OMV5 files not available unless a reboot takes place (solved)

The OMV5 install - was it an upgrade or a fresh installation?

Dockers... For me, I have a love - hate relationship with them. I love that a Docker can add functionality with a "presto" type install. I hate that the interactions between versus Dockers may result in anomalies that are almost impossible to support. Watchtower seems to be the prize winner of them all.

All dockers are not designed to be updated in the manner in which Watchtower does image and container updates. Some Dockers require post installation configuration that is mapped outside of a container, using a mount point, to make configuration changes persistent between reboots. Pi-hole is one such example where post install configuration changes may be lost after a Watchtower update or may not be fully compatible with a new container. That has meant, in the pase, when triggered without prior notice, Watchtower updated Pi-hole and DNS resolution for my entire LAN was trashed.

While I have Watchtower install on one server it's disabled. I enable Watchtower for 10 minutes, when I believe I should update my dockers, then disable it again. I then check and fix the configuration details of the dockers that are hosed up by the update. Others go to lengths to prevent Watchtower from updating certain dockers but that's yet another technical exercise.

If you want my opinion, don't use Watchtower. Or if you use it, disable it as I do, and run an OS backup before enabling it so you'll always a fall back.

What's wrong with your docker arrangement? That's another question altogether. You might look at plex before Watchtower updates it, versus what plex is doing (and the version) after the update. If plex is interaction with something else, such as a downloader, that could be involved as well.

After a fresh backup of the OS:
What I would do is manually pull the new plex image and run it manually. Unless I miss my guess, there's probably a configuration mismatch between the old version of plex and the new one, that's causing problems (permissions?) with your SMB shares.

Remember, since it's a Docker, when you can dump Watchtower it will be completely gone. There's really no need to rebuild.

If you're an avid plex user, you could do a direct install to Debian versus using docker. In such a case, again, I'd image the boot against potential issues and, unless you're booting from a hard drive or an SSD of some size ( equal to or better than 240GB?), you'd want to consider relocating plex's database to a data drive. (It can get quite large.)

Remember, backup the boot drive before you start. I don't use Plex and I haven't tested it on Debian 10, with OMV5. On the other hand, most of these how-to's work as they should. Backup to be sure.

https://www.linuxbabe.com/debi…a-server-debian-10-buster

Read through it first. If you don't have a monitor and keyboard hooked up, you'll need to do the steps for a remote server.

Plex doesn't use ports 80 or 443 so it shouldn't conflict with OMV. Remember, if you have a large music and/or video collection, plex's meta-database can become quite large, up to several Gigabytes. If you think that's going to happen, your boot drive should be larger than 120GB OR you need to relocate the DB to your data drive. (Usually OMV, by itself, will run a 16GB USB thumbdrive with no problem.)

Docker is way better than a direct install, for security purposes, so you really don't want to do this with more than one or two app's.

Quote from antcj

Is there a way to just point the new server to the old db?

Since I've never used it beyond installing it check it, I really don't know. I'm speculating here, but if you do a new plex install and point the new install to the db, it might pick it up. (It makes sense to develop software in that way, if for nothing but app repair and upgrade purposes, but one never knows.)

Quote from antcj

Just out of interest, what do you use in place of plex?

I don't do media servers. I have my music and vid's organized in folders and sub-dir's in a way that I can find them easily. (That organization came from back in the day when media servers didn't exist or, at least, were not common.) Setting up a play list on almost any PC based music player is easy enough.

From some test runs, I like Plex but there are downsides to it:
- It's commercial software that has links back to their update, license and/or key server. (They're initiated by the local plex server, not the remote end, but that's a distinction without a difference. Once established, stuff can be pushed.)

- Plex is USA based meaning uncle sugar could get a warrant to back door into my server that I'd be completely unaware of. (That may seem overly paranoid, but I know a few things about this. Fences make for good neighbors and all that.)

If I were to consider using a media server, it would probably be Jellyfin. Jellyfin was forked from Emby. Jellyfin is a near duplicate of Emby, but it's open source with all features available and no restrictions.

BTW: It's your call, but I'm not a fan of using a smart tv on a home network. (Security reasons again.) I have a PC with mid-ling spec's hooked up to to my big screen, in a HTPC role, that I use for all functions, music, video's etc.

It would be interesting to know if stopping WT fixes the issue. Please report back, one way or the other, with the results.
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Quote from antcj

You gave me pause for thought on the back door thing, however im across down under, but i do get the point.

Yeah, since I'm in the US, I tend to avoid server software that's based in the US. Commercial software almost demands some type of "connection" for even the most rudimentary license check and I'm not the trusting sort.

What's this "Down Under"..?? I thought the world was flat!

Quote from antcj

So far i have not removed WT, just stopped it. so far no issues. time will tell.

If it starts again, with WT off:

While I know it's a PITA, sometimes a fresh rebuild is the only practical approach to a strange problem. I mention this because I've been running OMV on 4 different devices for years. Twice, so far, I've had issues develop that completely defied explanation. (I bounced one of the two issues off of a lead developer where he said, in reviewing the applicable code, the behavior shouldn't even be possible.) The point is, "stuff" happens on the odd occasion.

Most likely, there was minor media corruption of one to a few files, but the forensic diagnosis to find it and the corrective action needed to fix it is not worth the effort. It's simply much faster to rebuild on, preferably, new and fully tested boot media.

If you do rebuild, give some thought to installing the "reset perm's" plug in. Before recreating users and reattaching your shares, with the plugin, you can reset permission on your shares, clearing out any oddities, before configuring the new install.
(Note that this may affect permissions for previously backed up versions of your boot drive. Doing this can be a kind of catch 22 proposition. Think it through.)
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BTW: Dockers can be responsible for weird permissions behavior, especially with downloaders and file processing Dockers that move files between different locations.

Quote from antcj

in amongst all this drama was a faulty hdd enclosure. how unlucky happened all at once. only discovered tha when the hdd would not register on my pc directly)

Who would see that coming? Life can be like that. I have to say thou, that's part of the reason why I really like Linux and app's built for it. Generally, if something is configured up and (AND) you don't mess with it, Linux will work flawlessly for years.

Hardware is another matter. I have found that server grade hardware is rock solid.