tautulli

tautulli

If you’ve ever wondered how to monitor your Plex Media Server usage — who is watching what, when, and for how long — look no further than Tautulli. This incredibly useful tool is a web application that allows you to monitor Plex activity in real-time, and it’s a perfect fit for selfhosters looking to gain better insight into their media server’s usage.

What is Tautulli?

Tautulli provides detailed statistics and reports about Plex users, streams, bandwidth usage, and more. Whether you are hosting your Plex server for family and friends or simply want to keep track of your own viewing habits, Tautulli makes it both easy and visually appealing to do so. Plus, it supports notifications via multiple services like Discord, Telegram, Email, and more if you want to be alerted whenever someone starts watching a show!

Why Selfhost Tautulli?

Selfhosting Tautulli allows you to retain full control over your data. You get an interface for analytics, streaming histories, and notifications — all hosted in your secure environment. It’s open-source, lightweight, and integrates seamlessly with Docker, making it an excellent addition to your home server line-up.

Setting Up Tautulli with Docker

Setting up Tautulli using Docker is a breeze, especially with images provided by LinuxServer.io. They maintain reliable Docker images with frequent updates and clear documentation. Let’s walk through the basic setup.

version: "2.1"
services:
  tautulli:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/tautulli:latest
    container_name: tautulli
    environment:
      - PUID=1000  # replace with your user id
      - PGID=1000  # replace with your group id
      - TZ=Europe/London  # replace with your timezone
    volumes:
      - /path/to/tautulli/config:/config
    ports:
      - 8181:8181
    restart: unless-stopped

You’ll want to replace the /path/to/tautulli/config with a proper path on your host machine where Tautulli can store its configuration data. Be sure to also adjust the timezone, user ID (PUID), and group ID (PGID) to match your system.

After saving your docker-compose.yml file, you just need to run:

docker-compose up -d

Tautulli will then be available at http://localhost:8181 or the IP of your host machine on port 8181.

Using Tautulli

Once installed, log in to the web interface. The configuration wizard will guide you through connecting Tautulli to your Plex Media Server via a Plex account token. You’ll start seeing data populate as users stream content. You can dive into daily summaries, top-played media, individual user activity, and bandwidth graphs. The reporting features also make it ideal for analyzing trends if you’re curious how your media consumption changes over time.

Tautulli also supports custom scripts and alert options for truly power-user-level configuration. Automatically stop users who binge past bedtime? Log everything to Home Assistant or InfluxDB? With Tautulli, all that is possible.

Documentation and Help

The official LinuxServer.io documentation offers great examples and support. You can view their container documentation — including compose examples — here: https://docs.linuxserver.io/images/docker-tautulli.

Don’t forget to explore their Discord and GitHub pages for community support, updates, and best-practices from other selfhosters.

Happy selfhosting, and I will see you in the next post!