A complete guide to setting up a home media server with automated requests/downloads
Here's the stack we'll be using. There will be a section describing the installation and configuration for each one of these
Docker lets us run and isolate each of our services into a container. Everything for each of these services will live in the container except the configuration files which will live on our host.
Jellyfin is an open source media server. It is an alternative to the more popular Plex media server. Previous iterations of this guide had instructions for Plex, but I have since gone all in on Jellyfin for a number of reasons.
- The server runs entirely on your local network whereas Plex servers use a proprietary authentication system.
- In recent years Plex has increasingly incorporated annoying features such as their free built in streaming service. Some may find this useful, but personally I find it to be too much clutter.
- Plex has moved existing features behind paywalls.
- Jellyfin is open source, and all of it's features are completely free. No need for a Plex pass.
That said, Jellyfin lags behind Plex in a few features and especially in client support. If you decide to stick with Plex, most of this guide will still work, you'll just need to swap out Jellyfin and update the connections to Sonnar/Radarr/etc.
qBittorrent is a torrent client. Transmission and Deluge are also popular choices but I chose qBittorrent because you can easily configure it to only operate over the VPN connection.
Gluetun is a VPN running in docker. This will allow you to connect the qBittorrent container to your VPN without having to put your entire system behind it
Prowlarr is a tool that Sonarr and Radarr use to search indexers and trackers for torrents
FlareSolverr can optionally be installed alongside Prowlarr to bypass cloudflare protections. Required for certain indexors (ex. 1337).
Sonarr is a tool for automating and managing your TV library. It automates the process of searching for torrents, downloading them then "moving" them to your library. It also checks RSS feeds to automatically download new shows as soon as they're uploaded!
Radarr is a fork of Sonarr that does all the same stuff but for Movies
The following are additional services I recommend. Since the scope of this guide is mainly about just getting started for new users, I'm not going to go much into how to set them up. However the setup process will generally be very similar.
jfa-go is a user manager for Jellyfin that allows your users to sign up via an invite code and reset their passwords
Wizzarr an alternative to jfa-go. Supports Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, Audiobookshelf, Romm, Komga and Kavita. Seems to be in more active development.
Seerr is an application for managing requests for your media library.
Homepage is a dashboard for keeping track all of these web services
Bazarr is a tool for Sonarr and Radarr to download subtitles for your content
Unmanic is a great tool for optimising media files. For example, you can use it to remove unneccessary subtitles/audio tracks and transcode media to your desired format.
I've personally used both of these reverse proxies at different points. Nowadays I prefer Caddy for a declarative file based approach, but if you prefer a web-ui nginx-proxy-manager is also a great option.
nginx-proxy-manager is an easy to use web-ui for setting up reverse proxies.
Caddy another popular, easy to use reverse proxy server. Does not have a web-ui but is easy to configure in a Caddyfile.
Installation steps will vary based on distro. I recommend following the instructions in the Docker documentation.
I like to keep my configs in one easy place, so let’s create a folder to hold our docker container configs and create our docker-compose.yml file
mkdir ~/docker
touch ~/docker/docker-compose.yml
And add this to the top of your docker-compose file. We will be filling in the services in the coming steps. If you are confused on how to add the services or how your file should look, here is a good resource on docker-compose.
services:
Add the following lines to ~/docker/docker-compose.yml under "services:" Pay close attention to the indentations.
jellyfin:
image: ghcr.io/linuxserver/jellyfin
container_name: jellyfin
environment:
- PUID=1000
- PGID=1000
volumes:
- ./jellyfin:/config
- /path/to/media:/media
ports:
- 8096:8096
restart: unless-stopped
This will start your Jellyfin server on port 8096, and add the volumes ~/docker/jellyfin and /path/to/media onto the container.
Replace /path/to/media to your media directory. Your media directory should contain subdirectories labelled "tv" and "movies".
Make sure those PUID and GUID match the ID for your user and group. You can find these by simply typing "id" into terminal. If they don't match replace the PUID and GUID in the docker compose script with the ones you found in terminal.
We will use Gluetun to setup your VPN connection in a Docker container. This way, services that rely on the VPN such as qbittorrent can access it while the host and public facing services do not.
The exact configuration will vary based on which VPN provider you use. I recommend one that allows for port forwarding, as it will allow you to seed more reliably. For more information on how to set it up, please see the Gluetun documentation.
gluetun:
image: qmcgaw/gluetun
# container_name: gluetun
# line above must be uncommented to allow external containers to connect.
# See https://github.com/qdm12/gluetun-wiki/blob/main/setup/connect-a-container-to-gluetun.md#external-container-to-gluetun
cap_add:
- NET_ADMIN
devices:
- /dev/net/tun:/dev/net/tun
ports:
- 8888:8888/tcp # HTTP proxy
- 8388:8388/tcp # Shadowsocks
- 8388:8388/udp # Shadowsocks
- 8080:8080 # qbittorrent
- 9696:9696 # prowlarr
- 8191:8191 # flaresolverr
volumes:
- ./gluetun:/gluetun
environment:
# See https://github.com/qdm12/gluetun-wiki/tree/main/setup#setup
- PUID=1000
- PGID=1000
- VPN_SERVICE_PROVIDER=ivpn
- VPN_TYPE=openvpn
# OpenVPN:
- OPENVPN_USER=
- OPENVPN_PASSWORD=
# Wireguard:
# - WIREGUARD_PRIVATE_KEY={YOUR PRIVATE KEY}
# - WIREGUARD_ADDRESSES={YOUR ADDRESSES}
# Timezone for accurate log times
- TZ=
# Server list updater
# See https://github.com/qdm12/gluetun-wiki/blob/main/setup/servers.md#update-the-vpn-servers-list
- UPDATER_PERIOD=
qbittorrent:
image: ghcr.io/linuxserver/qbittorrent
container_name: qbittorrent
environment:
- PUID=1000
- PGID=1000
- WEBUI_PORT=8080
volumes:
- ./qbittorrent:/config
- /path/to/qbittorrent-downloads:/downloads
network_mode: service:gluetun
restart: unless-stopped
Replace /path/to/qbittorrent-downloads with the directory you would like qBittorrent to store downloads.
We added network_mode: service:gluetun here so that all qbittorrent traffic gets routed through the VPN container.
Notice that we did not add the ports: section. When routing network traffic through another container, the ports have to be defined in the VPN container instead.
prowlarr:
image: lscr.io/linuxserver/prowlarr:develop
container_name: prowlarr
environment:
- PUID=1000
- PGID=1000
- TZ=America/New_York
volumes:
- ./prowlarr:/config
network_mode: service:gluetun
restart: unless-stopped
This is super basic and just boots your Prowlarr service on port 9696.
flaresolverr:
image: ghcr.io/flaresolverr/flaresolverr:latest
container_name: flaresolverr
environment:
- PUID=1000
- PGID=1000
- TZ=America/New_York
network_mode: service:gluetun
volumes:
- ./flaresolver:/config
restart: unless-stopped
sonarr:
image: ghcr.io/linuxserver/sonarr
container_name: sonarr
environment:
- PUID=1000
- PGID=1000
- TZ=EST
volumes:
- ./sonarr:/config
- /path/to/media/tv:/tv
- /path/to/qbittorrent-downloads:/downloads
ports:
- 8989:8989
restart: unless-stopped
radarr:
image: ghcr.io/linuxserver/radarr
container_name: radarr
environment:
- PUID=1000
- PGID=1000
- TZ=EST
volumes:
- ./radarr:/config
- /path/to/media/movies:/movies
- /path/to/qbittorrent-downloads:/downloads
ports:
- 7878:7878
restart: unless-stopped
Replace /path/to/media/tv & /path/to/media/movies with the directories you created during the Plex docker setup. Replace /path/to/qbittorrent-downloads with the directory you created during the qBittorrent docker setup.
Make sure that user has read-write permissions for the media directories. Sonarr and Radarr are going to try to be creating folders and files in there when they copy or hard link files over. You can do this with the following command: chmod -r +rw /path/to/media
Run this command to boot up all your services! Remember to go back and update your qBittorrent settings after this.
cd ~/docker
docker compose up -d
You now have these services running locally. Go to their web UI’s and configure everything.
sonarr @ http://localhost:8989
radarr @ http://localhost:7878
prowlarr @ http://localhost:9696
qbittorrent @ http://localhost:8080
jellyfin @ http://localhost:8096
- Navigate to http://localhost:8096
- Follow the setup wizard
- Add libraries for TV and Movies. The library folders should be located at /media/movies and /media/tv respectively.
See documentation for more information
On startup qBittorrent will generate a random password. You can find it by running docker logs qbittorrent, and can then change it in the webui:
- Navigate to Tools > Options > WebUI > Authentication
- Enter a secure username and password.
- Navigate to qBittorrent Web UI at http://localhost:8080
- Click on Tools > Options
- Under the "Downloads" tab change "Default Save Path" to /downloads/completed
- Check the box next to "Keep incomplete torrents in:" Make sure it's set to /downloads/incomplete
This will ensure that qBittorrent only downloads over your VPN connection.
- Navigate to qBittorrent Web UI at http://localhost:8080
- Click on Tool > Options
- Go to the Advanced tab
- Change Network interface from Any to the interface corresponding to your VPN (probably something like tun0)
See Prowlarr Quick Start Guide
- Navigate to Settings > Downloads Clients > Add
- Select "qBittorrent"
- Enter "qBittorrent" in the "Name" field
- Set host and port to the qBittorrent Web UI. If you followed this guide correctly the default values should be correct
- Enter the Username and Password for the webui
- Click "Save"
- Navigate to Settings > Media Management
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Add Root Folder"
- Sonarr: Select /tv
- Radarr: Select /movies
You will want to create a quality profile to specify what resolution you want your TV Shows and Movies to be.
- Navigate to Settings > Profiles
- Select the Any profile
- Check all qualities you would like to allow and uncheck all qualities you would like to disable. For example if you want your movie quality to cap out at 1080p to save disk space uncheck everything above Bluray-1080p. Sonarr/Radarr will prioritize the highest allowed resolution but will download lower allowed ones if it can't find it.
- (Optional) Allow upgrades by checking the "Upgrades Allowed" Checkbox. You can then change the "Upgrade Until" drop down to your prefered maximum resolution. This is useful for if you want your library to be entirely 1080p but the only torrent available for a specific show or movie is 720p. This way it will still download the 720p torrent but if a 1080p torrent ever comes along it will automatically download it and replace the 720p version.
I like having this setting enabled to keep my media folders nice and organized.
- Navigate to Settings > Media Management
- Check the checkbox under "Rename Episodes/Movies"
- (Optional) Configure episode format by preference
Sonarr:
- Navigate to Settings > TV > Sonarr
- Check "Enable" "V3" and "Scan for Availability"
- Enter hostname and port. If you followed this guide correctly it should just be localhost:8989
- Enter API key. You can find this in Sonarr under Settings > General
- Leave base URL blank unless you configured one in Sonarr
- Under Sonarr Interface click on "Load Qualities", "Load Folders", and "Load Languages"
- Select "Any" under Quality Profiles
- Select /tv under Default Root Folders
- Select your prefered languages under Language Profiles
Radarr:
- Navigate to Settings > Movies > Radarr
- Check "Enable" "V3" and "Scan for Availability"
- Enter hostname and port. If you followed this guide correctly it should just be localhost:7878
- Enter API key. You can find this in Radarr under Settings > General
- Leave base URL blank unless you configured one in Radarr
- Under Radarr Interface click on "Load Profiles" and "Load Root Folders"
- Select "Any" under Quality Profiles
- Select /movies under Default Root Folders
- Select Physical / Web under Default Minimum Availability. Optionally you could select and earlier setting in case a movie gets leaked before being released to DVD but you will more often than not probably just get cam recordings.
Multiple Hard Drives
As your media library grows, you will eventually run into the issue of storage space. The obvious solution is to get more hard drives, but it's less obvious how to distribute files across multiple drives with this setup. The best solution in my experience is to use MergerFS. MergerFS essentially combines multiple hard drives into a single folder on your filesystem. Then you can point your '/path/to/media' folder to the MergerFS folder. As opposed to traditional solutions such as RAID, MergerFS allows any combination of drives regardless of brand or storage capacity. However, it does not provide any redundancy. It is possible to combine MergerFS with SnapRAID if you'd like some extra redundancy, but personally I have never used it.
Quality Control
The website TRaSH Guides is an amazing resource for setting up quality profile settings. By following these instructions you can achieve fine tuned quality control, such as prioritizing downloads from specific release groups, specific file formats (ex. prefer h.265 over h.264), and set file size limits.