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Docker

Tip

If you're new to dockers and want an easy setup, we suggest taking a look at DockSTARTer. We've also created a short guide HERE where we explain the settings for the most used applications.

The main goal of DockSTARTer is to make it quick and easy to get up and running with Docker. You may choose to rely on DockSTARTer for various changes to your Docker system or use DockSTARTer as a stepping stone and learn to do more advanced configurations.

DockSTARTer was actually my first step into the world of dockers.

Note

I'm not going to explain how to get dockers installed and running, we will only explain which folder structure we recommend.

The paths mentioned below refer to internal paths (or Container Path) for the containers!

External paths (or Host Path) depend on where you mounted your share or your drives.

For example /<path_to_data>/data, or even /data.

Folder Structure

Warning

It doesn't really matter which path you use for your media and appdata,

the only thing you should avoid is /home.

Because user folders in /home are expected to have some restrictive permissions.

It just could end up creating a permissions mess, so it's better to just avoid entirely.

For this example we're going to make use of a share called data.

The data folder has sub-folders for torrents and usenet and each of these have sub-folders for tv, movie, books and music downloads to keep things neat. The media folder has nicely named TV, Movies, Books and Music sub-folders, this is your library and what you’d pass to Plex, Emby or JellyFin.

In this examples I'm using lower case on all folder on purpose, being Linux is case sensitive.

data
├── torrents
│   ├── books
│   ├── movies
│   ├── music
│   └── tv
├── usenet
│   ├── incomplete
│   └── complete
│       ├── books
│       ├── movies
│       ├── music
│       └── tv
└── media
    ├── books
    ├── movies
    ├── music
    └── tv

Bad path suggestion

The default path setup suggested by some docker developers that encourages people to use mounts like /movies, /tv, /books or /downloads is very suboptimal and it makes them look like two or three file systems, even if they aren’t (Because of how Docker’s volumes work). It is the easiest way to get started. While easy to use, it has a major drawback. Mainly losing the ability to hardlink or instant move, resulting in a slower and more I/O intensive copy + delete is used.

Breakdown of the Folder Structure

Torrent clients

qBittorrent, Deluge, ruTorrent

The reason why we use /data/torrents for the torrent client is because it only needs access to the torrent files. In the torrent software settings, you’ll need to reconfigure paths and you can sort into sub-folders like /data/torrents/{tv|movies|music}.

data
└── torrents
    ├── books
    ├── movies
    ├── music
    └── tv

Container Path: => /data/torrents/

Host Path: => /<path_to_data>/data/torrents/

Usenet clients

NZBGet or SABnzbd

The reason why we use /data/usenet for the Usenet client is because it only needs access to the Usenet files. In the Usenet software settings, you’ll need to reconfigure paths and you can sort into sub-folders like /data/usenet/complete/{tv|movies|music}.

data
└── usenet
    ├── incomplete
    └── complete
        ├── books
        ├── movies
        ├── music
        └── tv

Container Path: => /data/usenet/

Host Path: => /<path_to_data>/data/usenet/

The Starr Apps

Sonarr, Radarr, Readarr and Lidarr

Sonarr, Radarr, Readarr and Lidarr gets access to everything using /data because the download folder(s) and media folder will look like and be one file system. Hardlinks will work and moves will be atomic, instead of copy + delete.

data
├── torrents
│   ├── books
│   ├── movies
│   ├── music
│   └── tv
├── usenet
│   ├── incomplete
│   └── complete
│       ├── books
│       ├── movies
│       ├── music
│       └── tv
└── media
    ├── books
    ├── movies
    ├── music
    └── tv

Container Path: => /data

Host Path: => /<path_to_data>/data/

Media Server

Plex, Emby, JellyFin and Bazarr

Plex, Emby, JellyFin and Bazarr only needs access to your media library using /data/media, which can have any number of sub folders like Movies, Kids Movies, TV, Documentary TV and/or Music as sub folders.

data
└── media
    ├── movies
    ├── music
    ├── books
    └── tv

Container Path: => /data/media

Host Path: => /<path_to_data>/data/media/


Don't forget to look at the Examples how to set up the paths inside the applications.

Permissions

Recursively chown user and group and Recursively chmod to 775/664

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /data
sudo chmod -R a=,a+rX,u+w,g+w /data

Docker-compose Example

This is a docker-compose example based on a default Ubuntu install.

The storage location used for the host is the same as in the container to make it easier to understand in this case /data.

The appdata (/config) will be stored on the host in the /docker/appdata/{appname}

docker-compose - [Click to show/hide]
version: "3.2"
services:
  radarr:
    container_name: radarr
    image: ghcr.io/hotio/radarr:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    logging:
      driver: json-file
    ports:
      - 7878:7878
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Europe/Amsterdam
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - /docker/appdata/radarr:/config
      - /data:/data
  sonarr:
    container_name: sonarr
    image: ghcr.io/hotio/sonarr:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    logging:
      driver: json-file
    ports:
      - 8989:8989
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Europe/Amsterdam
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - /docker/appdata/sonarr:/config
      - /data:/data
  bazarr:
    container_name: bazarr
    image: ghcr.io/hotio/bazarr:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    logging:
      driver: json-file
    ports:
      - 6767:6767
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Europe/Amsterdam
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - /docker/appdata/bazarr:/config
      - /data/media:/data/media
  sabnzbd:
    container_name: sabnzbd
    image: ghcr.io/hotio/sabnzbd:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    logging:
      driver: json-file
    ports:
      - 8080:8080
      - 9090:9090
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Europe/Amsterdam
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - /docker/appdata/sabnzbd:/config
      - /data/usenet:/data/usenet:rw

Docker-Compose Commands

docker-compose commands - [Click to show/hide]
  • sudo docker-compose up -d (This Docker-compose command helps builds the image, then creates and starts Docker containers. The containers are from the services specified in the compose file. If the containers are already running and you run docker-compose up, it recreates the container.)
  • sudo docker-compose pull (Pulls an image associated with a service defined in a docker-compose.yml)
  • sudo docker-compose down (The Docker-compose down command also stops Docker containers like the stop command does. But it goes the extra mile. Docker-compose down, doesn’t just stop the containers, it also removes them.)
  • sudo docker system prune -a --volumes --force (Remove all unused containers, networks, images (both dangling and unreferenced), and optionally, volumes.)

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