Bitnami Postgres is an open source ORDBMS that provides better data integrity and reliability. Here our Support team provides an overview of Bitnami Postgres.

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Let’s take a closer look at Bitnami Postgres in detail.

What is Bitnami Postgres?

Postgres (PostgreSQL) is an object-relational database that provides reliability and data integrity. Postgres is open source and supports foreign keys, joins, views, triggers, and stored procedures.

Bitnami has packaged this software listing and hence the name.

Bitnami Image

A Bitnami image contains everything we need to run the preferred Bitnami packaged application. The installation and configuration of all software in the stack are completely automated. So it is simple for anyone, including non-technical users, to get them up and running.

How to get the Bitnami PostgreSQL Docker Image?

The simple way is to pull the prebuilt image from the Docker Hub Registry using the command:

$ docker pull bitnami/postgresql:latest

To get the Bitnami Postgres, we can also use a versioned tag to use a specific version. The Docker Hub Registry contains a list of available versions.

$ docker pull bitnami/postgresql:[TAG]

Maintaining the database

If we remove the container, we will lose all data and configurations. When we run the image next time, it re-initializes the database. To avoid data loss, we should mount a volume that will survive the removal of the container.

While going with Bitnami Postgres, for persistence we should mount a directory at the /bitnami/postgresql path. Then on the first run, it initializes the mounted directory if it is empty.

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

We can also do it by modifying the docker-compose.yml file. We can find it in the repository:

services:
  postgresql:
  ...
    volumes:
     - /path/to/postgresql-persistence:/bitnami/postgresql
  ...

How to connect with other containers?

A Bitnami Postgres server running inside a container can be easily accessed by the application containers. It is possible using Docker container networking. Containers on the same network can communicate by using the container name as the hostname. The two methods for connecting to other containers are:

Using the Command Line

1. Firstly, create a network with the command:

   $ docker network create app-tier --driver bridge
2. Then launch the PostgreSQL server instance using the command:

   $ docker run -d --name postgresql-server \
       --network app-tier \
       bitnami/postgresql:latest
3. Finally, launch the Bitnami Postgres client instance with the command:

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

Using the Docker Compose

In this section, we will explicitly define a new bridge network called app-tier. Consider that we want to connect to the PostgreSQL server from our own custom application image. So here the service name myapp identifies it.

version: '2'

networks:
  app-tier:
    driver: bridge

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

Also, remember to update the YOUR_APPLICATION_IMAGE_  placeholder in the above snippet with our application image. In the application container, use the hostname postgresql to connect to the PostgreSQL server. Lastly, launch the containers with the command:

$ docker-compose up -d

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Conclusion

The installation and configuration of all of the software included in the Bitnami stack are completely automated. Thus making it easy for everyone, including those who are not very technical, to get them up and running. To conclude, our Support team went over the Bitnami Postgres detail.