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Can't get FlareSolverr to play nice with Prowlarr inside VPN
Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2025 3:41 pm
by PeachMan
I can install Flaresolverr and access its JSON page, but for some reason I can't make it visible to Prowlarr (which is going through my VPN via Gluetun).
Here's the Flaresolverr section in my docker-compose.custom.yaml:
Code: Select all
flaresolverr:
image: ghcr.io/flaresolverr/flaresolverr:latest
container_name: flaresolverr
environment:
- LOG_LEVEL=${LOG_LEVEL:-info}
- LOG_HTML=${LOG_HTML:-false}
- CAPTCHA_SOLVER=${CAPTCHA_SOLVER:-none}
- TZ=America/New_York
ports:
- "${PORT:-8191}:8191"
restart: unless-stopped
When I first set this up and it didn't work, I assumed it was because Prowlarr was inside the VPN and Flaresolverr was outside. So, I tried to put Flaresolverr inside as well, basically following the same steps in your Prowlarr+VPN guide: https://yams.media/advanced/prowlarr-behind-vpn/
Code: Select all
flaresolverr:
image: ghcr.io/flaresolverr/flaresolverr:latest
container_name: flaresolverr
network_mode: "service:gluetun"
environment:
- LOG_LEVEL=${LOG_LEVEL:-info}
- LOG_HTML=${LOG_HTML:-false}
- CAPTCHA_SOLVER=${CAPTCHA_SOLVER:-none}
- TZ=America/New_York
- WEBUI_PORT=8191 #added for gluetun
#ports:
# - "${PORT:-8191}:8191"
restart: unless-stopped
Also added "8191:8191/tcp" to my Gluetun ports in docker-compose.yaml. I'm not sure if that "WEBUI_PORT" line is actually necessary, since Flaresolverr doesn't really have a web UI....
But whether I set up Flaresolverr inside or outside of the Gluetun network, Prowlarr can't see it: "Http request timed out." If I ALSO take Prowlarr OUT of Gluetun, then it can actually see Flaresolverr! But I do need to keep Prowlarr going through VPN, I get all sorts of indexer failures when it's out.
I feel like there's some very obvious detail that I'm missing here.
Re: Can't get FlareSolverr to play nice with Prowlarr inside VPN
Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2025 8:12 pm
by rogs
Hey @PeachMan!
I do not use Flaresolver, but I think it should be part of the same network as Prowlarr in order to work, so you'll need to put it behind the VPN as well. Also, WEBUI_PORT=8191
is a setting for qBittorrent, you can remove it safely.
If Flaresolver runs in port 8191 natively, you'll need to add it to Gluetun as well to make it public. That should make it at least run. If it doesn't, check the logs and see if it's telling you an error.
Cheers!
Roger.
Re: Can't get FlareSolverr to play nice with Prowlarr inside VPN
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2025 2:54 am
by PeachMan
Oh, wait, now Prowlarr can't see ANY other apps. The hostnames aren't resolving: "Unable to complete application test, cannot connect to Radarr. Name does not resolve (radarr:7878)"
Here's my prowlarr config:
Code: Select all
prowlarr:
image: lscr.io/linuxserver/prowlarr
container_name: prowlarr
environment:
- PUID=${PUID}
- PGID=${PGID}
- WEBUI_PORT=9696 #if routing through VPN
volumes:
- /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
- ${INSTALL_DIRECTORY}/config/prowlarr:/config
#ports:
# - 9696:9696
network_mode: "service:gluetun" #to route through VPN
restart: unless-stopped
And my gluetun config:
Code: Select all
devices:
- /dev/net/tun:/dev/net/tun
ports:
- 8888:8888/tcp # HTTP proxy
- 8388:8388/tcp # Shadowsocks
- 8388:8388/udp # Shadowsocks
- 8003:8000/tcp # Admin
- 8080:8080/tcp # gluetun
- 8081:8081/tcp # gluetun
- 8191:8191/tcp # flaresolverr
- 9696:9696/tcp # added for prowlarr over VPN
environment:
- VPN_SERVICE_PROVIDER=${VPN_SERVICE}
- VPN_TYPE=openvpn
- OPENVPN_USER=${VPN_USER}
- OPENVPN_PASSWORD=${VPN_PASSWORD}
- SERVER_REGIONS=CA Ontario,CA Montreal,CA Toronto
- OPENVPN_CIPHERS=AES-256-GCM
- PORT_FORWARD_ONLY=on
- VPN_PORT_FORWARDING=on
- FIREWALL_OUTBOUND_SUBNETS=172.18.0.0/24
restart: unless-stopped
I must be missing something here. Do I need to have ALL of the apps that communicate with Prowlarr going through Gluetun?
Re: Can't get FlareSolverr to play nice with Prowlarr inside VPN
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2025 11:20 am
by rogs
Now that Prowlarr is behind the VPN, you'll need to connect to the services using their Docker IP addresses. You can find the IP by using Portainer or by running the following command:
First, go to your install directory:
Then, run:
Code: Select all
docker inspect -f '{{range .NetworkSettings.Networks}}{{.IPAddress}}{{end}}' $(docker compose ps -q sonarr)
This command will give you the IP address for Sonarr. Just replace sonarr at the end with radarr or any other service name in YAMS to get their respective IPs.
Cheers!
Roger.
Re: Can't get FlareSolverr to play nice with Prowlarr inside VPN
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:34 am
by PeachMan
Okay, so, some very unexpected things happen. First, I realized that the internal docker IP's assigned are not static???? They change each time I make these changes to the .yaml and restart.
Second, each time I restart yams, SOME services don't even get an internal IP! Last time, it was prowlarr, but this time it was qbittorrent. Any idea what's going on there?
Can I assign the IP's somehow?
Code: Select all
# Prowlarr is our torrent indexer/searcher. Sonarr/Radarr use Prowlarr as a source
# https://prowlarr.com/
prowlarr:
image: lscr.io/linuxserver/prowlarr
container_name: prowlarr
environment:
- PUID=${PUID}
- PGID=${PGID}
- WEBUI_PORT=9696 #uncomment if routing through VPN
volumes:
- /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
- ${INSTALL_DIRECTORY}/config/prowlarr:/config
#ports:
# - 9696:9696
network_mode: "service:gluetun" #to route through VPN
restart: unless-stopped
# Gluetun is our VPN, so you can download torrents safely
gluetun:
image: qmcgaw/gluetun:v3
container_name: gluetun
cap_add:
- NET_ADMIN
devices:
- /dev/net/tun:/dev/net/tun
ports:
- 8888:8888/tcp # HTTP proxy
- 8388:8388/tcp # Shadowsocks
- 8388:8388/udp # Shadowsocks
- 8003:8000/tcp # Admin
- 8080:8080/tcp # gluetun
- 8081:8081/tcp # gluetun
#- 8191:8191/tcp # flaresolverr
- 9696:9696/tcp # added for prowlarr over VPN
environment:
- VPN_SERVICE_PROVIDER=${VPN_SERVICE}
- VPN_TYPE=openvpn
- OPENVPN_USER=${VPN_USER}
- OPENVPN_PASSWORD=${VPN_PASSWORD}
- SERVER_REGIONS=CA Ontario,CA Montreal,CA Toronto
- OPENVPN_CIPHERS=AES-256-GCM
- PORT_FORWARD_ONLY=on
- VPN_PORT_FORWARDING=on
- FIREWALL_OUTBOUND_SUBNETS=172.18.0.0/24
restart: unless-stopped
Re: Can't get FlareSolverr to play nice with Prowlarr inside VPN
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 5:45 pm
by rogs
Yep, by default Docker assigns dynamic IPs, so they can change on every restart. And when you use network_mode: "service:gluetun"
, the container shares Gluetun’s network namespace. It won’t get its own IP, which is why qbittorrent
or prowlarr
sometimes seem “missing.”
If you want static IPs (for services not using network_mode
), you can do this:
First, define a custom network
Code: Select all
networks:
media_net:
driver: bridge
ipam:
config:
- subnet: 172.18.0.0/24
Then, assign static IPs per container:
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sonarr:
networks:
media_net:
ipv4_address: 172.18.0.10
Only do this for containers not using network_mode: service:gluetun
.
Re: Can't get FlareSolverr to play nice with Prowlarr inside VPN
Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2025 6:47 pm
by rogs
Hey @PeachMan!
I've updated the "Running Prowlarr Behind the VPN" documentation, and the networking is working as expected now! Feel free to check the changes here: https://yams.media/advanced/prowlarr-behind-vpn/ and the code changes here: https://gitlab.com/rogs/yams/-/commit/9 ... f8766416e6
Cheers!
Roger.