Docker Container questions

[Donut417]

Looking to run an instance of Automatic Ripping Machine. According to the Github page it's heavily suggested it's ran in a Docker Container. I have absolutely no experience with this. Basically I got a 2060 super for free and Im planning putting that in my gaming rig to replace my RX5700, while not a big upgrade, I do get DLSS and Raytracing. But I was planning on installing Linux on my gaming rig. 

 

Specs of gaming pc and plex server

Spoiler

Gaming Machine 

R7 5700x

16 gigs DDR4

RTX 2060 super

1 TB M.2 SSD, 2 TB Sata SSD, 1 TB SSHD, 1 TB HDD

 

Plex server 

i5 3570K

HD 7950

16 gigs DDR3

500 Gig SATA SSD 

Media files stored on Qnap NAS currently. 

I figure I could run the docker container on my gaming rig for now anyway. I wont game when Im ripping media. I currently have a USB DVD drive which is how Im currently ripping disk. My Plex server does have a drive as well, but I mostly use that headless. 

 

How does Docker deal with USB devices? From my understanding ARM should not only grab the contents of the disk, but it's capable of stripping out things you dont need and putting the media in to a format you want all automatically. So would I be able to share the 2060 with the docker container as well as use it for gaming when Im not ripping media? OR will my AMD chip be fine enough to handle the transcodes? I MAY upgrade to a Blu-ray drive at some point, not sure if I'll do 4K, but definitely would like to do 1080p videos.  Im planning on using Ubuntu most likely as I have more experience with it, what would I use to run a docker container? 

[gentlemanspot]

are you using Docker Desktop or Docker-CE on windows? 

 

look at docker-ce

 

i dont run Docker in window myself but it should be a matter of attaching the device in the console, adn maybe a bit of google-fu

 

see https://github.com/automatic-ripping-machine/automatic-ripping-machine/wiki/docker

3. v 

[Donut417]

55 minutes ago, gentlemanspot said:

windows? 

 

Not using Windows planning on using Ubuntu. 

[gentlemanspot]

ooh right, doing it in a VM?

[Donut417]

12 minutes ago, gentlemanspot said:

ooh right, doing it in a VM?

No. I’m switching my gaming pc to Linux. Probably Ubuntu. I’m installing docker on that machine.

[johnt]

Literally ask google Gemini how to install docker compose plug in and then ask it for a yaml file for ARM using docker compose. Jump in the deep end. The water is warm.

 

You can also do plex or jellyfin in a separate container. It’s amazing. You can copy the compose files and data to another computer and pick up right where you left off. I recommend docker compose over straight docker because it’s all command line driven and contained in one file instead of using an interface. 
 

 

[Donut417]

27 minutes ago, johnt said:

Literally ask google Gemini how to install docker compose plug

I don’t use Ai. I don’t really want anything to do with Ai. 
 

28 minutes ago, johnt said:

You can also do plex or jellyfin in a separate container. It’s amazing

Does my media files being stored on a separate NAS complicate things? Because currently plex just runs straight under Ubuntu on a dedicated box with my Media storage from the NAS being auto mounted. 
 

Do you think the old ass hardware in my Plex server could handle both plex and ARM? I should add that in could have up to 3 users at a time and some content requires transcoding, most OTA TV. 

[johnt]

2 hours ago, Donut417 said:

I don’t use Ai. I don’t really want anything to do with Ai. 

Definitely making your life tougher when it comes to programming or general command line usage. I understand your position. You can get away by reading github but it's a lengthy, uphill walk.

 

2 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Does my media files being stored on a separate NAS complicate things? Because currently plex just runs straight under Ubuntu on a dedicated box with my Media storage from the NAS being auto mounted. 
 

Do you think the old ass hardware in my Plex server could handle both plex and ARM? I should add that in could have up to 3 users at a time and some content requires transcoding, most OTA TV. 

Plex doesn't care where it lives as long as it has access to your media and permissions to read. I am assuming 1 Gbps network bandwidth, which is more than adequate for playback and transcoding files if they (Plex and your media) live in different devices.

 

Can your i5 handle Plex (3+ transcodes) and ARM at the same time? Maybe not comfortably. Is Plex actually able to use your HD 7950 for hardware transcoding? If so, then yes the CPU should be capable. If you are using CPU transcoding for video, then it is going to be really slow. You could pause your rips when your media server is in use, or schedule it either by time of day or just start ripping at night at like midnight or 1am.

 

I use an i5 6500 in a SFF device for my 24/7 server. It sips electricity at 25watts from the wall. I run 12 containers in two Ubuntu Server VMs, and I run an additional Windows VM on it that I remote connect to all the time. All this while using Proxmox as host. I do run Plex on it for use with Infuse, which does all things direct play and offloads any "transcoding" to my Apple TV instead of my server. I have my kids videos on it and some favorites. So yeah an i5 can get a lot done! Your 3570k is pretty much in line with the 6500. It will be slow for rips though no matter what you do, but I think you can manage and work around it.

[Eigenvektor]

3 hours ago, johnt said:

Literally ask google Gemini how to install docker compose plug in 

Recent versions of Docker have Docker Compose built-in, nothing to install separately anymore. Previously, all you had to do was download a script, copy it to the right place and make it executable.

[Donut417]

4 hours ago, johnt said:

Is Plex actually able to use your HD 7950 for hardware transcoding? I

Older AMD cards cant do transcoding. 

4 hours ago, johnt said:

You could pause your rips when your media server is in use, or schedule it either by time of day or just start ripping at night at like midnight or 1am.

My folks will use it for Live TV through out the day. As far as at night, my dad sleeps with the TV on and some times uses Plex depending on what he is watching, because his antenna only picks up a fraction of what the antenna of the Plex server picks up. 

 

4 hours ago, johnt said:

It will be slow for rips though no matter what you do, but I think you can manage and work around it.

Which is why I wanted to do the ARM install on my gaming Machine. Because I cant control when they use the Plex server, but I can control when I game. 

[johnt]

9 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

Recent versions of Docker have Docker Compose built-in, nothing to install separately anymore. Previously, all you had to do was download a script, copy it to the right place and make it executable.

I'm sure I've just been following the wrong guides all along, but even the GitHub page provided different instructions over the past year. There are a few more steps when installing on Ubuntu Server, you have to install the compose plug in separately. I just read Docker (on Windows or Ubuntu Snap or even MacOS) includes Docker Compose with recent releases. 

[johnt]

5 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Which is why I wanted to do the ARM install on my gaming Machine. Because I cant control when they use the Plex server, but I can control when I game. 

With all those circumstances, then yeah you probably should.

 

I am going back to your original post to help clarify some things:

 

16 hours ago, Donut417 said:

How does Docker deal with USB devices? From my understanding ARM should not only grab the contents of the disk, but it's capable of stripping out things you dont need and putting the media in to a format you want all automatically. So would I be able to share the 2060 with the docker container as well as use it for gaming when Im not ripping media? OR will my AMD chip be fine enough to handle the transcodes? I MAY upgrade to a Blu-ray drive at some point, not sure if I'll do 4K, but definitely would like to do 1080p videos.  Im planning on using Ubuntu most likely as I have more experience with it, what would I use to run a docker container? 

In Linux, you have a couple options. You can pass your entire disc drive to the docker container if you want it to read multiple discs without restarting the docker. Otherwise, you can mount the disc to your Ubuntu environment directly and then pass that mounted directory to the docker, but you would have to restart the docker for each disc. You would also have to umount and re-mount each disc in Ubuntu. This is where AI can really be your friend for the correct syntax... I am not sure if ARM cares whether you pass the drive or a directory. It's just the steps you have to go through.

 

You cannot pass your primary GPU to anything (VM, container, etc.) and still use your monitor at the terminal. You could pass it and then use SSH. But you can use integrated graphics for video output from the main OS, then you can pass a dedicated GPU to the container.

 

I cannot fully understand your question about your AMD chip being enough for transcoding. Do you mean in ARM? If so, you could technically have both the Nvidia and AMD cards in your gaming rig, use the 2060 as your primary GPU, and pass the AMD GPU to your container. But there are some complications with making sure a modern driver is installed for your GPU instead of the legacy version (the HD 7950 is a bit older as you know). Also, it has limitations. It can do h264 with no problems from the information I found, but ripping to h265/HEVC and AV1 will default to your CPU. The 2060 can also do h264 and adds h265, but it cannot do AV1 either.

 

To install docker on Ubuntu, I would just follow the information from docker directly: https://docs.docker.com/desktop/setup/install/linux/ubuntu/

 

But I would still do it using Docker Compose. It really is the same thing, except it puts all of the code into a single file instead of a UI. I found the docker UI to be very clunky, and the version I was using did not let you save your underlying code to fix or tweak anything. And I just got tired of entering the same information over and over again for testing it. 

[Donut417]

4 hours ago, johnt said:

cannot fully understand your question about your AMD chip being enough for transcoding

 The HD7950 is in my Plex server currently. The AMD chip I was referring to was my 5700x CPU in my gaming PC. BUT as my gaming PC is a Mini ITX system I cant install two GPU's. Plus at least for Plex, AMD GPU's are a no go for hardware transcoding. In fact my Intel CPU in the Plex server brute forces it currently. Honestly It works good enough. 

 

Based on the info you gave me, I doesnt seem like I can really do anything with ARM right now. Im going to install the Nvidia GPU in my gaming machine to test out DLSS, see if I can stretch this hardware a while longer.  Maybe I come across another Nvidia GPU for cheap or an Intel ARK GPU for cheap. OR maybe I can look at some used office computers and get a cheaper GPU and replace my current Plex server. 

 

But thanks for the information. It's at least given me somethings to think about. I can do a bit more research and planning. 

 

[johnt]

16 hours ago, Donut417 said:

BUT as my gaming PC is a Mini ITX system I cant install two GPU's. Plus at least for Plex, AMD GPU's are a no go for hardware transcoding. In fact my Intel CPU in the Plex server brute forces it currently. Honestly It works good enough.

I know that feeling! I love my mini itx but I need room to grow next time

 

DLSS can be nice. There are games that implement it better than others, but it definitely helps add frames.

 

You have other things to keep you busy while you figure out your next spec anyway. I would install Docker and play around with it to familiarize yourself, regardless of your OS. Ubuntu is another fun one to continue learning.

[Donut417]

23 minutes ago, johnt said:

Ubuntu is another fun one to continue learning.

Working on getting that installed on my gaming machine. With price of ram increasing Im waiting to see what Apple does. Because my current macbook is getting a bit slower. I was going to wait for the Mac Mini M5, just because it should be around the corner, but also I have a lot of expenses at the start of the year, car insurance, property taxes, car maintenance and the such. Was hoping to pull the trigger on new tech in March or April, or later. But if they decide to hike prices Ill likely put my gaming machine back in to daily use and just put a smaller work load on my Macbook pro. 

 

26 minutes ago, johnt said:

I would install Docker and play around with it to familiarize yourself,

I might still run an instance of ARM and just see how my CPU handles the load. At some point, if prices stabilize or if I can find the right used PC I might just upgrade the old Plex server. With streaming becoming more expensive I think investing in Physical media might be the way to go.