Home Media Server

docker-compose.yml setup for a comprehensive home media server stack. Seamlessly manage and access your content, including movies, TV shows, music, and eBooks + Kobo eReader sync. Featuring apps like Plex, Transmission, Prowlarr, Radarr, Sonarr, Lidarr, Calibre, and Filebrowser, this server empowers you to enjoy and organize your media collection with ease.

You have two configuration options:

1. Without VPN (*-novpn.yml): For straightforward local use.
2. With VPN (*-vpn.yml): Enhances privacy and secures your P2P traffic via OpenVPN

Optional Stacks:

• Traefik: Simplifies service management by providing a reverse proxy with easy-to-configure, accessible URLs for all services.
• Organizr: Acts as a unified front-end dashboard to access and organize all your services in one convenient place.

VPN or no VPN

Choosing whether to use a VPN is entirely up to you. Here’s the key difference:

• Without VPN: Your P2P and Soulseek traffic will route directly through your internet connection, which is simple to set up but offers no additional privacy.
• With VPN: Routes all P2P and Soulseek traffic through OpenVPN, providing enhanced privacy, encryption, and security. This is entirely separate from your normal internet traffic. This setup is highly recommended if you value anonymity

Choosing the VPN setup requires a few additional steps. Here’s what you need:

1. A VPN with P2P Support: Critical for torrenting and file-sharing services.
2. OpenVPN Configuration Files: Obtain these from your VPN provider.
3. Credentials: Login details. These depend on your VPN provider

If you already have a VPN that supports P2P, you can skip this paragraph. If not, consider a reliable provider. I recommend ProtonVPN (tested and pre-configured with this setup) or alternatives like Surfshark and Windscribe.

Services and their use

Images	Use
transmission (+ openvpn)	downloads
prowlarr	indexer manager
calibre	books library manager
calibre-web	books library to enable Kobo Sync
openbooks (*)	books finder
radarr	movies
lidarr	music
sonarr	tv
plex	movies music tv
soulseek	music downloads
filebrowser	local filesharing
organizr	all your services from a single tab

(*) Alternative:  Library Genesis (Libgen)

Folder structure

 /
 ├── appdata
      ├── calibre
      ├── calibre-web
      ├── filebrowser
      ├── lidarr
      ├── openbooks
      ├── organizr
      ├── plex
      ├── prowlarr
      ├── radarr
      ├── sonarr
      ├── soulseek
      └── transmission
 ├── downloads
      ├── complete
           ├── books
           ├── movies
           ├── music
           └── tv
      ├── soulseekqt
      └── incomplete
└── media
     ├── books
     ├── movies
     ├── music
     └── tv

Deploying the stack

Using portainer

copypaste docker-compose*.yml to portainer

config and add home-media-server*.env to portainer

launch stack

Docker desktop

Make sure file sharing is enabled for the directories you are mapping.

setup settings -> resources -> file sharing

Then you can setup a folder so that:

.
├── docker-compose.yml
└── stack.env

then run

docker compose up

Config

After launching for the first time, some configuration is required. Always refer to the official docs. Some pointers are listed per application

Config through web by going to http://0.0.0.0:{port}/

Port	Application	Domain	Domain Short
8989	sonarr	sonarr.domain.duckdns.org	s
7880	radarr	radarr.domain.duckdns.org	r
9696	prowlarr	prowlarr.domain.duckdns.org	pr
8686	lidarr	lidarr.domain.duckdns.org	l
8083	calibre-web	calibre-web.domain.duckdns.org	cw
8092	calibre http
8093	calibre https	calibre.domain.duckdns.org	c
32400	plex	plex.domain.duckdns.org	p
6080	soulseek	soulseek.domain.duckdns.org	so
8090	filebrowser	filebrowser.domain.duckdns.org	f
8099	openbooks	openbooks.domain.duckdns.org	op
9983	organizr	organizr.domain.duckdns.org	o

Transmission

Use environment variables to configure

refer to: https://github.com/transmission/transmission/blob/main/docs/Editing-Configuration-Files.md

for example some bandwidth envs are setup by default:

Bandwidth

    speed-limit-down: Number (KB/s, default = 100)
    speed-limit-down-enabled: Boolean (default = false)
    speed-limit-up: Number (KB/s, default = 100)
    speed-limit-up-enabled: Boolean (default = false)
    upload-slots-per-torrent: Number (default = 14)

VPN Configuration

If using ProtonVPN, you can skip the OpenVPN configuration files and you only need to obtain your credentials. These are obtained through the web interface under sidebar option Account -> OpenVPN / IKEv2 username and password. These will be your OPENVPN_USERNAME and OPENVPN_PASSWORD respectively. Direct link to ProtonVPN docs http://haugene.github.io/docker-transmission-openvpn/provider-specific/#protonvpn

For other providers, the docs can be found at http://haugene.github.io/docker-transmission-openvpn/

Prowlarr

https://docs.prowler.com/projects/prowler-open-source/en/latest/

Sonarr, radarr, lidarr

These services require you to setup an indexer (prowlarr) and a download client (transmission)

1. Add indexers to apps copy the API key from the app then add the app in the Prowlarr web interface

2. Add download client

Transmission client
    Add category {tv|music|movies|books}

Calibre, calibre-web

default login calibre: abc abc default login calibre-web: admin admin123

Use calibre to add books, calibre-web to setup a store endpoint to enable Kobo Sync

Setup eReader with Kobo sync and calibre-web

documentation: https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web/wiki/Kobo-Integration Note that the following is written and tested for a Kobo Aura H2O model, steps may be different or this might not work at all for any other models.

Under abc's Profile (default profile) "Kobo Sync Token" click "create/view token"

This feature might need to be enabled by default

Enable Kobo sync checkbox in the Basic configuration >> Feature Configuration page.

Next connect eReader with a usb-cable to your computer. A single line in a configuration file needs to change to point the store to your home media server.

The Kobo eReader.conf file found under the .kobo/Kobo directory on Kobo devices is used to configure which URL the device uses for syncing books. By default, the config file contains the following row:

api_endpoint=https://storeapi.kobo.com

Users can generate a URL to sync with Calibre-Web instead by clicking the Create/View button under their Calibre-Web profile page.

You need to change the ip to your local ip address, for example:

api_endpoint=http://192.168.0.205:8083/kobo/0cf8e8ccb456ad872f781f88b2cfdf83

Troubleshooting

books aren't updating? Test with

http://localhost:8083/calibreweb/kobo/{token}/v1/library/sync

Go the api_endpoint in browser. If this is empty, consider pressing "Force full kobo sync" in the user options in calibre-web

Filebrowser

- /home/${USER}/Applications/Filebrowser:/srv

Mounts a single folder called Filebrowser to /srv. This folder must be empty.

Other folders are mounted as such: /srv/Pictures so they are accessible in the container as /Pictures

This will create Pictures/ under Applications. Pictures/ will be empty

filebrowser.db must exist before mounting, else mounts a directory touch filebrowser.db

same with settings.json

❯ cat settings.json
{
  "port": 80,
  "baseURL": "",
  "address": "",
  "log": "stdout",
  "database": "/database/filebrowser.db",
  "root": "/srv"
}

admin/admin on initial login :8090

Soulseek

setup Share folder(s) by clicking "Share Folder" at the very top of interface

Openbooks

documentation: https://evan-buss.github.io/openbooks/setup/docker/

Books are downloaded through the browser. They need to be manually added to calibre's library:

• Move downloaded file to /books_add_me folder. This is mapped in the compose file (.yml) file
• open calibre and click the Add books button. This copies the file to the library.
• The downloaded file can be removed

The library will automaticly synchronize with calibre web and can then be synced to your ereader. Periodic syncing should be enabled by default on your ereader.

Organizr

documentation: https://docs.organizr.app/ https://github.com/causefx/Organizr

Credits

Inspired by Youtube tutorial of a similar setup Easy Automated Home Media Server: VPN, Radarr, Sonarr, Lidarr, Librarian in 10 Minutes.

The traefik reverse proxy setup is adapted from "Traefik 3 Docker Certificates Guide" by TechnoTim, originally published at https://technotim.live/posts/traefik-3-docker-certificates/, and licensed under CC BY 4.0. Changes were made to customize the configuration for use with DuckDNS instead of Cloudflare and routing services.