feat(video): Take Control of Your Photos – Self-Host Immich on Your Server

Author: timothystewart6

_posts/2025-06-15-immich-self-hosted.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Take Control of Your Photos – Self-Host Immich on Your Server"
+date: 2025-06-15 08:00:00 -0500
+categories: self-hosted
+tags: homelab immich self-hosted
+image:
+ path: /assets/img/headers/immich-self-hosted-hero.webp
+ lqip: data:image/jpeg;base64,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
+---
+
+Protect your personal photos and videos by hosting them yourself. In this video, you’ll learn how to install Immich, an open-source photo and video platform, on your own home server using Docker. Take control of your data with a fast, modern interface, GPU-accelerated features, and the ability to use your own NAS or network storage.
+
+{% include embed/youtube.html id='ehX0cl3IfdA' %}
+📺 [Watch Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehX0cl3IfdA)
+
+## Info
+
+To to learn more about immich, [check out the GitHub repo](https://github.com/immich-app/immich)
+
+## Install Docker
+
+To install docker, see [this post](/posts/docker-compose-install/)
+
+## GPU
+
+check for card
+
+```shell
+lspci
+```
+
+Supported NVIDIA cards (5.2 CUDA and higher)
+
+- <https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus>
+
+list all drivers
+
+```shell
+ubuntu-drivers devices
+```
+
+install recommended nvidia drivers
+
+```shell
+sudo ubuntu-drivers install
+```
+
+reboot
+
+```shell
+sudo reboot
+```
+
+check to see if drivers are installed and working
+
+```shell
+nvidia-smi
+```
+
+## NVIDIA Container Toolkit
+
+<https://docs.nvidia.com/datacenter/cloud-native/container-toolkit/latest/install-guide.html>
+
+Configure the production repository:
+
+```shell
+curl -fsSL https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/gpgkey | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg \
+  && curl -s -L https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/stable/deb/nvidia-container-toolkit.list | \
+    sed 's#deb https://#deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg] https://#g' | \
+    sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nvidia-container-toolkit.list
+```
+
+update packages
+
+```shell
+sudo apt-get update
+```
+
+Install NVIDIA Container Toolkit packages
+
+```shell
+NVIDIA_CONTAINER_TOOLKIT_VERSION=1.17.8-1 \
+   sudo apt-get install -y \
+      nvidia-container-toolkit=${NVIDIA_CONTAINER_TOOLKIT_VERSION} \
+      nvidia-container-toolkit-base=${NVIDIA_CONTAINER_TOOLKIT_VERSION} \
+      libnvidia-container-tools=${NVIDIA_CONTAINER_TOOLKIT_VERSION} \
+      libnvidia-container1=${NVIDIA_CONTAINER_TOOLKIT_VERSION}
+```
+
+Configure docker to run the toolkit
+
+```shell
+sudo nvidia-ctk runtime configure --runtime=docker
+```
+
+restart docker
+
+```shell
+sudo systemctl restart docker
+```
+
+run nvidia smi inside the ubuntu container
+
+```shell
+docker run --rm --runtime=nvidia --gpus all ubuntu nvidia-smi
+```
+
+## Configure
+
+create folders for our stack
+
+```shell
+sudo mkdir -p /opt/stacks/immich
+```
+
+change ownership of the folder (change group:user)
+
+```shell
+sudo chown serveradmin:serveradmin -R /opt/stacks
+```
+
+change directories
+
+```shell
+cd /opt/stacks/immich
+```
+
+create our compose file
+
+```shell
+nano compose.yml
+```
+
+```yaml
+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: ${TRANSCODING_BACKEND:-cpu}
+    volumes:
+      - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload
+    #   - /mnt/photos:/mnt/photos:ro # update and uncomment if you are using a network share
+      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
+    env_file:
+      - .env
+    ports:
+      - '2283:2283'
+    depends_on:
+      - redis
+      - database
+    restart: always
+    healthcheck:
+      disable: false
+    # labels:
+      # - "traefik.enable=true"
+      # - "traefik.http.routers.${TRAEFIK_ROUTER_NAME}.rule=Host(`${TRAEFIK_DOMAIN}`)"
+      # - "traefik.http.routers.${TRAEFIK_ROUTER_NAME}.entrypoints=websecure"
+      # - "traefik.http.routers.${TRAEFIK_ROUTER_NAME}.tls.certresolver=${TRAEFIK_CERT_RESOLVER}"
+      # - "traefik.http.services.${TRAEFIK_ROUTER_NAME}.loadbalancer.server.port=2283"
+
+  immich-machine-learning:
+    container_name: immich_machine_learning
+    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}-cuda
+    extends:
+      file: hwaccel.ml.yml
+      service: cuda
+    volumes:
+      - model-cache:/cache 
+    env_file:
+      - .env
+    restart: always
+    healthcheck:
+      disable: false
+
+  redis:
+    container_name: immich_redis
+    image: docker.io/valkey/valkey:8-bookworm
+    healthcheck:
+      test: redis-cli ping || exit 1
+    restart: always
+
+  database:
+    container_name: immich_postgres
+    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:14-vectorchord0.3.0-pgvectors0.2.0
+    environment:
+      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
+      POSTGRES_USER: ${DB_USERNAME}
+      POSTGRES_DB: ${DB_DATABASE_NAME}
+      POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS: '--data-checksums'
+      DB_STORAGE_TYPE: ${DB_STORAGE_TYPE:-SSD}
+    volumes:
+      - ${DB_DATA_LOCATION}:/var/lib/postgresql/data
+    restart: always
+
+volumes:
+  model-cache:
+```
+
+```shell
+nano hwaccel.ml.yml
+```
+
+```yaml
+services:
+  cuda:
+    deploy:
+      resources:
+        reservations:
+          devices:
+            - driver: nvidia
+              count: 1
+              capabilities:
+                - gpu
+```
+
+```shell
+nano hwaccel.transcoding.yml
+```
+
+```yaml
+services:
+  nvenc:
+    deploy:
+      resources:
+        reservations:
+          devices:
+            - driver: nvidia
+              count: 1
+              capabilities:
+                - gpu
+                - compute
+                - video
+```
+
+```shell
+nano .env
+```
+
+```shell
+# Required paths
+UPLOAD_LOCATION=./library
+DB_DATA_LOCATION=./postgres
+
+# Optional timezone (not needed if localtime is mounted)
+# TZ=Etc/UTC
+
+# Version control
+IMMICH_VERSION=release
+
+# Postgres authentication
+DB_PASSWORD=postgres
+DB_USERNAME=postgres
+DB_DATABASE_NAME=immich
+
+# Optional tuning
+DB_STORAGE_TYPE=SSD
+
+# transcoding
+TRANSCODING_BACKEND=nvenc
+
+# traefik
+TRAEFIK_ROUTER_NAME=immich
+TRAEFIK_DOMAIN=immich.example.com
+TRAEFIK_CERT_RESOLVER=myresolver
+```
+
+## SMB Share
+
+make creds dir
+
+```shell
+ sudo mkdir -p /etc/smb-credentials
+```
+
+create credentials file
+
+```shell
+sudo nano /etc/smb-credentials/photos
+```
+
+add contents (update with your username and password that has access to your share)
+
+```shell
+username=photosuser
+password=Ph0t0sUs3r!
+```
+
+update permissions for file
+
+```shell
+sudo chmod 600 /etc/smb-credentials/photos
+sudo chown root:root /etc/smb-credentials/photos
+```
+
+check permissions
+
+```shell
+ ls -l /etc/smb-credentials/photos
+```
+
+update fstab
+
+```shell
+sudo nano /etc/fstab
+```
+
+add mount path
+
+```shell
+//192.168.10.10/photos /mnt/photos cifs credentials=/etc/smb-credentials/photos,iocharset=utf8,vers=3.0,ro,nofail 0 0
+```
+
+install additional packages for cifs
+
+```shell
+sudo apt update && sudo apt install cifs-utils
+```
+
+reboot (mandatory)
+
+```shell
+sudo reboot
+```
+
+After rebooting you should see your share mounted at `/mnt/photos`
+
+## Starting container
+
+start docker stack
+
+```shell
+cd /opt/stacks/immich
+docker compose up -d
+```
+
+check docker containers
+
+```shell
+docker ps
+```
+
+visit server (update with your server's IP)
+
+- <http://192.168.10.111:2283>
+
+## More info
+
+immich back up docs
+
+- <https://immich.app/docs/administration/backup-and-restore/>
+
+## Links
+
+🛍️ Check out the new Merch Shop at <https://l.technotim.live/shop>
+
+⚙️ See all the hardware I recommend at <https://l.technotim.live/gear>
+
+🚀 Don't forget to check out the [🚀Launchpad repo](https://l.technotim.live/quick-start) with all of the quick start source files
+
+🤝 Support me and [help keep this site ad-free!](/sponsor)