This allows a tor to act as a relay on your unraid system. It does NOT allow it to act as an exit node. It automatically enables account bandwidth tracking to prevent from using too much network bandwidth.

These are the container variables which can be modified:

IPV4_ONLY

OR_PORT

DIR_PORT

RELAY_BANDWIDTH_RATE

RELAY_BANDWIDTH_BURST

ACCOUNTING_MAX

ACCOUNTING_START

NICKNAME

CONTACT_INFO

A few defaults are pre-set, otherwise they are set by the container itself.

Two manual steps are required, in addition to one highly recommended configuration:

1. (Step1) Users must create a data/ folder somewhere on their unraid system, by default it is expected that this is at /mnt/user/appdata/tor-relay/data/

2. (Step2) The root user must change the folder permissions to that of the unprivileged tor user. This is required for tor container to create a .tor folder to track bandwidth stats between reboots.

3. (Configuration) Assign this container a static ip on the network, and forward the ports for OR_PORT and DIR_PORT to that static ip.

These two manual steps from above are:

mkdir -p /mnt/user/appdata/tor-relay/data/

sudo chown 100:100 /mnt/user/appdata/tor-relay/data/

The port forwarding configuration must be configured at the router.

Edited September 1, 2025Sep 1 by not_a_real_human

Does this mean that my IP address will never get flagged as part of the Tor network, so I won’t constantly have to solve CAPTCHAs?

Well it doesn't mean that explicitly, though it may help. This container simply makes it easier to set-up and start a tor relay which (1) gives you some mechanism to control how much bandwidth it can use (this way if you have a data cap it doesn't eat through it) and (2) you cannot run an exit node (which you typically do not want to do from your home IP address and is also how clear-net websites know that you're part of the tor network; as an exit node they can see traffic exit the tor network on your machine). Donating bandwidth to the tor network by running a tor network improves the health of the network.

Running a non-exit Tor relay will associate your IP with the Tor network in terms of Tor’s internal routing, so other relays know how to send traffic through your node. Your ISP can see that you’re sending encrypted traffic over tor’s ports, but that doesn’t mean that Netflix or anyone else would see your IP as part of Tor and CAPTCHA you.

Edited September 5, 2025Sep 5 by not_a_real_human