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Prowlarr and FlareSolverr via GlueTUN VPN 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 FlareSolverr to the Extras section of the guide10/11/2023
Guide amended to include FlareSolverr into the Project and step through adding this all to GlueTUN09/12/2023
Historic Updates


What is Prowlarr and FlareSolverr?

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. FlareSolverr is an additional proxy which helps bypass Cloudflare protection that many indexers use.

Let’s Begin

This guide makes the assumption that you have already setup GlueTUN and looking to layer this into the existing Project. See the left menu on how to do that with either Deluge or qBittorrent.

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/prowlarr

Container Manager

Next we are going to set stop and edit the existing GlueTUN VPN project in Container Manager.

Open up container manager and in the Project section select the `vpn-project` then Action > Stop.

Once the project has stopped click into it and select the YAML Configuration tab and scroll to the bottom of it as we are going to add the additional configuration for Prowlarr and FlareSolverr.

First we are going to add the extra required ports to the appropriate section at the top of the compose. Copy them and paste them as per the screenshot.

YAML
      - 8191:8191/tcp #flaresolverr
      - 9696:9696/tcp #prowlarr

Next we are going to drop in our docker compose configuration copy all the code in the box below and paste below your existing code.

YAML

  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
    network_mode: service:gluetun
    depends_on:
      gluetun:
        condition: service_healthy
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    restart: always
    
  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

Environment Variables

We need to make some changes in order for the added containers to have the correct permissions to save their config files and know where you are in the world.

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

Once you have amended these we can Build the Project again.

Click Save and then Click OK.

The Project should now be running with a Green status

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.

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

FlareSolverr Setup

Once you have set up Prowlarr and the Indexers you want to use, you can then add FlareSolverr to the ones that require it.

Go to 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.

There are 3 possible connection options to use, try from top to bottom.

http://localhost:8191/
http://172.20.0.1:8191/
http://YOUR-NAS-IP:8191/

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

39 Comments

  1. Shreyas Singhvi Shreyas Singhvi

    Can you please tell me how to find the IP address of the synobridge. I am running surfshark via gluetun and my prowlarr container uses network mode: surfshark and sonarr uses host. can connect to them on local ip. I am also forwarding firewall outbound subnets but still no luck.

    • Dr_Frankenstein Dr_Frankenstein

      Hey, so I have a guide on how to setup the ‘synobridge’ at the start of other guides. You only need to run items on it that communicate with each other. You would need to amend the Sonarr container over to the synobridge if you decide to create it. You would have to amend its compose as the UI won’t let you change it from host to bridge if created using the GUI.

      https://drfrankenstein.co.uk/step-3-setting-up-a-docker-bridge-network-in-container-manager/

      VPN Wise what is your GlueTUN container called? If it is called ‘surfshark’ then your network mode would be correct if Prowlarr is part of the same compose file. If it’s called Gluetun it you will need to amend the network mode name.. Happy to take a look if you want to share the compose yaml

      https://paste.drfrankenstein.co.uk

  2. Wesley Wesley

    You’re an evil genius in the best way. Thank you so much for these guides. I’m up to the point of setting up FlareSolverr in Prowlarr and testing the domain options. All three return this error and I can’t seem to find more information in any log:

    Invalid request Validation failed:
    — Host: Unable to connect to proxy: Http request timed out. Check the log surrounding this error for details

    • Dr_Frankenstein Dr_Frankenstein

      Hey! Are you testing with a site that actually requires Flaresolverr, also is GlueTUN connected OK?

      • Samy Samy

        First of all, I am deeply grateful for all the work you have done for the community. Thank you very much.

        I can answer your question, as I have been experiencing the same issue for days now without finding a solution.
        The issue occurs when trying to add Flaresolverr as an indexer proxy in Prowlarr. There is a test button, but it always fails with a timeout on all three domain names/IPs.
        Gluetun is properly connected; for instance, I was able to reach Radarr using the 172.20.0.1 IP from Prowlarr. I was also able to reach qBittorrent, which is included in the project with Gluetun.

  3. Chris Chris

    I gotta say, thanks a million for your guides. If I had any money at all, I would donate.

    I am a dinosaur IT guy and I have immensely enjoyed implementing the docker containers. I needed to get current with this tech and it was a blast going through this.

    A couple of questions:
    1) is there a site/guide that you would recommend to better understand the networking within the containers? I am struggling to truly understand how it works.
    2) Is there anyway that you know of that I could connect USB disk shares into the container data? is there a way to add mount points into the /volume1/data folders? I have a couple of USB drives connected to my NAS (DS418Play) to provide extra space but now I have media that I cannot be access by the containers.
    3) the only thing that seems to not be working correctly is qbittorent does not seem to download properly. They stall or just get nowhere and no seeders appear.

    Thanks again, so much appreciated!

    • Dr_Frankenstein Dr_Frankenstein

      Thanks 🙂

      1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKFMS5C4CG0&pp=ygUgZG9ja2VyIG5ldHdvcmtpbmcgIG5ldHdvcmsgY2h1Y2s%3D and also the official Docker documents..
      2) 100% – connect the drive, then SSH into the NAS and type ls / then you will see volumeUSBX (X being a number) you will need to ls down into the USB drive so ls /volumeUSB1/usbshare then mount this into a container /volumeUSB1/usbshare/media:/volumeUSB1/usbshare/media
      3) If they stall check that GlueTUN is actually staying connected within the logs for the container, it should show a successful connection. If you need help with this part reach out via my Help Me! page so I can take a closer private look.

      • Chris Chris

        Thanks a lot, I will followup as needed. I do not want to bother you.

        I am noodling what is going on with qbittorrent, it is looking flakey, sometimes it is saying it is firewalled, sometimes no DHT nodes, sometimes all good but the dl stalls.

        Really liked that network video, thanks! That guy is funny.

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