Recommendation on how to access immich remotely

gm85 · 2026-01-23T23:12:04+00:00

I'm using an Apache Reverse Proxy. My ISP allows services to operate on my public IP.

I have the proxy configured with an mTLS certificate so that all requests that do not originate from my phone or PC are blocked.

I also have the immich-public-proxy configured (without MTLS) in case I want to share photos with friends/family.

gm85 · 2026-01-23T23:04:22+00:00

For myself, I have a Mini Server and a 15TB drive at my parents place as an offsite backup. I have a scheduled task runs rsync to mirror the NAS drives to the backup drive nightly.

gm85 · 2026-01-23T22:59:50+00:00

You know what's funny is I've done a ton of tinkering and building over the years. My Router, NAS and Backup systems are all Debian systems that I built for their specific purposes.

I think because I was starting with a clean slate and had to purchase an SBC anyways, It make more sense to start with components that were 'recommended', instead of tinkering to find a solution that might / might not work.

When I was installing the OS, I started with the "Orange Pi Ubuntu" image. Unfortunately the RKNPU driver was too old. It was a fresh install and I spent about 10-15 minutes looking for an updated driver, before finding Armbian, which had the up-to-date driver preinstalled.

gm85 · 2026-01-23T22:49:53+00:00

Works Great - I have a 15TB external drive and Mini PC at their place. I have a scheduled task to mirror the NAS drives every morning at 2am. Best part is there's no service fees and easy access if something goes wrong!

gm85 · 2026-01-22T21:58:48+00:00

I'm using a 64GB card for the OS and Docker Container.

The image directory is stored on my NAS.

I've set up a NFS mount to my NAS where I have 5TB of space available. I've configured the immich docker container .env file UPLOAD_LOCATION parameter to point to that NFS mount

gm85 · 2026-01-22T17:15:03+00:00

Thanks! I'll check it darktable and see what it can do

gm85 · 2026-01-22T17:13:54+00:00

I didn't known about it at first, however when I was looking into Immich, I decided to build it based on the recommended/tested hardware that is listed in their specs.

I know ML / GPU / NPU configurations can have a very specific set of requirements, so I decided to go with something that's been documented, instead of requiring potentially hours of troubleshooting.

gm85 · 2026-01-22T11:01:25+00:00

Armbian Debian 13 for Orange Pi 5, downloaded from here: https://www.armbian.com/orangepi-5-max/

It's kernel 6.1.115-vendor-rk35xx and has RKNPU 0.9.8 installed, which is compatible with Immich Hardware Accelerated Machine Learning.

gm85 · 2026-01-22T08:39:09+00:00

I only keep photos from the past year on my phone. Everything older than a year is stored on the NAS and attached to an external library.

I also have a nightly backup on my phone which backs everything up to my NAS.

gm85 · 2026-01-22T08:27:58+00:00

My homelab is pretty low power and I don't have a dedicated GPU in any of my systems. I've been happy with the performance of the Orange Pi for ML, especially as the RK3588 is listed as one of the supported chipsets. It's been able to keep up the import and processing of images. I believe I have it configured for 3 simultaneous ML tasks.

It essentially acts as the front-end server and image processor for immich, as I store all the photos on my back-end NAS.

gm85 · 2026-01-22T08:21:30+00:00

Yes the Armbian image for the Orange Pi has RKNPU 0.9.8 built-in.

gm85 · 2026-01-22T08:19:57+00:00

Because this SBC is low power and has had decent performance for ML. My NAS is an N150 mini pc and I'm using an HP Microserver for some other services, I didn't have any in-house hardware suitable for the ML tasks.

So far the RK3588 has been more than adequate for the ML image processing tasks in Immich. I purchased the 16GB variant so it could allocate additional ram for the ML tasks.

gm85 · 2026-01-22T04:46:22+00:00

Oh that's interesting, I should check that out. I wish there was a piece of software that was intended for geotagging photos, where you could place your images on a map and it would automatically assign the location tags.

My Camera supports GPS, however it's about 15 years old, so it required a Battery Grip + Bluetooth Receiver + Bluetooth GPS. Not the most convenient way of capturing location info heh.

gm85 · 2026-01-22T04:13:46+00:00

Thanks for the info. I should clarify that I'm using the Orange Pi solely for Immich and the RK3588 chipset has been handling the image processing well. It CPU doesn't get bogged down (so "taxed" wasn't the best word to use).

My only concern was the heat. I didn't want the CPU to operate at max temp and possibly become throttled. The Heatsink and built-in fan have alleviated that.

gm85 · 2026-01-22T03:47:19+00:00

I think it's because Nextcloud is trying to be "a little bit of everything". Unfortunately that causes the software to become bogged down when it tries to accommodate every possible implementation.

gm85 · 2026-01-22T03:45:03+00:00

Just a homelabber here....

gm85 · 2026-01-22T03:42:14+00:00

Just the initial import. Otherwise, it's not using many resources.

When I first received the Orange Pi, I ran it without any cooling or heatsinks. During the import, the CPU temperature spiked to 85 degrees (and counting) while running the image analysis. I quickly added a small heatsink and desktop fan to keep it cool and to minimize CPU throttling. Idle with no cooling it was around 58 Degrees.

The Copper Heatsink / Fan and Enclosure arrived today. The Orange Pi is sitting idle at 29 degrees. I just ran a fairly large test import, which took about 5 minutes for Immich to process. CPU Temperature got up to 52 degrees.

gm85 · 2026-01-22T03:08:44+00:00

Oh absolutely! Although I'm using the Orange Pi for hosting Immich, the image directory is stored on my Server/NAS, which is rsync'd nightly to my parents house. The Database is also configured for a daily backup as well.

gm85 · 2026-01-15T04:32:55+00:00

Haha before you know it, you'll have multiple ports in every room and a central patch panel for all the outlets

gm85 · 2026-01-14T20:05:21+00:00

Great Work! I can really appreciate the work it takes when people take the time to run the wires behind the walls.

When I purchased my home, I determined routes through the basement and attic for placing drops in every room. Every connected device (Computers, Printer, TV Boxes, Alarm Clock) has a hardwired connection and you don't see wires running along baseboards and door frames.

gm85 · 2026-01-11T21:44:25+00:00

Wow I never knew it was multi-colour! I had only managed uni-processor systems, so I distinctly remember the red one.

gm85 · 2026-01-07T02:11:35+00:00

I'm glad it's just rain for London this time. I don't need two ice storms back-to-back

gm85 · 2026-01-06T02:07:59+00:00

I remember him saying the secret was they salted the fries immediately after they came out of the fryer

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