How to Install Plex Media Server on CentOS 7

Plex is a client-server media software suite. It has two main components, plex media server, and plex player.

Plex media server is an application that allows you to organize your media files like video, audio, photo, and other media from online sources, then stream them over the local network or over the internet. It can be installed on Windows, MacOS, Linux, and even FreeBSD system.

Plex Player is the front-end that allows you to play your media files over the local or remote computer that running the Plex media server.

In this tutorial, we will show you step-by-step how to install and configure Plex media server on your CentOS 7 server. We will install Plex Media Server from its own repository, then configure the Firewalld rules for the media server access, and finally, configure the Plex player using the Plex web app.

Prerequisites

CentOS 7 system
Root privileges

What we will do

Add Plex Repository to the CentOS 7 System
Install Plex Media Server on CentOS 7
Configure Firewalld Rules for Plex Media Server
Testing

Step 1 – Add Plex Repository

The first step we need to do for this guide is to add the Plex repository to our CentOS 7 system.

Go to the ‘yum.repos.d’ directory and create new repo file ‘plex.repo’ using the vim editor.

cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
vim plex.repo

Paste the following Plex repository configuration there.

# Plex.repo file will allow dynamic install/update of plexmediaserver.
[PlexRepo]
name=PlexRepo
baseurl=https://downloads.plex.tv/repo/rpm/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgkey=https://downloads.plex.tv/plex-keys/PlexSign.key
gpgcheck=1

Save and exit.

Plex repository has been added to the CentOS 7 system.

Now we will install Plex media server on our CentOS server.

Run the yum command below.

sudo yum -y install plexmediaserver

After the installation is complete, start the plex service and enable it to launch everytime at system boot using the systemctl commands below.

systemctl start plexmediaserver
systemctl enable plexmediaserver

Plex media server has been installed – check it using the following command.

systemctl status plexmediaserver

And you will get the result as shown below.

The Plex Media Server is now running on the CentOS 7 server.

In this tutorial, we will enable Firewalld services. Make sure firewalld packages are installed on the system.

Or you can install them using the yum command below.

sudo yum -y install firewalld

Now start the firewalld service and enable it to launch every time at system boot.

systemctl start firewalld
systemctl enable firewalld

Next, we need to add new firewalld configuration for our plex installation. Plex media server needs some port in the ‘LISTEN’ state, so we will create new firewalld XML configuration.

Go to the ‘/etc/firewalld/service’ directory and create a new service firewalld configuration ‘plex.xml’ using vim.

cd /etc/firewalld/services/
vim plexmediaserver.xml

There, paste the following configuration.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<service>
  <short>plexmediaserver</short>
  <description>Ports required by plexmediaserver.</description>
  <port protocol="tcp" port="32400"></port>
  <port protocol="udp" port="1900"></port>
  <port protocol="tcp" port="3005"></port>
  <port protocol="udp" port="5353"></port>
  <port protocol="tcp" port="8324"></port>
  <port protocol="udp" port="32410"></port>
  <port protocol="udp" port="32412"></port>
  <port protocol="udp" port="32413"></port>
  <port protocol="udp" port="32414"></port>
  <port protocol="tcp" port="32469"></port>
</service>

Save and exit.

Now add the ‘plexmediaserver’ service to the firewalld services list, then reload the configuration.

sudo firewall-cmd –add-service=plexmediaserver –permanent
sudo firewall-cmd –reload

And you will get the result as below.