Transmission Seedbox On CentOS
Transmission Seedbox Install
Now this guide will presume that you have received your server or VPS login details (username and password) by now. Login to your server using an SSH client.
Install the required software packages
Now we are going to install some of the required software packages that we will need to create the transmission seedbox. Issue the following command:
yum -y install wget bzip2 which gcc gcc-c++ make openssl-devel pkgconfig curl-devel perl-XML-Parser perl-libwww-perl gettext
yum -y upgradeThe installation might take a few minutes, depending on your server specification and connection speed.
Installing intltool
CentOS intltool package has not been updated and a newer version is not available through the CentOS package manager. You will need to compile it from source. Its not as hard as it sounds. 
cd /usr/local/src
wget -q http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/intltool/0.40/intltool-0.40.6.tar.gz
tar zxf intltool-*.tar.gz
cd intltool-*
./configure --prefix=/usr && make -s && make -s installInstalling libevent
CentOS libevent package has not bee updated, just like intltool, so we will install the latest version by hand.
cd /usr/local/src
wget -q --no-check-certificate https://github.com/downloads/libevent/libevent/libevent-2.0.17-stable.tar.gz
tar zxf libevent-*-stable.tar.gz
cd libevent-*-stable
./configure --prefix=/usr && make -s && make -s install && ldconfigInstalling Transmission
Transmission is the actual bittorrent client that you will be using. Again, just copy and paste the commands into your SSH client.
cd /usr/local/src
wget -q http://download.transmissionbt.com/files/transmission-2.50.tar.bz2
tar xjf transmission-*.tar.bz2
cd transmission-*
./configure --prefix=/usr LIBEVENT_CFLAGS=-I/usr/include LIBEVENT_LIBS="-L/usr/lib -levent"
make -s && make -s installAdd a user account for running the Transmission daemon application. You will be prompted to create a password. You will use that password to login and obtain the files that have been downloaded. Try to remember the password or write it down.
useradd -m transmission && passwd transmissionCreate init script for starting the daemon. Adapted from Jason Friedland’s implementation.
wget --no-check-certificate -q -O /etc/init.d/transmissiond https://raw.github.com/gist/2490663/
chmod 755 /etc/init.d/transmissiondSet the Transmission daemon to start automatically when the server is restarted:
chkconfig --add transmissiond
chkconfig --level 345 transmissiond onStart and stop the Transmission daemon. You must do this before proceeding to the next step. This ensures that everything up to now has been installed properly. Most important, this creates a default configuration file that we will be editing later on. You should see two green [OK] outputs after the completion.
service transmissiond start && service transmissiond stopNow we need to modify the Transmission seedboxes configuration file. Replace the bold/underlined portion of the last two commands with your own username and password combination. You’ll use this to login to Transmission application.
cd /home/transmission/.config/transmission/
sed -i 's/^.*rpc-whitelist-enabled.*/"rpc-whitelist-enabled": false,/' settings.json
sed -i 's/^.*rpc-authentication-required.*/"rpc-authentication-required": true,/' settings.json
sed -i 's/^.*rpc-username.*/"rpc-username": "username",/' settings.json
sed -i 's/^.*rpc-password.*/"rpc-password": "password",/' settings.jsonCreate a directory for storing downloads:
mkdir -p /home/transmission/Downloads/
chown -R transmission.transmission /home/transmission/Downloads/
chmod g+w /home/transmission/Downloads/Finally start the Transmission daemon for good:
service transmissiond startInstalling ConfigServer Security & Firewall application
We are also going to install a ConfigServer Security & Firewall application. This program will help your server to stay secure and also ensure that the necessary ports are open for Transmission to function properly. This is an important step, please do not skip it. Hosting providers have different configurations of the default CentOS install and may block certain ports. This installation will ensure that the necessary ports are open and unnecessary ones remain closed.
cd /usr/local/src
wget -q http://www.configserver.com/free/csf.tgz
tar zxf csf.tgz
rm -f csf.tgz
cd csf
./install.generic.shNow that we have CSF installed, we’ll issue a few commands to “doctor” the configuration file and open/close some ports.
cd /etc/csf
sed -i 's/^TESTING =.*/TESTING = "0"/' csf.conf
sed -i 's/^TCP_IN =.*/TCP_IN = "21,22,9091,51413,30000:35000"/' csf.conf
sed -i 's/^TCP_OUT =.*/TCP_OUT = "1:65535"/' csf.conf
sed -i 's/^UDP_IN =.*/UDP_IN = "20,21,51413"/' csf.conf
sed -i 's/^UDP_OUT =.*/UDP_OUT = "1:65535"/' csf.conf
service csf restartTesting your installation
By now you should have the Transmission daemon running. Let’s go play!
Testing Transmission
Open the following URL in a new browser tab/window:
http://[YOUR_SERVER_IP]:9091/transmission/web/You will be prompted to enter a username and password. Use the same username and password you have created during the Transmission installation (the second one). Once logged in, you should see a Transmission web interface. Click “Open” and copy-paste the following URL to test the download functionality and speed:
http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/centos/6/isos/x86_64/CentOS-6.2-x86_64-LiveDVD.torrentYou should now see the download status bar increasing.
Testing SFTP Connection
Download, install and open FileZilla. Go to File -> Site Manager. Click “New Site“. Give it a good name. Under “Host” field put the server name (if you have one), or simply the IP of the server. Choose SFTP under “Server Type“. “Logon Type” set to “Normal”. Set the user to “transmission” and the password you have created during Transmission installation (the first one). Now click “Connect“, you should see FileZilla establishing the connection and then finally listing remote directories in the right hand side part of the window. You should see “Downloads” directory, this is where all of the download files will be stored.
Setting up Transmission Remote GUI
This is my favourite part about this whole setup. Not only you get a nice and fast web based client, but you can also set this up to be used with the desktop application! If you are migrating from µTorrent, then you’ll love this!
Head over to the Transmission Remote GUI project page and download a copy of the client. Install the software.
Once you have it open:
- Go to menu Torrents and select “Connect to daemon“.
- Enter the server IP into the “Remote host” field. Make sure not to put the whole URL (http://….), just put the IP part (e.g. “123.45.67.89″).
- Enter 9091 into the “Port” field.
- Enter your username and password you have set during the Transmission installation (the second one).
- Click “OK”.
Your desktop software should now be “talking” to your server. Note that this software only shows the status of the downloads, but you can’t actually access files through that UI. You still need to use the FTP client to download the completed torrents.