blog: Immich object storage

src/content/blog/2026-02-20-immich-object-storage-upgrade.md

@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+---
+title: >-
+  Changelog: Personal photo management with Immich - Coolify, a VPS, and
+  S3-compatible storage.
+date: 2026-02-20T17:26:06.111Z
+slug: 2026-02-20-immich-object-storage-upgrade
+author: Thomas Wilson-Cook
+
+---
+In my 2026 effort to write more about my personal computing setup, I want to document the switchover from Volume Mount SSD to Object Storage for my personal photo storage.
+
+I have been using [Immich](https://immich.app) as a self-hosted Apple/Google photos alternative for several months now.  I grew concerned that images I took with a device I owned could (quite easily) be taken away from me.
+
+I have long used Immich for photo sharing with my (Android-using) spouse, largely for building a shared album of our cat but also for its great collaborative tools for friends/family ("everyone add all your photos/videos from the holiday here").
+
+I run a lot of my personal software on a Virtual Private Server (a VPS), a small linux "computer" in a data centre somewhere, and [Coolify](https://coolify.io) as my platform.  I'm running a couple of web services and databases from it, and it's working great.  I'm paying ~£15/mo for my server, and the relevant space.  
+
+Over time I've watched my storage use increase.  Especially as a hobbyist and [freelance](https://www.wilsoncookphotography.com) photographer, a couple of gigabytes can fill up pretty fast.
+
+I was previously using an SSD volume mounted to my VPS (because it was the easiest option to expand the storage with my host).  However, as I put more media onto the server, I wanted a way to increase capacity without the (steep) linear price increase.
+
+Over a morning I was able to migrate from a mounted SSD volume on my VPS to an S3 compatible object storage.  The result is cheaper storage (per gb/month), and a pragmatically higher limit.
+
+## 1: Create your Object Storage
+
+Simpleton that I am, I did this through click-ops.  I went to my cloud provider and created a new bucket on their S3-compatible storage.
+
+I created the access credentials so that my VPS could access it. 
+
+If you want to access your Object Storage from elsewhere (like your personal workstation, or through another service) - create another set of credentials for them.  
+
+## 2: Connect through rclone
+
+For simplicity, we want our VPS to treat the storage bucket as if it's just another directory on the file system.  Luckily, there's an open source tool for that: [rclone](https://github.com/rclone/rclone), a CLI for connecting to cloud-storage providers (including S3 compatible storage).  
+
+After installing it (my VPS runs the Ubuntu distro, so `sudo apt install rclone`).  You can set it up with the command line:
+
+```sh
+$ rclone config
+```
+
+Which will take you through a nice interactive installer.  Or you can just update the config:
+
+```txt
+# ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf
+[s3]
+type = s3
+provider = Other
+access_key_id = $ACCESS_KEY
+secret_access_key = $SECRET_KEY
+endpoint = $REGION_NAME.some-provider.com
+acl = private
+```
+
+Replace all those `$VARIABLE_NAMES` with your own values.
+
+**Important**: note how your bucket name isn't there?  You'll need to provide your bucket name specifically when running rclone from the terminal.  In the examples below, I'll be using `my-bucket-name`.  This is the (globally unique) name you gave your S3-compatible bucket when you created it in step 1.
+
+As a proof of life, I created a "directory" (S3 doesn't have "real" directories so to speak) in my bucket at `/immich` (more click-ops in my cloud provider's web UI), and then:
+
+```sh
+$ rclone lsd s3:my-bucket-name
+```
+
+...and expected to see the directory (of size 0) listed out.
+
+
+## 3: Clone your data
+
+Because I have an in-flight Immich instance, I need to make an exact copy of my immich data within my Object Store bucket:
+
+```sh
+$ rclone sync $CURRENT_IMMICH_LOCATION s3:my-bucket-name/immich -p
+```
+
+- `-p` is the Progress flag, shows what's uploading and how far through you are.  I had several GB of data, so it was useful for knowing it hadn't got stuck.
+
+## 4: Mount your volume
+
+I wanted to create a clean mount to the `/immich` directory in the root of my bucket.  I'm trying to put these commands in my `/usr/local/bin` directory, instead of just hitting `UP` enough times in my terminal until I find the right thing.
+
+Here's a script for mounting:
+
+```sh
+# /usr/local/bin/mount-s3-immich
+rclone mount hetzner:my-bucket-name/immich /mnt/s3-immich \
+  --allow-other \
+  --vfs-cache-mode writes \
+  --daemon	
+```
+
+* `--allow-other`: Allows other users on the VPS to access the mount (like our containerised Immich service).
+* `--vfs-cache-mode` Immich's write patterns may not be atomic, and this creates a buffer for those writes before they're uploaded.
+* `--daemon` runs the process as a daemon (in the background).  If you're a tmux wiz, you can use that but I'm not.
+
+You'll need to make sure that `user_allow_other` is enabled in your `/etc/fuse.conf`.  Because this will be a Fuse mount, the `--allow-other` flag for rclone needs to be cleared by the filesystem itself.
+
+And then for unmounting:
+
+```sh
+# /usr/local/bin/unmount-s3-immich
+fusermount -u /mnt/s3-immich
+```
+
+## 5: Update your Immich docker-compose
+
+Over to your Coolify dashboard now (I'm assuming you have an Immich service running there).
+
+You need to update the Volume on your Docker Compose to use your new mount as the source of data.  That means mapping that new mounted volume to `/usr/src/app/upload`:
+
+```yaml
+# Immich Service Dockerfile (e.g. in Coolify)
+services:
+	immich:
+		image: 'ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}'
+	volumes:
+		- '/mnt/s3-immich:/usr/src/app/upload'
+	#...rest of docker-compose.yaml
+	
+```
+
+## 6: 🎉
+
+Y'all good!  You're now storing photos at a _very_ cheap £/GB _and_ you have a little more ownership.

src/routes/blog/new/+page.svelte

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
   import { format as formatDate } from "date-fns";
   import { BlogPost } from "$lib/blog/BlogPost.js";
   let title = $state("");
-  let author = $state("Thomas Wilson");
+  let author = $state("Thomas Wilson-Cook");
   let date = new Date();
   let content = $state("");
   let slug = $state("");