Install Emby Server on Linux or Docker: Media Streaming Guide

Emby is a media server that organises your movies, shows, music and photos, and streams them to apps on TVs, phones and browsers. It sits between Plex (polished, account-centric) and Jellyfin (fully open source, which forked from Emby in 2018). The core is free, and Emby Premiere unlocks features such as hardware transcoding, offline sync and DVR. Here’s how to run it on a Linux server.

Comparing options? See Jellyfin vs Plex vs Emby.

Requirements

A VPS or dedicated server with 2+ vCPU and 2–4 GB RAM. More is needed if you transcode.
Storage for media (a storage VPS or a dedicated server with big disks). See storage VPS.
Docker (recommended) or the official package.

As with any media server on a VPS without a GPU, prefer direct play (compatible formats on the client) over CPU transcoding. Only stream content you have the rights to.

Option 1: Docker

# /opt/emby/compose.yaml
services:
  emby:
    image: emby/embyserver:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      UID: 1000
      GID: 1000
      GIDLIST: 1000
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:8096:8096"     # HTTP, behind a reverse proxy
    volumes:
      - /opt/emby/config:/config
      - /srv/media/Movies:/mnt/movies
      - /srv/media/TV:/mnt/tv
      - /srv/media/Music:/mnt/music

cd /opt/emby && docker compose up -d

For first-time setup on a remote server, either temporarily bind to the public IP with a firewall rule for your IP only, or use an SSH tunnel:

ssh -L 8096:127.0.0.1:8096 user@your-server
# open http://localhost:8096

See SSH tunnels.

Option 2: official package (Debian/Ubuntu)

Download the current .deb from Emby’s website, then:

sudo apt install ./emby-server-deb_*_amd64.deb
sudo systemctl enable --now emby-server

Give the emby user read access to your media folders. See Linux file permissions.

Initial setup

Create the admin user. Use a strong password.
Add libraries: Movies, TV Shows, Music and so on, pointing at the mounted folders. Use Emby’s naming conventions (e.g. Movie Name (2021)/Movie Name (2021).mkv, Show/Season 01/Show S01E01.mkv) for accurate metadata.
Pick your metadata languages and providers.
Let the scan finish. Large libraries take a while.

Users and parental controls

Create separate users for household members, and restrict access per library, by ratings, and by device or schedule. Each user gets their own watch history and resume points.

Remote access with HTTPS

Put Emby behind Nginx (or Caddy) with Let’s Encrypt:

server {
    server_name emby.example.com;
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8096;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    }
    # listen 443 ssl; certbot --nginx -d emby.example.com
}

In Emby’s Settings → Network, set the external domain and port (443) so apps connect correctly. See Nginx WebSocket proxy and Let’s Encrypt.

Transcoding and Emby Premiere

Software transcoding works for free, but is heavy on CPU.
Hardware transcoding (Intel Quick Sync, NVIDIA, VAAPI) requires Emby Premiere and a GPU passed through to the server or container. That’s typically a dedicated server or home hardware.
Set a sensible remote streaming bitrate limit per user, to protect bandwidth. See vnStat.

Backups and updates

Back up /opt/emby/config (or /var/lib/emby for package installs), which holds the library database, users and settings. See backup strategy.
Update the container (docker compose pull && docker compose up -d) or the package. Read the release notes first. See updating self-hosted apps.

Security

HTTPS only, strong passwords, and no unused admin accounts.
Don’t expose port 8096 directly to the internet. Use a reverse proxy or a VPN.
Keep the server patched. See Linux server hardening.

Quick reference

Task	Command / setting
Start (Docker)	`docker compose up -d`
Web UI	port 8096 (behind Nginx)
Service (package)	`systemctl status emby-server`
Config to back up	`/config` volume or `/var/lib/emby`
Hardware transcoding	Emby Premiere + GPU

Self-Hosting
Media
Docker