Immich PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL with pgvector and vectorchord extensions required by Immich for vector similarity search. Defaults to PostgreSQL 14 (:latest), PostgreSQL 18 available as :18.

Port	5432
Registry	ghcr.io/daemonless/immich-postgres
Source	https://github.com/immich-app/immich
Website	https://immich.app/

Version Tags

Tag	Description	Best For
14 / 14-pkg / latest	Upstream Binary. Built from official release.	Most users — recommended.
18 / 18-pkg	Upstream Binary. Built from official release.	Alternative build.

Prerequisites

Before deploying, ensure your host environment is ready. See the Quick Start Guide for host setup instructions.

Deployment

Podman Compose

services:
  immich-postgres:
    image: "ghcr.io/daemonless/immich-postgres:latest"
    container_name: immich-postgres
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=postgres  # Database superuser (default: postgres)
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres  # Database password (default: postgres)
      - POSTGRES_DB=immich  # Database name (default: immich)
      - POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS=  # Additional initdb arguments
    volumes:
      - "/path/to/containers/immich-postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data"
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"
    annotations:
      org.freebsd.jail.allow.sysvipc: "true"
    # always (not unless-stopped) so FreeBSD's podman rc.d auto-starts it at boot
    restart: always

Save as compose.yaml, then run podman-compose up -d.

AppJail Director

.env:

# .env

DIRECTOR_PROJECT=immich-postgres
POSTGRES_USER=postgres
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres
POSTGRES_DB=immich
POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS=

appjail-director.yml:

# appjail-director.yml

options:
  - virtualnet: ':<random> default'
  - nat:
services:
  immich-postgres:
    name: immich_postgres
    options:
      - container: 'boot args:--pull'
      - expose: '5432:5432 proto:tcp'
      - template: !ENV '${PWD}/immich-postgres.conf'
    oci:
      user: root
      environment:
        - POSTGRES_USER: !ENV '${POSTGRES_USER}'
        - POSTGRES_PASSWORD: !ENV '${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}'
        - POSTGRES_DB: !ENV '${POSTGRES_DB}'
        - POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS: !ENV '${POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS}'
    volumes:
      - immich-postgres: /var/lib/postgresql/data
volumes:
  immich-postgres:
    device: '/path/to/containers/immich-postgres'

Makejail:

# Makejail

ARG tag=latest

OPTION overwrite=force
OPTION from=ghcr.io/daemonless/immich-postgres:${tag}
SET allow.sysvipc=1

Save the files above, then run appjail-director up.

Note: Exposing ports in AppJail means that your service can be reached from remote hosts. If that is not your intention, do not expose the ports and communicate with the service using the IPv4 address assigned by the virtual network.

Podman CLI

podman run -d --name immich-postgres \
  -p 5432:5432 \
  --annotation 'org.freebsd.jail.allow.sysvipc=true' \
  -e POSTGRES_USER=postgres \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres \
  -e POSTGRES_DB=immich \
  -e POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS= \
  -v /path/to/containers/immich-postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data \
  ghcr.io/daemonless/immich-postgres:latest

Save as run.sh, then run sh run.sh.

AppJail

appjail oci run -Pd \
  -o overwrite=force \
  -o container="args:--pull" \
  -o virtualnet=":<random> default" \
  -o nat \
  -o expose="5432:5432 proto:tcp" \
  -e POSTGRES_USER=postgres \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres \
  -e POSTGRES_DB=immich \
  -e POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS= \
  -o fstab="/path/to/containers/immich-postgres /var/lib/postgresql/data <pseudofs>" \
  ghcr.io/daemonless/immich-postgres:latest immich-postgres

Save as run.sh, then run sh run.sh.

Note: Exposing ports in AppJail means that your service can be reached from remote hosts. If that is not your intention, do not expose the ports and communicate with the service using the IPv4 address assigned by the virtual network.

Bastille

Warning

Bastille's OCI support is experimental. It requires buildah, shares the host network stack (inherit), and persists image-declared volumes under --data-path.

services:
  immich-postgres:
    image: "ghcr.io/daemonless/immich-postgres:latest"
    container_name: immich-postgres
    network_mode: host  # jail shares host networking
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=postgres
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres
      - POSTGRES_DB=immich
      - POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS=

Save as podman-compose.yml, then run bastille up. Or via CLI:

bastille create -O \
  --env POSTGRES_USER=postgres \
  --env POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres \
  --env POSTGRES_DB=immich \
  --env POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS= \
  --data-path /path/to/containers/immich-postgres \
  immich-postgres ghcr.io/daemonless/immich-postgres:latest inherit

Ansible

- name: Deploy immich-postgres
  containers.podman.podman_container:
    name: immich-postgres
    image: "ghcr.io/daemonless/immich-postgres:latest"
    state: started
    restart_policy: always
    env:
      POSTGRES_USER: "postgres"
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: "postgres"
      POSTGRES_DB: "immich"
      POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS: ""
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"
    volumes:
      - "/path/to/containers/immich-postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data"
    annotation:
      org.freebsd.jail.allow.sysvipc: "true"

Save as immich-postgres-deploy.yaml, then run ansible-playbook immich-postgres-deploy.yaml.

Parameters

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
POSTGRES_USER	postgres	Database superuser (default: postgres)
POSTGRES_PASSWORD	postgres	Database password (default: postgres)
POSTGRES_DB	immich	Database name (default: immich)
POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS	``	Additional initdb arguments

Volumes

Path	Description
/var/lib/postgresql/data	Database data directory

Ports

Port	Protocol	Description
5432	TCP	PostgreSQL Port

This image is part of the Immich Stack.

PostgreSQL version: :latest and :14 use PostgreSQL 14. :18 uses PostgreSQL 18. New installations should consider :18. If you are migrating an existing Immich instance, stay on :14 — PostgreSQL major version upgrades require a full pg_dumpall and restore. The default :latest tag will follow whatever version Immich recommends upstream.

PostgreSQL requires allow.sysvipc for shared memory. Create immich-postgres.conf alongside appjail-director.yml:

exec.start: "/bin/sh /etc/rc"
exec.stop: "/bin/sh /etc/rc.shutdown jail"
mount.devfs
persist
allow.sysvipc

Architectures: amd64 User: postgres (UID/GID via PUID/PGID, defaults to 1000:1000) Base: FreeBSD 15.1

---

Need help? Join our Discord community.