🎬 Complete Media Automation Stack

A comprehensive Docker-based media automation stack that provides a complete solution for managing, downloading, organizing, and streaming your media collection. This stack combines the power of the *arr ecosystem with media servers and management tools to create a fully automated media center.

🌟 What This Stack Does

This stack automates the entire media lifecycle:

• Discovery: Find and track movies, TV shows, music, and books
• Download: Automatically download content based on your preferences
• Organization: Sort and rename files according to your standards
• Streaming: Serve media to all your devices
• Management: Monitor, request, and maintain your collection

🏗️ Architecture Overview

┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐
│   Discovery     │    │   Download      │    │   Organization  │
│                 │    │                 │    │                 │
│ • Overseerr     │───▶│ • qBittorrent   │───▶│ • *arr Apps     │
│ • Prowlarr      │    │ • Indexers      │    │ • Bazarr        │
└─────────────────┘    └─────────────────┘    └─────────────────┘
         │                       │                       │
         ▼                       ▼                       ▼
┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐
│   Streaming     │    │   Management    │    │   Monitoring    │
│                 │    │                 │    │                 │
│ • Jellyfin      │    │ • Homarr        │    │ • Tautulli      │
│ • Plex          │    │ • Portainer     │    │ • Jellystat     │
│ • Navidrome     │    │ • Watchtower    │    │ • Audiobookshelf│
└─────────────────┘    └─────────────────┘    └─────────────────┘

🚀 Services Included

📺 Content Management (*arr Ecosystem)

• Sonarr - TV show collection manager
• Radarr - Movie collection manager
• Lidarr - Music collection manager
• Readarr - Book and audiobook manager
• Prowlarr - Indexer manager for all *arr apps
• Bazarr - Subtitle manager

🎬 Media Servers

• Jellyfin - Free, open-source media server
• Plex - Popular media server with extensive device support
• Navidrome - Lightweight music server
• Audiobookshelf - Audiobook server

🛠️ Management & Automation

• Homarr - Unified dashboard for all services
• Overseerr - Request management and discovery
• qBittorrent - Torrent client
• Recyclarr - Quality profile synchronization
• Portainer - Docker container management
• Watchtower - Automatic container updates

📊 Monitoring & Analytics

• Tautulli - Plex monitoring and analytics
• Jellystat - Jellyfin analytics

🎯 Key Features

• 🔄 Fully Automated: Set it up once and let it manage your entire media collection
• 🌐 Multi-Platform: Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux
• 📱 Device Agnostic: Stream to any device with a web browser or app
• 🔒 Self-Hosted: Complete control over your data and privacy
• ⚡ High Performance: Optimized for speed and efficiency
• 🛡️ Secure: All services run in isolated containers
• 📈 Scalable: Easy to add more storage or services as needed

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop with WSL2 backend (Windows) or Docker Engine (Linux/macOS)
• At least 4GB RAM and 20GB free disk space
• Basic understanding of Docker and networking

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/arr-stack.git
   cd arr-stack

2. Create environment file

   cp .env.example .env
   # Edit .env with your preferred settings

3. Start the stack

   docker compose up -d

4. Access services

   • Dashboard: http://localhost:7575 (Homarr)
   • TV Shows: http://localhost:8989 (Sonarr)
   • Movies: http://localhost:7878 (Radarr)
   • Music: http://localhost:8686 (Lidarr)
   • Books: http://localhost:8787 (Readarr)
   • Media Server: http://localhost:8096 (Jellyfin)

📁 Directory Structure

arr-stack/
├── config/                 # Service configurations
│   ├── homarr/            # Dashboard settings
│   ├── sonarr/            # TV show manager
│   ├── radarr/            # Movie manager
│   ├── lidarr/            # Music manager
│   ├── readarr/           # Book manager
│   ├── prowlarr/          # Indexer manager
│   ├── bazarr/            # Subtitle manager
│   ├── jellyfin/          # Media server
│   ├── plex/              # Alternative media server
│   ├── qbittorrent/       # Torrent client
│   ├── portainer/         # Container management
│   └── ...
├── downloads/             # Download directory
├── media/                 # Organized media files
│   ├── movies/           # Movie collection
│   ├── tv/               # TV show collection
│   ├── music/            # Music collection
│   ├── books/            # Book collection
│   └── audiobooks/       # Audiobook collection
├── docker-compose.yml     # Service definitions
├── .env                   # Environment variables
└── README.md             # This file

⚙️ Configuration

Environment Variables

Key variables in .env:

# User and Timezone
PUID=1000
PGID=1000
TZ=Europe/Istanbul

# Service Ports
HOMARR_PORT=7575
SONARR_PORT=8989
RADARR_PORT=7878
LIDARR_PORT=8686
READARR_PORT=8787
PROWLARR_PORT=9696
BAZARR_PORT=6767
QBITTORRENT_WEBUI_PORT=8080
JELLYFIN_HTTP_PORT=8096
PLEX_HTTP_PORT=32400

# Directory Paths
CONFIG_ROOT=./config
MEDIA_MOVIES_DIR=./media/movies
MEDIA_TV_DIR=./media/tv
MEDIA_MUSIC_DIR=./media/music
MEDIA_BOOKS_DIR=./media/books
DOWNLOADS_ROOT=./downloads

# Optional
PLEX_CLAIM=                    # Get from plex.tv/claim
WATCHTOWER_NOTIFICATIONS=      # Discord/Slack webhook URL

Initial Setup Workflow

1. Configure qBittorrent

   • Change default password
   • Set download categories
   • Configure download paths

2. Setup Indexers in Prowlarr

   • Add your preferred indexers
   • Configure API keys
   • Sync with *arr applications

3. *Configure arr Applications

   • Add download clients (qBittorrent)
   • Set root folders for media
   • Configure quality profiles
   • Add indexers from Prowlarr

4. Setup Media Servers

   • Create libraries pointing to media folders
   • Configure metadata agents
   • Set up user accounts

5. Configure Dashboard

   • Add service widgets to Homarr
   • Set up API integrations
   • Customize layout and themes

🔧 Advanced Configuration

Custom Quality Profiles

Use Recyclarr to maintain consistent quality profiles across all *arr applications:

# config/recyclarr/config.yml
sonarr:
  instance_name: sonarr
  base_url: http://sonarr:8989
  api_key: your_api_key
  quality_definition:
    type: series
    quality_profiles:
      - name: "HD-1080p"
        upgrade_until_quality: "Bluray-1080p"
        qualities:
          - "HDTV-1080p"
          - "Bluray-1080p"

Automated Updates

Watchtower automatically updates containers. Configure notifications:

WATCHTOWER_NOTIFICATIONS=discord://webhook_url

Backup Strategy

Regular backups of the config/ directory ensure you can restore your setup:

# Create backup
tar -czf arr-stack-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz config/

# Restore backup
tar -xzf arr-stack-backup-20240101.tar.gz

🛠️ Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Services won't start

• Check Docker is running
• Verify port conflicts
• Check disk space

Downloads not working

• Verify qBittorrent configuration
• Check indexer connectivity
• Review download client settings in *arr apps

Media not appearing

• Check file permissions
• Verify folder mappings
• Review media server library settings

Performance issues

• Monitor resource usage
• Adjust quality profiles
• Consider hardware transcoding

Logs and Debugging

# View all logs
docker compose logs -f

# View specific service logs
docker compose logs -f sonarr

# Check service status
docker compose ps

# Restart specific service
docker compose restart sonarr

🔒 Security Considerations

• Network Security: Services are exposed on localhost by default
• Authentication: Set strong passwords for all services
• Updates: Keep containers updated with Watchtower
• Backups: Regular backups of configuration data
• Access Control: Use reverse proxy for external access

📈 Performance Optimization

Hardware Requirements

• Minimum: 4GB RAM, 2 CPU cores, 100GB storage
• Recommended: 8GB RAM, 4 CPU cores, 1TB+ storage
• Optimal: 16GB+ RAM, 8+ CPU cores, SSD storage

Optimization Tips

• Use SSD storage for better I/O performance
• Enable hardware transcoding if supported
• Configure appropriate quality profiles
• Monitor resource usage and scale accordingly

🙏 Acknowledgments

• LinuxServer.io for excellent Docker images
• Hotio for additional container images
• All the developers of the amazing *arr ecosystem
• The open-source community for continuous improvements