emby Installation Guide Installation Guide

emby is a free and open-source media server system. Emby provides media streaming and management, serving as an alternative to Plex with more open components

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 2+ cores

RAM: 2GB minimum

Storage: 100GB+ for media

Network: Streaming bandwidth

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 8096 (default emby port)

Port 8920 for HTTPS

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install emby
sudo dnf install -y emby

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now emby

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8096/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
emby --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install emby
sudo apt install -y emby

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now emby

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 8096

# Verify installation
emby --version

bash

# Install emby
sudo pacman -S emby

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now emby

# Verify installation
emby --version

bash

# Install emby
apk add --no-cache emby

# Enable and start service
rc-update add emby default
rc-service emby start

# Verify installation
emby --version

bash

# Install emby
sudo zypper install -y emby

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now emby

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8096/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
emby --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install emby

# Start service
brew services start emby

# Verify installation
emby --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install emby

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'emby_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service emby start

# Verify installation
emby --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install emby

# Or using Scoop
scoop install emby

# Verify installation
emby --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/emby

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
emby --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable emby

# Start service
sudo systemctl start emby

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop emby

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart emby

# Check status
sudo systemctl status emby

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u emby -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add emby default

# Start service
rc-service emby start

# Stop service
rc-service emby stop

# Restart service
rc-service emby restart

# Check status
rc-service emby status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'emby_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service emby start

# Stop service
service emby stop

# Restart service
service emby restart

# Check status
service emby status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start emby
brew services stop emby
brew services restart emby

# Check status
brew services list | grep emby

powershell

# Start service
net start emby

# Stop service
net stop emby

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service emby
Stop-Service emby
Restart-Service emby

# Check status
Get-Service emby

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream emby_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:8096;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name emby.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name emby.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/emby.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/emby.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://emby_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName emby.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://emby.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName emby.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/emby.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/emby.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8096/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8096/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend emby_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/emby.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend emby_backend

backend emby_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server emby1 127.0.0.1:8096 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R emby:emby /etc/emby
sudo chmod 750 /etc/emby

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8096/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status emby

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u emby -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep emby)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/emby"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/emby-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/emby /var/lib/emby

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/emby-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop emby

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/emby/emby-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start emby

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u emby -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/emby/emby.log

# Check configuration
emby --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/emby

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 8096

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 8096

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep emby)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep emby)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 8096

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  emby:
    image: emby:latest
    ports:
      - "8096:8096"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/emby
      - ./data:/var/lib/emby
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update emby

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade emby

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu emby

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade emby

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update emby

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade emby

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/emby-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/emby

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart emby

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/emby

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/emby -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/emby

Official Documentation: https://docs.emby.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/emby/emby

Community Forum: https://forum.emby.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.emby.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

Related Media servers Guides

jellyfin Installation Guide

plex Installation Guide