selfhosted-apps-docker/immich

Immich in docker

guide-by-example

Purpose & Overview

Selfhosted google photos alternative.

• Official site
• Github

Immich is a selfhosted photo and video management solution, written mostly in javascript with Dart for android/ios apps and postgress for the database. There is some python for machine learning.

Files and directory structure

/home/
└── ~/
    └── docker/
        └── immich/
            ├── 🗁 library/
            ├── 🗁 postgress/
            ├── 🗋 .env
            └── 🗋 compose.yml

• library - all the photos and videos uploaded
• postgress - the database data, metadata
• .env - a file containing environment variables for docker compose
• compose.yml - a docker compose file, telling docker how to run the containers

Only the two files are required. The directories are created on the first run.

compose

compose on github.

Immich has prepared compose file for the deployment.
I usually edit them to fit the way I do things, but here I made only two changes - added network stuff and made database container pull env values from the .env file.

docker-compose.yml

#
# WARNING: To install Immich, follow our guide: https://immich.app/docs/install/docker-compose
#
# Make sure to use the docker-compose.yml of the current release:
#
# https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml
#
# The compose file on main may not be compatible with the latest release.

name: immich

services:
  immich-server:
    container_name: immich_server
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    # extends:
    #   file: hwaccel.transcoding.yml
    #   service: cpu # set to one of [nvenc, quicksync, rkmpp, vaapi, vaapi-wsl] for accelerated transcoding
    volumes:
      # Do not edit the next line. If you want to change the media storage location on your system, edit the value of UPLOAD_LOCATION in the .env file
      - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    env_file:
      - .env
    ports:
      - '2283:2283'
    depends_on:
      - redis
      - database
    restart: always
    healthcheck:
      disable: false

  immich-machine-learning:
    container_name: immich_machine_learning
    # For hardware acceleration, add one of -[armnn, cuda, rocm, openvino, rknn] to the image tag.
    # Example tag: ${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}-cuda
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    # extends: # uncomment this section for hardware acceleration - see https://immich.app/docs/features/ml-hardware-acceleration
    #   file: hwaccel.ml.yml
    #   service: cpu # set to one of [armnn, cuda, rocm, openvino, openvino-wsl, rknn] for accelerated inference - use the `-wsl` version for WSL2 where applicable
    volumes:
      - model-cache:/cache
    env_file:
      - .env
    restart: always
    healthcheck:
      disable: false

  redis:
    container_name: immich_redis
    image: docker.io/valkey/valkey:8-bookworm@sha256:fec42f399876eb6faf9e008570597741c87ff7662a54185593e74b09ce83d177
    healthcheck:
      test: redis-cli ping || exit 1
    restart: always

  database:
    container_name: immich_postgres
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:14-vectorchord0.4.3-pgvectors0.2.0@sha256:5f6a838e4e44c8e0e019d0ebfe3ee8952b69afc2809b2c25f7b0119641978e91
    env_file:
      - .env
    volumes:
      # Do not edit the next line. If you want to change the database storage location on your system, edit the value of DB_DATA_LOCATION in the .env file
      - ${DB_DATA_LOCATION}:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    restart: always

volumes:
  model-cache:

networks:
  default:
    name: $DOCKER_MY_NETWORK
    external: true

.env

# GENERAL
DOCKER_MY_NETWORK=caddy_net
TZ=Europe/Bratislava

# all the variables at https://immich.app/docs/install/environment-variables

# The location where your uploaded files are stored
UPLOAD_LOCATION=./library

# The location where your database files are stored. Network shares are not supported for the database
DB_DATA_LOCATION=./postgres

# The Immich version to use. You can pin this to a specific version like "v1.71.0"
IMMICH_VERSION=release

# Connection secret for postgres. You should change it to a random password
# Please use only the characters `A-Za-z0-9`, without special characters or spaces
DB_PASSWORD=rockydust

# POSTGRES VARIABLES ORIGINALLY IN THE COMPOSE FILE
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=rockydust
POSTGRES_USER=postgres
POSTGRES_DB=immich
POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS='--data-checksums'
# Uncomment the DB_STORAGE_TYPE: 'HDD' var if your database isn't stored on SSDs
# DB_STORAGE_TYPE: 'HDD'

# The values below this line do not need to be changed
###################################################################################
DB_USERNAME=postgres
DB_DATABASE_NAME=immich

All containers must be on the same network.
Which is named in the .env file.
If one does not exist yet: docker network create caddy_net

Reverse proxy

Caddy v2 is used, details here.

Caddyfile

photos.{$MY_DOMAIN} {
  reverse_proxy immich_server:2283
}

First run

Click through the initial setup. Use a real email as it will be used for notifications and stuff.

---

Email notifications setup

• Admin account > right top corner - Administration > Settings > Notifications
• Email
  • Host: smtp-relay.brevo.com
  • Port: 587
  • Username: <email used for brevo registration>
  • Password: <generated smtp long key>
  • From address: if on brevo you verified domain than whatevers there
  • Test - an email will be send to current account email address

Trouble shooting

Update

Manual image update:

• docker-compose pull
  
• docker-compose up -d
  
• docker image prune

It is strongly recommended to now add current tags to the images in the compose.
Tags will allow you to easily return to a working state if an update goes wrong.

Backup and restore

Backup

Restore

Backup of just user data

Backup script

Cronjob - scheduled backup

Restore the user data