Prowlarr in Container Manager on a Synology NAS

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.

• Step 2: Setting up a restricted Docker user
• Step 3: Setting up a Docker Bridge Network

Folder Setup

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

/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:

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.

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.

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

  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)

  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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