--- sidebar_position: 30 --- import CodeBlock from '@theme/CodeBlock'; import ExampleEnv from '!!raw-loader!../../../docker/example.env'; # Docker Compose [Recommended] Docker Compose is the recommended method to run Immich in production. Below are the steps to deploy Immich with Docker Compose. Immich requires Docker Compose version 2.x. ### Step 1 - Download the required files Create a directory of your choice (e.g. `./immich-app`) to hold the `docker-compose.yml` and `.env` files. ```bash title="Move to the directory you created" mkdir ./immich-app cd ./immich-app ``` Download [`docker-compose.yml`][compose-file] and [`example.env`][env-file], either by running the following commands: ```bash title="Get docker-compose.yml file" wget -O docker-compose.yml https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml ``` ```bash title="Get .env file" wget -O .env https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/example.env ``` ```bash title="(Optional) Get hwaccel.transcoding.yml file" wget -O hwaccel.transcoding.yml https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/hwaccel.transcoding.yml ``` ```bash title="(Optional) Get hwaccel.ml.yml file" wget -O hwaccel.ml.yml https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/hwaccel.ml.yml ``` or by downloading from your browser and moving the files to the directory that you created. Note: If you downloaded the files from your browser, also ensure that you rename `example.env` to `.env`. :::info Optionally, you can enable hardware acceleration for machine learning and transcoding. See the [Hardware Transcoding](/docs/features/hardware-transcoding.md) and [Hardware-Accelerated Machine Learning](/docs/features/ml-hardware-acceleration.md) guides for info on how to set these up. ::: ### Step 2 - Populate the .env file with custom values
Example .env content {ExampleEnv}
- Populate custom database information if necessary. - Populate `UPLOAD_LOCATION` with your preferred location for storing backup assets. - Consider changing `DB_PASSWORD` to something randomly generated ### Step 3 - Start the containers From the directory you created in Step 1, (which should now contain your customized `docker-compose.yml` and `.env` files) run `docker compose up -d`. ```bash title="Start the containers using docker compose command" docker compose up -d ``` :::info Docker version If you get an error `unknown shorthand flag: 'd' in -d`, you are probably running the wrong Docker version. (This happens, for example, with the docker.io package in Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS.) You can correct the problem by `apt remove`ing Ubuntu's docker.io package and installing docker and docker-compose via [Docker's official repository](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/#install-using-the-repository). Note that the correct command really is `docker compose`, not `docker-compose`. If you try the latter on vanilla Ubuntu 22.04 it will fail in a different way: ``` The Compose file './docker-compose.yml' is invalid because: 'name' does not match any of the regexes: '^x-' ``` See the previous paragraph about installing from the official docker repository. ::: :::tip For more information on how to use the application, please refer to the [Post Installation](/docs/install/post-install.mdx) guide. ::: :::note GitHub Authentication Downloading container images might require you to authenticate to the GitHub Container Registry ([steps here](https://docs.github.com/en/packages/working-with-a-github-packages-registry/working-with-the-container-registry#authenticating-to-the-container-registry)). ::: ### Step 4 - Upgrading :::danger Breaking Changes It is important to follow breaking updates to avoid problems. You can see versions that had breaking changes [here](https://github.com/immich-app/immich/discussions?discussions_q=label%3Abreaking-change+sort%3Adate_created). ::: If `IMMICH_VERSION` is set, it will need to be updated to the latest or desired version. When a new version of Immich is [released](https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases), the application can be upgraded with the following commands, run in the directory with the `docker-compose.yml` file: ```bash title="Upgrade Immich" docker compose pull && docker compose up -d ``` :::caution Automatic Updates Immich is currently under heavy development, which means you can expect [breaking changes](https://github.com/immich-app/immich/discussions?discussions_q=label%3Abreaking-change+sort%3Adate_created) and bugs. Therefore, we recommend reading the release notes prior to updating and to take special care when using automated tools like [Watchtower][watchtower]. ::: [compose-file]: https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml [env-file]: https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/example.env [watchtower]: https://containrrr.dev/watchtower/