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ARR Stack Overview and Service Architecture

This section walks you through all the key applications in your Media Manager stack, explaining what each one does, how they work together, and how they share storage space.

Your entire media automation system is deployed with Docker Compose, a tool that manages multiple containers at once. Instead of pasting the configuration here, just know it's referenced in the main docker-compose.yml file.

🌐 The ARR Ecosystem — What Each App Does

Think of your media setup as a team of specialists, each with a clear role. Together, they automate finding, downloading, organizing, and streaming your media smoothly.

🧭 Prowlarr — The Indexer Aggregator

Prowlarr is the brain behind finding new media. It connects to many torrent and NZB indexers (sites listing available movies and shows) and collects results from them.

  • It sends these results to Radarr and Sonarr so they know about new movies or episodes.
  • It keeps all your indexers synced in one place, saving you from having to set them up repeatedly.

🎬 Radarr — Automated Movie Management

Radarr handles your movie collection.

  • It tracks movie releases and tells qBittorrent what to download.
  • After the download finishes, Radarr renames, organizes, and moves the movie files to your library folder.
  • It also notifies Plex so your library stays updated.

📺 Sonarr — Automated TV Show Management

Sonarr does essentially the same job as Radarr, but for TV shows.

  • Monitors episodes (current and upcoming) and fetches via qBittorrent.
  • Handles organizing episodes and renaming files consistently.
  • Updates Plex similar to Radarr.

💬 Bazarr — Subtitle Management Service

Bazarr works alongside Radarr and Sonarr to handle subtitles.

  • Automatically searches for subtitles in the languages you want.
  • Saves these subtitle files right next to your media, so Plex and your devices can use them seamlessly.

🎟️ Jellyseerr — User Request Portal

Jellyseerr provides a friendly interface where users can request movies or TV shows.

  • Requests get automatically passed to Radarr or Sonarr.
  • Useful if multiple people want to manage requests easily.
  • Integrates with Plex to show what’s available.

📨 Ombi — Alternative Request Management

Ombi offers similar features to Jellyseerr but with a different look and some unique options.

  • You can choose either or even run both if you want.

🧱 How These Services Connect

Here’s a simple flow to understand their interaction:

User Requests (via Jellyseerr/Ombi) ↓ Radarr & Sonarr ↓ Prowlarr provides index results ↓ qBittorrent (host) downloads files ↓ Organized media library (on shared storage) ↓ Plex streams content ↓ Clients (your devices)

  • Prowlarr feeds torrent information to Radarr and Sonarr.
  • Radarr and Sonarr initiate downloads in qBittorrent running on your host.
  • qBittorrent saves the media to storage mounted by all services.
  • Radarr and Sonarr rename and organize media as it completes.
  • Plex scans the media folders to show up-to-date content.
  • Bazarr adds subtitles automatically to the media files.

🗄️ Shared Storage and Docker Volumes

To keep things tidy and avoid confusion, all Docker services use the same folder structure inside their containers under /data. This path points to your real media folders on the host, typically /mnt/omnissiah-vault/data/media-manager.

Each service also stores its settings (config files) in their own dedicated folders on the external drive, persisting beyond container restarts:

Service Config Path on Host Mounted To in Container
Radarr /mnt/omnissiah-vault/configs/radarr /config
Sonarr /mnt/omnissiah-vault/configs/sonarr /config
Prowlarr /mnt/omnissiah-vault/configs/prowlarr /config
Bazarr /mnt/omnissiah-vault/configs/bazarr /config
Jellyseerr /mnt/omnissiah-vault/configs/jellyseerr /app/config
Ombi /mnt/omnissiah-vault/configs/ombi /config

This organization keeps your media and service configurations cleanly separated and easy to backup or migrate.

🔧 Docker Networking

All ARR stack containers are connected on a private Docker network called media-net. This network allows them to talk to each other internally, without exposing all services to your regular home network. For host-based services like qBittorrent and Plex, container apps reach them via special host addresses.

🚀 Summary

Your Media Manager ARR stack is a carefully connected set of services:

  • Prowlarr centralizes media indexers.
  • Radarr and Sonarr manage movies and TV shows, respectively.
  • qBittorrent on your host downloads the media files.
  • Bazarr provides subtitles automatically.
  • Jellyseerr or Ombi lets users request new content.
  • Plex streams your organized media to your devices.

They share data neatly through a standardized storage path and communicate over a private Docker network for smooth operation.

Optional: Accessing Your Media via Samba Network Share

If you want to access your external HDD directly from other devices on your network—like Windows PCs, Macs, or mobile devices—you can set up Samba. Samba allows you to share your media folders as network drives, making it easy to browse, add, or manage files without logging into your server.

This is especially useful if you prefer managing files directly or want seamless integration with devices that don’t support network streaming apps.

You can find the step-by-step Samba installation and configuration instructions here:
Go to👉 Install Samba