Can immich-server containers be combined?

[fdw]

I'm sorry, I didn't find another discussion about this topic. If there is, please close this as a duplicate 🙂

I noticed that docker-compose starts two containers of the same immich-server image, one for a "server", one for "microservices". If it's already the same image, wouldn't it be possible to run all processes on the same container, simplifying the setup further? Or what is the reason that there are two containers with the same image?

[jrasm91]

It would but some of the tasks that are handled by immich-microservices are long running, cpu intensive tasks. If they were running in the same process as immich-server, the API would be blocked and the web and mobile app would effectively not be able to communicate with the server while those jobs are running.

[fdw]

Thank you! I'm actually running the one by ImageGenius right now, but with the recent removals of the proxy and typesense, using the official version was looking more interesting again.

[jrasm91]

Sounds good. There are no plans to combine immich-server and immich-microservices, although there is very real possibility of removing redis sometime next year.

[steve5355]

I thought redis cache was the key to making it so fast and snappy by caching thumbs in ram, I assumed. What is the idea behind removing redis. I love the speed of the UI so much that I just gave it a new NVME drive for thumbs, it loads as fast as I can scroll the page! I also think keeping microservices separate makes sense for scaling and adding additional AI features.

[jrasm91]

We only use redis as (1) a message queue for communication between immich-server and immich-microservices and (2) a websocket adapter so websockets continue to work when things are scaled horizontally.

[jrasm91]

The idea is we could use postgres for the message queue and it turns out you can easily use postgres as a websocket adapter as well. So with minimal-ish work and virtually no performance decrease you could run immich with one less container.

[ndesgranges]

I'm bumping this thread so you know this use case exists :

I know Immich does not recommend using Mac as host machines, but in this use case, (probably in Windows too), I think combining containers would make a huge difference.

If I'm not mistaken, Mac would start a vm per container which means 4 containers is quite expensive.

[bo0tzz]

Mac would start a vm per container

That sounds incredibly unlikely to me, but if you've got a source I'd be fascinated to read it.

[ndesgranges]

I've searched the web, didn't find a source, but found mutiple statements towards running a single vm. My mistake

[mmomjian]

We removed the double containers relating to this post quite some time ago.