I have a really bad “server” (just a laptop) that runs Fedora Server and uses Docker Compose to host Jellyfin. It has been very annoying to update (the web GUI for Fedora doesn’t even work half of the time), updating is painful, and it’s a pain to manage. I am trying to redo my entire setup, so I will be getting a NAS to store all of my media. However, I still want to host apps like Nextcloud and Jellyfin, but I’m probably just going to use the NAS as storage for such apps.
Should I:
- use CasaOS, Yunohost, or a different easy to use server OS
- stick with Fedora server
- use a different distro
If I should use a conventional server distro (Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu), suggestions for management GUIs, easy to use Docker management GUIs, and ways to set up file sharing (Samba configuration seems like a pain) are greatly appreciated.
(side note: I use Docker bind mounts and they seem to allow me to update my Jellyfin content through SFTP/whatever the SSH-based file transfer protocol is. Is there a point in me switching to volumes? I haven’t taken my container down manually since I first started it up)
There is a lot here but I think the most important thing is that docker containers should always be disposable. Don’t put any data into the container ever.
All of your data and configuration should be done in volumes. Local disk to inside the container is all you really need.
By doing this you make updating any given docker container easy as just pulling the newest tagged version of the container. If you are using docker and not podman you can use tools like watchtower to do this automatically.
As for what distro, it depends on your goals. Do you want to learn and improve your skills? Stick with Fedora or Rocky or Debian or openSUSE. I recommend learning the command line as you go, but if you want a nice UI openSUSE has Yast which is a very robust tool.
If you want to just have a home NAS but don’t want to learn that’s a different question. In this case if you’re getting a proprietary NAS anyway you could just get one that supports docker (like synology) and kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
Don’t put any data into the container ever. All of your data and configuration should be done in volumes. So are bind mounts (–bind) to the filesystem bad? Am I able to access Docker volumes through SFTP/SSH?
You should use volumes over bind. You just move your media into the volume location on the local host and try will show up in docker. You should never need to ssh or sftp into the container.
Is a Docker volume accessible like a folder if I SSH/SFTP into the host machine, not the container?
Yes. The left side of the : in the volume is the file on the host. You can see this directory on the host. The right side of the : is where that directory is replicated into the docker container.
All you need to do is to interact with the directory on the host.
