Running Roon in Docker on Unraid and Support Eligibility (ref#95YLAQ)

What’s happening?

· Other

Describe the issue

I just have a question regarding support and could use an answer from the Roon team. I have a very powerful home server running Unraid. i7 12700K, 128 GB of RAM, 36 TB of storage, and Roon is running on a 2TB Samsung 980 Pro in Docker which I know isn't supported. My only other option given that I'm using an NAS operating system would be to run Roon on my Windows 11 VM which runs on a passed through Samsung 980 SSD and has a dedicated GPU and 32 GB of RAM plus 18 threads assigned from the 12700K. If I did have an issue with Roon that requires support which is unlikely as I'm an IT professional and can troubleshoot most issues on my own, would simply counterchecking the issue against an install on my Windows 11 VM be sufficient to continue to run Roon under Docker, which for the last 3 years has been extremely reliable for me. I know neither scenario is officially supported but if I do run into an issue that requires help, will I be completely denied support? I'd hate to waste money on a $500 NUC that has a fraction of the power of my current server.

Describe your network setup

Symmetrical Gigabit Line, Asus RT-AX88U Pro

To be clear, I would never look for support with Docker. I’ve only ever contacted support for actual issues and bugs with Roon. I just want to ensure that if there was an actual issue with Roon, I wouldn’t be dismissed because of my configuration. I’d hate that as I’ve invested a lot of money in my lifetime subscription and in my home server.

@mackid1993, running Roon in a Docker container is not a supported configuration, so (as a fellow user) I don’t believe Roon will or can address your question as long as your are not running Roon in a supported system. I have moved your question to the Tinkering category where other users have configurations similar to your system and may be able to provide insights into their support issues and queries.

So I’m currently running Roon in my Unraid server under Docker which I’ve gotten yelled at for by support when reporting an issue. My server has an i7 12700k, 128 GB of RAM, Roon’s database runs on a 2 TB Samsung 980 Pro and my music library is stored on the 36 TB dual parity Unraid array. All 7200 RPM HGST Datacenter drives.

I think it would be a huge waste of $500 to go out and buy a NUC given my server. What I could do is move Roon over to my Windows 11 VM which has 32 GB of RAM allocated, 18 threads out of the 20 on the 12700k, a passed through Samsung 980 SSD and a passed through RTX 4060 GPU.

I could also theoretically install Roonserver on an LXC or other Linux VM running under KVM. Honestly Docker has been fantastic, but given my setup I’m looking for the most “kosher” way to run Roon such that if I do run into an issue, I can get help.

That’s not what I’m referring to. My current setup works perfectly and has for years. It’s not something that will allow me to receive support from Roon Labs if I have an issue.

I mean if the answer is simply “no”, Roon must run on bare metal then I guess I won’t be supported.

I also merged your threads to this one.

No issues on my end. I’ve been using it on a Linux server for quite some time now without any problems whatsoever.

Has Roon ever given you a hard time when you’ve reported a bug?

Is this what you are referring to? …

I don’t see any yelling … but it’s a clear official statement that I believe already answers your question …

Of course there’s always some flex, and @connor did follow up later with you …

I’d recommend taking a pragmatic approach; Docker works for you and that’s fine … Roon may help, but be prepared to have to reproduce the issue with Roon running in a supported environment (Native; Windows, MacOS, Linux, RoonOS).

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I can easily test anything on a Windows VM that I use as my desktop essentially. Obviously if an issue is happening both on Docker and Windows it’s an issue. It’s hard for me because I have expensive hardware but rely of virtualization/containerization for all of my services. Worst case scenario I have an M1 Mac Mini that I use as an iMessage server that could be used if bare metal was required.

That’s cool, [I have virtualised environments as well] but unfortunately it’s not a Roon supported environment.

Likely, but not 100%, it still could be a facet of running Roon in a virtualised environment.

Again, cool, but unfortunately not supported by Roon.

Then is would be the way to go, in order to reproduce any issue for Roon.

I know you don’t want to hear this, but it is what it is.
Maybe Roon will change one day.

PS I’m a big fan of virtualisation/containerisation myself… from local PC to enterprise scale applications.

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Very similar setup here. Roon hasn’t been terrible about support but I also don’t request support for issues that are clearly on Roon’s inability to scale to large libraries. :slight_smile: That’s sort of a me problem lmao.
I personally, don’t feel a need to change from running Roon in a docker. I think if I were starting fresh, I’d dump roon in an VM / LXC on ProxMox, but I really don’t think it would change much.

Good to know. I generally only need support if I’ve confirmed it’s a Roon problem and not a me problem. I guess my best bet is to counter check any issues against bare metal before making a report. I’m not going to move to a puny NUC when I have a MUCH more capable server and would have a much worse user experience on supported hardware. It would be great if they would release supported Docker images like Plex does.

Bud, there’s almost no chance of Roon having an official docker unfortunately.
-_-
I’d love to be proved wrong in the future but I don’t see it happening

I know. It’s such a shame.

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I guess what I’m saying is, some things are Roon problems, but depending on what the actual issue is, you may fall outside of what is expected for a typical Roon user’s library, and you should temper your expectations. I don’t really know if you’re dealing with a large library but the impact of having one can be the root cause of a ton of cascading Roon problems and performance hiccups.

FYI, you mention you have a reasonable amount of RAM in your system (128GB) giving Roon more RAM to eat only helps up until a point unfortunately, at least in my experience. I actually find that I’ve gotten better performance, by limiting what Roon can see, and relying on the underlying OS cache to handle caching what it can. :slight_smile:

I’ve been running Roon in Docker on Unraid for about 3 years now and never had an issue. I’ve interacted with support a few times and it was never an issue.

Like others, I wish they would offer an official Docker as I think there is cross over between people that run servers and Roon users, but it is what it is now.

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