The Forgetful Dev

How To Deploy Two Instances of Immich in Docker on the Same Server

December 2, 2025 in how to by brent7 minutes

I wanted to test out some changes to my Immich library without taking my current one down or risking breaking anything, so I wanted to deploy a dev instance to play around with.

This is a bit easier said than done because the Immich docker-compose has several containers in it that reference each other for healthchecks so you have to update those. But the Immich codebase itself uses container names to communicate, so once you change the names it causes that to break.

I was able to get it working with minimal effort though.

Before you start

  • This post assumes you already have a working instance of Immich that was deployed via docker-compose. It doesn’t walk through all the details of getting it working in the first place.
  • Make sure to create a separate .env file for your second instance and update things like your UPLOAD_LOCATION and DB_DATA_LOCATION so you don’t overwrite your prod instance.
    • Having a backup of your existing instance and pictures would be smart in case you forget to update something and you corrupt your current install

Prod Immich docker-compose

The standard Immich docker-compose.yml should look like this (again, excluding telemetry containers):

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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: cpu # set to one of [nvenc, quicksync, rkmpp, vaapi, vaapi-wsl] for accelerated transcoding
    volumes:
      # Do not edit the next line. If you want to change the media storage location on your system, edit the value of UPLOAD_LOCATION in the .env file
      - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    env_file:
      - .env
    ports:
      - '2283:2283'
    depends_on:
      - redis
      - database
    restart: always
    healthcheck:
      disable: false
    devices:
      - /dev/dri:/dev/dri

  immich-machine-learning:
    container_name: immich_machine_learning
    # For hardware acceleration, add one of -[armnn, cuda, openvino] to the image tag.
    # Example tag: ${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}-cuda
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    # extends: # uncomment this section for hardware acceleration - see https://immich.app/docs/features/ml-hardware-acceleration
    #   file: hwaccel.ml.yml
    #   service: cpu # set to one of [armnn, cuda, openvino, openvino-wsl] for accelerated inference - use the `-wsl` version for WSL2 where applicable
    volumes:
      - model-cache:/cache
    env_file:
      - .env
    restart: always
    healthcheck:
      disable: false

  redis:
    container_name: immich_redis
    image: docker.io/redis:6.2-alpine@sha256:eaba718fecd1196d88533de7ba49bf903ad33664a92debb24660a922ecd9cac8
    healthcheck:
      test: redis-cli ping || exit 1
    restart: always

  database:
    container_name: immich_postgres
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:14-vectorchord0.4.3-pgvectors0.2.0@sha256:41eacbe83eca995561fe43814fd4891e16e39632806253848efaf04d3c8a8b84
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_USER: ${DB_USERNAME}
      POSTGRES_DB: ${DB_DATABASE_NAME}
      POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS: '--data-checksums'
    volumes:
      # Do not edit the next line. If you want to change the database storage location on your system, edit the value of DB_DATA_LOCATION in the .env file
      - ${DB_DATA_LOCATION}:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    restart: always
    shm_size: 128mb

volumes:
  model-cache:

Second docker-compose

In order to setup a second instance of Immich in docker on the same server, there are 2 main things that need done in the second/new docker-compose:

  1. Update the container names, volume name, and any references to those old names. You will also need to add some container links to get the networking between containers to work correctly
  2. Change what port the container is listening on

For this example we’re going to call our second instance dev, and we’ll rename the containers to reflect that.

diff

This is a diff between the two compose files (initial immich deploy vs second immich deploy) to highlight the changes between them:

--- docker-compose.yml (original -- from first Immich instance)
+++ docker-compose.dev.yml (new -- for second/dev Immich instance)

- name: immich
+ name: immich-dev

  services:
-   immich-server:
-     container_name: immich_server
+   immich-server-dev:
+     container_name: immich_server_dev
+     links:
+       - redis-dev:redis
+       - database-dev:database
+       - immich-machine-learning-dev:immich-machine-learning
      image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
      # extends:
      #   file: hwaccel.transcoding.yml
      #   service: cpu # set to one of [nvenc, quicksync, rkmpp, vaapi, vaapi-wsl] for accelerated transcoding
      volumes:
        # Do not edit the next line. If you want to change the media storage location on your system, edit the value of UPLOAD_LOCATION in the .env file
        - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload
        - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      env_file:
        - .env
      ports:
-       - '2283:2283'
+       - '2284:2283'   # The new Immich instance will be listening on port 2284. Change to something else if you need to, but leave the container port on 2283.
      depends_on:
-       - redis
-       - database
+       - redis-dev
+       - database-dev
      restart: always
      healthcheck:
        disable: false
      devices:
        - /dev/dri:/dev/dri

-   immich-machine-learning:
-     container_name: immich_machine_learning
+   immich-machine-learning-dev:
+     container_name: immich_machine_learning_dev
      # For hardware acceleration, add one of -[armnn, cuda, openvino] to the image tag.
      # Example tag: ${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}-cuda
      image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
      # extends: # uncomment this section for hardware acceleration - see https://immich.app/docs/features/ml-hardware-acceleration
      #   file: hwaccel.ml.yml
      #   service: cpu # set to one of [armnn, cuda, openvino, openvino-wsl] for accelerated inference - use the `-wsl` version for WSL2 where applicable
      volumes:
-       - model-cache:/cache
+       - model-cache-dev:/cache
      env_file:
        - .env
      restart: always
      healthcheck:
        disable: false

-   redis:
-     container_name: immich_redis
+   redis-dev:
+     container_name: immich_redis_dev
      image: docker.io/redis:6.2-alpine@sha256:eaba718fecd1196d88533de7ba49bf903ad33664a92debb24660a922ecd9cac8
      healthcheck:
        test: redis-cli ping || exit 1
      restart: always

-   database:
-     container_name: immich_postgres
+   database-dev:
+     container_name: immich_postgres_dev
      image: ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:14-vectorchord0.4.3-pgvectors0.2.0@sha256:41eacbe83eca995561fe43814fd4891e16e39632806253848efaf04d3c8a8b84
      environment:
        POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
        POSTGRES_USER: ${DB_USERNAME}
        POSTGRES_DB: ${DB_DATABASE_NAME}
        POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS: '--data-checksums'
      volumes:
        # Do not edit the next line. If you want to change the database storage location on your system, edit the value of DB_DATA_LOCATION in the .env file
        - ${DB_DATA_LOCATION}:/var/lib/postgresql/data
      restart: always
      shm_size: 128mb

  volumes:
-   model-cache:
+   model-cache-dev:

Completed dev instance docker-compose

And here is the completed docker-compose.yml for the second instance, without the visible edits in it.

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name: immich-dev

services:
  immich-server-dev:
    container_name: immich_server_dev
    links:
      - redis-dev:redis
      - database-dev:database
      - immich-machine-learning-dev:immich-machine-learning
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    # extends:
    #   file: hwaccel.transcoding.yml
    #   service: cpu # set to one of [nvenc, quicksync, rkmpp, vaapi, vaapi-wsl] for accelerated transcoding
    volumes:
      # Do not edit the next line. If you want to change the media storage location on your system, edit the value of UPLOAD_LOCATION in the .env file
      - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    env_file:
      - .env
    ports:
      - '2284:2283'
    depends_on:
      - redis-dev
      - database-dev
    restart: always
    healthcheck:
      disable: false
    devices:
      - /dev/dri:/dev/dri

  immich-machine-learning-dev:
    container_name: immich_machine_learning_dev
    # For hardware acceleration, add one of -[armnn, cuda, openvino] to the image tag.
    # Example tag: ${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}-cuda
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    # extends: # uncomment this section for hardware acceleration - see https://immich.app/docs/features/ml-hardware-acceleration
    #   file: hwaccel.ml.yml
    #   service: cpu # set to one of [armnn, cuda, openvino, openvino-wsl] for accelerated inference - use the `-wsl` version for WSL2 where applicable
    volumes:
      - model-cache-dev:/cache
    env_file:
      - .env
    restart: always
    healthcheck:
      disable: false

  redis-dev:
    container_name: immich_redis_dev
    image: docker.io/redis:6.2-alpine@sha256:eaba718fecd1196d88533de7ba49bf903ad33664a92debb24660a922ecd9cac8
    healthcheck:
      test: redis-cli ping || exit 1
    restart: always

  database-dev:
    container_name: immich_postgres_dev
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:14-vectorchord0.4.3-pgvectors0.2.0@sha256:41eacbe83eca995561fe43814fd4891e16e39632806253848efaf04d3c8a8b84
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_USER: ${DB_USERNAME}
      POSTGRES_DB: ${DB_DATABASE_NAME}
      POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS: '--data-checksums'
    volumes:
      # Do not edit the next line. If you want to change the database storage location on your system, edit the value of DB_DATA_LOCATION in the .env file
      - ${DB_DATA_LOCATION}:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    restart: always
    shm_size: 128mb

volumes:
  model-cache-dev:
immich self-hosted

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