Jellyfin VPS

Who it suits

Streaming your own films, shows and music to your devices away from home. A VPS has no graphics card, so Jellyfin can't convert video quickly: it works best when your apps play the files as they are (direct play). If several people need transcoding, a home server with a GPU is the better host.

Which plan

Standard (2 vCPU, 4 GB) is the smallest plan we offer it on. Jellyfin's hardware guide says 4 GB may be enough on a Linux server without a desktop and recommends 8 GB, and that a server without a GPU isn't recommended for transcoding. Plan on direct play; converting even one video stream in software can take all of a plan's CPU. Disk is the other limit: 80 GB on Standard, 160 GB on Extreme.

What we install

On Ubuntu and Debian we run Jellyfin's own install script, checked against its published SHA-256, which adds Jellyfin's apt repository. On the Red Hat family, where Jellyfin recommends containers, we run its jellyfin/jellyfin image. The setup wizard is completed through Jellyfin's API with a generated admin password in /root/jellyfin-admin.txt, and /srv/media is ready for your files.

From order to ready

1. Server ready. We email you when the server is running, and you can log in with SSH. The installer starts on that same first boot.
2. Installer running. It logs to /var/log/vps9-setup.log; tail -f it to watch.
3. Application ready. /var/lib/vps9-setup.exit appears when the installer has finished, holding 0 if it worked. Jellyfin is ready when curl http://127.0.0.1:8096/health answers Healthy on the server and you can log in at http://<your IPv4>:8096 with the password in /root/jellyfin-admin.txt.

What you still do

1. Run cat /root/jellyfin-admin.txt for the admin password, open http://<your IPv4>:8096 and log in as admin.
2. Upload media to /srv/media with rsync or scp, then add a library for it in Dashboard, Libraries (the folder is /media inside Jellyfin on AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux and Fedora).
3. For HTTPS, point a domain at the server, allow ports 80 and 443 in the panel firewall and run vps9-https media.example.com.
4. Create a user for each person who watches instead of sharing the admin login.

Exposure and security

Port 8096 is open for Jellyfin's web app and its TV and phone apps. Its first-run wizard would give the admin account to the first visitor, so the installer keeps 8096 closed to the internet with a firewall rule, finishes the wizard itself, and only then opens it. Over plain HTTP your password crosses the network unencrypted: run vps9-https for HTTPS on your domain, then close 8096 in the panel firewall once all your apps use the domain.

Backups and upgrades

On Ubuntu and Debian, Jellyfin updates with the system's packages from its repository (apt upgrade); on the Red Hat family, pull jellyfin/jellyfin:latest and re-create the container. We turn on the operating system's automatic security updates, which leave Jellyfin's own updates to you. Jellyfin 10.11 has backups built in (Dashboard, Backups); copy them, and your media, off the server. We run the hardware, the network and the first-boot install; after that, Jellyfin is yours to run, and we don't manage, update or back it up for you.

Order it from your terminal

$ vps9 servers create --plan standard --image ubuntu-24.04 --app jellyfin --hostname web-1 --key key_8f2c

{
  "plan": "standard",
  "image": "ubuntu-24.04",
  "hostname": "web-1",
  "app": "jellyfin"
}