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Quick Start

To use Cardinal Music, Photos, and Cinema, you will need to run Cardinal Media Server.

Cardinal Media Server is available for free on Docker Hub, and comes bundled with all of Cardinal's web apps.

Docker Compose​

Use the sample docker-compose.yaml files below for your chosen release channel and database. Both SQLite and PostgreSQL are supported. If you aren't sure which database to use, go with SQLite.

SQLite​

docker-compose.yaml
services:
  cardinal-media-server-stable-sqlite:
    image: cardinalapps/media-server:stable
    container_name: cardinal-media-server-stable-sqlite
    ports:
      - 24900:24900
    volumes:
      - cardinal-media-server-stable-sqlite-data:/config
      - PATH_TO_MY_MUSIC_FILES:/music   # Update or remove this
      - PATH_TO_MY_PHOTO_FILES:/photos  # Update or remove this
      - PATH_TO_MY_TV_FILES:/tv         # Update or remove this
      - PATH_TO_MY_MOVIE_FILES:/movies  # Update or remove this
    restart: unless-stopped
volumes:
  cardinal-media-server-stable-sqlite-data:

PostgreSQL​

docker-compose.yaml
services:
  cardinal-media-server-stable-postgres:
    image: cardinalapps/media-server:stable
    container_name: cardinal-media-server-stable-postgres
    ports:
      - 24900:24900
    environment:
      - CARDINAL_POSTGRES=true
    volumes:
      - cardinal-media-server-stable-postgres-data:/config
      - PATH_TO_MY_MUSIC_FILES:/music   # Update or remove this
      - PATH_TO_MY_PHOTO_FILES:/photos  # Update or remove this
      - PATH_TO_MY_TV_FILES:/tv         # Update or remove this
      - PATH_TO_MY_MOVIE_FILES:/movies  # Update or remove this
    depends_on:
      - cardinal-media-server-stable-postgres-db
    links:
      - cardinal-media-server-stable-postgres-db
    restart: unless-stopped
  cardinal-media-server-stable-postgres-db:
    image: postgres:16.3
    container_name: cardinal-media-server-stable-postgres-db
    restart: always
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=cardinal
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=cardinal
    ports:
      - 24910:5432
    volumes:
      - cardinal-media-server-stable-postgres-db-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
volumes:
  cardinal-media-server-stable-postgres-data:
  cardinal-media-server-stable-postgres-db-data:

Note 1: If you want to change either the POSTGRES_USER or POSTGRES_PASSWORD values, you must also pass them to the Cardinal environment.

Note 2: You cannot change the POSTGRES_USER or POSTGRES_PASSWORD values after PostgreSQL creates its volume.

Docker CLI​

You can use the Docker CLI instead of Docker Compose to run Cardinal Media Server with SQLite. Using PostgreSQL with the CLI is not officially supported.

docker run \
  -d \
  --name cardinal \
  -p 24900:24900 \
  -v cardinal-data:/config \
  -v PATH_TO_MY_MUSIC_FILES:/music \
  -v PATH_TO_MY_PHOTO_FILES:/photos \
  -v PATH_TO_MY_TV_FILES:/tv \
  -v PATH_TO_MY_MOVIE_FILES:/movies \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  cardinalapps/media-server:stable

Environment Variables​

See the Environment Variables guide.

Next Steps​

There are a few suggestions for what to do next in the Next Steps.