root to setup a Windows VM
3. Install my applications (including CloudBit suite) on the VM
4. Mount my CloudDrive within the VM, and point Plex at that

If that's correct, I'll need to learn some Linux (unless VM installation is something I can open a support ticket on), and obtain an additional Windows 10 license. Neither sounds too rough, though, and definitely better than the idea of moving all my data down and up.

Thanks again for taking the time to help me start to understand this. I've got some researching to do on providers and basic Linux commands!