Opa Jan's Homelab

immich

2 min read

Immich

Self-hosted photo and video backup solution.

Overview

Immich provides high-performance photo management with backup, mobile apps, and AI features. Alternative to Google Photos.

Access: https://photos.janvv.nl VM: 108 IP: 192.168.144.110 Port: 2283 Resources: 2 cores, 4GB RAM, 96GB disk

Deployment

Immich runs on a dedicated VM, not an LXC container.

# Create VM
qm create 108 --name immich --cores 2 --memory 4096 --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0
qm set 108 --ciuser jan
# ... additional VM configuration
 
# Install Immich (VM-specific)
# Follow Immich installation guide for the VM's OS

Configuration

Immich consists of multiple services:

  • Web - Frontend application
  • Server - API backend
  • Microservices - Background processing (ML, video transcoding)
  • PostgreSQL - Database
  • Redis - Cache
  • TypeSense - Search

Storage:

  • 96GB VM disk - Contains all Immich data (photos, database, configs)
  • Photos are stored on the VM’s local disk, not in /vmdata/
  • An empty /vmdata/immich-photos/ directory exists but is unused

Access

First Setup:

  1. Create admin account
  2. Set up library paths
  3. Install mobile app and connect to server

Backup

What to backup:

  • VM snapshot - Easiest: snapshot the entire VM
  • Database: PostgreSQL dump (from within VM)
  • Photos: Stored on VM disk

Note: Immich primarily serves as a backup/management tool for photos. Consider off-site backup for the VM disk or photo library.

Maintenance

Update: Follow Immich update documentation (docker-compose pull or git pull depending on installation)

Logs: Check VM logs for Immich services

Common Tasks

Upload photos: Mobile app or web upload Create album: Web UI or mobile app Share album: Generate share link from album AI search: Natural language search for photos (built-in)

Backlinks