Jellyfin

Introduction

Jellyfin is the volunteer-built media solution that puts you in control of your media. Stream to any device from your own server, with no strings attached. Your media, your server, your way.

The Docker Compose File

---
version: "3.8"

services:
  jellyfin:
    image: jellyfin/jellyfin:latest
    container_name: jellyfin
    hostname: jellyfin
    restart: unless-stopped
    network_mode: host
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    environment:
      - TZ=Europe/Stockholm
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
    ports:
      - 8096:8096
    volumes:
      - /opt/jellyfin/config:/config
      - /opt/jellyfin/cache:/cache
      - /data/media:/media
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    labels:
      - com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.enable=true

docker-compose.yml

This Docker Compose file defines a single service named “jellyfin”. The service is built from the “jellyfin/jellyfin:latest” Docker image, which is the latest version available. The container name is set to “jellyfin” as well.

The “restart” section ensures that the container will always be restarted if it exits (unless manually stopped). This is useful for ensuring that the service is always available, especially if it crashes or is shut down unexpectedly.

The “security_opt” section prevents your container processes from gaining additional privileges. This is an important security consideration.

The “ports” section maps port 8096 on the host machine to port 8096 in the container. This allows us to access the jellyfin web interface from our local machine.

The “volumes” section maps the “/config” directory inside the container to a local directory on the host machine. This allows us to persist data across container restarts. jellyfin stores all its configuration and monitoring data in this directory, so it’s important to keep it intact. We also map the locations of our cache and media directory to the container.

The "labels" section allows the Watchtower service to keep this container update automatically.

Running Jellyfin with Docker Compose

To run Jellyfin with Docker Compose, first, make sure you have Docker and Docker Compose installed on your machine. Then, create a new directory for your Jellyfin project and save the above Docker Compose file as “docker-compose.yml” in that directory.

Next, run the following command from the same directory:

docker compose up -d

This command will start the home-assistant container in the background and detach from it. You can then access the Jellyfin web interface by going to http://localhost:8096 in your web browser.

Conclusion

In this article, we explored how to set up and run the Jellyfin software using Docker Compose. We looked at the different sections of the Docker Compose file and explained how they work together to create a functional Jellyfin service. By running Jellyfin with Docker Compose, you can easily deploy and manage the tool on your own server, without having to worry about dependencies or configuration.