Bitmagnet in Container Manager on a Synology NAS

What is Bitmagnet?

https://bitmagnet.io

A self-hosted BitTorrent indexer, DHT crawler, content classifier and torrent search engine with web UI, GraphQL API and Servarr stack integration.

You can integrate Bitmagnet with your media stack by adding it to Prowlarr or directly to Radarr etc.

Make sure you have a look at the System Requirements and other FAQ items as you will likely want to run this on an SSD volume with plenty of space available as my own database with 17.3 million torrents is currently 111GB.

https://bitmagnet.io/faq.html#what-are-the-system-requirements-for-bitmagnet

This app is currently in Beta the guide is setup to pull the latest tag which is version 0.9.5 you can jump direct to Beta v4 using the appropriate tag and then manually update as the next versions are released. There is an official Discord server as well if you have any specific questions not covered by the guide or the wiki.

In this guide there are two compose versions, one runs without GlueTUN and one with, it is entirely up to you if you need to use a VPN. (See the FAQ)

Let’s Begin

In this guide I will take you through the steps to get Bitmagnet up and running in Container Manager. We will be using the Projects (Docker Compose) feature to get this running as it will save you time vs manual setup using the normal UI

In order for you to successfully use this guide please complete the three preceding guides

• Docker Package, SSD and Memory Recommendations
• Step 1: Directory Setup Guide
• 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 container to use. Open up File Station create the following.

/docker/projects/bitmagnet-compose
/docker/bitmagnet/postgres
/docker/bitmagnet/config

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, decide if you want to use Bitmagnet with or without a VPN and copy the appropriate compose below.

Non VPN Compose

services:
  bitmagnet:
    image: ghcr.io/bitmagnet-io/bitmagnet:latest
    container_name: bitmagnet
    user: 1234:65432 #change as per guide
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_HOST=bitmagnet-postgres
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres #change as per guide
    #  - TMDB_API_KEY=your_api_key
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/bitmagnet/config:/root/.config/bitmagnet
    command:
      - worker
      - run
      # Run all workers:
      - --all
    ports:
      - 3333:3333
    network_mode: synobridge
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    depends_on:
      bitmagnet-postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
    restart: always

  bitmagnet-postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    container_name: bitmagnet-postgres
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/bitmagnet/postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres #change as per guide
      - POSTGRES_DB=bitmagnet
      - PGUSER=postgres
    healthcheck:
      test:
        - CMD-SHELL
        - pg_isready
      start_period: 20s
      interval: 10s
    shm_size: 1g
    network_mode: synobridge
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    restart: always

VPN (GlueTUN) Compose

This setup is a little different to the way we would normally add a container to GlueTUN, we are actually going to tell Bitmagnet to use the VPN container from a separate compose.

We don’t normally assign specific IPs to containers however for us to split the Bitmagnet container onto our VPN and the Postgres database to remain local and still remain connectable we will assign an IP to it. As we will be using our Synobridge network I have pre-assigned a suitable IP that is high enough to remain out of the way of up to 119 other containers so you are very unlikely to have a conflict.

services:
  bitmagnet:
    image: ghcr.io/bitmagnet-io/bitmagnet:latest
    container_name: bitmagnet
    user: 1234:65432 #change as per guide
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_HOST=bitmagnet-postgres
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres #change as per guide
    #  - TMDB_API_KEY=your_api_key
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/bitmagnet/config:/root/.config/bitmagnet
    command:
      - worker
      - run
      # Run all workers:
      - --all
    network_mode: container:gluetun
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    depends_on:
      bitmagnet-postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
    restart: always

  bitmagnet-postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    container_name: bitmagnet-postgres
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/bitmagnet/postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres #change as per guide
      - POSTGRES_DB=bitmagnet
      - PGUSER=postgres
    healthcheck:
      test:
        - CMD-SHELL
        - pg_isready
      start_period: 20s
      interval: 10s
    shm_size: 1g
    networks:
      synobridge:
        ipv4_address: 172.20.0.121 # Assign the desired IP here
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    restart: always
    
networks:
  synobridge:
    external: true

Environment Variables

We are now going to amend a couple of key variables to make sure the container is running as our dockerlimited user and the database has a unique password (Note the postgres database will run as its own internal user)

Once you have made the edits you can 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 images will now be downloaded and extracted. You should see ‘Code 0’ when it has finished.

Firewall Exceptions

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

If you have the Synology Firewall enabled please see this additional guide for further info on exceptions and correct set up.

Adding Bitmagnet Ports to GlueTUN

If you went with the VPN Compose you have one more thing to change, if not skip ahead.

You will now need to add the WebUI and optional database ports to your GlueTUN project compose, this will involve stopping the GlueTUN Project, and then dropping in the ports below into the section shown in the screenshot.

You can then start up / build the GlueTUN project and then restart the Bitmagnet project to link things up.

      - 3333:3333 #Bitmagnet
      #- 5432:5432 database only if you want to look in it

In additional to the above you may need to layer an additional part into GlueTUN compose if you have trouble with the database connecting. This will go after the network mode line

    extra_hosts:
      – bitmagnet-postgres:172.20.0.121

Up and Running!

Bitmagnet will now be running on port 3333 you can connect to it by going to the IP address of your NAS with that port

e.g. 192.168.0.40:3333

After 30 seconds or so you should start to see new torrents appearing in the content types on the left-hand side and in the main list. Scanning the DHT takes time so at this point its just as case of being patient while it does its thing.

You can now add this as an indexer to Prowlarr or directly to your individual Radarr, Sonarr containers. You will add as a custom Torznab Indexer using the synobridge gateway IP.

http://172.20.0.1:3333/torznab

Optional Extra Configs

You will find a config.yml file in /docker/bitmagnet/config this allows you to make some further customisation to the UI and settings. For example if you want to block specific items appearing in the catalogue such as adult torrents you can add banned words. The latest Beta versions are now automatically removing a lot of CSAM material which gets pulled in due to being out the on the network.

Looking for some help, join our Discord community

If you are struggling with any steps in the guides or looking to branch out into other containers join our Discord community!

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