My Epic Quest for the Perfect Self-Hosted Media Solution: A Homelabber's Journey

The Siren Song of Self-Hosting: Why I Started

Hey fellow homelabbers! Today, I want to share a story that many of you might relate to: my relentless pursuit of the 'perfect' self-hosted media solution. Like many of you, I started with a simple desire – to have all my movies, TV shows, and music accessible from anywhere in my home, without relying on external services or subscriptions. What began as a simple idea quickly evolved into a multi-year quest, filled with learning, frustration, and ultimately, immense satisfaction.

Early Days: The Plex Phase and Its Limits

My journey, like so many, probably started with Plex. It was great! Easy to set up, beautiful interface, and it just worked. For a while. But as I dove deeper into the homelab rabbit hole, I started craving more control. I wanted to understand what was happening under the hood, to truly own my data and my infrastructure. The closed-source nature, the occasional server-side issues, and the feeling of being somewhat locked into their ecosystem began to grate on me.

I dabbled with Emby for a bit, which offered a bit more openness, but I still felt like I was searching for something truly 'mine' – something open-source, community-driven, and endlessly customizable.

The Automation Awakening: More Than Just a Media Player

My biggest pain point wasn't just playing media; it was managing it. Manually downloading, renaming, and organizing files was a chore. This is where the world of automation opened up to me. I started exploring tools that could help me manage my media library more efficiently.

Challenges and Learnings from the Automation Stack:

• Permissions Nightmares: Oh, the hours I spent wrestling with user permissions between my download client, my media managers, and my storage! Understanding UID/GID mappings, especially in Docker, became a critical skill.

• File Naming Conventions: Consistent naming is paramount for these tools to work their magic. Learning about Sonarr's and Radarr's preferred formats saved me countless headaches.

• Bind Mounts and Paths: Getting the Docker container paths to correctly map to my host's storage was a steep learning curve. The 'one big mount' strategy (mounting my entire media root into each container) eventually proved the most robust for me.

Enter the Dream Team: Jellyfin, Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr, and qBittorrent

This is where things really clicked. I discovered Jellyfin, the open-source media server that truly gave me the control and flexibility I craved. Its active community and rapid development cemented my decision.

Then came the automation powerhouses, collectively known as the 'Arr stack':

• Sonarr: For automating TV show management.

• Radarr: Its movie counterpart.

• Prowlarr: A unified indexer manager, simplifying the connection to various sources.

• qBittorrent: My go-to download client, integrated seamlessly with the 'Arr apps.

All of these run beautifully in Docker containers managed by Docker Compose. This setup provides isolation, easy updates, and incredible portability. My docker-compose.yml file became my infrastructure as code, allowing me to spin up or tear down my entire media stack with a few commands.

The Storage Conundrum: Data Integrity and Expansion

What's a media server without robust storage? My initial setup used a single large drive, but I quickly realized the need for redundancy and easy expansion. I explored traditional RAID, but for a mix of drive sizes, it felt restrictive.

My solution came in the form of MergerFS and SnapRAID:

• MergerFS: This fantastic tool pools multiple disparate drives into a single logical filesystem. I can add drives of any size as needed, and it just expands my pool.

• SnapRAID: For parity and data protection. Unlike traditional RAID, SnapRAID is a 'snapshot RAID', meaning it's not real-time. I run a nightly sync to calculate parity, which protects against drive failure without the performance overhead of traditional RAID for my mostly read-heavy media server. It's perfect for archival data.

This combination gave me the flexibility to expand my storage as my library grew, while also providing peace of mind against drive failures.

The Current State: Homelab Media Nirvana

Today, my media server is a lean, mean, media-serving machine! It runs on a low-power mini-PC (an old NUC, actually) with a couple of external drives connected. The entire stack is Dockerized, managed with Compose, and rarely requires manual intervention.

I've learned invaluable lessons about Linux filesystem permissions, Docker networking, container orchestration, and the importance of a robust backup/parity strategy. The journey was long, but the reward is a media experience that is truly mine, fully automated, and incredibly satisfying to maintain.

Your Turn!

If you're on a similar quest, don't be discouraged by the initial complexity. Take it one step at a time. Start with Docker, get Jellyfin running, and then slowly integrate the automation tools. The learning curve is steep, but the knowledge gained is transferable to so many other homelab projects. Happy self-hosting!