Cardinal is a suite of powerful self-hosted media streaming apps for your music, photos, movies, and TV. In this step by step guide I will show you how to Install Cardinal Home Server on your Synology NAS using Docker & Portainer.

💡Note: This guide works perfectly with the latest Cardinal Home Server v0.2.2 release.

• STEP 1

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• STEP 2

Install Portainer using my step by step guide. If you already have Portainer installed on your Synology NAS, skip this STEP. Attention: Make sure you have installed the latest Portainer version.

• STEP 3

Go to File Station and open the docker folder. Inside the docker folder, create one new folder and name it cardinal. Follow the instructions in the image below.
Note: Be careful to enter only lowercase, not uppercase letters.

• STEP 4

Now create six new folders inside the cardinal folder that you created at STEP 3 and name them config, db, movies, music, photos, tv. Follow the instructions in the image below.
Note: Be careful to enter only lowercase, not uppercase letters.

• STEP 5

Log into Portainer using your username and password. On the left sidebar in Portainer, click on Stacks then + Add stack. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 6

In the Name field type in cardinal. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Note: Copy Paste the code below in the Portainer Stacks Web editor.

version: "3.9"
services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres:16
    container_name: Cardinal-DB
    hostname: cardinal-db
    mem_limit: 1g
    cpu_shares: 1024
    ports:
      - 24910:5432
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "pg_isready", "-q", "-d", "cardinal", "-U", "cardinal"]
      timeout: 45s
      interval: 10s
      retries: 10
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/cardinal/db:/var/lib/postgresql/data:rw
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: cardinal
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: cardinal
    restart: on-failure:5

  cardinal:
    image: cardinalapps/home-server:stable
    container_name: Cardinal-HS
    hostname: cardinal
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    healthcheck:
      test: wget --no-verbose --tries=1 --spider http://localhost:24900/
    ports:
      - 24900:24900
    environment:
      CARDINAL_POSTGRES: true
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/cardinal/config:/config:rw
      - /volume1/docker/cardinal/music:/music:rw
      - /volume1/docker/cardinal/photos:/photos:rw
      - /volume1/docker/cardinal/tv:/tv:rw
      - /volume1/docker/cardinal/movies:/movies:rw
    restart: on-failure:5
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy

• STEP 7

Scroll down on the page until you see a button named Deploy the stack. Click on it. Follow the instructions in the image below. The installation process can take up to a few minutes. It will depend on your Internet speed connection.

⌛Now just wait because the Cardinal Home Server image is about 1.3GB.

• STEP 8

If everything goes right, you will see the following message at the top right of your screen: “Success Stack successfully deployed“.

• STEP 9

Go back to STEP 1 or you will deal with karma 🙂

• STEP 10

The installation process can take up to a few seconds/minutes. It will depend on your Internet speed connection. Now open your browser and type in http://Synology-ip-address:24900 Click Start. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 11

Select your favorite theme. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 12

Give a name to your server, then click NEXT. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 13

Create a Cardinal account on the dev website to get some benefits, like the option to use a username and password to log-in via https, or click NEXT to continue the installation without an account. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 14

Either accept or don’t accept the Telemetry, then click Continue. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 15

Accept the Privacy & Terms. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 16

Click Cool. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 17

Click FINISH. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 18

Populate your folders at STEP 4: photos in the photos folder, movies in the movies folder, music in the music folder and tv shows in the tv folder.

• STEP 19

Click File Indexing. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 20

Depending on how many photos, movies, music, tv series you have, it can take up to several hours or days to index everything.

• STEP 21

Your indexed Photos at a glance!

Enjoy Cardinal Home Server!

🆘TROUBLESHOOTING

If you encounter issues by using this container, make sure to check out the Common Docker issues article.

Note: If you want to run the Cardinal Home Server container over HTTPS, check How to Run Docker Containers Over HTTPS. In order to make Cardinal Home Server work via HTTPS, it’s mandatory to activate WebSocket.

Note: Can I run Docker on my Synology NAS? See the supported models.
Note: How to Back Up Docker Containers on your Synology NAS.
Note: Find out how to update the Cardinal Home Server container with the latest image.
Note: How to Free Disk Space on Your NAS if You Run Docker.
Note: How to Schedule Start & Stop For Docker Containers.
Note: How to Activate Email Notifications.
Note: How to Add Access Control Profile on Your NAS.
Note: How to Change Docker Containers Restart Policy.
Note: How to Use Docker Containers With VPN.
Note: Convert Docker Run Into Docker Compose.
Note: How to Clean Docker.
Note: How to Clean Docker Automatically.
Note: Best Practices When Using Docker and DDNS.
Note: Some Docker Containers Need WebSocket.
Note: Find out the Best NAS Models For Docker.
Note: Activate Gmail SMTP For Docker Containers.

This post was updated on Wednesday / August 14th, 2024 at 2:07 PM