HTPC consists of the following:

1. A ready-to-run Docker Compose file with the following containers: NZBGet, Transmission, Radarr, Sonarr, Emby, and Jackett
2. A simple setup script that installs all prereqs
3. A systemd service that manages all of the containers for you
4. A script that can backup your app configs (used via cron)
5. Fully working reverse proxy thanks to Traefik

Install git, then clone this repository:

sudo apt install git
git clone https://github.com/aksiksi/htpc.git

Configure any HDD mounts by editing /etc/fstab and running sudo mount -a.

In this guide, we assume a mount at /mnt/share1/.

Make required changes to docker-compose.yml. In particular, change all of the volume targets to point to your configured external HDD mount.

Note that the config volumes for most of the containers are created in setup.sh. This is done so that they persist between Docker Compose runs.

Create a file called env and place this at the root of this repo. This file will be copied out to a .env file for use with Docker Compose.

Make sure to specify the following variables that are required by the Docker Compose file:

# General settings
TIMEZONE=America/New_York
PUID=1000
PGID=1000

# OpenVPN settings
# Only required if using the Transmission + OpenVPN container
# Provider list: http:https://haugene.github.io/docker-transmission-openvpn/supported-providers/
# Find configs here: https://github.com/haugene/docker-transmission-openvpn/tree/master/openvpn
OPENVPN_PROVIDER=PROVIDER
OPENVPN_CONFIG=CONFIG
OPENVPN_USERNAME=USERNAME
OPENVPN_PASSWORD=PASSWORD

# Share and downloads paths for shared volumes
SHARE_PATH=/mnt/share1
DOWNLOADS_PATH=/mnt/share1/Downloads

# Traefik reverse proxy settings (OPTIONAL)
DOMAIN=site.myurl.com
HTTP_AUTH=user:pass  # use "htpasswd -nB user" to get hashed password

From the root of the repo:

chmod +x setup.sh
./setup.sh

This script will:

1. Install Docker
2. Start Docker service
3. Install Docker Compose
4. Add current user to Docker group
5. Copy docker-compose.yml and env to /etc/htpc-config
6. Enable and start the systemd service
7. Install Samba and NFS (see next section for setup)

Add an entry for your mount in /etc/samba/smb.conf:

sudo vim /etc/samba/smb.conf

[share1]
Comment = Share1
Path = /mnt/share1
Browseable = yes
Writeable = Yes
only guest = no
create mask = 0777
directory mask = 0777
Public = yes
Guest ok = yes

sudo systemctl restart smbd

1. Open up required ports (if running firewall):

sudo ufw allow 2049
sudo ufw allow 111

2. Add your mount to NFS exports file and refresh:

sudo vim /etc/exports
## Allow only IPs on subnet:
## /mnt/share1 192.168.0.0/24(rw,sync,no_subtree_check,insecure)
## OR allow all:
## /mnt/share1 *(rw,sync,no_subtree_check,insecure)

sudo exportfs
sudo systemctl restart nfs-server.service

3. Assign mountd to a specific port for firewall (optional):

sudo vim /etc/default/nfs-kernel-server

# CHANGE THIS LINE: RPCMOUNTDOPTS="-p 13025"

sudo systemctl restart nfs-kernel-server.service

DLNA is a widely supported media sharing protocol. In some cases, clients may not have support for SMB or NFS, so DLNA is a good backup.

First, install minidlna:

sudo apt-get install minidlna

Open: sudo vim /etc/minidlna.conf

Add the following config where relevant:

# User to run the daemon as (defaults to root)
user=pi

# Location of [V]ideo directories to serve
media_dir=V,/mnt/share1/Movies
media_dir=V,/mnt/share1/Series

# Put the cache on external HDD insted of SD card
db_dir=/mnt/share1/.cache/minidlna

# Name your server
friendly_name=MYHTPC

# Set to "no" for better performance
inotify=yes

Stop the service, sync your folders, then start it again:

sudo service minidlna stop
sudo minidlnad -R
sudo service minidlna restart

If it doesn't work, make sure that port 8200 is open. Check the log for details: tail -f /var/log/minidlna.log

The docker-compose.yml contains a service that runs Nginx + LetsEncrypt which can be used as a reverse proxy.

You can use ddclient to keep your DDNS up to date:

sudo apt-get install ddclient

# Refresh entry every 300 seconds
ddclient -daemon 300

Configure your domain (e.g., with Namecheap DDNS) by editing /etc/ddclient.conf:

use=web, web=dynamicdns.park-your-domain.com/getip
protocol=namecheap
server=dynamicdns.park-your-domain.com
login=domain.com
password=PASSWORD
# Host, if applicable (e.g., www)
home

Configure as daemon and start the systemd service:

sudo vim /etc/default/ddclient
# => run_daemon="true"
sudo systemctl start ddclient

Or use the ddclient Docker container. If you go this way, just add that config to /config/ddclient.conf:

vi /config/ddclient.conf
docker exec -it ddclient /bin/bash

In my case, my DDNS points to home.mydomain.com. My root domain points to another server, so I only want to validate this subdomain (ONLY_SUBDOMAINS=true).

Here is what my docker-compose.yml entry looks like for letsencrypt:

  letsencrypt:
    image: linuxserver/letsencrypt
    container_name: letsencrypt
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN
    environment:
      PUID: 1000
      PGID: 1000
      TZ: ${TIMEZONE}
      URL: mydomain.com
      SUBDOMAINS: home
      ONLY_SUBDOMAINS: "true"
      VALIDATION: http
    volumes:
      - /etc/rpi-htpc/letsencrypt:/config
    ports:
      - "443:443"
      - "80:80"
    restart: unless-stopped

This will only restart containers that need an update:

cd /etc/rpi-htpc && docker-compose up -d --build

All of the Docker containers used in this HTPC setup mount their config directories to /config inside the container.

A simple shell script is included that can be triggered daily via crontab to backup all of the container config volumes to a directory of your choice. See backup.sh. You can use restore.sh to restore from the latest backup genereate by the backup script.

Example crontab:

0 6 * * * /home/pi/config/backup.sh /mnt/share1/Backups