Run MiniDLNA on TrueNAS Scale

2025-01-13 01:10

I have recently set up a Jellyfin media server on my TrueNAS Scale box. It is an excellent piece of software and I am very happy with it overall. However, its DLNA plugin does not seem to play nicely with my TV. So I turned to my favorite DLNA server, MiniDLNA.

Unfortunately, MiniDLNA is not available in TrueNAS Scale’s App catalog. That said, TrueNAS Scale uses k3s under the hood to run apps, so you can easily deploy your own containerized applications with ease.

Configuration

Navigate to Apps -> Discover Apps and then click the Custom Apps button. A configuration form for the new app will appear. Fill it out as follows:

Application Name: minidlna
Image Repository: vladgh/minidlna
Container Environment Variables:
    MINIDLNA_FRIENDLY_NAME: My media
    MINIDLNA_INOTIFY: yes
    MINIDLNA_MEDIA_DIR: /media
Networking: use Host network
Host Path Volumes:
  - Host Path: /mnt/tank/media
    Mount Path: /media

Couple notes about the configuration:

I use vladgh/minidlna image, because it is well maintained.
The MINIDLNA_FRIENDLY_NAME can be set to your preferred name.
Inotify ensures MiniDLNA automatically recognizes newly added files.
Host networking is required for MiniDLNA to broadcast itself on your local network.
Set the host path to the location of you media files on TrueNAS.
You can configure resource limits based on your hardware, but MiniDLNA is not resource intensive.

Conclusion

As shown above, running custom apps on TrueNAS Scale is straightforward. You can apply a similar approach for deploying other containerized applications. This flexibility makes TrueNAS Scale a powerful solution for managing your home server needs.