A seedbox can be long and tedious to set up. Discover an easier, more flexible way with Docker.
Real-world use case
You want a ready-to-use seedbox without the complexity: here's how to deploy ruTorrent and Plex together under Docker.
Article updated on March 5, 2017 : ruTorrent script update and Plex Docker project update
Creating a seedbox: ruTorrent and Plex under Docker
Switching dedicated servers has become a common practice. Over time, we adapt to what's on the market, since offers evolve and are generally more appealing from one year to the next. The trend is to always pay less while keeping decent hardware specs. A seedbox is always meant to be cheaper for more power.
But when it comes time for the initial configuration, you quickly realize it's tied to its environment and isn't easily changeable. So do you need to recreate it every time you switch servers? The goal of this article is to use Docker's power to solve this problem.
Let's remember that a seedbox's configuration generally includes two services:
- The download server on one side (example: ruTorrent, Deluge, Transmission…).
- The streaming server on the other (example: Plex, Kodi…).
Info: An SFTP or FTPES server could also be set up, but I won't cover that in this article.
Discover for yourself:
- Docker with: dockertorrent and pms-docker.
- Preparing the environment on Debian 8.
- Running and configuring dockertorrent.
- Running and configuring pms-docker.
Docker with dockertorrent and pms-docker
Docker isolates processes in containers, it's by far the best solution for deploying your projects faster and more easily. It also guarantees increased security as well as unprecedented stability and scalability. It's entirely based on Linux's power. For the following article, I'm going to use two existing Docker projects:
- The first is named docktorrent, by author kfei, which contains rTorrent with ruTorrent.
- The second is pms-docker, from Plex itself, which contains the PMS (PlexMediaServer) server.
Info: We'll now be able to deploy a seedbox in 5 minutes after our first build. The following article is based on projects that are open on the web, I take no responsibility in case of misuse.
Preparing the environment on Debian 7
Before starting, installing the prerequisites is essential, you'll need the wheezy-backports repository:
nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Add the following repository:
deb http://http.debian.net/debian wheezy-backports main
Update the packages, then install the image, and reboot the server:
apt-get update && apt-get install -t wheezy-backports linux-image-amd64 && reboot
After the system reboot, get ready to install docker:
apt-get install curl git && curl -sSL https://get.docker.com/ | sh
Create two directories to hold the data location for our two users:
mkdir /home/seedbox/user1 && mkdir /home/seedbox/user2
Running and configuring docktorrent
Cloning the docktorrent project with git:
git clone https://github.com/kfei/docktorrent
Move into the archive:
cd docktorrent
At this point, edit rtorrent's configuration file:
nano config/rtorrent/.rtorrent.rc
Personally, I comment out lines 23 and 24, since I don't want to move my files after downloading:
#system.method.insert = d.get_finished_dir,simple,"cat=/rtorrent/finished/,$d.get_custom1="
#system.method.set_key = event.download.finished,move_complete,"d.set_directory=$d.get_finished_dir=;execute=mkdir,-p,$d.get_finished_dir=;execute=mv,-u,$d.get_base_path=,$d.get_finished_dir="
Go to the Dockerfile and change the credential pair:
RUN htpasswd -cb /usr/share/nginx/html/rutorrent/.htpasswd user1 passworduser1
Before starting the build, an error has appeared since December 2016 when building the container:
xmlrpc_libxml2.c: In function 'xml_init':
xmlrpc_libxml2.c:61:29: warning: unused parameter 'envP' [-Wunused-parameter]
xml_init(xmlrpc_env * const envP) {
^
xmlrpc_libxml2.c: At top level:
xmlrpc_libxml2.c:430:20: error: unknown type name 'xmlParserCtx'
removeDocSizeLimit(xmlParserCtx * const parserP ATTR_UNUSED) {
^
xmlrpc_libxml2.c:455:14: error: unknown type name 'xmlParserCtx'
xmlParserCtx ** const parserPP) {
^
xmlrpc_libxml2.c: In function 'xml_parse':
xmlrpc_libxml2.c:491:5: warning: implicit declaration of function 'createParser' [-Wimplicit-function-declaration]
createParser(envP, &context, &parserP);
^
make[1]: *** [xmlrpc_libxml2.o] Error 1
/usr/local/src/xmlrpc-c/common.mk:336: recipe for target 'xmlrpc_libxml2.o' failed
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/local/src/xmlrpc-c/src'
/usr/local/src/xmlrpc-c/common.mk:375: recipe for target 'src/all' failed
make: *** [src/all] Error 2
The command '/bin/sh -c build_deps="automake build-essential ca-certificates libc-ares-dev libcppunit-dev libtool"; build_deps="${build_deps} libssl-dev libxml2-dev libncurses5-dev pkg-config subversion wget"; set -x && apt-get update && apt-get install -q -y --no-install-recommends ${build_deps} && wget http://curl.haxx.se/download/curl-7.39.0.tar.gz && tar xzvfp curl-7.39.0.tar.gz && cd curl-7.39.0 && ./configure --enable-ares --enable-tls-srp --enable-gnu-tls --with-zlib --with-ssl && make && make install && cd .. && rm -rf curl-* && ldconfig && svn --trust-server-cert checkout https://svn.code.sf.net/p/xmlrpc-c/code/stable/ xmlrpc-c && cd xmlrpc-c && ./configure --enable-libxml2-backend --disable-abyss-server --disable-cgi-server && make && make install && cd .. && rm -rf xmlrpc-c && ldconfig && wget -O libtorrent-$VER_LIBTORRENT.tar.gz https://github.com/rakshasa/libtorrent/archive/$VER_LIBTORRENT.tar.gz && tar xzf libtorrent-$VER_LIBTORRENT.tar.gz && cd libtorrent-$VER_LIBTORRENT && ./autogen.sh && ./configure --with-posix-fallocate && make && make install && cd .. && rm -rf libtorrent-* && ldconfig && wget -O rtorrent-$VER_RTORRENT.tar.gz https://github.com/rakshasa/rtorrent/archive/$VER_RTORRENT.tar.gz && tar xzf rtorrent-$VER_RTORRENT.tar.gz && cd rtorrent-$VER_RTORRENT && ./autogen.sh && ./configure --with-xmlrpc-c --with-ncurses && make && make install && cd .. && rm -rf rtorrent-* && ldconfig && mkdir -p /usr/share/nginx/html && cd /usr/share/nginx/html && mkdir rutorrent && curl -L -O https://github.com/Novik/ruTorrent/archive/master.tar.gz && tar xzvf master.tar.gz -C rutorrent --strip-components 1 && rm -rf *.tar.gz && apt-get purge -y --auto-remove ${build_deps} && apt-get autoremove -y' returned a non-zero code: 2
Just replace the svn URL on line 24 in the Dockerfile:
svn --trust-server-cert checkout https://svn.code.sf.net/p/xmlrpc-c/code/super_stable/ xmlrpc-c &&
Run the docktorrent build:
docker build -t docktorrentuser1 .
After compiling, run docktorrentuser1:
docker run -it
-p 80:80 -p 45566:45566 -p 9527:9527/udp
--dns 8.8.8.8
-v /home/seedbox/user1:/rtorrent
-e UPLOAD_RATE=1024
--name docktorrentuser1
-d
docktorrentuser1
To add another user, you need to repeat the previous steps for our users:
nano config/rtorrent/.rtorrent.rc
Change the credential pair for the new user2:
RUN htpasswd -cb /usr/share/nginx/html/rutorrent/.htpasswd user2 passworduser2
Rebuild with a new name:
docker build -t docktorrentuser2 .
Run the docker for user2 on port 81 of our host by changing the ports:
docker run -it
-p 81:80 -p 45567:45566 -p 9528:9527/udp
--dns 8.8.8.8
-v /home/seedbox/user2:/rtorrent
-e UPLOAD_RATE=1024
--name docktorrentuser2
-d
docktorrentuser2
In my case, I mount the downloads folder into that of the users with the following command:
mount --bind /home/seedbox/downloads/ /home/seedbox/user1/downloads
Running and configuring pms-docker
Download the project's image (
docker pull plexinc/pms-docker
Info: There are several TAGs available on Plex's Docker image, such as: latest, public, plexpass
In my case, I've been a Plex Lifetime Premium member since 2013, so I use the tag: plexpass:
docker pull plexinc/pms-docker:plexpas
The difference is that every time my Plex (
Run the Plex Docker as follows:
docker run --name plex -p 32400:32400/tcp -e TZ="Europe/Paris" -e PLEX_CLAIM="claim-veFRSmSwMgpQEV1USsjE"-e -h plex.kassianoff.fr -v /home/seedbox/plex_config/:/config -v /home/seedbox/downloads/:/data plexinc/pms-docker:plexpass
Head to the following address: https://plex.tv/claim, since in the settings you need to remember that a token is required to authenticate your container:
PLEX_CLAIM="claim-veFRSmSwMgpQEV1USsjE"
To finalize the Plex Server's configuration, connect via SSH to the server following this example: "PMS" access without a graphical interface! I now invite you to check that your docker containers are working, like this:
docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
8afb950273f4 docktorrentuser1:latest "/usr/local/bin/dock 2 days ago Up 2 days 0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:9527->9527/udp, 9527/tcp, 0.0.0.0:45566->45566/tcp docktorrentuser1
b6d9446d42d1 docktorrentuser2:latest "/usr/local/bin/dock 2 days ago Up 2 days 9527/tcp, 0.0.0.0:81->80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:9528->9527/udp, 0.0.0.0:45567->45566/tcp docktorrentuser2
b94927f31cd4 plex:plexpass "/start.sh" 2 days ago Up 2 days 0.0.0.0:32400->32400/tcp plexseedbox
For better security, use a reverse proxy in front of your dockers, for example Pound.
Here's my configuration for two subdomains, user1 and user2, toward Docker's bridge interface:
ListenHTTPS
Address 62.XXX.XXX.XXX
Port 443
Cert "/etc/pound/ssl/www/user1.pem"
Cert "/etc/pound/ssl/www/user2.pem"
AddHeader "X-Forwarded-Proto: https"
## allow PUT and DELETE also (by default only GET, POST and HEAD)?:
xHTTP 2
Service
HeadRequire "Host: .*user1.kassianoff.fr.*"
BackEnd
Address 172.17.42.1
Port 80
End
End
Service
HeadRequire "Host: .*user2.kassianoff.fr.*"
BackEnd
Address 172.17.42.1
Port 81
End
End
End
To generate a self-signed SSL certificate: http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/tutoriel/comment_creer_un_certificat_ssl.
Success! You're now ready to share all of the moment's Linux distributions with your great seedbox and stream your family videos on Plex. Enjoy!
Conclusion
Docker here lets you quickly deploy a complete seedbox by combining the docktorrent (rTorrent/ruTorrent) and pms-docker (Plex Media Server) projects, without going through a long, tedious manual installation. This approach greatly simplifies migrating from one dedicated server to another, since all you need to do is rebuild the images and remount the data volumes. For security, adding a reverse proxy like Pound in front of the containers is recommended, especially to handle HTTPS and multi-user setups.