Personal Media Management Solution

Are you looking to have a centralized management solution for your personal media collection? Would you like your family to be able to search for and add content with ease? Look no further! This quick guide will navigate you through the basics, though there are additional settings required if using HTTPS and utilizing the applications outside of your local home network (using a reverse proxy like Nginx). This will cover a Windows based installation. I’m not going to cover the individual sections if they’re already covered by another guide, but will link to each relevant guide. It’s worth reading through this whole guide before starting. This was created for a friend as a quick step-by-step guide on getting this all setup.

Requirements

• SOFTWARE
• .NET Framework 4.7.2 (Runtime) (Microsoft)
• Ombi (Github) (Family approved frontend for finding and grabbing new media)
• Radarr (Github) (To manage movies)
• Sonarr (Github) (To manage tv shows)
• Lidarr (Github) (To manage music)
• Prowlarr (Github) (To manage indexers for the above 3 applications)
• qBittorrent (qBittorrent) (To download torrents)
• Plex Media Server (Plex) (You should install this on a separate system (guide), but is up to you)
• Usenet Provider (FastUsenet) (To download NZBs (fast/reliable). Optional, but recommended)
• NZBGet (NZBGet) (To download NZBs (fast/reliable). Optional, but recommended)
• VPN (Private Internet Access) (Fast Secure Encrypted Private Connection)
• HARDWARE
• The mentioned software is mostly C# based, so is rather resource light, but I have seen NZBGet use a lot of CPU if there are a bunch of NZBs queued. Something to keep an eye on, but normally its in the single digits.
  8GB of RAM should be sufficient.
  You’ll want a second drive to handle the downloads. SSDs are recommended.

Installation

• Download all the software items listed in the SOFTWARE list.
• Install the .NET Framework 4.7.2 package.
• Create a central storage location for your media, whether it’s a network share or local drive. If it’s a network share, ensure that it is accessible by the system you’re installing all this software on.
  \\MediaServer\Media
  If you already have a location, you can perform imports, but folders must adhere to a strict naming convention.
• Create individual folders under Media for the different types. Movies, TV Shows, Music, etc.
  \\MediaServer\Media\Movies
\\MediaServer\Media\TVShows
\\MediaServer\Media\Music
  You will configure Radarr, Sonarr and Lidarr to use the respective folder as its ‘Root Folder’.
• Install and configure your VPN to secure the connection for your system (Login, change Protocol to WireGuard. Ensure VPN always starts with system, and KillSwitch is enabled).
• Install and configure NZBGet with your Usenet provider information. (Tutorial)
• Install and configure qBittorrent (Guide)
• Install Radarr (Guide)
• Configure Radarr (Guide) *1, *2, *6
• Install Sonarr (Guide)
• Configure Sonarr (Guide) *1, *2, *6
• Install Lidarr (Guide)
• Configure Lidarr (Guide) *1, *2, *6
• Install Prowlarr (Guide)
• Configure Prowlarr (Guide) (This will push your configured Indexers to the 3 applications above) *4
• Install Ombi (Guide)
• Configure Ombi *3

* Notes *

1. Under Settings > Indexers, configure Maximum Size. This will be an absolute maximum file size allowed to be downloaded.
2. Add your download clients. qBittorrent and NZBGet.
3. You will need to configure settings for TV, Movies, Music and Media Server (whichever is applicable)
   For Sonarr, Radarr and Lidarr, you will need the corresponding API Key from each application to add to Ombi. Once you add the hostname/IP, port and server API key, press the buttons for Load Qualities, Load Folders, Load Languages and then select from the drop downs the appropriate selections. Once that’s done, test connectivity and save.
   If configuring Plex, its similar. You can use your Plex credentials and it will pull in the servers you have available to your account. Select the proper one and it will import the details. Test connectivity and save. If connectivity fails, try turning SSL on/off.
4. Select several torrent indexers (1337x, RARbg, etc), and if you’re going the NZB route, select some NZB Indexers (Usenet Crawler, NZBgeek, etc).

6. This is applicable to Radarr, Sonarr and Lidarr, but is usually only required for Radarr. To reduce the number of bad quality releases it helps to configure Custom Formats (Preferred Words), Excluded Keywords, and Required Keywords.

Preferred Keywords: This is the list used in the Regular Expression field. List found in a Reddit post. These keywords give releases which contain them in the title a higher preference over other releases.

Settings > Custom Formats > Add > Conditions > Release Title > Presets > Preferred: Preferred Words

Save.

Now go to your Quality Profiles, and edit the one(s) you use, and you’ll see a Custom Formats option now. Select the Custom Format you created (Preferred Words), and give it a score. Radarr will continue to attempt to upgrade until it reaches the max score as defined, and each custom has a configurable weight. Adjust it as you require.

Required and Excluded Keywords: These keywords are a MUST requirement, either the title MUST have one of them, or MUST NOT have any of them.

Settings > Indexers > Restrictions

Must Contain:

Must Not Contain:

Additional Notes

• I don’t let any of the applications load automatically, or as a service. I use a logon PowerShell script that ensures the VPN is up, and then loads the applications in the correct order, with a pause/sleep in between so there’s no thrashing.
• There are other complimentary software suites depending on your particular setup that you might find useful. You’ll find a solid list here on Reddit.
• Often times when you find exclusion/inclusion lists, they’re space delimited, but the input for the *arr software takes comma delimited. Use a site like this to make the process a breeze.