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Prowlarr in Container Manager on a Synology NAS

Important or Recent Updates
Historic UpdatesDate
Updated guide for Container Manager22/05/2023
Moved from UI setup to Project Setup which is more flexible and easier to maintain.
Added an addition element to the compose to restrict the container from gaining additional privilege.
25/10/2023
Added FlareSolver to the Extras section of the guide10/11/2023
Historic Updates


What is Prowlarr?

Prowlarr is an application that combines your various indexers for torrents and Usenet into one place, it then syncs all the indexer settings automatically with Sonarr, Radarr etc.

Let’s Begin

In order for you to successfully use this guide please complete these two guides and come back here.

Folder Setup

Let’s start by getting some folders set up for the containers to use. Open up File Station create the following.

Folders
/docker/projects/prowlarr-compose
/docker/prowlarr

Container Manager

Next we are going to set up a ‘Project’ in Container Manager. Open up Container Manager and click on Project then on the right-hand side click ‘Create’.

In the next screen we will set up our General Settings, enter the following:

SectionSetting
Project Name:prowlarr
Path:/docker/projects/prowlarr-compose
Source:Create docker-compose.yml

Next we are going to drop in our docker compose configuration copy all the code in the box below and paste it into line ‘1’ just like the screenshot.

What on earth is a Docker Compose?
Docker Compose allows us to define how Docker should set up one or more containers within a single configuration file. This file is yaml formatted and Container Manager uses the Projects feature to manage them.

YAML
services:
  linuxserver-prowlarr:
    image: linuxserver/prowlarr:latest
    container_name: prowlarr
    environment:
      - PUID=1234 #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_UID
      - PGID=65432 #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_GID
      - TZ=Europe/London #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_TZ
      - UMASK=022
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/prowlarr:/config
    ports:
      - 9696:9696
    network_mode: synobridge
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    restart: always

Environment Variables

We need to make some changes in order for the container to have the correct permissions to save its configuration files and to have access to your media.

VariableValue
PUID(required) The UID you obtained in the user setup guide should be entered here
PGID(required) The GID you obtained in the user setup guide should be entered here
TZ(required) Your timezone wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones

Click ‘Next’

You do not need to enable anything on the ‘Web portal settings’ screen click ‘Next’ again.

On the final screen click ‘Done’ which will begin the download of the container images and once downloaded they will be launched!

The image will now be downloaded and extracted. You should see ‘Code 0’ when it has finished.

The Project should now be running with a Green status

Firewall Exceptions

(Skip if you don’t have the Firewall configured)

If you have enabled and configured the Synology Firewall you will need to create exceptions for any containers that have a Web UI or have any incoming or outgoing connections. This section covers the basics of how to add these. (Please note this is a generic section and will not show the specific ports in this guide however it applies in the same way)

Head into the Control Panel> Security > Firewall, from here click Edit Rules for the profile you set up when you enabled the Firewall.

Next click on Create and you will see the screen below. Source IP and Action will be automatically selected to All and Allow, I will leave it up to you as to your own preference on whether you want to lock down specific Source IPs from having access. In this example we will leave as All.

You will now choose ‘Select from a list of built-in applications‘ and then the Select button

Now from the list choose the newly created Docker container (You can do more than one if you wish)

Click OK a couple of times to get back to the main screen. You will see by default the new rule is added to the bottom of the list. You must always have your Block All rule last in the list as the rules are applied top down so move your container up.

You have now completed the Firewall changes and can continue with the guide.

Container set up complete

You should now be able to access Prowlarr via the IP of your NAS followed by the port 9696

e.g. 192.168.0.40:9696

Extras

FlareSolverr

More indexers are implementing Cloudflare protection that will block you accessing their site via a proxy such as Prowlarr. Flaresolverr has some magic ingredients to get around this issue can be added to the Prowlarr container yaml.

I have provided two examples below one for adding to Prowlarr outside of a VPN connection and the second is to add onto the GlueTUN container.

Non VPN

YAML
  flaresolverr:
    image: flaresolverr/flaresolverr:latest
    container_name: flaresolverr
    environment:
      - TZ=Europe/London #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_TZ
    ports:
      - 8191:8191
    network_mode: synobridge
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    restart: always

VPN (GlueTUN)

YAML
  flaresolverr:
    image: flaresolverr/flaresolverr:latest
    container_name: flaresolverr
    environment:
      - TZ=Europe/London #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_TZ
    network_mode: service:gluetun
    depends_on:
      gluetun:
        condition: service_healthy
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    restart: always
    
#Then add the ports to the GlueTUN container

      - 8191:8191

Once you have added this to your container you have a couple of extra steps.

As per the firewall section create another exception, then continue

Head into Prowlarr > Settings > Indexers > Click + then select FlareSolverr

Once added enter the details as per the screenshot below – ensure you keep note of the ‘Tags’ as this is what you will add to an actual indexer to tell it to use FlareSolverr.

Note if ‘localhost’ does not work try your NAS IP or 172.20.0.1

You then tag each indexer that requires FlareSolverr

FAQ

Prowlarr can’t connect to my Arrs or Download Client

When setting up the connection between Prowlarr and Radarr/Sonarr/Lidarr some users have reported getting a time-out when using the NAS IP. If this happens try using the Gateway IP of the Synobridge network, which should be ‘http://172.20.0.1’. (you can see this in the Container Manager UI in Networks)


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Published inDockerSearch / Indexers 7.2Synology

11 Comments

  1. LettuceWrestler LettuceWrestler

    Hey Dr,

    Thanks for all the amazing guides! have set Prowlarr up without VPN following your guides. Prowlarr is succesfully connectted to Radarr, Sonarr and Lidarr with synobridge (172.20.0.1).
    I’m running into a problem when trying to add indexers, like 1337x. I keep getting the error:
    “Unable to connect to indexer, please check your DNS settings and ensure IPv6 is working or disabled. The SSL connection could not be established, see inner exception.”

    I was able to add Nyaa.si succesfully, but all others I have tried so far give the same error. I tried adding 1337x.to with Flaresolverr (added the tag on the Add indexer screen), but the same error appear.

    Do you know that the issue might be? Thanks!

    I

    • Dr_Frankenstein Dr_Frankenstein

      I would initially check through your network and disable ipv6 where ever it is enabled or if set to auto disable it. This would be in the DSM network settings, and on your router or DHCP server.

      This always seems to come up with Prowlarr for some people. Try that to start with.

    • Wookiee Wookiee

      Hey, i had the same issue, it seems that some ISPs block indexers such as 1337x. to fix this all i had to do was connect my Prowlarr to the GlueTUN VPN that i created following the Docs “qBittorrent with GlueTUN VPN” guid.

      additionally i had trouble getting it to work with the VPN and just added Prowlarr and FlareSolverr to the same Yaml file that i used to create Qbit and Gluetun.

      Hope this helps! :3

      • Jonathan Jonathan

        Thanks!

        I ended up doing the same (prowlarr and flaresolver) in the same project and using Gluetun VPN. It’s all working perfectly now!

        @Dr. Frankenstein, thanks again for all your help 🙂

  2. André André

    When I paste the VPN-enabled Prowlerr YAML at the bottom of the Gluetun YAML, it says “Property restart is not allowed” and highlights “restart: true”. Why?

    • Dr_Frankenstein Dr_Frankenstein

      Apologies – remove that line Container Manager doesn’t support it. I will change it now.

  3. Bort Bort

    Think you could do a guide for setting up flaresolverr? A couple indexers I use need cloudflare solutions, but just running the flaresolverr image using googled instructions isn’t working for me, nor is trying to follow the general steps used for other containers.

      • pepito pepito

        +1, got everything to work but indexes are not great with the cloudflare issues.

        Amazing consistent guides btw, best one I have seen.

  4. Max B Max B

    Love your tutorials!

    Few things that may be helpful:
    1) a general overview of the components involved. E.g., I was somewhat confused about the difference between media management (sonarr,radarr), index servers (prowlarr, spotweb, etc.), and individual indexers.
    2) in prowlarr: how to connect it to radarr (settings->apss->radarr) and where to get the API key

    • Dr_Frankenstein Dr_Frankenstein

      Hey just catching up on comments! – There is quite a bit to explain from a setup perspective and I try to just cover the basics on getting the container and correct paths running. There is great documentation on https://wiki.servarr.com/ that goes through all the settings.

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