Ubuntu Server (14.04) Power Management with Plex Media Server

[Timber]

Hi All

Very much a Linux noob but have a question that I thought I'd post here to see if anyone has experience of running Plex Media Server on Ubuntu. I've learnt the basic with Ubuntu over the past year or so running an HTPC (now the Linux box below) but I am much more comfortable with Windows or Mac OSX.

I've been using Ubuntu Server (13.10 upgraded to 14.04) alongside my Synology NAS (DS 211j) to run a Plex Media Server. Although it's creaking at the seams and I need to update at some point soon, it does the job at the moment. Media stored on the Synology NAS and the Linux box (AMD A4 5300 APU plus 4GB RAM) running Plex Media Server. Because the Linux box isn't doing anything else other than run Plex I like it to suspend when not in use.

Whilst I'm really happy with the stability of Ubuntu Server the issue is that I can't set up intelligent Power Management on Ubuntu Server so that it knows when Plex is in use or not and will remain running until people aren't using Plex.

• Using the default power options in settings Ubuntu will go into suspend after 2 hours. However it simply ignores Plex and therefore anyone watching anything has to wake the server up.
• I've tried both QShutdown and Sentinella from the software centre which both suffer from the same fault and fail to reset automatically from suspend so are useless as far as I can see. Although at least with Sentinella you can adjust more criteria around when your server goes into suspend.
• I've found other similar posts on Plex forums with no easy answer:
  https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/topic/96467-prevent-pc-sleeping-while-streaming-via-dlna/

So anyone running Ubuntu with Plex Media Server and setup power management that works with Plex or do you simply run your server 24/7?

If I can get Linux to automatically resume successfully that I might be tempted to keep it running as I was hoping to avoid Windows or Mac hardware even if there are advantages to being able to run those operating systems.

 

[Steveocee]

Hp Microserver running plex on ubuntu 14.04 server headless.
Mine stays on 24/7

 

[Timber]

Thank you for the response. Sounds like Ubuntu Server can't do what I'd like it to, given how Plex is running.

As an interim measure I've edited my crontab file with a simple suspend command overnight to save energy.

Shame becuase it looks like Windows can automatically wake up as a server when Plex is in use. I assume the Mac OSX version is the same but haven't been able to validate this. Although I'd love to get away from using Windows.

Longer term I'm still trying to wrestle with the idea of replacing this setup with one box; either a QNAP 470 Pro (very expensive i3 box but will be the low maintenance, low power all in one solution) or running a Synology/QNAP NAS plus separate server for Plex (cheaper and more versatile but won't be anywhere near as efficient and potentially have OS costs.