Tube Archivist in Container Manager on a Synology NAS

Last updated on 22 December 2024

As of the update on 20/12/2024 (Tube Archist v0.4.12) (Tube Archivist Elastic Search 8.16.0) this container will no longer work on DSM with its current Kernel (4.4.xxx). This is due to the Elastic Search container now requiring specific kernel security features to function.

A temporary workaround is possible by downgrading the Elastic Search container, This will continue to function for an indefinite amount of time so just be aware if you are setting this up fresh.

image: bbilly1/tubearchivist-es:8.14.3

I won’t archive this guide yet as the container itself could be run via a machine with a newer Kernel version (Lets see what 2025 Synology models bring…)

What is Tube Archivist?

To quote the GitHub page

Once your YouTube video collection grows, it becomes hard to search and find a specific video. That’s where Tube Archivist comes in: By indexing your video collection with metadata from YouTube, you can organize, search and enjoy your archived YouTube videos without hassle offline through a convenient web interface.

This includes:
– Subscribe to your favourite YouTube channels
– Download Videos using yt-dlp
– Index and make videos searchable
– Play videos
– Keep track of viewed and unviewed videos

Let’s Begin

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

If you have followed my other guides this one is a little different as there is not as much pre setup required just make sure you have followed these first.

• Docker, Memory Recommendations and Limitations

• Step 1: Directory Setup Guide
• Step 2: Setting up a restricted Docker user

Folder Setup

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

/data/media/youtube
/docker/projects/archivist-compose
/docker/tubearchivist/cache
/docker/tubearchivist/redis
/docker/tubearchivist/es

Folder Permissions

Next we need to get under the covers with DSM and set some specific file permissions for a couple of the folders we just created. This is because the Redis and Elasticsearch containers only run as specific users and can’t be overridden, without this step Tube Archivist can’t start up.

Just like you did in the Docker User Setup guide you need to SSH into your NAS and then run the following commands in order to set the permissions. As we are doing this as the ‘root’ user you will be asked for your password the first time you run the command.

sudo chown 1000:0 /volume1/docker/tubearchivist/es

sudo chown 999:100 /volume1/docker/tubearchivist/redis

You will not see any output after each command and in File Station you should now see the permissions on the folders have changed.

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.

services:
  tubearchivist:
    container_name: tubearchivist
    image: bbilly1/tubearchivist
    ports:
      - 8000:8000/tcp
    volumes:
      - /volume1/data/media/youtube:/youtube
      - /volume1/docker/tubearchivist/cache:/cache
    environment:
      - ES_URL=http://archivist-es:9200
      - REDIS_HOST=archivist-redis
      - HOST_UID=1234 #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_UID
      - HOST_GID=65432 #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_GID
      - TA_HOST=192.168.0.10 #Change to your NAS IP
      - TA_USERNAME=enter-a-username #Username for login
      - TA_PASSWORD=enter-a-password #password for login
      - ELASTIC_PASSWORD=enter-a-password # set password for Elasticsearch
      - TZ=Europe/London #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_TZ
    depends_on:
      - archivist-es
      - archivist-redis
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:8000/health"]
      interval: 2m
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 30s
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    restart: always
      
  archivist-redis:
    image: redis/redis-stack-server
    container_name: archivist-redis
    expose:
      - "6379"
    environment:
      - HOST_UID=999
      - HOST_GID=100
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/tubearchivist/redis:/data
    depends_on:
      - archivist-es
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    restart: always

  archivist-es:
    image: bbilly1/tubearchivist-es
    container_name: archivist-es
    environment:
      - ES_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms512m -Xmx512m
      - xpack.security.enabled=true
      - discovery.type=single-node
      - path.repo=/usr/share/elasticsearch/data/snapshot
      - ELASTIC_PASSWORD=password-from-above #same password from above
    ulimits:
      memlock:
        soft: -1
        hard: -1
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/tubearchivist/es:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data
    expose:
      - "9200"
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    restart: always

Environment Variables

We are now going to amend some key variables to make sure the containers have access to our folders, and also knows where we are in the world and set up some passwords. Don’t change any other settings other than those I mention.

You will notice that the compose has three main sections as it is made up of 3 containers which rely on each other to make the overall app work.

image: bbilly1/tubearchivist
(Main Tube Archivist container)

image: redis/redis-stack-server
(Redis database server)

image: bbilly1/tubearchivist-es
(Elasticsearch search and analytics engine)

Let’s change the settings for them one at a time.

bbilly1/tubearchivist

redis/redis-stack-server

No amendments required

bbilly1/tubearchivist-es

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

The first ever start up can take a few minutes so be patient while everything sets up, so in the interim continue below.

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.

Some final steps

Tube Archivist will now be running and can be found on port 8000 on your NAS IP

e.g. 192.168.0.40:8000

You should be able to log in using the Username and Password you set up in the yaml earlier

There are no other changes we need to make to the default configuration, however you can go in and make changes to your preferences.

Some key things I have found from a UI perspective.

Channels, probably fairly obvious but add the URLs for full channels you want to subscribe to in this section, you can configure Archivist to then download all the back catalogue and future videos.

Downloads, I use this to grab individual videos using the + button on the right-hand side.

Make sure you have a look at the documentation over on the Tube Archivist site.

https://docs.tubearchivist.com/

Browser Extension

https://github.com/tubearchivist/browser-extension

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