The complete guide to building your personal self hosted server for streaming and ad-blocking powered by Plex, Jellyfin, Adguard Home and Docker.

cross-posted from: lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/5911320

The complete guide to building your personal self hosted server for streaming and ad-blocking.

Captain’s note: This OC was originally posted in reddit but it’s quality makes me wants to ensure a copy survices in lemmy as well.

We will setup the following applications in this guide:

Docker

AdguardHome - Adblocker for all your devices

Jellyfin/Plex - For watching the content you download

Qbittorrent - Torrent downloader

Jackett - Torrent indexers provider

Flaresolverr - For auto solving captcha in some of the indexers

Sonarr - *arr service for automatically downloading TV shows

Radarr - *arr service for movies

Readarr - *arr service for (audio)books

lidarr - *arr service for music

Bazarr - Automatically downloads subtitles for Sonarr and Radarr

Ombi/Overseer - For requesting movies and tv shows through Sonarr and Radarr

Heimdall - Dashboard for all the services so you don’t need to remember all the ports

Once you are done, your dashboard will look something like this.

Heimdall Dashboard

I started building my setup after reading this guide https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/ma1hlm/the_complete_guide_to_building_your_own_personal/.

Hardware

You don’t need powerful hardware to set this up. I use a decade old computer, with the following hardware. Raspberry pi works fine.

Hardware

Operating system

I will be using Ubuntu server in this guide. You can select whatever linux distro you prefer.

Download ubuntu server from https://ubuntu.com/download/server. Create a bootable USB drive using rufus or any other software(I prefer ventoy). Plug the usb on your computer, and select the usb drive from the boot menu and install ubuntu server. Follow the steps to install and configure ubuntu, and make sure to check “Install OpenSSH server”. Don’t install docker during the setup as the snap version is installed.

Once installation finishes you can now reboot and connect to your machine remotely using ssh.
ssh username@server-ip 
# username you selected during installation
# Type ip a to find out the ip address of your server. Will be present against device like **enp4s0** prefixed with 192.168.

Create the directories for audiobooks, books, movies, music and tv.

I keep all my media at ~/server/media. If you will be using multiple drives you can look up how to mount drives.

We will be using hardlinks so once the torrents are downloaded they are linked to media directory as well as torrents directory without using double storage space. Read up the trash-guides to have a better understanding.
mkdir ~/server
mkdir ~/server/media # Media directory
mkdir ~/server/torrents # Torrents

# Creating the directories for torrents
cd ~/server/torrents
mkdir audiobooks books incomplete movies music tv 

cd ~/server/media
mkdir audiobooks books movies music tv

Installing docker and docker-compose

Docker https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/
# install packages to allow apt to use a repository over HTTPS
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install 
 apt-transport-https 
 ca-certificates 
 curl 
 gnupg 
 lsb-release
# Add Docker’s official GPG key:
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg
# Setup the repository
echo 
 "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu 
 $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
# Install Docker Engine
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io
# Add user to the docker group to run docker commands without requiring root
sudo usermod -aG docker $(whoami) 

Sign out by typing exit in the console and then ssh back in

Docker compose https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/
# Download the current stable release of Docker Compose
sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.29.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
# Apply executable permissions to the binary
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Creating the compose file for Adguard home

First setup Adguard home in a new compose file.

Docker compose uses a yml file. All of the files contain version and services object.

Create a directory for keeping the compose files.
mkdir ~/server/compose
mkdir ~/server/compose/adguard-home
vi ~/server/compose/adguard-home/docker-compose.yml

Save the following content to the docker-compose.yml file. You can see here what each port does.
version: '3.3'
services:
 run:
 container_name: adguardhome
 restart: unless-stopped
 volumes:
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/adguardhome/workdir:/opt/adguardhome/work'
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/adguardhome/confdir:/opt/adguardhome/conf'
 ports:
 - '53:53/tcp'
 - '53:53/udp'
 - '67:67/udp'
 - '68:68/udp'
 - '68:68/tcp'
 - '80:80/tcp'
 - '443:443/tcp'
 - '443:443/udp'
 - '3000:3000/tcp'
 image: adguard/adguardhome

Save the file and start the container using the following command.
docker-compose up -d

Open up the Adguard home setup on YOUR_SERVER_IP:3000.

Enable the default filter list from filters→DNS blocklist. You can then add custom filters.

Filters

Creating the compose file for media-server

Jackett

Jackett is where you define all your torrent indexers. All the *arr apps use the tornzab feed provided by jackett to search torrents.

There is now an *arr app called prowlarr that is meant to be the replacement for jackett. But the flaresolverr(used for auto solving captchas) support was added very recently and doesn’t work that well as compared to jackett, so I am still sticking with jackett for meantime. You can instead use prowlarr if none of your indexers use captcha.
jackett:
 container_name: jackett
 image: linuxserver/jackett
 environment:
 - PUID=1000
 - PGID=1000
 - TZ=Asia/Kolkata
 volumes:
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/jackett:/config'
 - '/home/${USER}/server/torrents:/downloads'
 ports:
 - '9117:9117'
 restart: unless-stopped
prowlarr:
		container_name: prowlarr
 image: 'hotio/prowlarr:testing'
 ports:
 - '9696:9696'
 environment:
 - PUID=1000
 - PGID=1000
 - TZ=Asia/Kolkata
 volumes:
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/prowlarr:/config'
 restart: unless-stopped

Sonarr - TV

Sonarr is a TV show scheduling and searching download program. It will take a list of shows you enjoy, search via Jackett, and add them to the qbittorrent downloads queue.
sonarr:
 container_name: sonarr
 image: linuxserver/sonarr
 environment:
 - PUID=1000
 - PGID=1000
 - TZ=Asia/Kolkata
 ports:
 - '8989:8989'
 volumes:
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/sonarr:/config'
 - '/home/${USER}/server:/data'
 restart: unless-stopped

Radarr - Movies

Sonarr but for movies.
radarr:
 container_name: radarr
 image: linuxserver/radarr
 environment:
 - PUID=1000
 - PGID=1000
 - TZ=Asia/Kolkata
 ports:
 - '7878:7878'
 volumes:
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/radarr:/config'
 - '/home/${USER}/server:/data'
 restart: unless-stopped

Lidarr - Music
lidarr:
 container_name: lidarr
 image: ghcr.io/linuxserver/lidarr
 environment:
 - PUID=1000
 - PGID=1000
 - TZ=Asia/Kolkata
 volumes:
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/liadarr:/config'
 - '/home/${USER}/server:/data'
 ports:
 - '8686:8686'
 restart: unless-stopped

Readarr - Books and AudioBooks
# Notice the different port for the audiobook container
readarr:
 container_name: readarr
 image: 'hotio/readarr:nightly'
 ports:
 - '8787:8787'
 environment:
 - PUID=1000
 - PGID=1000
 - TZ=Asia/Kolkata
 volumes:
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/readarr:/config'
 - '/home/${USER}/server:/data'
 restart: unless-stopped

readarr-audio-books:
 container_name: readarr-audio-books
 image: 'hotio/readarr:nightly'
 ports:
 - '8786:8787'
 environment:
 - PUID=1000
 - PGID=1000
 - TZ=Asia/Kolkata
 volumes:
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/readarr-audio-books:/config'
 - '/home/${USER}/server:/data'
 restart: unless-stopped

Bazarr - Subtitles
bazarr:
 container_name: bazarr
 image: ghcr.io/linuxserver/bazarr
 environment:
 - PUID=1000
 - PGID=1000
 - TZ=Asia/Kolkata
 volumes:
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/bazarr:/config'
 - '/home/${USER}/server:/data'
 ports:
 - '6767:6767'
 restart: unless-stopped

Jellyfin

I personally only use jellyfin because it’s completely free. I still have plex installed because overseerr which is used to request movies and tv shows require plex. But that’s the only role plex has in my setup.

I will talk about the devices section later on.

For the media volume you only need to provide access to the /data/media directory instead of /data as jellyfin doesn’t need to know about the torrents.
jellyfin:
 container_name: jellyfin
 image: ghcr.io/linuxserver/jellyfin
 environment:
 - PUID=1000
 - PGID=1000
 - TZ=Asia/Kolkata
 ports:
 - '8096:8096'
 devices:
 - '/dev/dri/renderD128:/dev/dri/renderD128'
 - '/dev/dri/card0:/dev/dri/card0'
 volumes:
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/jellyfin:/config'
 - '/home/${USER}/server/media:/data/media'
 restart: unless-stopped

plex:
 container_name: plex
 image: ghcr.io/linuxserver/plex
 ports:
 - '32400:32400'
 environment:
 - PUID=1000
 - PGID=1000
 - TZ=Asia/Kolkata
 - VERSION=docker
 volumes:
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/plex:/config'
 - '/home/${USER}/server/media:/data/media'
 devices:
 - '/dev/dri/renderD128:/dev/dri/renderD128'
 - '/dev/dri/card0:/dev/dri/card0'
 restart: unless-stopped

Overseer/Ombi - Requesting Movies and TV shows

I use both. You can use ombi only if you don’t plan to install plex.
ombi:
 container_name: ombi
 image: ghcr.io/linuxserver/ombi
 environment:
 - PUID=1000
 - PGID=1000
 - TZ=Asia/Kolkata
 volumes:
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/ombi:/config'
 ports:
 - '3579:3579'
 restart: unless-stopped

overseerr:
 container_name: overseerr
 image: ghcr.io/linuxserver/overseerr
 environment:
 - PUID=1000
 - PGID=1000
 - TZ=Asia/Kolkata
 volumes:
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/overseerr:/config'
 ports:
 - '5055:5055'
 restart: unless-stopped

Qbittorrent - Torrent downloader

I use qflood container. Flood provides a nice UI and this image automatically manages the connection between qbittorrent and flood.

Qbittorrent only needs access to torrent directory, and not the complete data directory.
qflood:
 container_name: qflood
 image: hotio/qflood
 ports:
 - "8080:8080"
 - "3005:3000"
 environment:
 - PUID=1000
 - PGID=1000
 - UMASK=002
 - TZ=Asia/Kolkata
 - FLOOD_AUTH=false
 volumes:
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/qflood:/config'
 - '/home/${USER}/server/torrents:/data/torrents'
 restart: unless-stopped

Heimdall - Dashboard

There are multiple dashboard applications but I use Heimdall.
heimdall:
 container_name: heimdall
 image: ghcr.io/linuxserver/heimdall
 environment:
 - PUID=1000
 - PGID=1000
 - TZ=Asia/Kolkata
 volumes:
 - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/heimdall:/config'
 ports:
 - 8090:80
 restart: unless-stopped

Flaresolverr - Solves cloudflare captcha

If your indexers use captcha, you will need flaresolverr for them.
flaresolverr:
 container_name: flaresolverr
 image: 'ghcr.io/flaresolverr/flaresolverr:latest'
 ports:
 - '8191:8191'
 environment:
 - PUID=1000
 - PGID=1000
 - TZ=Asia/Kolkata
 restart: unless-stopped

Transcoding

As I mentioned in the jellyfin section there is a section in the conmpose file as “devices”. It is used for transcoding. If you don’t include that section, whenever transcoding happens it will only use CPU. In order to utilise your gpu the devices must be passed on to the container.

https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/administration/hardware-acceleration.html Read up this guide to setup hardware acceleration for your gpu.

Generally, the devices are same for intel gpu transcoding.
devices:
 - '/dev/dri/renderD128:/dev/dri/renderD128'
 - '/dev/dri/card0:/dev/dri/card0'

To monitor the gpu usage install intel-gpu-tools
sudo apt install intel-gpu-tools

Now, create a compose file for media server.
mkdir ~/server/compose/media-server
vi ~/server/compose/media-server/docker-compose.yml

And copy all the containers you want to use under services. Remember to add the version string just like adguard home compose file.

Configuring the docker stack

Start the containers using the same command we used to start the adguard home container.
docker-compose up -d

Jackett

Navigate to YOUR_SERVER_IP:9117

Add a few indexers to jackett using the “add indexer” button. You can see the indexers I use in the image below.

Indexers

Qbittorrent

Navigate to YOUR_SERVER_IP:8080

The default username is admin and password adminadmin. You can change the user and password by going to Tools → Options → WebUI

Change “Default Save Path” in WebUI section to /data/torrents/ and “Keep incomplete torrents in” to /data/torrents/incomplete/

Create categories by right clicking on sidebar under category. Type category as TV and path as tv. Path needs to be same as the folder you created to store your media. Similarly for movies type Movies as category and path as movies. This will enable to automatically move the media to its correct folder.

Sonarr

Navigate to YOUR_SERVER_IP:8989

Under “Download Clients” add qbittorrent. Enter the host as YOUR_SERVER_IP port as **8080,** and the username and password you used for qbittorrent. In category type TV (or whatever you selected as category name(not path) on qbittorent). Test the connection and then save.

Under indexers, for each indexer you added in Jackett

Click on add button

Select Torzab

Copy the tornzab feed for the indexer from jackett

Copy the api key from jackett

Select the categories you want

Test and save

Under general, define the root folder as /data/media/tv

Repeat this process for Radarr, Lidarr and readarr.

Use /data/media/movies as root for Radarr and so on.

The setup for ombi/overseerr is super simple. Just hit the url and follow the on screen instructions.

Bazarr

Navigate to YOUR_SERVER_IP:6767

Go to settings and then sonarr. Enter the host as YOUR_SERVER_IP port as 8989. Copy the api key from sonarr settings→general.

Similarly for radarr, enter the host as YOUR_SERVER_IP port as 7878. Copy the api key from radarr settings→general.

Jellyfin

Go to YOUR_SERVER_IP:8096

Add all the libraries by selecting content type and then giving a name for that library. Select the particular library location from /data/media. Repeat this for movies, tv, music, books and audiobooks.

Go to dashboard→playback, and enable transcoding by selecting as VAAPI and enter the device as /dev/dri/renderD128

Monitor GPU usage while playing content using
sudo intel_gpu_top

Heimdall

Navigate to YOUR_SERVER_IP:8090

Setup all the services you use so you don’t need to remember the ports like I showed in the first screenshot.

Updating docker images

With docker compose updates are very easy.

Navigate to the compose file directory ~/server/compose/media-server.

Then docker-compose pull to download the latest images.

And finally docker-compose up -d to use the latest images.

Remove old images by docker system prune -a

What’s next

You can setup VPN if torrents are blocked by your ISP/Country. I wanted to keep this guide simple and I don’t use VPN for my server, so I have left out the VPN part.

You can read about port forwarding to access your server over the internet.

Image

Image alternative text

Wxfisch, 7 months ago

I would recommend prowlarr instead of jackett for indexer management, and pihole as at least an additional blocking service but in reality it’s really all you need for use at home. I’d also strongly encourage use of a VPN on your *arr download services. I use a separate box to run Plex and then have my *arrs all running on their own VM inside if it to provide separation and allow be to more easily segregate the network traffic (as someone that doesn’t really know docker that well it “just works” for me. Also probably worth looking at how to store your media on an external target, it’s easy to quickly accumulate 10s of TBs of media and trying to store that all on the server locally is asking for trouble. Better to set everything up on a NAS to start.

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dan, 7 months ago

pihole as at least an additional blocking service

Why would you need PiHole? AdGuard Home is the same but with more features, for example it supports and uses DNS-over-HTTPS out of the box so your ISP can’t view and modify the DNS requests and responses.

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LastoftheDinosaurs, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago)

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BearOfaTime, 7 months ago

Wow, you kiss your mother with that mouth?

Double down on your childish insults… Sheesh

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iHUNTcriminals, 7 months ago

Don’t fear the down votes! Life is experience!

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CustodialTeapot, 7 months ago

Kind of a shit response to such a well written reply. Most of us would use this guide likely don’t already have any of this set up. Imagine spending so long setting this all up when there’s a good reply that can further improve on stuff before it’s in place.

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Marsupial, 7 months ago

So for a beginners guide, your complaint with their suggestion is that it’s something non-beginners already know and as such shouldn’t be informed to beginners?

I haven’t set up my home server yet although this sub has inspired me, I’m exactly the target market for this post and I find this suggestion informative.

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LastoftheDinosaurs, 7 months ago

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Confused_Emus, 7 months ago

You need a hug or somethin’, sweetheart?

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auf, 7 months ago

I found a brand new dashboarding software recently, haven’t tried myself yet but if you’re interested…

github.com/gethomepage/homepage

P.S. I found it wasn’t “brand new”. It’s been there for a while but is actively maintained and have somewhat better user interface imo

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Dasnap, 7 months ago

I personally prefer Homepage over Heimdall and made the switch a few months back.

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chandz05, 7 months ago

I did exactly the same! I tried a few different dashboards, and Homepage was the perfect balance between customization and simplicity for me

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dan, 7 months ago

I tried a few and ended up with Homer. github.com/bastienwirtz/homer/

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RootBeerGuy, 7 months ago

How well does either of these work if you connect with a phone/mobile interface? Maybe I am looking at these the wrong way but I have been wanting to get a dashboard that I could reach via my phone that doesn’t force a desktop interface.

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gdog05, 7 months ago

I use Organizr and I think it looks and works great on mobile. https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/7dab91bb-b1bb-4c14-a210-11592070e0ea.jpeghttps://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/aecedbbf-253d-4bbe-88c8-f3fb2cd8a898.jpeghttps://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/c012852d-b570-41d3-9a80-330b9d03f165.jpeg

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