SailorsLife

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?

The last post on the subject I could find was a year ago. So thought I would ask again. I have debian 12 up on miniPC and I have my NAS mounted. My intention is to use jellyfin and some of the arr* stuff. I know only a little about systemd (I just google what I need to know). I have some contianer knowledge, but mostly in k8s. And the docker parts aren't really my problem. But I have a vague understanding of docker. What are the latest pros and cons of containers vs service installation?

Edit: The opinions were unanimous. Containers it is.

I have jellyfin, qbittorrent, radarr, sonarr, prowlarr. I end up with copies of things I download in two places, media folder, and then in a radarr or sonarr subfolder. Radarr and sonarr are configured to have their own dirs. Jellyfin has media libraries for movies and shows pointing to those same subdirs. But qbittorrent has a default save dir of the media dir.

If I delete something in jellyfin, it gets deleted only from the subfolder, not the media folder.

I thought that radarr and sonarr would tell qbittorrent where to download to... and it would be their subdirs. So what is making the copy in media? And is there some reason I should have these extra copies?

So my plan based on reading was to get a mini pc and a nas. But then I realized... what is the best way to connect them. So I started doing more reading. And I confused myself.

So a NAS has it's own CPU and such, and other computers can talk directly to it over the network. But if I am using a mini pc to run the server, then I assume I would want a really fast direct connection to the storage. So it seems like I would want the NAS to be on the network as well as directly connected to the mini PC. And of course the mini pc would need to be on the network as well. Stuff I saw about connecting them directly seemed to pretty much use the Ethernet ports and a crossover cable. So that would mean that both devices would have to have two Ethernet ports, right?

And the bonus question is, would it just be better for the NAS to really be a dumb DAS for the mini pc instead?

Edit to summarize: For having two devices, the consensus is that LAN is good enough (just make sure you have a decent switch between them). A few like doing it all on one device for a variety of reasons.