People resoundingly suggested using containers. So I've been reading up. I know some things about containers and docker and what not. But there are a few decision points in the jellyfin container install instructions that I don't know the "why".

Data: They mount the media from disk, which is good cause it's on a NAS. But for the cache and config they use docker volumes. Why would I want a docker volume for the config? Wouldn't I want to be able to see it from outside the container easier? What am I gaining by having docker manage the volume?

Cache: I saw a very old post where someone mentioned telling docker to use ram for the cache. That "seems" in theory like a good idea for speed. I do have 16gb on the minipc that I am running this all on. But I don't see any recent mentions of it. Any pros/cons?

The user. I know from work experience that generally you don't want things running as root in the container. But... do you want a dedicated user for each service (jellyfin, arr*)? Or one for all services, but not your personal user? Or just use your personal user?

DLNA. I had to look that up. But I don't know how it is relevant. The whole point seems to be that jellyfin would be the interface. And DLNA seems like it would allow certified devices to discover media files?

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[–] tvcvt@lemmy.ml 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I don’t think there’s a right answer for most of these, but here are my thoughts.

Data: I almost always prefer bind mounts. I find them easier to manage for data that I’ll need to deal with (e.g. with backups). Docker volumes make a lot of sense to me when you start dealing with multiple nodes and central management, where you want to move containers between nodes (like a swarm).

Cache: streaming video isn’t super latency sensitive, so I can’t think of a need for this type of caching. With multiple users hitting the web interface all the time it might help, but I think I’d do that caching in my reverse proxy instead.

User: I don’t use the *arr stack, but I’d imagine that suite of applications and Jellyfin all need to handle the same files, so I’d be inclined to use the same user (or at least group) on all of them.

DLNA: this is a feature I don’t make much use of, but it allows for Jellyfin to serve media to devices that don’t run a Jellyfin client. It’s an open standard for media sharing among local devices. I don’t think I would jump through any hoops for it unless you have a use, but the default setup won’t get in your way.

Hope that helps a little.

[–] SailorsLife@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

It does help thanks. And part of this set of questions was just me exploring stuff thoughts and looking to learn... so I have a follow up question or two.

You mention docker volumes make a lot of sense with multiple nodes. How does that work out? We use pv's and such with k8s at work, and the ones we use can only be mounted on one node at a time. From what others have said, allowing many write from multiple nodes has a lot of complications. Do docker volumes handle writing from multiple nodes?

And... "streaming video isn’t super latency sensitive". I'm super new to streaming video. I would have expected it to be sensitive to latency. I mean you expect the video to keep playing and not stop. Whereas most of the things I work with (api's and what not) can have an extra second or two to respond with little relevant difference. So clearly there is some depth here I don't understand.

[–] schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business 5 points 6 days ago (2 children)

The only thing I'd mention on the cache is to be a little careful, because depending on your actual use case you can use a LOT of transcode cache space.

If it's just you, doing one stream, it probably doesn't matter.

If it's you, and your 20 closest friends, well, uh, it can be quite a lot and maybe you won't want it in RAM.

As for the media, a bind mount is the way to go, and I'd also recommend doing it as a read-only mount: Jellyfin doesn't need the ability to modify that data, and in the event of a security oopsie (or a misconfigured user, or a 6 year old that gets 5 minutes alone with your mouse or....), it keeps someone from trashing your entire media library, assuming that's something you wouldn't want to have to spend the time gathering again.

For the user, I just have a 'service' account, and run the vast majority of my containers under that UID. Sure, maybe that's not the MOST secure, but it's worlds better than root, and container escapes are not exactly common so it's probably sufficient.

...and if you get DLNA working let me know, because I never have. I just use Jellyfin clients everywhere because that at least does what you expect in terms of showing the media in a usable format and playing it.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

As for the media, a bind mount is the way to go, and I’d also recommend doing it as a read-only mount: Jellyfin doesn’t need the ability to modify that data, and in the event of a security oopsie (or a misconfigured user, or a 6 year old that gets 5 minutes alone with your mouse or…), it keeps someone from trashing your entire media library, assuming that’s something you wouldn’t want to have to spend the time gathering again.

My way to solve this:
My main user is a regular user with no deletion permissions in jellyfin. Anything that requires editing necessitates logging out and in with the admin account.
My docker container is mapped to a non-root user. Not perfectly save but sufficient (hopefully).
But my jellyfin container has R/W because I store nfo/metadata files alongside the media file.

[–] i_understand@mstdn.social 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

@Appoxo

I use 2 media folders, one for "new" media and one for existing media. Only the "new" media folder is R/W. Once it's metadata files are written out the media is moved to the existing media folder (which is mounted R-only).

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What if you manually edit the metadata?
Seems like a hassle to me that requires too much manual input.

[–] SailorsLife@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

by the way... great discussion. I'm reading along and learning of things I didn't think of before. So thanks.

[–] SailorsLife@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

"or a 6 year old that gets 5 minutes alone with your mouse" haha. I have a 10 year old with a tendency to be inquisitive with electronic devices. He is pure of heart, but we joke that some day the NSA is going to come knocking. He wouldn't hack a bank to get money, he would just be "exploring" what is possible instead of reading directions. lol. Question though. When you do want to delete something. I am guessing you logon to your media server and do it from your user account?

[–] schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business 3 points 6 days ago

I use the *arr stack for deletion, usually.

Lots of people have accounts on the jellyfin/jellyseerr stack, but I'm the only one with access to the *arrs, so I just manage it (mostly) from there.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 days ago

Data:
I mounted my config to my host system and passed it through exactly due to the reason you mentioned. I had some situation which necessitated deleting stuff in /config or reading the log inside with tail.
Cache: When I used a Pi, I used a USB-key as a sacrifice storage to not hit the micro-sd for swap and fill up the limited RAM.
Now I have a SSD. Don't care that much as I have daily backups
User: Linuxserver.io offers to map it to a host-user. The local user in the container is called "abc". Just make sure the files have proper permissions
DLNA: Only matters if you have devices that can't use the app like smart-TVs. Those usually can still interact via DLNA. No devices that matter = No issue.
I disabled it.