tobitheo/bitnami-postgresql repository overview

⁠What is PostgreSQL?

⁠TL;DR;

$ docker run --name postgresql bitnami/postgresql:latest

⁠Docker Compose

$ curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bitnami/bitnami-docker-postgresql/master/docker-compose.yml > docker-compose.yml
$ docker-compose up -d

⁠Why use Bitnami Images?

• Bitnami closely tracks upstream source changes and promptly publishes new versions of this image using our automated systems.
• With Bitnami images the latest bug fixes and features are available as soon as possible.
• Bitnami containers, virtual machines and cloud images use the same components and configuration approach - making it easy to switch between formats based on your project needs.
• All our images are based on minideb⁠ a minimalist Debian based container image which gives you a small base container image and the familiarity of a leading linux distribution.
• Bitnami container images are released daily with the latest distribution packages available.

⁠How to deploy PostgreSQL in Kubernetes?

Deploying Bitnami applications as Helm Charts is the easiest way to get started with our applications on Kubernetes. Read more about the installation in the Bitnami PostgreSQL Chart GitHub repository⁠.

Bitnami containers can be used with Kubeapps⁠ for deployment and management of Helm Charts in clusters.

⁠Why use a non-root container?

Non-root container images add an extra layer of security and are generally recommended for production environments. However, because they run as a non-root user, privileged tasks are typically off-limits. Learn more about non-root containers in our docs⁠.

⁠Supported tags and respective Dockerfile links

Learn more about the Bitnami tagging policy and the difference between rolling tags and immutable tags in our documentation page⁠.

• 11-ol-7, 11.2.0-ol-7-r64 (11/ol-7/Dockerfile)⁠
• 11-debian-9, 11.2.0-debian-9-r63, 11, 11.2.0, 11.2.0-r63 (11/debian-9/Dockerfile)⁠
• 10-ol-7, 10.7.0-ol-7-r63 (10/ol-7/Dockerfile)⁠
• 10-debian-9, 10.7.0-debian-9-r62, 10, 10.7.0, 10.7.0-r62, latest (10/debian-9/Dockerfile)⁠
• 9.6-ol-7, 9.6.12-ol-7-r65 (9.6/ol-7/Dockerfile)⁠
• 9.6-debian-9, 9.6.12-debian-9-r63, 9.6, 9.6.12, 9.6.12-r63 (9.6/debian-9/Dockerfile)⁠

Subscribe to project updates by watching the bitnami/postgresql GitHub repo⁠.

⁠Get this image

The recommended way to get the Bitnami PostgreSQL Docker Image is to pull the prebuilt image from the Docker Hub Registry⁠.

$ docker pull bitnami/postgresql:latest

To use a specific version, you can pull a versioned tag. You can view the list of available versions⁠ in the Docker Hub Registry.

$ docker pull bitnami/postgresql:[TAG]

If you wish, you can also build the image yourself.

$ docker build -t bitnami/postgresql:latest https://github.com/bitnami/bitnami-docker-postgresql.git

⁠Persisting your database

If you remove the container all your data and configurations will be lost, and the next time you run the image the database will be reinitialized. To avoid this loss of data, you should mount a volume that will persist even after the container is removed.

For persistence you should mount a directory at the /bitnami path. If the mounted directory is empty, it will be initialized on the first run.

$ docker run \
    -v /path/to/postgresql-persistence:/bitnami \
    bitnami/postgresql:latest

or using Docker Compose:

version: '2'

services:
  postgresql:
    image: 'bitnami/postgresql:latest'
    ports:
      - '5432:5432'
    volumes:
      - /path/to/postgresql-persistence:/bitnami

⁠Connecting to other containers

Using Docker container networking⁠, a PostgreSQL server running inside a container can easily be accessed by your application containers.

Containers attached to the same network can communicate with each other using the container name as the hostname.

⁠Using the Command Line

In this example, we will create a PostgreSQL client instance that will connect to the server instance that is running on the same docker network as the client.

⁠Step 1: Create a network

$ docker network create app-tier --driver bridge

⁠Step 2: Launch the PostgreSQL server instance

Use the --network app-tier argument to the docker run command to attach the PostgreSQL container to the app-tier network.

$ docker run -d --name postgresql-server \
    --network app-tier \
    bitnami/postgresql:latest

⁠Step 3: Launch your PostgreSQL client instance

Finally we create a new container instance to launch the PostgreSQL client and connect to the server created in the previous step:

$ docker run -it --rm \
    --network app-tier \
    bitnami/postgresql:latest psql -h postgresql-server -U postgres

⁠Using Docker Compose

When not specified, Docker Compose automatically sets up a new network and attaches all deployed services to that network. However, we will explicitly define a new bridge network named app-tier. In this example we assume that you want to connect to the PostgreSQL server from your own custom application image which is identified in the following snippet by the service name myapp.

version: '2'

networks:
  app-tier:
    driver: bridge

services:
  postgresql:
    image: 'bitnami/postgresql:latest'
    networks:
      - app-tier
  myapp:
    image: 'YOUR_APPLICATION_IMAGE'
    networks:
      - app-tier

Launch the containers using:

$ docker-compose up -d

⁠Configuration

⁠Initializing a new instance

When the container is executed for the first time, it will execute the files with extensions .sh, .sql and .sql.gz located at /docker-entrypoint-initdb.d.

In order to have your custom files inside the docker image you can mount them as a volume.

⁠Setting the root password on first run

In the above commands you may have noticed the use of the POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD environment variable. Passing the POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD environment variable when running the image for the first time will set the password of the postgres user to the value of POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD (or the content of the file specified in POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD_FILE).

$ docker run --name postgresql -e POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=password123 bitnami/postgresql:latest

or using Docker Compose:

version: '2'

services:
  postgresql:
    image: 'bitnami/postgresql:latest'
    ports:
      - '5432:5432'
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=password123

Note! The postgres user is a superuser and has full administrative access to the PostgreSQL database.

⁠Creating a database on first run

By passing the POSTGRESQL_DATABASE environment variable when running the image for the first time, a database will be created. This is useful if your application requires that a database already exists, saving you from having to manually create the database using the PostgreSQL client.

$ docker run --name postgresql -e POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=my_database bitnami/postgresql:latest

or using Docker Compose:

version: '2'

services:
  postgresql:
    image: 'bitnami/postgresql:latest'
    ports:
      - '5432:5432'
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=my_database

⁠Creating a database user on first run

You can also create a restricted database user that only has permissions for the database created with the POSTGRESQL_DATABASE⁠ environment variable. To do this, provide the POSTGRESQL_USERNAME environment variable.

$ docker run --name postgresql -e POSTGRESQL_USERNAME=my_user -e POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=password123 -e POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=my_database bitnami/postgresql:latest

or using Docker Compose:

version: '2'

services:
  postgresql:
    image: 'bitnami/postgresql:latest'
    ports:
      - '5432:5432'
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_USERNAME=my_user
      - POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=password123
      - POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=my_database

Note! When POSTGRESQL_USERNAME is specified, the postgres user is not assigned a password and as a result you cannot login remotely to the PostgreSQL server as the postgres user.

⁠Setting up a streaming replication

A Streaming replication⁠ cluster can easily be setup with the Bitnami PostgreSQL Docker Image using the following environment variables:

• POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE: Replication mode. Possible values master/slave. No defaults.
• POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER: The replication user created on the master on first run. No defaults.
• POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD: The replication users password. No defaults.
• POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD_FILE: Path to a file that contains the replication users password. This will override the value specified in POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD. No defaults.
• POSTGRESQL_MASTER_HOST: Hostname/IP of replication master (slave parameter). No defaults.
• POSTGRESQL_MASTER_PORT_NUMBER: Server port of the replication master (slave parameter). Defaults to 5432.

In a replication cluster you can have one master and zero or more slaves. When replication is enabled the master node is in read-write mode, while the slaves are in read-only mode. For best performance its advisable to limit the reads to the slaves.

⁠Step 1: Create the replication master

The first step is to start the master.

$ docker run --name postgresql-master \
  -e POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=master \
  -e POSTGRESQL_USERNAME=my_user \
  -e POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=password123 \
  -e POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=my_database \
  -e POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER=my_repl_user \
  -e POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD=my_repl_password \
  bitnami/postgresql:latest

In this command we are configuring the container as the master using the POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=master parameter. A replication user is specified using the POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER and POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD parameters.

⁠Step 2: Create the replication slave

Next we start a replication slave container.

$ docker run --name postgresql-slave \
  --link postgresql-master:master \
  -e POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=slave \
  -e POSTGRESQL_MASTER_HOST=master \
  -e POSTGRESQL_MASTER_PORT_NUMBER=5432 \
  -e POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER=my_repl_user \
  -e POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD=my_repl_password \
  bitnami/postgresql:latest

In the above command the container is configured as a slave using the POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE parameter. Before the replication slave is started, the POSTGRESQL_MASTER_HOST and POSTGRESQL_MASTER_PORT_NUMBER parameters are used by the slave container to connect to the master and replicate the initial database from the master. The POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER and POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD credentials are used to authenticate with the master.

With these two commands you now have a two node PostgreSQL master-slave streaming replication cluster up and running. You can scale the cluster by adding/removing slaves without incurring any downtime.

If the master goes down you can reconfigure a slave to act as the master and begin accepting writes by creating the trigger file /tmp/postgresql.trigger.5432. For example the following command reconfigures postgresql-slave to act as the master:

$ docker exec postgresql-slave touch /tmp/postgresql.trigger.5432

With Docker Compose the master-slave replication can be setup using:

version: '2'

services:
  postgresql-master:
    image: 'bitnami/postgresql:latest'
    ports:
      - '5432'
    volumes:
      - 'postgresql_master_data:/bitnami'
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=master
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER=repl_user
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD=repl_password
      - POSTGRESQL_USERNAME=my_user
      - POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=my_password
      - POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=my_database
    volumes:
      - '/path/to/postgresql-persistence:/bitnami'
  postgresql-slave:
    image: 'bitnami/postgresql:latest'
    ports:
      - '5432'
    depends_on:
      - postgresql-master
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=slave
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER=repl_user
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD=repl_password
      - POSTGRESQL_MASTER_HOST=postgresql-master
      - POSTGRESQL_MASTER_PORT_NUMBER=5432

Scale the number of slaves using:

$ docker-compose up --detach --scale postgresql-master=1 --scale postgresql-slave=3

The above command scales up the number of slaves to 3. You can scale down in the same way.

⁠Synchronous commits

By default, the slaves instances are configued with asynchronous replication. In order to guarantee more data stability (at the cost of some performance), it is possible to set synchronous commits (i.e. a transaction commit will not return success to the client until it has been written in a set of replicas) using the following environment variables.

• POSTGRESQL_SYNCHRONOUS_COMMIT_MODE: Establishes the type of synchronous commit. The available options are: on, remote_apply, remote_write, local and off. The default value is on. For more information, check the official PostgreSQL documentation⁠.
• POSTGRESQL_NUM_SYNCHRONOUS_REPLICAS: Establishes the number of replicas that will enable synchronous replication. This number must not be above the number of slaves that you configure in the cluster.

With Docker Compose the master-slave replication with synchronous commits can be setup as follows:

version: '2'

services:
  postgresql-master:
    image: 'bitnami/postgresql:latest'
    ports:
      - '5432'
    volumes:
      - 'postgresql_master_data:/bitnami'
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=master
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER=repl_user
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD=repl_password
      - POSTGRESQL_USERNAME=my_user
      - POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=my_password
      - POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=my_database
      - POSTGRESQL_SYNCHRONOUS_COMMIT_MODE=on
      - POSTGRESQL_NUM_SYNCHRONOUS_REPLICAS=1
    volumes:
      - '/path/to/postgresql-persistence:/bitnami'
  postgresql-slave:
    image: 'bitnami/postgresql:latest'
    ports:
      - '5432'
    depends_on:
      - postgresql-master
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=slave
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER=repl_user
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD=repl_password
      - POSTGRESQL_MASTER_HOST=postgresql-master
      - POSTGRESQL_MASTER_PORT_NUMBER=5432
  postgresql-slave2:
    image: 'bitnami/postgresql:latest'
    ports:
      - '5432'
    depends_on:
      - postgresql-master
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=slave
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER=repl_user
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD=repl_password
      - POSTGRESQL_MASTER_HOST=postgresql-master
      - POSTGRESQL_MASTER_PORT_NUMBER=5432

In the example above, commits will need to be written to both the master and one of the slaves in order to be accepted. The other slave will continue using asynchronous replication. Check it with the following SQL query:

postgres=# select application_name as server, state,
postgres-#       sync_priority as priority, sync_state
postgres-#       from pg_stat_replication;
   server    |   state   | priority | sync_state
-------------|-----------|----------|------------
 walreceiver | streaming |        0 | sync
 walreceiver | streaming |        0 | async

⁠Configuration file

The image looks for postgresql.conf file in /opt/bitnami/postgresql/conf/. You can mount a volume at /bitnami/postgresql/conf/ and copy/edit the postgresql.conf file in the /path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/. The default configurations will be populated to the conf/ directory if it's empty.

/path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/
└── postgresql.conf

0 directories, 1 file

As PostgreSQL image is non-root, you need to set the proper permissions to the mounted directory in your host:

sudo chown 1001:1001 /path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/

⁠Step 1: Run the PostgreSQL image

Run the PostgreSQL image, mounting a directory from your host.

$ docker run --name postgresql \
    -v /path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/:/bitnami/postgresql/conf/ \
    bitnami/postgresql:latest

or using Docker Compose:

version: '2'

services:
  postgresql:
    image: 'bitnami/postgresql:latest'
    ports:
      - '5432:5432'
    volumes:
      - /path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/:/bitnami/postgresql/conf/

⁠Step 2: Edit the configuration

Edit the configuration on your host using your favorite editor.

vi /path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/postgresql.conf

⁠Step 3: Restart PostgreSQL

After changing the configuration, restart your PostgreSQL container for changes to take effect.

$ docker restart postgresql

or using Docker Compose:

$ docker-compose restart postgresql

Refer to the server configuration⁠ manual for the complete list of configuration options.

⁠Allow settings to be loaded from files other than the default postgresql.conf

Apart of using a custom postgresql.conf, you can include files ending in .conf from the conf.d directory in the volume at /bitnami/postgresql/conf/. For this purpose, the default postgresql.conf contains the following section:

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# CONFIG FILE INCLUDES
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# These options allow settings to be loaded from files other than the
# default postgresql.conf.

include_dir = 'conf.d'  # Include files ending in '.conf' from directory 'conf.d'

In your host, you should create the extended configuration file under the conf.d directory:

mkdir -p /path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/conf.d/
vi /path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/conf.d/extended.conf

If you are using your custom postgresql.conf, you should create (or uncomment) the above section in your config file, in this case the /path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/ structure should be something like

/path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/
├── conf.d
│   └── extended.conf
└── postgresql.conf

1 directory, 2 files

⁠Specifyng initdb arguments

Specifyng extra initdb arguments can easily be done using the following environment variables:

• POSTGRESQL_INITDB_ARGS: Specifies extra arguments for the initdb command. No defaults.
• POSTGRESQL_INITDB_WALDIR: Defines a custom location for the transaction log. No defaults.

$ docker run --name postgresql \
  -e POSTGRESQL_INITDB_ARGS="--data-checksums" \
  -e POSTGRESQL_INITDB_WALDIR="/bitnami/waldir" \
  bitnami/postgresql:latest

or using Docker Compose:

version: '2'

services:
  postgresql:
    image: 'bitnami/postgresql:latest'
    ports:
      - '5432:5432'
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_INITDB_ARGS=--data-checksums
      - POSTGRESQL_INITDB_WALDIR=/bitnami/waldir

⁠Environment variables aliases

The Bitnami PostgreSQL container allows two different sets of environment variables. Please see the list of environment variable aliases in the next table:

⁠Logging

The Bitnami PostgreSQL Docker image sends the container logs to the stdout. To view the logs:

$ docker logs postgresql

or using Docker Compose:

$ docker-compose logs postgresql

You can configure the containers logging driver⁠ using the --log-driver option if you wish to consume the container logs differently. In the default configuration docker uses the json-file driver.

⁠Maintenance

⁠Upgrade this image

Bitnami provides up-to-date versions of PostgreSQL, including security patches, soon after they are made upstream. We recommend that you follow these steps to upgrade your container.

⁠Step 1: Get the updated image

$ docker pull bitnami/postgresql:latest

or if you're using Docker Compose, update the value of the image property to bitnami/postgresql:latest.

⁠Step 2: Stop and backup the currently running container

Stop the currently running container using the command

$ docker stop postgresql

or using Docker Compose:

$ docker-compose stop postgresql

Next, take a snapshot of the persistent volume /path/to/postgresql-persistence using:

$ rsync -a /path/to/postgresql-persistence /path/to/postgresql-persistence.bkp.$(date +%