Solidblocks RDS

Being a freelance consultant for some time now, I find myself frequently coming back to one of my older posts on how to run a PostgreSQL database in the cloud, where the cloud is not one of the big ones that already offer a dedicated managed database service. Although for example AWS RDS is an excellent and stable service, it can sometimes be a little too much (and to pricey as well).

For the re-occurring tasks of my daily work (and maintaining databases is definitely one of them) I invested some time to create a tested, easy to configure and/or reusable version of that particular task. The collection is called Solidblocks, its documentation can be found here https://pellepelster.github.io/solidblocks/

This particular post highlights an easy to use PostgreSQL docker container, that fits the need for a quick to deploy PostgreSQL database with an adequate backup solution for data safety. You can read the documentation with all the nitty-gritty details, here a quick walk-through to give you an impression:

Start the database

mkdir postgres_{data,backup} && sudo chown 10000:10000 postgres_{data,backup}

docker run \
    --name instance1 \
    -e DB_INSTANCE_NAME=instance1 \
    -e DB_DATABASE_db1=database1 \
    -e DB_USERNAME_db1=user1 \
    -e DB_PASSWORD_db1=password1 \
    -e DB_BACKUP_LOCAL=1 \
    -v "$(pwd)/postgres_backup:/storage/backup" \
    -v "$(pwd)/postgres_data:/storage/data" \
    pellepelster/solidblocks-rds-postgresql:v0.1.15

Trigger a full backup

docker exec instance1 /rds/bin/backup-full.sh

Stop database and remove data dir

docker rm --force instance1
sudo rm -rf postgres_data
mkdir postgres_data && sudo chown 10000:10000 postgres_data

Start database again It will recover from the latest available backup

docker run \
    --name instance1 \
    -e DB_INSTANCE_NAME=instance1 \
    -e DB_DATABASE_db1=database1 \
    -e DB_USERNAME_db1=user1 \
    -e DB_PASSWORD_db1=password1 \
    -e DB_BACKUP_LOCAL=1 \
    -v "$(pwd)/postgres_backup:/storage/backup" \
    -v "$(pwd)/postgres_data:/storage/data" \
    pellepelster/solidblocks-rds-postgresql:v0.1.15