Introduction
Many new users of OpenMediaVault have selected this operating system because they want to run a media server. They expect it to provide functions such as serving media to local or remote clients and downloading and organizing new content. The good news is that OMV can perform all of these tasks! The development team has spent countless hours building plugins for services to fill these needs. However, maintaining and updating these plugins is a never-ending battle, and many of the developers don't even use these plugins themselves, so it can be tricky to troubleshoot and fix bugs. Luckily, they've provided OMV users the perfect framework that allows us to have a full-featured media server that's stable, efficient, and regularly updated: the Docker GUI plugin.
This guide will walk you through setting up a complete media server using Docker containers provided by Linuxserver.io. Yes, there are probably (many) other containers available that may be better suited to your specific needs. This guide won't cover any of them. Linuxserver containers are widely used and issues will likely be well researched and documented, so we're using them for simplicity. Also, they are generally updated every week. If you want to explore different containers, the great thing about Docker is that you can try them without (much) concern of somehow negatively impacting the base OMV installation.
First, some disclaimers: I am new to Docker. I am new to OpenMediaVault. I am even new to Linux. You may find throughout this guide that I've done things in a simple way that may not be optimal. I hope that experienced users will point out any vulnerabilities my process may create, or suggest better or more secure, efficient ways to do things. If they do, I will update the OP.
And, a few assumptions: I assume that you already know how to configure and use the applications once they are running, so I will not cover setting up the applications unless there are tweaks specific to using Docker. I will also assume that you've already installed the omv-extras plugin for your version of OMV, you've enabled the Docker plugin repo, and installed and enabled the Docker GUI plugin. Again, I'm not an expert, and probably won't be able to troubleshoot any issues with getting the Docker plugin running. I assume that any folders that will be accessed by Docker have the correct permissions. Finally, I assume you'll forward any necessary ports in your router. Throughout the process, I will highlight any issues that I found and had to overcome, but it may be different for you depending on many different variables.