Administration Overview

This section covers server administration, configuration, and monitoring for Media Viewer.

Configuration

• Server Configuration - Directory structure, Docker deployment, and performance tuning
• Environment Variables - Complete environment variable reference
• Security - Authentication, session management, and security best practices

Monitoring & Operations

• Metrics & Monitoring - Prometheus metrics for performance monitoring and alerting
• Memory & GC Tuning - Optimize garbage collection and memory usage
• Thumbnail Management - Thumbnail generation, caching, and maintenance

Advanced Features

• WebAuthn Setup - Passwordless authentication with passkeys

Common Tasks

Deployment

1. Configure environment variables for your paths and settings
2. Set up volume mounts for media, cache, and database directories
3. Configure security settings including strong passwords
4. Review server configuration for performance tuning

Monitoring

1. Enable Prometheus metrics endpoint at /metrics
2. Configure Prometheus to scrape your Media Viewer instance
3. Import the provided Grafana dashboard from hack/grafana/dashboard.json
4. Set up alerts for indexer failures, high latency, and memory pressure

Maintenance

• Clear Thumbnail Cache: Use the clear cache button to regenerate all thumbnails
• Session Cleanup: Expired sessions are automatically removed
• Cache Management: Monitor cache size via metrics

Performance Tuning

Use Prometheus metrics to identify bottlenecks:

• Filesystem Latency: Critical for NFS deployments - monitor filesystem_operation_duration
• Indexing Performance: Track indexer_files_per_second and batch processing times
• Thumbnail Generation: Analyze phase timing (decode/resize/encode) to optimize
• Memory & GC: Tune MEMORY_RATIO or GOGC for optimal performance - see Memory & GC Tuning
• Database Performance: Watch transaction durations and query latencies

See Metrics & Monitoring for detailed guidance.

Troubleshooting

For common issues and solutions, see the Troubleshooting Guide.

Key troubleshooting resources:

• Check application logs for errors
• Review metrics for performance anomalies
• Validate file permissions on mounted volumes
• Verify FFmpeg is available for video/image processing