Docker Image for unRaid

[ChaOConnor]

Not sure if this is unique to the open source discussion, but I've been reading up on trying to make a docker image of SageTV server for unRaid. I know a lot of folks around here use unRaid and with the recent move to integrating Docker into the unRaid NAS, I've felt that SageTV would be a perfect fit.

I'm still doing research, but I think perhaps it's doable now. The open source nature of the code (and probably updates to things like java, etc.) would make it smoother running, etc., but not necessary to actually create a running image.

I'll throw it out there: does anyone have any experience with Docker and think SageTV would be a good application for it? I currently run everything off my unRaid device and if I could ditch the windows machine that runs SageTV, I'd be set.

[Slugger]

I have experience with docker (somewhat limited, but I've used it and am using it everyday at work on my latest project). Seems to me the biggest issue will be hardware access. If you're just using an HDHR or other network based encoder then putting Sage in a docker image might be feasible. If you use hardware directly connected to your Sage server (USB, PCIe, etc. for tuners or IR blasting, etc.) then dockerizing Sage isn't going to be a fun experience. Direct access to hardware in containers is hit & miss, at best, but I have no experience with actually trying it but googling it says it's not fun/not something you want to have to do.

[stanger89]

Ah, I misread/confused some of the info about Docker and drivers. For some reason I thought you could put drivers in a Docker, but it's the reverse. So docker probably isn't the best option, though a lightweight OpenELEC style linux distro VM might be good.

[Fuzzy]

Even then, hardware access is always 'tricky' with a VM, especially hardware access that is really critical about timing and throughput. I mean, going forward, I'm hoping to have networked hardware that supports whatever future version of the Network Encoder API gets polished up - and then it would work easily as a docker, vm, embedded kit, etc.

[ChaOConnor]

See I'm using just HDHomeRuns, which is why I've been trying to use a Docker image. I tried some linux based DVR software w/ limited success in Docker. They were able to see and access the HDHomeRuns easily, but configuring them was somewhat of a pain. That's why I keep going back to Sage... the "it just works" principle. Why try to find a replacement for Sage, instead if I can, just make Sage work in my config. Admittedly, that may be more difficult than just finding something else, but I feel like it's pretty close to being feasible.

[dinki]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Ah, I misread/confused some of the info about Docker and drivers. For some reason I thought you could put drivers in a Docker, but it's the reverse. So docker probably isn't the best option, though a lightweight OpenELEC style linux distro VM might be good.

Please excuse me as I know nothing about Docker/unRaid. I do, however, have interest in a possible SageTV linux distro. I know it's early and SageTV code has yet to be released, but how feasible do you guys think it is to create an OpenELEC style distro for SageTV server? I'd like to replace my always-on Sage server with a lower powered device. I've already moved my home automation to a Debian based ARM system (Pogoplug) with great success and would love to have Sage server running on a headless linux box of some type.

Hope I'm not derailing the thread.

[Fuzzy]

It is pretty feasible, and sage actually designed the linux version for embedded, or 'pre-made server' uses - but that won't really be possible for us until the licensing is removed from it when the open source is released. The major issue will be the drivers for accessing tuners. I'm guessing those are more hardware specific, and may not recompile to ARM easily, plus there's an issue of the tuner needing some sort of ARM drivers. With something network based it would likely work just fine. Still, there are cheap low power x86 systems available as well, so ARM is certainly not a requirement for low power embedded systems.

[dinki]

Sure. I'm not tied to ARM. I did, however, get TVHeadend server running on the Pogoplug using an ATI TV Wonder 600 usb stick so at least some devices are supported.

Right now I've got an old server with a bunch of PCI tuners in it and an HDHomerun but I'm planning on adding another HDHomerun and maybe another USB tuner for analog cable that way I'm not tied to PCI any more.

[BobPhoenix]

Been running SageTV in an ESXi VM since 2010 with PCIe tuner cards passed through. Ran SageTV VM in unRAID 6.0b5 for 6 months without an issue. Hoping to switch to linux SageTV and drop ESXi when Sage goes open source only have Windows licenses currently. Would switch to unRAID 6.0 final when it is available but ran out of Windows activations to switch everything and would rather use KVM. Was using XEN when I had a unRAID windows VM.

[coppit]

Now that the open source version is out, I plan on taking a stab at it.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?p=575132

[stanger89]

I'll try it out if you get something working.

[BobPhoenix]

I'll try it out too!

[PiX64]

What they said@ ^
|

[panteragstk]

This ever go anywhere?

[stanger89]

I played around with it a bit a little while ago. I think the dockerfile can be dramatically simplified now that there's an installer for linux. I haven't take the time to try it on my unRAID server yet.

[jjyec]

If anyone's still interested, here's my attempt at an unraid specific docker. Thanks to the hard work of the dev, installing from the deb is easy. Works great with HDHomerun.

https://github.com/ycayer/docker-templates

[stuckless]

I might be posting some questions here in a couple weeks... I'm moving to UNRAID, and I'm going to be moving my SageTV server to Docker... so this is timely.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by jjyec

If anyone's still interested, here's my attempt at an unraid specific docker. Thanks to the hard work of the dev, installing from the deb is easy. Works great with HDHomerun.

https://github.com/ycayer/docker-templates

Can I add some suggestions/questions (maybe I'm doing something wrong)?

I think the volumes and ports should be setup to be definable in the unRAID config, see here for an example:
https://github.com/gfjardim/docker-c...ediaServer.xml

I believe we'll also need to make sure all the correct ports are exposed, coppit had these in his dockerfile, but I think they should be in the unRAID config GUI:
TCP: 42024 7818 8270
UDP: 31100 31099
UDP (Hauppauge Extenders): 16867 16869 16881

Also should SageTV's install directory be mapped to outside the docker image? I think it should, that would allow wiping the docker image and recreating/reinstalling it without losing all the SageTV settings.

BTW, thanks for doing this! I'd been procrastinating distracted, and of course there's an amount of not wanting to be the stuckee to support it

[jjyec]

This is my first Docker for Unraid, so it's quite possible I'm missing something.

One thing, I've been told by the Unraid folks that my template is compatible with 6.2 beta and above. I haven't had time to dig into making it 6.1- compatible.

I didn't have to expose specific ports since I used host networking. I tested clients and the web server this way.

I'll double check the volume mappings.

But yes, the sage install is mapped outside of docker, so it can retain plugins and wiz.bin on re-install. It is a hack, but that's why I copy the install to this volume before launching sagetv.

Been using it this way for a week.

[stanger89]

Ah, maybe that's the difference, I didn't realize there was a 6.2 beta yet.

re: host vs bridge, bridge may be better in the long run so we don't run into problems with the Sage webserver (plugin) conflicting with other webservers (unRAID, Squeezebox, etc)

Also, do you record directly to the array? Do you have cache enabled for that share? How many tuners/simultaneous recordings have you had going?