Yams (Yet another media server) starts you off with a full media arr stack, as well as your client of choice, torrent & nzb clients, and walks you through connecting all the pieces.

It also has built in methods for setting up a VPN tunnel for your torrents, which is definitely recommended. After running through the setup, you’ll end up with a compose file, and full docker media server stack. (I think even music arr client is included, but its been a long time since I set this up).

This may or may not help, but I went through the exact same sort of struggles that you did when I first started. Setting up all this was my first forray into Linux and learning about permissions and file systems was a hurdle but having conquered that my primary issues were always caused by one of the following:

• file path mapping
• permissions
• port routing in gluetun
• gluetun/mullvad incompatibilities

Now that I actually seem to have a handle on all this…mind you, I’m no expert, but I can walk people through it in plain english. I eventually ended up switching to Proton VPN and use cloudflare tunnels to access my services from outside the network.

just joining in on the misery. arr-s overpromise and underdeliver, tried for a month and gave up with just jellyfin and qbittorrent web. jellyfin is ok at masking the atrocious file names and directory structure, bless its soul

I am really glad to read stuff like this. Not because I like seeing someone struggle, but rather it makes me feel less alone that I am not the only one getting frustrated with things that seemingly work perfectly for everyone else that I run into every error/obstacle in the book lol. If I post for help in online forums like Lemmy, the replies make me feel so stupid and sometimes the replies are even condescending, which is extremely demotivational at times and makes me not want to ever ask to get it fixed. But eventually I get there and say screw all that and keep on going till it works. I’m happy you posted this and got your problem fixed my friend.

Also extremely relatable with the media server that friends and family refuse to use while paying like $30 a month on stupid subscriptions lmao

Here is my docker-compose.yml file with sensitive info scrubbed, its been working for me for a few years now. It sounds like the problem you are having is not with Docker but something in your configuration once the container is running. Feel free to message me if you have questions.

services:
  gluetun:
    container_name: gluetun
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN
    image: qmcgaw/gluetun:v3
    devices:
      - /dev/net/tun:/dev/net/tun
    environment:
      - VPN_SERVICE_PROVIDER=
      - VPN_TYPE=
      - WIREGUARD_PRIVATE_KEY=
      - WIREGUARD_ADDRESSES=
      - SERVER_COUNTRIES=
      - DNS_ADDRESS=
      - HTTP_CONTROL_SERVER_ADDRESS=
      - HTTPPROXY_LISTENING_ADDRESS=
      - TZ=America/New_York
    ports:
      - 3129:3129/tcp # HTTP proxy
      - 8388:8388/tcp # Shadowsocks
      - 8388:8388/udp # Shadowsocks
      - 9047:9047 # Gluten http_control
      - 9046:9046 # qbittorent webui
      - 9696:9696 # Prowlarr
      - 7878:7878 # Radarr
      - 8989:8989 # Sonarr
      - 8686:8686 # Lidarr
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    restart: 'unless-stopped'

  qbittorrent:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/qbittorrent:5.1.4
    container_name: qbittorrent
    network_mode: "service:gluetun"
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=America/New_York
      - WEBUI_PORT=9046
    volumes:
      - /mnt/drive/volumes/qbittorrent/data:/config
      - /mnt/nas/Downloads:/downloads
    depends_on:
      - gluetun

  prowlarr:
    container_name: prowlarr
    network_mode: "service:gluetun"
    image: ghcr.io/hotio/prowlarr:latest
    volumes:
      - /mnt/drive/volumes/prowlarr/config:/config
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    depends_on:
      - gluetun
    restart: 'unless-stopped'

  byparr:
    container_name: byparr
    image: ghcr.io/thephaseless/byparr:latest
    network_mode: "service:gluetun"
    init: true
    depends_on:
      - gluetun
    restart: 'unless-stopped'

  radarr:
    container_name: radarr
    network_mode: "service:gluetun"
    image: ghcr.io/hotio/radarr:latest
    volumes:
      - /mnt/drive/volumes/radarr/config:/config
      - /mnt/movies:/mnt/Movies
      - /mnt/nas/Downloads:/downloads
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    depends_on:
      - gluetun

  sonarr:
    container_name: sonarr
    network_mode: "service:gluetun"
    image: ghcr.io/hotio/sonarr:latest
    volumes:
      - /mnt/drive/volumes/sonarr/config:/config
      - /mnt/nas/TV:/mnt/TV
      - /mnt/nas/Downloads:/downloads
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    depends_on:
      - gluetun
    restart: 'unless-stopped'

  lidarr:
    container_name: lidarr
    network_mode: "service:gluetun"
    image: ghcr.io/hotio/lidarr:pr-plugins
    volumes:
      - /mnt/drive/volumes/lidarr/config:/config
      - /mnt/nas/Music:/mnt/Music
      - /mnt/nas/Downloads:/downloads
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    depends_on:
      - gluetun
    restart: 'unless-stopped'

The joy of struggle and learning! You learned 6 hours worth of what doesn’t work.

https://trash-guides.info/File-and-Folder-Structure/How-to-set-up/Docker/#docker-compose-example

Trash guides are great and highly recommend by the servarr/sonarr team

Here’s mine. I have separate stacks for media players (Plex, JF) and downloaders (sabnzbd, qbittorrent), so I added their networks to the config. I also chose to mount the volumes directly in the YAML instead of the VM’s fstab, I found it plays a bit nicer that way. None of this is exposed to the internet. And I need to reconfigure the *seerrs, since Jellyseerr and Overseerr merged into one project…

volumes:
  movies:
    driver_opts:
      type: nfs
      o: addr=192.168.1.175,nolock,soft,nfsvers=4
      device: :/Movies
  tvshows:
    driver_opts:
      type: nfs
      o: addr=192.168.1.175,nolock,soft,nfsvers=4
      device: :/TV_Shows
  music:
    driver_opts:
      type: nfs
      o: addr=192.168.1.175,nolock,soft,nfsvers=4
      device: :/Music
  torrents:
    driver_opts:
      type: nfs
      o: addr=192.168.1.175,nolock,soft,nfsvers=4
      device: :/Torrents
  prerolls:
    driver_opts:
      type: nfs
      o: addr=192.168.1.175,nolock,soft,nfsvers=4
      device: :/Plex_prerolls
  books:
    driver_opts:
      type: nfs
      o: addr=192.168.1.175,nolock,soft,nfsvers=4
      device: :/Books
  downloads:
    driver_opts:
      type: nfs
      o: addr=192.168.1.175,nolock,soft,nfsvers=4
      device: :/Downloads
services:
  sonarr:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/sonarr:latest
    container_name: sonarr
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
    volumes:
      - /var/lib/docker/volumes/sonarr_config:/config
      - tvshows:/TV_Shows
      - torrents:/Torrents
      - downloads:/Downloads
    ports:
      - 8989:8989
    networks:
      - plex_default
      - downloaders_default
  radarr:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/radarr:latest
    container_name: radarr
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
    volumes:
      - /var/lib/docker/volumes/radarr_config:/config
      - movies:/Movies
      - torrents:/Torrents
      - downloads:/Downloads
    ports:
      - 7878:7878
    networks:
      - plex_default
      - downloaders_default
  lidarr:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/lidarr:latest
    container_name: lidarr
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
    volumes:
      - /var/lib/docker/volumes/lidarr_config:/config
      - music:/Music
      - torrents:/Torrents
      - downloads:/Downloads
    ports:
      - 8686:8686
    networks:
      - plex_default
      - downloaders_default
  bazarr:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/bazarr:latest
    container_name: bazarr
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
    volumes:
      - /var/lib/docker/volumes/bazarr_config:/config
      - movies:/Movies
      - tvshows:/TV_Shows
    ports:
      - 6767:6767
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks:
      - downloaders_default
      - plex_default
  overseerr:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/overseerr:latest
    container_name: overseerr
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
    volumes:
      - /var/lib/docker/volumes/overseerr_config:/config
    ports:
      - 5055:5055
    networks:
      - plex_default
      - downloaders_default
  jellyseerr:
    image: fallenbagel/jellyseerr:latest
    container_name: jellyseerr
    environment:
      - LOG_LEVEL=debug
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
      - PORT=5055
    ports:
      - 5056:5055
    volumes:
      - /var/lib/docker/volumes/jellyseerr_config:/app/config
    healthcheck:
      test: wget --no-verbose --tries=1 --spider http://localhost:5055/api/v1/status
        || exit 1
      start_period: 20s
      timeout: 3s
      interval: 15s
      retries: 3
    restart: unless-stopped
  prowlarr:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/prowlarr:latest
    container_name: prowlarr
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
    volumes:
      - /var/lib/docker/volumes/prowlarr_config:/config
    ports:
      - 9696:9696
    networks:
      - plex_default
      - downloaders_default
networks:
  plex_default:
    external: true
  downloaders_default:
    external: true

I’m currently in my research phase, before I begin setting up my are stack. But I found this video, and it seems like it’s just the thing you’re looking for:

Ultimate automated media server 2026

In the description, he has this link to his GitHub for automated setup with all Docker containers needed etc https://github.com/loponai/arrstack

He also has a newer video on the area stack, haven’t watched it myself yet

You should just install open claw + claude to manage and setup your services if you just want it to work and see a working example on your device. Its a simple task for AI and you can review and learn from configuration that applies to only your system.