I’m a novice Linux user. Comfortable with command line but far from a whiz. Have to duckduckgo a lot of stuff to figure out what I’m doing.
I just bought a WD EX2 Ultra. The Plex app is built in, but it looks like the other stuff I want to do will require Docker containers. Maybe I just need to devote more time to learning containers but, at first look, it all seems quite daunting.
Here’s what I want to set up. Jellyfin for music, tv & movies. Audiobookshelf for podcasts. The Servarr suite for library collection and management. VPN for security and privacy.
Am I swinging too big for my skill level, or does this seem doable? Any suggestions on how to proceed? Any and all feedback is welcome!
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I’m a Linux newb and I managed to set this up a couple months ago. Despite being new to servers and containers, I did not find it too difficult.
Here is the guide I used: https://zerodya.net/self-host-jellyfin-media-streaming-stack/
The guide above doesnt include Audiobookshelf installation, but you will quickly see that adding Audiobookshelf to the basic setup is very easy. There are two things I’ve learned since the initial setup, which are worth a deviation from the guide above.
First, the recommendation in the guide to use a separate userid and groupid (1001) for the docker containers vs. your own userid/groupid (1000) is a royal PITA and not necessary for most basic use cases.
Second, and much more important, you MUST set up your VPN in a Gluetun container and then make your torrent client container a “service” of the Gluetun container. Yes, I know, that sounds like some advanced-level abstraction, but it is actually extremely easy to do and it will save you from getting a nastygram from your ISP when your VPN loses connection. The MPIAA is extremely active with automated detection and processing of torrenting data, but if you set up your VPN with Gluetun, you have a perfectly effective kill switch when your VPN connection drops. And, no, the built-in killswitch on your VPN client won’t work with containers.
Here is the guide I used to make that modification to the initial setup: https://www.smarthomebeginner.com/gluetun-docker-guide/
Good luck! It was fun to set up, and even more fun to use.
start small, and you should be able to do it no problem.
first off, ignore the wd. its storage. you dont want your storage and your processing mixing (i wouldnt anyway)
- find yourself an old, shitty pc with >=4gb of ram, processor irrelevant.
- slap a small ssd in, or dont. install linux
- install docker
- start installin containers
lots of available, preconfigured containers with instruction over at: https://hub.docker.com
when you get your containers functional you can connect your media software (jellfyin) to the wd storage
Mixing storage and processing is now cool again. It’s just called hyper converged infrastructure.
old, shitty pc
processor irrelevant
I knew this day would come! blows the dust off my gateway machine with a P4 @ 1.6GHz Look, it’s even got a fdd, perfect for backup duty! If I could only find that Zip drive though…
id be shocked if that p4 had 4gb of ram though
Seconding the other user’s post, it’s just storage. You can use it temporarily for the Plex server but I highly recommend offloading that task to a real computer.
A used Optiplex is usually the go-to because it’s low power and capable of doing the job. Just make sure it has enough RAM to handle the containers you wanna put on it.
Docker is a little bit of learning but you’ll get the hang of it. I found docker-compose to be much easier to learn. Portainer or Dockge can help by giving you a GUI, if that’s your preferred style (like me).
Docker is a moderately sized step beyond VM.
I might recommend setting up VMs with something easy like VirtuaBox. When you have that figured out move on to Docker.
If your a casual user VMs are likely sufficient.
