Immich - Ext. Storage For Processed Media

Summary: Setting Up External Storage for Immich on nvme2tb-vm

🔹 Goal:

• Attach a 400GB virtual disk from nvme2tb-vm to immich-vm (Ubuntu VM).
• Mount it at /mnt/immich-storage for Immich to store media.
• Ensure permissions and ownership are correct so Immich can write to it.
• Modify Immich’s .env file to use this storage.
• Troubleshoot immich_server restarting issues related to missing .immich files.

Part 1: Adding a 400GB Virtual Disk in Proxmox

1. Opened the Proxmox Web UI.
2. Added a new 400GB virtual disk to immich-vm:
   • Storage: nvme2tb-vm
   • Format: QCOW2 (so snapshots can be used)
   • Bus/Device: VirtIO
3. Rebooted immich-vm to apply changes.

Part 2: Formatting & Mounting the Disk Inside Ubuntu (immich-vm)

1️⃣ Verify the New Disk is Detected

bash

lsblk

✅ Confirmed /dev/sdb was the new 400GB disk.

2️⃣ Check If the Disk Has a Filesystem

bash

sudo blkid /dev/sdb

❌ No output → Disk was unformatted.

✅ Next Step: Format as Ext4.

3️⃣ Format the Disk as Ext4

bash

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb

✅ Disk was successfully formatted.

4️⃣ Create a Mount Point for the Disk

bash

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/immich-storage

✅ Mount point created at /mnt/immich-storage.

5️⃣ Mount the Disk Temporarily

bash

sudo mount /dev/sdb /mnt/immich-storage

✅ Confirmed the disk was mounted.

6️⃣ Verify the Disk is Mounted

bash

df -h | grep sdb

✅ Confirmed /mnt/immich-storage was using 400GB.

Part 3: Making the Mount Permanent (Survives Reboots)

1️⃣ Get the Disk’s UUID

bash

sudo blkid /dev/sdb

✅ Output showed:

ini

UUID="43d69a9b-d15a-48b1-a703-395a04fd77af"

2️⃣ Add the Disk to /etc/fstab

bash

sudo nano /etc/fstab

✅ Added this line at the bottom (using the actual UUID):

ini

UUID=43d69a9b-d15a-48b1-a703-395a04fd77af /mnt/immich-storage ext4 defaults 0 2

✅ Saved and exited (CTRL + X, Y, Enter).

3️⃣ Test the fstab Entry

bash

sudo mount -a

✅ No errors → Mount will persist after reboot.

Part 4: Fixing Ownership & Permissions

1️⃣ Check Who Owns /mnt/immich-storage

bash

ls -ld /mnt/immich-storage

❌ It was owned by root root → Immich wouldn’t be able to write to it.

2️⃣ Change Ownership to mark

bash

sudo chown -R mark:mark /mnt/immich-storage

✅ Now owned by mark mark.

3️⃣ Set Correct Permissions

bash

sudo chmod -R 775 /mnt/immich-storage

✅ Ensured Immich can read/write files.

Part 5: Telling Immich to Use /mnt/immich-storage

1️⃣ Open the Immich .env File

bash

nano ~/immich/docker/.env

✅ Changed this line:

ini

UPLOAD_LOCATION=./library

👉 To this:

ini

UPLOAD_LOCATION=/mnt/immich-storage

✅ Saved and exited (CTRL + X, Y, Enter).

2️⃣ Restart Immich

bash

cd ~/immich/docker
docker compose down
docker compose up -d

🚨 Problem: immich_server kept restarting.

Part 6: Troubleshooting immich_server Restarting

1️⃣ Checked Logs for Errors

bash

docker logs --tail=50 immich_server

🚨 Error:

pgsql

Failed to read upload/encoded-video/.immich: ENOENT: no such file or directory

Cause: Immich expected certain folders to exist, but they were missing.

2️⃣ Manually Create the Required Folders

bash

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/immich-storage/upload \
/mnt/immich-storage/library \
/mnt/immich-storage/thumbs \
/mnt/immich-storage/encoded-video \
/mnt/immich-storage/profile \
/mnt/immich-storage/backups

✅ Created all required folders.

3️⃣ Verify Folder Creation

bash

ls -l /mnt/immich-storage

✅ Confirmed all folders existed.

---

4️⃣ Manually Create .immich Files in Each Folder

bash

touch /mnt/immich-storage/upload/.immich \
/mnt/immich-storage/library/.immich \
/mnt/immich-storage/thumbs/.immich \
/mnt/immich-storage/encoded-video/.immich \
/mnt/immich-storage/profile/.immich \
/mnt/immich-storage/backups/.immich

✅ Created empty .immich files inside each folder.

5️⃣ Verify .immich Files Exist

bash

ls -la /mnt/immich-storage/* | grep .immich

✅ Confirmed all .immich files were present.

6️⃣ Restart Immich Again

bash

cd ~/immich/docker
docker compose down
docker compose up -d

✅ immich_server now runs without crashing. 🎉

Summary of Issues & Fixes

Issue	Fix
Disk was not formatted	Used mkfs.ext4 to format it
Disk did not mount at boot	Used UUID in /etc/fstab
Immich could not write to storage	Fixed ownership (chown mark:mark) and permissions (chmod 775)
immich_server kept restarting	Created missing storage folders & .immich marker files

Final Status

• Storage is mounted at /mnt/immich-storage
• Immich is storing media in the new location
• The server is running without restarts

Phase Two was successfully completed!