Alternatives

Plex

Install Plex Media Server with Tautulli on your homelab to stream movies and TV shows from anywhere on all your devices.

This is an alternative to Jellyfin, kept here for reference. Plex isn't fully self-hosted: local playback still goes through Plex's own relay and requires a Plex account, and several features sit behind a Plex Pass paywall.

Plex is a self-hosted video streaming platform for managing your movie or TV show library and playing them locally or remotely. Plex has apps for TV, Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS, allowing you to stream your library just like Netflix.

With Plex Pass, you can also organize and play your music content similar to Spotify, the difference being that it’s your content, hosted and streamed from your server.

We'll also install Tautulli, a tool that provides detailed stats about Plex. As always, we'll use linuxserver.io images where possible.

You’ll need to create a Plex.tv account. You don’t need to expose your Plex service; it will be accessible through the platform. Your Plex server will be manageable directly from your account.

Install Plex

/
- srv
  - docker
    - plex
      - compose.yml
      - .env
      - config
      - transcode
    - tautulli
      - config
- media
  - tvseries
  - movies
  - library

Create the media folders

Create the movies, tvseries, and library folders in /media:

Terminal

mkdir -p /media/movies /media/library /media/tvseries

Deploy the stack

Open Dockge in your browser and click compose.
Name the stack plex and add the following config:

compose.yaml

---
services:
  linuxserver_plex:
    image: ghcr.io/linuxserver/plex:amd64-latest
    container_name: plex
    network_mode: host
    environment:
      - PUID=${PUID}
      - PGID=${GUID}
      - TZ=Europe/Paris
      - VERSION=docker
    volumes:
      - /srv/docker/plex/config:/config
      - /srv/docker/plex/transcode:/transcode
      - /media:/media
    restart: unless-stopped
    mem_limit: 4096m
    mem_reservation: 2048m
    devices:
      - /dev/dri:/dev/dri

  tautulli:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/tautulli:latest
    container_name: tautulli
    environment:
      - PUID=${PUID}
      - PGID=${GUID}
      - TZ=Europe/Paris
    volumes:
      - /srv/docker/tautulli/config:/config
    ports:
      - 8181:8181
    restart: unless-stopped

✨ Add the Watchtower label to each container to automate updates:

compose.yaml

---
services:
  plex:
    #...
    labels:
      - com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.enable=true

  tautulli:
    #...
    labels:
      - com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.enable=true

Set your environment variables

Find your PUID and GUID by running:

Terminal

id username

Fill in your .env file with the retrieved values, for example:

.env

PUID=1000
GUID=1000

Deploy the stack.

The local interface is available at http://yourserverip:32400/web/index.html.
Tautulli is accessible at http://yourserverip:8181.

You must be on your local network during Plex's initial setup. Otherwise, the URL will redirect to your Plex account without detecting your server. A VPN won't help. If you have no choice, you can handle the setup remotely via SSH tunnel.

Done !

Configure Plex

Plex offers a range of free movies/shows. After creating your account, I recommend disabling everything in the Online Services section to keep your library clean.

Then go to the Remote Access section and manually select a port (we’ll use 1234). It's best not to use the default port.

On your router, forward TCP port 1234 to port 32400 for your server’s IP using NAT rules.
Once done, return to Plex to verify that remote access is functional.

If it fails: check your firewall rules and allow port 32400 on your server.

If you have PlexPass and a GPU or iGPU, enable hardware acceleration in the Transcoder section.
In Settings > Library, enable Update my library automatically.
In Manage > Library, add or edit libraries and point to /media/movies for movies and /media/tvseries for series.

And that’s it! You now have a working Plex server!

Simply add your media to /media/movies and /media/tvseries on your server. You can then install the Plex app on your devices and watch your favorite content locally or remotely.

If your media is stored on a network disk (e.g. NAS or external hard drive over the network), refer to the Samba mount guide so Plex can access it.

Expose Tautulli with Swag

You don’t need to expose Plex, as it's accessible via your Plex account on plex.tv.

However, you may want to expose Tautulli so you can view stats from a simple URL when you're not home.

We assume you have the subdomain tautulli.mydomain.com with a CNAME pointing to mydomain.com in your DNS zone. And of course, unless you use Cloudflare Zero Trust, your box's port 443 must be forwarded to your server's port 443 in NAT rules.

Add Tautulli's network to SWAG

Go to Dockge and edit SWAG’s compose file by adding Tautulli’s network:

compose.yaml

---
services:
  swag:
     container_name: # ...
      # ... 
     networks:              # Attach container to custom network 
      # ...           
      - tautulli            # Name of the declared network

networks:                   # Define the custom network
  # ...
  tautulli:                 # Declared network name
    name: tautulli_default  # Actual external network name
    external: true          # Marks it as externally defined

Redeploy the stack and wait for SWAG to be fully operational.

Here we assume the Tautulli network name is tautulli_default. You can check the connection by visiting SWAG’s dashboard at http://yourserverip:81.

Create the subdomain.conf file

Copy and rename the file tautulli.subdomain.conf.sample to tautulli.subdomain.conf, then edit it:

✨ Tip: Use File Browser to navigate and edit files instead of using terminal commands.

Terminal

sudo cp /srv/docker/swag/config/nginx/proxy-confs/tautulli.subdomain.conf.sample /srv/docker/swag/config/nginx/proxy-confs/tautulli.subdomain.conf
sudo nano /srv/docker/swag/config/nginx/proxy-confs/tautulli.subdomain.conf

Ensure the configuration matches the following, and edit it if needed:

tautulli.subdomain.conf

## Version 2023/05/31
# make sure that your tautulli container is named tautulli
# make sure that your dns has a cname set for tautulli

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    listen [::]:443 ssl;

    server_name tautulli.*;

    include /config/nginx/ssl.conf;

    client_max_body_size 0;

    # enable for ldap auth (requires ldap-location.conf in the location block)
    #include /config/nginx/ldap-server.conf;

    # enable for Authelia (requires authelia-location.conf in the location block)
    #include /config/nginx/authelia-server.conf;

    # enable for Authentik (requires authentik-location.conf in the location block)
    #include /config/nginx/authentik-server.conf;

    location / {
        # enable the next two lines for http auth
        #auth_basic "Restricted";
        #auth_basic_user_file /config/nginx/.htpasswd;

        # enable for ldap auth (requires ldap-server.conf in the server block)
        #include /config/nginx/ldap-location.conf;

        # enable for Authelia (requires authelia-server.conf in the server block)
        #include /config/nginx/authelia-location.conf;

        # enable for Authentik (requires authentik-server.conf in the server block)
        #include /config/nginx/authentik-location.conf;

        include /config/nginx/proxy.conf;
        include /config/nginx/resolver.conf;
        set $upstream_app tautulli;
        set $upstream_port 8181;
        set $upstream_proto http;
        proxy_pass $upstream_proto://$upstream_app:$upstream_port;

    }

    location ~ (/tautulli)?/api {
        include /config/nginx/proxy.conf;
        include /config/nginx/resolver.conf;
        set $upstream_app tautulli;
        set $upstream_port 8181;
        set $upstream_proto http;
        proxy_pass $upstream_proto://$upstream_app:$upstream_port;

    }

    location ~ (/tautulli)?/newsletter {
        include /config/nginx/proxy.conf;
        include /config/nginx/resolver.conf;
        set $upstream_app tautulli;
        set $upstream_port 8181;
        set $upstream_proto http;
        proxy_pass $upstream_proto://$upstream_app:$upstream_port;

    }

    location ~ (/tautulli)?/image {
        include /config/nginx/proxy.conf;
        include /config/nginx/resolver.conf;
        set $upstream_app tautulli;
        set $upstream_port 8181;
        set $upstream_proto http;
        proxy_pass $upstream_proto://$upstream_app:$upstream_port;

    }
}

✨ You can protect this app with Authentik by removing the # before include /config/nginx/authentik-server.conf; and include /config/nginx/authentik-location.conf;. Don’t forget to create an application and provider in Authentik.

Press Ctrl+O, then Enter to save, and Ctrl+X to exit.

Done !

Wait a few minutes, then open http://tautulli.mydomain.com in your browser.

If it fails: check your firewall rules.

And you're done!

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Contributor:Djeex

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