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1

Start the node

Once running, the node broadcasts a discovery beacon every 10 seconds to 239.255.42.99:9017 (UDP multicast). Your Kernel server and the node need to be on a network segment where multicast reaches both. This is why Docker installs use --network host.
2

Authorize it

In the Kernel admin UI, go to Settings > Remote Transcoders. A discovered node appears automatically; click Authorize. Kernel provisions and sends the node an API key, so you don’t need to set one manually.
3

Different subnet?

If multicast can’t reach the node (for example, it’s on a different VLAN or behind NAT), add it manually by ip:port from the same Settings page instead of relying on discovery.
4

Shared storage

The server and the node must both be able to read your media at the same path. Set up NFS or SMB so, for example, /media resolves identically on both machines. The node reads source files and writes transcoded output through these shared paths, not over the Kernel HTTP API.

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After pairing

  • The server can push config changes to an authorized node directly from Settings, so you don’t need to SSH in and edit config.yml by hand for routine changes.
  • On bare-metal (non-Docker, non-package-managed) nodes, the server can also push binary updates. This is skipped automatically for Docker nodes and for nodes installed from a Linux package (KERNEL_MANAGED is set), where the container image or package manager stays authoritative instead.