Setup Transmission BitTorrent on Docker with SSL

Introduction

In this guide, we will walk through the process of setting up Transmission, a popular BitTorrent client, using Docker. We will also secure it with an SSL certificate from ZeroSSL and configure Nginx as a reverse proxy to access the Transmission web interface securely.

Prerequisites

Docker installed
Domain name pointing to the server's IP address
Cloudflare account API token with permissions to manage DNS records

Step-by-step

SSH into the server
Create a transmission directory

Create a compose.yml file with the following content:

yaml

---
networks:
  ip6net:
    enable_ipv6: true
    ipam:
      config:
        - subnet: 2001:db8::/64
services:
  transmission:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/transmission:latest
    container_name: transmission
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
      #- TRANSMISSION_WEB_HOME= #optional
      - USER=YOUR_USERNAME
      - PASS=YOUR_PASSWORD
      - WHITELIST= #optional
      - PEERPORT= #optional
      - HOST_WHITELIST= #optional
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config
      - ./downloads:/downloads #optional
      - ./watch:/watch #optional
    networks:
      - ip6net    
    ports:
      - 51413:51413
      - 51413:51413/udp
    restart: unless-stopped
  nginx:
    image: nginx:alpine
    container_name: nginx
    labels:
      - sh.acme.autoload.domain=example.com # For auto SSL certificate deployment
    depends_on:
      - transmission
    ports:
      - "8443:9091"
    networks:
      - ip6net    
    volumes:
      - ./certs:/certs
      - ./nginx/templates:/etc/nginx/templates
    restart: unless-stopped
  acme.sh:
    image: neilpang/acme.sh
    restart: always
    container_name: acme.sh    
    command: daemon
    volumes:
      - ./acmeout:/acme.sh
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock

bash

docker compose run --rm acme.sh --register-account -m my@example.com

Aquire an SSL certificate using acme.sh:

bash

docker compose run --rm \
  -e CF_Token='YOUR_TOKEN' \
  -e CF_Account_ID='YOUR_CF_Account_ID' \
  acme.sh --issue --dns dns_cf \
  -d example.com -d *.example.com

Start the docker containers:
bash
```
docker compose up -d
```

Install the certificate:

bash

docker compose run --rm \
  -e DEPLOY_DOCKER_CONTAINER_LABEL='sh.acme.autoload.domain=example.com' \
  -e DEPLOY_DOCKER_CONTAINER_KEY_FILE='/certs/key.pem' \
  -e DEPLOY_DOCKER_CONTAINER_FULLCHAIN_FILE='/certs/fullchain.pem' \
  -e DEPLOY_DOCKER_CONTAINER_FULLCHAIN_FILE='/certs/fullchain.pem' \
  acme.sh --deploy -d example.com  --deploy-hook docker

Create Nginx template file nginx/templates/transmission.conf.template with the following content:

nginx

server {
  listen       9091 ssl;
  listen  [::]:9091 ssl;

  server_name torrent.example.com;
  
  ssl_certificate     /certs/fullchain.pem;
  ssl_certificate_key /certs/key.pem;

  # Specify a resolver (Docker's default DNS server)
  resolver 127.0.0.11 valid=30s;

  # Define a variable for the upstream service
  set $upstream transmission:9091;

  location / {
    # Use the variable in the proxy_pass
    proxy_pass  http://$upstream;
  }
}

Restart the nginx container to apply the new configuration:
bash
```
docker compose restart nginx
```

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully set up Transmission with Docker, secured it with an SSL certificate from ZeroSSL, and configured Nginx as a reverse proxy. You can now access Transmission's web interface securely at https://torrent.example.com:8443.

References

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