Table of contents
Open Table of contents
Introduction
I was looking for a way to automatically search for and download content locally without much manual effort. One day, a friend introduced me to Usenet. As I explored further, I discovered the Arr stack, a suite of tools designed to organize and manage media.
By combining Usenet with the Arr stack, I was able to create a fully automated system that handles everything from downloading to organizing my media collection seamlessly.
Workflow and My Idea
Currently, my homelab setup includes a Raspberry Pi 4B running Pi-hole for ad-blocking and Tailscale for secure remote access.
For media storage, I realized I’d need more capacity to handle everything, so I purchased an Argon Neo 5 case with an M.2 SSD for my Raspberry Pi 5. It seemed like the perfect upgrade to get started with this media project.
My idea is to deploy the Arr stack on the Pi 5 to manage and organize all the media. Since I already have the Pi 4B handling networking tasks, I plan to set up Nginx there as a load balancer. This way, the Pi 4B can route requests to the Pi 5, ensuring everything stays connected and easy to access.
Hardware and Software
Hardware
- Raspberry Pi 4B (8GB RAM): Hosts Tailscale and Pi-hole for network-level ad-blocking and secure remote access.
- Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB RAM + 512GB SSD): Handles the Arr stack and Jellyfin for media management and streaming.
Software
- Raspberry Pi OS: A reliable and lightweight operating system.
- Docker: Simplifies deployment and management of the various services.
- Tailscale: Enables secure and private access to my network over the internet.
- Cloudflare: Provides domain name routing for easy access to my services.
Setting Up the Arr Stack
The core of this project was deploying the Arr stack for automated media management. Here’s how I set it up:
- Folder Structure
Organizing content is key. I created directories for movies and TV shows:/mnt/media/movies /mnt/media/tv-show - Key Components
The Arr stack consists of the following tools:
- SABnzbd: Downloads media from Usenet.
- Sonarr: Manages TV shows.
- Radarr: Manages movies.
- Prowlarr: Coordinates indexers for Sonarr and Radarr.
- Jellyfin: Serves as the media server.
- Jellyseerr: Handles media requests within the network.
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Deployment
Usingdocker-compose, I deployed these services and configured them to work together. Each tool serves a specific purpose, and the setup ensures smooth integration. -
Automation
Once deployed, the system is nearly self-sufficient. For instance, a content request made via Jellyseerr triggers downloads through SABnzbd, which are then automatically organized by Sonarr or Radarr and made available on Jellyfin.
Making It Accessible Over the Internet
To stream content beyond my home network, I integrated networking tools:
- Tailscale Magic DNS: Provides secure, private access to my Pi devices.
- Nginx: Configures domain-based routing to my Jellyfin server.
- Cloudflare: Ensures easy access using a custom domain, like
jellyfin.mydomain.com.
This setup enables me to enjoy my media library from anywhere with minimal latency and high security.
Challenges and Lessons Learned
Hardware
- Raspberry Pi 5: The absence of hardware acceleration posed some challenges when streaming certain formats, particularly 4K. Planning media formats carefully helped mitigate these issues.
Software
- Deployment Automation: The initial setup involved some manual work. In the future, I plan to use Ansible or a custom Bash script to streamline deployment and configuration.
Final Thoughts
Exploring homelab self-hosting has been an exciting and rewarding journey, and there’s still so much more to learn. I’m planning to experiment with automation tools and monitoring to enhance the setup further. Looking ahead, I’m also considering upgrading from the Pi 5 to a mini PC for better performance and flexibility.