This page contains common maintenance and troubleshooting commands for the Ubuntu server.

Checks the main native services and important Docker containers:

echo "=== Native Services ==="
for s in plexmediaserver transmission-daemon jdownloader; do
  printf "%-22s %s\n" "$s" "$(systemctl is-active "$s" 2>/dev/null)"
done
 
echo
echo "=== Docker Services ==="
for c in nginx-proxy-manager newsblur_web newsblur_celery newsblur_nginx newsblur_haproxy; do
printf "%-22s " "$c"
docker inspect -f '{{.State.Status}}' "$c" 2>/dev/null || echo "not found"
done 

Healthy results should normally show:

plexmediaserver        active
transmission-daemon    active
jdownloader            active

nginx-proxy-manager    running
newsblur_web           running
newsblur_celery        running
newsblur_nginx         running
newsblur_haproxy       running 

docker ps --format 'table {{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}\t{{.Ports}}'

Plex:

systemctl status plexmediaserver --no-pager -l

Transmission:

systemctl status transmission-daemon --no-pager -l

JDownloader:

systemctl status jdownloader --no-pager -l

Show all listening TCP ports:

sudo ss -ltnp

Common important ports on this server include:

80       Nginx Proxy Manager HTTP
443      Nginx Proxy Manager HTTPS
32400    Plex
9095     Transmission Web/RPC
51413    Transmission peer traffic
8084     DokuWiki
8085     WordPress
8086     NewsBlur

curl -I http://127.0.0.1:32400/web

If Plex is healthy, it should respond instead of reporting connection refused.

nvidia-smi

If this reports:

Failed to initialize NVML: Driver/library version mismatch

the NVIDIA libraries and loaded kernel module do not match.

Reboot the server before troubleshooting Plex further:

sudo reboot

Refresh package information:

sudo apt -o Acquire::ForceIPv4=true update

Review available updates:

apt list --upgradable

Install normal eligible updates:

sudo apt -o Acquire::ForceIPv4=true upgrade

Packages held back because of “phasing” can normally be left alone.

if [ -f /var/run/reboot-required ]; then
  echo "REBOOT REQUIRED"
  cat /var/run/reboot-required.pkgs 2>/dev/null
else
  echo "No reboot required"
fi

Pay special attention if updates include:

linux-image
linux-headers
nvidia-driver
nvidia-utils
libnvidia
nvidia-kernel

After kernel or NVIDIA updates, reboot when Ubuntu requests it.

sudo reboot

After reconnecting, run:

nvidia-smi

and then the normal server health check.

Show mounted filesystems:

findmnt

Show mounted media drives:

findmnt | grep /mnt

Show disk space:

df -h

Show disks and filesystem information:

lsblk -f

After editing /etc/fstab:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo mount -a

Then verify mounts:

findmnt

External/data drives should normally use nofail so a missing drive does not prevent Ubuntu from booting.

From the directory containing a service's compose.yml or docker-compose.yml:

Pull newer images:

docker compose pull

Recreate/update containers:

docker compose up -d

Remove unused Docker images:

docker image prune

Do not run these blindly for services where a specific application version must be preserved.

Plex:

sudo journalctl -u plexmediaserver --since "today" --no-pager

Transmission:

sudo journalctl -u transmission-daemon --since "today" --no-pager

JDownloader:

sudo journalctl -u jdownloader --since "today" --no-pager

Docker container logs:

docker logs --tail 100 CONTAINER_NAME

Follow live Docker logs:

docker logs -f --tail 100 CONTAINER_NAME

Press Ctrl+C to stop following the log.

Show running containers:

docker ps

Show all containers, including stopped ones:

docker ps -a

Restart one container:

docker restart CONTAINER_NAME

Inspect container status:

docker inspect -f '{{.State.Status}}' CONTAINER_NAME

When something appears to be down:

* Run the server health check. * Check whether the service/container is running. * Check whether its expected port is listening. * Check recent logs. * Check mounted media/data drives if the application depends on them. * Run nvidia-smi if Plex is crashing after updates. * Reboot if Ubuntu reports a reboot is required after kernel or NVIDIA updates.

For normal maintenance, prefer:

apt update
apt upgrade

Avoid routinely using:

apt full-upgrade
apt dist-upgrade

unless there is a specific reason to do so.

Do not force phased updates unless necessary.