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079af851d813edf0729641ba0bd19d307b7e5ff5

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cmc <hello@cleberg.net> · 2024-09-24 02:39 UTC

add self-hosting-transmission post

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content/blog/2024-09-23-self-hosting-transmission.org added +182

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	1	#+date: <2024-09-23 Mon 19:52:20>
	2	#+title: Self-Hosting Transmission Bittorrent Client
	3	#+description: Learn how to self-host the Transmission torrent client with an Nginx reverse proxy.
	4	#+filetags: :self-hosting:
	5	#+slug: self-hosting-transmission
	6
	7	#+begin_quote
	8	If you're torrenting anything sensitive, I highly recommend you use a VPN.
	9	Something like mullvad-cli is incredibly simple to use and can be configured to
	10	have a "killswitch" or "lockdown mode" to ensure that if the VPN disconnects,
	11	your traffic won't be leaked to your ISP.
	12	#+end_quote
	13
	14	* Transmission
	15
	16	[[https://transmissionbt.com/][Transmission]] is a cross-platform bittorrent client that supports running a
	17	[[https://linux.die.net/man/1/transmission-remote][remote control utility]], a [[https://linux.die.net/man/1/transmission-daemon][daemon service]] for running as a background service,
	18	and a [[https://linux.die.net/man/1/transmission-cli][command-line client]].
	19
	20	Since I love torrenting Linux ISOs and providing them back to the community,
	21	let's walk through a tutorial of setting up Transmission on a headless server
	22	and connecting it to a domain name (=transmission.example.com=) so that we can
	23	manage our torrents remotely.
	24
	25	This tutorial assumes you have a Linux machine, have Nginx installed, and have a
	26	domain name pointing at your Linux machine.
	27
	28	** Installation
	29
	30	First, let's install a couple Transmission packages on the system. We don't need
	31	the GUI components, so we'll only install the daemon and command line interface
	32	utilities.
	33
	34	#+begin_src sh
	35	sudo apt install transmission-cli transmission-common transmission-daemon
	36	#+end_src
	37
	38	You will need to run the program to initialize the files before you can edit the
	39	configurations, so let's run it and end the process.
	40
	41	#+begin_src sh
	42	# Run the program
	43	transmission-daemon -e ~/.local/log/transmission.log
	44
	45	# End the program after it finishes running
	46	transmission-remote --exit
	47	#+end_src
	48
	49	** Configuration
	50
	51	Now that we've run the program for the first time and initialized the relevant
	52	files, let's edit those files.
	53
	54	#+begin_quote
	55	If you edit the files while Transmission is running, your changes won't be
	56	saved! Make sure to end the service, update the configuration files, and restart
	57	the service.
	58	#+end_quote
	59
	60	To start, let's edit the main configuration file.
	61
	62	#+begin_src sh
	63	nano ~/.config/transmission-daemon/settings.json
	64	#+end_src
	65
	66	Within this file, I suggesting skimming every option and determining if you
	67	want to change any of those options.
	68
	69	For remote access, we will focus on the following =rpc= options. This
	70	configuration will not require authentication, will allow any device with access
	71	(I suggest that you have a firewall restricting access) to access the service
	72	(="rpc-bind-access": "0.0.0.0"=), will open the service on port =9091=, and will
	73	whitelist a few LAN IPs (="rpc-whitelist":
	74	"127.0.0.1,::1,192.168.0.98,192.168.0.97"=).
	75
	76	#+begin_src json
	77	{
	78	...
	79	"rpc-authentication-required": false,
	80	"rpc-bind-address": "0.0.0.0",
	81	"rpc-enabled": true,
	82	"rpc-host-whitelist": "",
	83	"rpc-host-whitelist-enabled": true,
	84	"rpc-password": "{7fc02520b97e054f7a15274c7cfafe3cd7330169.OQUAUS4",
	85	"rpc-port": 9091,
	86	"rpc-socket-mode": "0750",
	87	"rpc-url": "/transmission/",
	88	"rpc-username": "",
	89	"rpc-whitelist": "127.0.0.1,::1,192.168.0.98,192.168.0.97",
	90	"rpc-whitelist-enabled": true,
	91	...
	92	}
	93	#+end_src
	94
	95	Once you've finished configuring the service, start the service up again.
	96
	97	#+begin_src sh
	98	transmission-daemon -e ~/.local/log/transmission.log
	99	#+end_src
	100
	101	At this point, you should be able to access the website at =localhost:9091= (if
	102	you're browsing on the machine where Transmission is running) or
	103	=$server_ip:9091= (if you're browsing from a different LAN device).
	104
	105	If you want to make further changes to Transmission's configuration, I suggest
	106	doing so now. Once you start working on remote access via a reverse proxy,
	107	you'll be adding an additional layer of complexity that bring in more confusion
	108	when errors occur.
	109
	110	* Reverse Proxy
	111
	112	Now that the service is running and configured properly, let's work on remote
	113	access.
	114
	115	This tutorial will use Nginx, but you can use any reverse proxy or something
	116	like Cloudflare Tunnels if that's your thing.
	117
	118	** Configuration
	119
	120	If you have Nginx installed, you should have either the =/etc/nginx/conf.d= or
	121	=/etc/nginx/sites-available= directories available to create website
	122	configuration files. This tutorial assumes the =conf.d= structure, but it's
	123	essentially the same except using the =sites-available= structure requires you
	124	to symlink your files into the =sites-enabled= directory.
	125
	126	Let's start by creating the website configuration file.
	127
	128	#+begin_src sh
	129	sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/transmission.conf
	130	#+end_src
	131
	132	Within the file, you will need a configuration similar to the code below. Note
	133	that this uses SSL and requires a valid TLS/SSL certificate. You can use [[https://letsencrypt.org/][Let's
	134	Encrypt]] if you don't have a certificate yet.
	135
	136	#+begin_src conf
	137	server {
	138	listen 443 ssl;
	139	listen [::]:443 ssl;
	140	http2 on;
	141	server_name transmission.example.com;
	142
	143	# SSL
	144	ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
	145	ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
	146	ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/chain.pem;
	147
	148	# reverse proxy
	149	location / {
	150	set $upstream_transmission http://localhost:9091;
	151	proxy_pass $upstream_transmission;
	152	proxy_pass_header X-Transmission-Session-Id;
	153	}
	154	}
	155
	156	# HTTP redirect
	157	server {
	158	listen 80;
	159	listen [::]:80;
	160	server_name transmission.example.com;
	161
	162	if ($host ~ ^[^.]+\.example\.com) {
	163	return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
	164	}
	165	}
	166	#+end_src
	167
	168	Once you've saved the configuration file, restart the Nginx web server to enable
	169	the remote access connection.
	170
	171	#+begin_src sh
	172	sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
	173	#+end_src
	174
	175	At this point, Transmission should now be available at
	176	=transmission.example.com=, same as it's available on the LAN.
	177
	178	#+begin_quote
	179	Pro Tip: If you dislike something about the website UI, you can edit the
	180	website's files in the =/usr/share/transmission/public_html/= directory. You can
	181	modify the HTML, CSS, and JS files in this directory.
	182	#+end_quote

theme/templates/index.html +4 −6

		@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ uid [ultimate] Christian Cleberg <hello@cleberg.net></pre>
8	8	<section>
9	9	<h2>Recent Blog Posts</h2>
10	10
	11	<div class="post>
	12	<time datetime="2024-09-23 19:52:20">2024-09-23</time>
	13	<a href="/blog/self-hosting-transmission.html">Self-Hosting Transmission Bittorrent Client</a>
	14	</div>
11	15	<div class="post">
12	16	<time datetime="2024-09-20 13:38:52">2024-09-20</time>
13	17	<a href="/blog/prometheus-grafana-cloud.html"
		@@ -20,12 +24,6 @@ uid [ultimate] Christian Cleberg <hello@cleberg.net></pre>
20	24	>Email Sentiment Analysis With n8n</a
21	25	>
22	26	</div>
23		<div class="post">
24		<time datetime="2024-08-11 20:18:15">2024-08-11</time>
25		<a href="/blog/org-mode-features.html"
26		>My Top 8 Most Used Org-Mode Features</a
27		>
28		</div>
29	27
30	28	<br />
31	29	<a href="/blog/">All Posts →</a>

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