Import existing Immich instance into the newly created LXC script

[F0ofoon]

Hi everyone, first of all thanks a lot for the great work you have done with this project. If it wasn't for you, I would have never all those services running on my mini-pc currently.

Talking about those services, one of the first I setup is Immich using the dockge script with option to create a docker container at install. Since then I uploaded all my photos on it and I am starting to do the same thing for my s/o. Issue is that, I would like to use the newly created LXC script instead of a dockge instance with only immich running on it. I prefer having all my services setup the same way for consistency sake and better management.

So my question is : How to transfer my old immich docker container instance to a newly created LXC one without moving all my photos that are on a NAS ?

Currently, my NAS is mounted with NFS in Proxmox and I mount it in LXCs (need to be privileged) using /etc/pve/lxc/xxx.conf configuration files by adding this line

# /etc/pve/lxc/xxx.conf
lxc.mount.entry: /mnt/pve/KUBE/     mnt/share         none bind,create=dir 0 0

For docker I just modified the .env file to add my mount.

# .env
UPLOAD_LOCATION=/mnt/share/immich/upload

# compose.yaml
volumes:
      - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload

I read trough @vhsdream great tuto so I know it is possible to use a mount point with the Immich LXC.
I tried following the tuto and then deleting the immich database in the LXC, creating it again and then restoring it from a backup using SELECT pg_catalog.set_config('search_path', '', false);/SELECT pg_catalog.set_config('search_path', 'public, pg_catalog', true); (following immich docs) but I had all sorts of issues with missing references, tables, keys etc...
Also user and password do not match between the old and new instances.
I think there is a best way of doing that, but it is outside of my skill set and I don't want to trash my photo on my NAS.

Thanks for the help !

[tremor021]

The easiest method of mounting shares is via mountpoints. You mount all your shares to some directory on Proxmox host, then just make a mountpoint on your LXC pointing to that directory. I'm using that method since ever, there is no need for priviledged LXC

[F0ofoon]

You mean by using the ressource tab for an LXC like so ?

If so, having to configure a size was an issue for me, there are multiple LXCs that have to use the same storage space. I however am a total beginner when it comes to proxmox and virtualization so if I am missing something, feel free to explain ! 🙂

[vhsdream]

@F0ofoon If you're mounting a share from your NAS, then you should do it in the LXC config file, which allows more flexibility. Here is how the relevant part of my Immich LXC config looks.

mp0: /mnt/pve/media/immich,mp=/media/photoLibrary,replicate=0,shared=1,size=0T
mp1: /mnt/pve/media/Photos,mp=/mnt/Photos,replicate=0,shared=1,size=0T

mp0 is my Immich library, and mp1 is an external library.

Notice how I specified the size as 0T? Since we are mounting real disks and not creating virtual ones, putting the size at 0 will default the mount to the actual size of the disk(s).

But before you get here, you need to have configured the storage in your node. Did you do that yet?

I highlighted the two protocols you are most likely to use.

[F0ofoon]

Yes, this is exactly how I mounted my NAS on proxmox.

When using the mp instruction, I can see the directory however, permissions are not set properly. The directory that I am trying to mount is owned by root:root, on the LXC it's owned by nobody:nogroup and I have no permissions to do anything to it. Since the LXC is unprivileged, the root of the host and the root of the LXC are not the same (not the same ids), are they ?

What do I need to do in order to enable access to the mount point in the LXC with an unprivileged LXC ?

[vhsdream]

@F0ofoon check out the discussion at (#5075) for some help on that.

[vhsdream]

Hey @F0ofoon thanks for the shout-out!

(@tremor021 I don't think the poster is asking about that - assets uploaded via Immich are organized differently on disk, so even if he mounts the existing Immich library (not an External Library, which is trivial) and points the new Immich to the share, it won't recognise the data.)

I tried doing something very similar to you once this script was ready for release, because I had an instance of Immich running in LXC that was kind of cobbled together (non-Docker) and I wanted to transfer my existing Immich library from my NAS, much like you.

I followed the Immich docs to do a backup and restore of the DB, just like you, but ran into the exact same issues. It is possible to change the password in the backup, but kind of beside the point. I'm not too sure why it didn't work, aside from the fact that it's mentioned you can't restore a DB to a new instance of Immich that has run, even one time. Since the install script starts Immich services, we can't really get around that so it's a non-starter.

Hope is not completely lost, though. What I ended up doing was using a third-party tool to export my Immich library from the previous Immich install. Then I created the new Immich install, and added everything back via the web interface.

Everything seems to have worked out for me, but mind you my Immich library is not very large so this was doable.

I'm not recommending or vouching for this tool, but this is what I used to export my Immich assets.

If you have a massive amount of Immich assets, then there may be better methods for getting the content back in. The LXC has immich-cli installed, and the Immich team also recommends Immich-Go, neither of which I have used, as I used the WebUI.

[tremor021]

Ah, i thought he has troubles mounting his shares that he previously used in a docker instance. Ignore me

[F0ofoon]

Thanks for the answer, I have used Immich-Go to import most of my photos and it's a very nice tool ! I didn't manage to make immich-cli to work though.

If I understand correctly, you had to duplicate the data by recreating a new instance form the backup or is it just the metadata ?
And when importing it, was the new Immich instance clean (not initialized) ?

[vhsdream]

@F0ofoon I just mean that I used the tool I linked to export from Immich, which then 'converts' the Immich library (because you'll notice that it's stored in it's own unique way) back to the original filenames.

Then in a fresh Immich LXC, after I configured my upload location (see the guide) to be what I wanted, I made sure the NAS share (empty) was properly mounted and writable, and uploaded the images into the new Immich.

There was no need to backup and restore the DB, as when I uploaded the images, Immich creates all the metadata again (and thumbnails etc etc).

[F0ofoon]

Ok that is what I feared I didn't want to have to export 1To of photos, but I have space on my NAS for now so I think I'll just spin up a new instance of Immich and then use Immich-Go, which worked great for me, to import the photos into the new instance.