Deploy Jellyfin in one click

What is Jellyfin?

Jellyfin is a free, open-source media server that people run in place of Plex or Emby. It sorts the films, shows and music you own into libraries with posters, descriptions and cast from online metadata, and streams them to a browser, phones, tablets and TVs. Official apps exist for Android, iOS, Android TV and Fire TV, Roku, LG and Samsung TVs, Xbox and Kodi, and Jellyfin Media Player runs on desktops. Each person gets an account of their own, with their own watch progress and parental controls.

People self-host Jellyfin to watch their own media from anywhere with no account at a company and no subscription: it has no premium tier, no tracking and no central servers. This template sets it up with the administrator from the fields and three libraries, Movies, Shows and Music, over the folders of a media volume. The catch is transcoding. When a device cannot play a file as it is, Jellyfin converts it on the fly, here on the CPU, which is heavy, so files your devices play directly, such as H.264 video in MP4, are the light ones.

Hosting Jellyfin on Pethost

1. You sign in to Pethost with a passkey, GitHub or Google. No machine yet? You pick a plan, and the link waits until it is ready.
2. New project opens at Jellyfin. You fill in what it asks for and click Create project: Username, Admin password.
3. In a minute or two Jellyfin is live at its own address with HTTPS. Its secrets are made at random, and its data is in the nightly backup.
4. It is a project like any other: you or your agent can change it, roll it back or restore it.

Questions about Jellyfin

Jellyfin Docker Compose file

The template is this compose.yaml and the variables written into the project’s .env as it is created. Pethost runs the file as it is written.

Containers: jellyfin (jellyfin/jellyfin:12).

Volumes, in the nightly backup: config, cache, media.

services:
  jellyfin:
    image: jellyfin/jellyfin:12
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      ADMIN_USERNAME: ${ADMIN_USERNAME}
      ADMIN_PASSWORD: ${ADMIN_PASSWORD}
    # A new server's startup wizard is open to whoever comes first. So until the wizard is done,
    # Jellyfin runs on port 8097, which nobody reaches: there it is given the administrator from
    # the fields and a library for each folder of /media, and only then answers on 8096.
    entrypoint: ["/bin/sh", "-c"]
    command:
      - |
        set -e
        config=/config/config
        if ! grep -qs '<IsStartupWizardCompleted>true<' "$$config/system.xml"; then
          mkdir -p "$$config" /media/movies /media/shows /media/music
          if [ -f "$$config/network.xml" ]; then
            sed -i 's|<InternalHttpPort>[0-9]*<|<InternalHttpPort>8097<|' "$$config/network.xml"
          else
            printf '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>\n<NetworkConfiguration>\n  <InternalHttpPort>8097</InternalHttpPort>\n</NetworkConfiguration>\n' > "$$config/network.xml"
          fi
          /jellyfin/jellyfin &
          setup=$$!
          api() { curl -fsS -H 'Content-Type: application/json' "$$@"; }
          # 401: an administrator with a password exists already, from a first start cut short,
          # and Jellyfin has marked its wizard done by itself.
          until wizard=$$(curl -sS -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' http://127.0.0.1:8097/Startup/Configuration) &&
            { [ "$$wizard" = 200 ] || [ "$$wizard" = 401 ]; }; do sleep 2; done
          if [ "$$wizard" = 200 ]; then
            api -d '{"ServerName":"Jellyfin","UICulture":"en-US","MetadataCountryCode":"US","PreferredMetadataLanguage":"en"}' http://127.0.0.1:8097/Startup/Configuration
            library() {
              api http://127.0.0.1:8097/Library/VirtualFolders | grep -q "\"Name\":\"$$1\"" ||
                api -d '{"LibraryOptions":{"EnableRealtimeMonitor":true}}' "http://127.0.0.1:8097/Library/VirtualFolders?name=$$1&collectionType=$$2&paths=/media/$$3"
            }
            library Movies movies movies
            library Shows tvshows shows
            library Music music music
            api -o /dev/null http://127.0.0.1:8097/Startup/User
            json() { printf '%s' "$$1" | sed 's/\\/\\\\/g; s/"/\\"/g'; }
            api -d "{\"Name\":\"$$(json "$$ADMIN_USERNAME")\",\"Password\":\"$$(json "$$ADMIN_PASSWORD")\"}" http://127.0.0.1:8097/Startup/User
            api -d '{"EnableRemoteAccess":true,"EnableAutomaticPortMapping":false}' http://127.0.0.1:8097/Startup/RemoteAccess
            api -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8097/Startup/Complete
          fi
          kill $$setup
          wait $$setup || true
          sed -i 's|<InternalHttpPort>8097<|<InternalHttpPort>8096<|' "$$config/network.xml"
        fi
        exec /jellyfin/jellyfin
    volumes:
      - config:/config
      - cache:/cache
      # Writable, so that films, shows and music can be copied in over SFTP.
      - media:/media

volumes:
  config:
  cache:
  media:

compose.yamlSee it on GitHub