/pg-app-dev-vm

Basic Vagrant configuration for local application development with PostgreSQL

Primary LanguageShellMIT LicenseMIT

CUNY Tech Prep:

Get PostgreSQL running locally in a Vagrant box.

What is it?

A Vagrant configuration that starts up a PostgreSQL database in a virtual machine (VM) for local application development. The original project is from here: https://github.com/jackdb/pg-app-dev-vm

I've modified the documentation for use with our class Play Framework Applications.

Installation

First, install Virtual Box for your Operating System.

Next, install Vagrant for your Operating System.

Then, open a command line and run the following to create a new PostgreSQL app dev virtual machine:

# Clone it locally:
$ git clone https://github.com/medgardo/pg-app-dev-vm myapp

# Enter the cloned directory:
$ cd myapp

# Delete the old .git and README:
$ rm -rf README.md .git

Optionally, you can edit the database username/password in the following file

Vagrant-setup/bootstrap.sh

Usage

# Start up the virtual machine:
$ vagrant up

# Stop the virtual machine:
$ vagrant halt

# Destroy the virtual machine:
$ vagrant destroy

The first time you start the virtual machine, it will take at least a couple of minutes as it downloads the VM and sets up PostgreSQL for the first time. On future restarts it will be much faster.

Notes about VM's:

  • When the VM is up or running, it is using up your hard disk, RAM, and CPU resources.
  • When the VM is halted it releases your RAM and CPU, but is still taking up space on your hard disk.
    • A halted VM retains data in PostgreSQL. Restarting the VM gives you access once again.
  • When the VM is destroyed it releases your RAM and CPU if it was up, and it is deleted from the hard disk.
    • When you destroy this VM, you will lose any stored data in PostgreSQL forever.

What does it do?

It creates a virtual server running Ubuntu 14.04 with the latest version of PostgreSQL (as of writing 9.4) installed. It also edits the PostgreSQL configuration files to allow network access and creates a database user/database for your application to use.

Once it has started up it will print out how to access the database on the virtual machine. It will look something like this:

$ vagrant up
Bringing machine 'default' up with 'virtualbox' provider...
[... truncated ...]
Your PostgreSQL database has been setup and can be accessed on your local machine on the forwarded port (default: 15432)
  Host: localhost
  Port: 15432
  Database: myapp
  Username: myapp
  Password: dbpass

Admin access to postgres user via VM:
  vagrant ssh
  sudo su - postgres

psql access to app database user via VM:
  vagrant ssh
  sudo su - postgres
  PGUSER=myapp PGPASSWORD=dbpass psql -h localhost myapp

Env variable for application development:
  DATABASE_URL=postgresql://myapp:dbpass@localhost:15432/myapp

Local command to access the database via psql:
  PGUSER=myapp PGPASSWORD=dbpass psql -h localhost -p 15432 myapp

Connecting your Play Application to this Vagrant box

in build.sbt add the postgres dependency to libraryDependencies list

"org.postgresql" % "postgresql" % "9.4-1201-jdbc41"

in conf/application.conf change the DB options to the following:

# Use PostgreSQL (using port 15432 from our Vagrant box)
db.default.driver=org.postgresql.Driver
db.default.url="postgres://myapp:dbpass@localhost:15432/myapp"

Notes:

  • if you changed the database username/password in Vagrant-setup/bootstrap.sh then you should modify the url accordingly.

  • If you changed the Port number you must also change it in the URL.

      # This is the url format
  postgres://<username>:<password>@localhost:<port_number>/<database_name>

Why use the shell provisioner?

Or alternatively, why not Chef, Puppet, Ansible, or Salt?

Mainly because it's simple and anybody with a basic knowledge of shell scripting can tweak the bootstrap.sh to their liking.

License

This is released under the MIT license. See the file LICENSE.