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Frank 58aa084d9c quadlet: drop the userns identity model — rootless cannot map uid 997

Evidence from the failed first cutover: podman top shows container root
maps to dank (1000) under UserNS=host rootless (subuid range 100000:65536
cannot express 997), so PUID=997 fell back to root and PMS crash-looped on
write access to its 997:984-owned data root. Fleet model instead: PUID=0/
PGID=0 (container root = dank, same as jellyfin/copyparty data roots) and
deploy_plex chowns /var/lib/plexmediaserver to 1000:1000 inside the
first-cutover block. Zero bytes moved; rollback regains one chown -R
997:984 step, documented in Plex.md. Seam test pins PUID=0/PGID=0 and the
absence of any userns key.

2026-09-01 22:46:00 -07:00

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Plex

Plex Media Server is the containerized media server on Dankserver: a podman quadlet (plex.service) under the systemd user generator, generated from dankserver/plex/quadlet/plex.container. It is the only media server actually listening on this host. Jellyfin, by contrast, is a research brief on this host, not a running service (see Jellyfin).

Host: Dankserver — Ports: 32400/tcp (PMS web + API), 32400 is the only port PMS needs for client streaming; LAN clients connect directly, public traffic can be fronted by Caddy like every other vhost.

Facts

Item	Value
Runtime	podman quadlet, `plex.service` (user manager) — migrated from the native `plexmediaserver.service` OS-package unit (2026-09)
Image	`lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:1.43.3.10896-cb3ebc72d-ls322` (pinned; verified == the ghcr `latest` manifest digest at pin time)
Data root	`/var/lib/plexmediaserver` bind-mounted in place as `/config` (RW) — the migration moved zero bytes
Media	`/mnt/entropy` mounted at the same absolute path read-only — every library path in the PMS database stayed valid, zero re-scan
Identity	fleet rootless model — container root maps to the `dank` user (1000:1000); the deployer chowns the data root on first cutover
Port	`32400/tcp` published on `0.0.0.0` — zero client reconfiguration
Network	`dankserver_appnet`, alias `plex`; Tautulli reaches it at `http://plex:32400`
GPU	none by decision — CPU decode only; the RTX 3090 stays dedicated to `frank-default-small`
Deploy	`./scripts/deploy.sh dankserver --service plex`
Docs	https://support.plex.tv

Why in-place bind mounts

The migration moved zero bytes: the container bind-mounts the native data root where it already lived, and the media archive re-mounts at /mnt/entropy inside the container, so every absolute library path in the PMS database keeps resolving. The one metadata change: rootless podman cannot map the real host uid 997, so the fleet model applies — container root runs as the dank user, and the deployer adopts the data root with chown -R 1000:1000 on first cutover (rollback chowns it back).

Cutover & rollback

First deploy stops and masks plexmediaserver.service (never disable — on these hosts disable deletes the unit file), chowns /var/lib/plexmediaserver to 1000:1000, then starts the quadlet; the deployer blocks until /identity answers on 32400.
Rollback lever while masked: systemctl --user stop plex.service && sudo chown -R 997:984 /var/lib/plexmediaserver && sudo systemctl unmask plexmediaserver.service && sudo systemctl start plexmediaserver.service (ownership-only churn — zero bytes ever moved).
Decommission (sudo apt-get -y purge plexmediaserver) only after explicit operator sign-off.

Integration points

Caddy: Plex is exempt from the Anubis bot challenge (plain-HTTP legacy clients cannot solve JS challenges) — see Anubis "Exempt by construction".
Tautulli (Tautulli) is the companion: it polls PMS on the appnet for statistics and notifications and makes no sense without Plex.
Auth wall: if a public vhost is ever pointed at Plex, put the Authentik outpost + Anubis chain in front of it like every other guarded vhost (Authentik, Caddy); direct :32400 exposure to the LAN is unauthenticated by design (Plex owns its own auth via claim tokens).

Gotchas

Do not benchmark on it blind. Transcoding is CPU-only now but still contends with the LLM fleet's host-RAM expert streaming; stop the service before benchmark runs, per the Benchmarking Policy.
Updates are commit-driven, not apt. The OS package is retired at cutover; upgrading PMS means pinning a new -ls tag in the unit file and redeploying — never run :latest.
The claim token is the identity of this server; document it in the host .env, never in this repo (secret rules apply). The token lives in Preferences.xml inside the RW data bind, preserved by the migration.

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