Plex Media Server

Personal media server that organizes and streams your movie, TV, and music collections to all your devices.

Registry	ghcr.io/daemonless/plex
Source	https://github.com/daemonless/plex
Website	https://plex.tv/

Version Tags

Tag	Description	Best For
latest	Upstream Binary. Built from official release.	Most users — recommended.

Prerequisites

Before deploying, ensure your host environment is ready. See the Quick Start Guide for host setup instructions.

Deployment

Podman Compose

services:
  plex:
    image: "ghcr.io/daemonless/plex:latest"
    container_name: plex
    environment:
      - PUID=1000  # User ID for the application process
      - PGID=1000  # Group ID for the application process
      - TZ=UTC  # Timezone for the container
      - VERSION=container  # Plex update channel (container, public, plexpass)
      - PLEX_CLAIM=  # Optional: Claim token — get one at https://plex.tv/claim
    volumes:
      - "/path/to/containers/plex:/config"
      - "/path/to/containers/plex/transcode:/transcode" # optional
      - "/path/to/movies:/movies"
      - "/path/to/tv:/tv"
    # always (not unless-stopped) so FreeBSD's podman rc.d auto-starts it at boot
    restart: always

Save as compose.yaml, then run podman-compose up -d.

AppJail Director

.env:

# .env

DIRECTOR_PROJECT=plex
PUID=1000
PGID=1000
TZ=UTC
VERSION=container
PLEX_CLAIM=

appjail-director.yml:

# appjail-director.yml

options:
  - virtualnet: ':<random> default'
  - nat:
services:
  plex:
    name: plex
    options:
      - container: 'boot args:--pull'
    oci:
      user: root
      environment:
        - PUID: !ENV '${PUID}'
        - PGID: !ENV '${PGID}'
        - TZ: !ENV '${TZ}'
        - VERSION: !ENV '${VERSION}'
        - PLEX_CLAIM: !ENV '${PLEX_CLAIM}'
    volumes:
      - plex: /config
      - plex_transcode: /transcode
      - movies: /movies
      - tv: /tv
volumes:
  plex:
    device: '/path/to/containers/plex'
  plex_transcode:
    device: '/path/to/containers/plex/transcode'
  movies:
    device: 'movies'
  tv:
    device: 'tv'

Makejail:

# Makejail

ARG tag=latest

OPTION overwrite=force
OPTION from=ghcr.io/daemonless/plex:${tag}

Save the files above, then run appjail-director up.

Podman CLI

podman run -d --name plex \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e TZ=UTC \
  -e VERSION=container \
  -e PLEX_CLAIM= \
  -v /path/to/containers/plex:/config \
  -v /path/to/containers/plex/transcode:/transcode # optional \
  -v /path/to/movies:/movies \
  -v /path/to/tv:/tv \
  ghcr.io/daemonless/plex:latest

Save as run.sh, then run sh run.sh.

AppJail

appjail oci run -Pd \
  -o overwrite=force \
  -o container="args:--pull" \
  -o virtualnet=":<random> default" \
  -o nat \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e TZ=UTC \
  -e VERSION=container \
  -e PLEX_CLAIM= \
  -o fstab="/path/to/containers/plex /config <pseudofs>" \
  -o fstab="/path/to/containers/plex/transcode /transcode <pseudofs>" \ # optional
  -o fstab="/path/to/movies /movies <pseudofs>" \
  -o fstab="/path/to/tv /tv <pseudofs>" \
  ghcr.io/daemonless/plex:latest plex

Save as run.sh, then run sh run.sh.

Bastille

Warning

Bastille's OCI support is experimental. It requires buildah, shares the host network stack (inherit), and persists image-declared volumes under --data-path.

services:
  plex:
    image: "ghcr.io/daemonless/plex:latest"
    container_name: plex
    network_mode: host  # jail shares host networking
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=UTC
      - VERSION=container
      - PLEX_CLAIM=

Save as podman-compose.yml, then run bastille up. Or via CLI:

bastille create -O \
  --env PUID=1000 \
  --env PGID=1000 \
  --env TZ=UTC \
  --env VERSION=container \
  --env PLEX_CLAIM= \
  --data-path /path/to/containers/plex \
  plex ghcr.io/daemonless/plex:latest inherit

Ansible

- name: Deploy plex
  containers.podman.podman_container:
    name: plex
    image: "ghcr.io/daemonless/plex:latest"
    state: started
    restart_policy: always
    env:
      PUID: "1000"
      PGID: "1000"
      TZ: "UTC"
      VERSION: "container"
      PLEX_CLAIM: ""
    volumes:
      - "/path/to/containers/plex:/config"
      - "/path/to/containers/plex/transcode:/transcode" # optional
      - "/path/to/movies:/movies"
      - "/path/to/tv:/tv"

Save as plex-deploy.yaml, then run ansible-playbook plex-deploy.yaml.

Parameters

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
PUID	1000	User ID for the application process
PGID	1000	Group ID for the application process
TZ	UTC	Timezone for the container
VERSION	container	Plex update channel (container, public, plexpass)
PLEX_CLAIM	``	Optional: Claim token — get one at https://plex.tv/claim

Volumes

Path	Description
/config	Configuration directory
/transcode	Transcode directory (Optional)
/movies	Movie library
/tv	TV series library

Host Networking

Plex requires network_mode: host on FreeBSD Podman. Bridge networking causes the Plex setup wizard to reject all connections with "Not authorized" because it only allows access from 127.0.0.1, and bridge networking makes all connections appear to come from the gateway IP.

With host networking, ports are bound directly on the host — no ports: mapping needed.

Initial Setup

The Plex setup wizard must be accessed from localhost. After starting the container, create an SSH tunnel from your local machine:

ssh -L 32400:localhost:32400 <your-host>

Then open http://localhost:32400/web in your browser to complete setup.

Architectures: amd64 User: bsd (UID/GID via PUID/PGID, defaults to 1000:1000) Base: FreeBSD 15

---

Need help? Join our Discord community.