This Blacksmith Forge teaches a Blacksmith Broker how to deploy standalone and clustered PostgreSQL service deployments, which are useful for all things database.

To deploy this forge, you will need to add it to your existing Blacksmith Broker manifest deployment, co-locating the postgresql-blacksmith-plans job on the Blacksmith instance group.

Here's an example to get you started (clipped for brevity):

releases:
  - name:    postgresql-forge
    version: latest

instance_groups:
  - name: blacksmith
    jobs:
      - name:    postgresql-blacksmith-plans
        release: postgresql-forge
        properties:
          plans:
            # your plans here
            # (see below)

The PostgreSQL Forge deploys postgresql using the postgres BOSH release available from the [Cloud Foundry Community][pg-bosh]. The Forge itself specifes the correct URL and version of the upstream BOSH release, in the deployment manifests, so unless you lack access to the internet, you should be ok.

On the other hand, if you do need to upload the release, Blacksmith is more than happy to upload it to the BOSH director on your behalf.

For the Spruce users out there:

---
instance_groups:
  - name: blacksmith
    jobs:
      - name: blacksmith
        properties:
          releases:
            - (( append ))
            - name:    postgres
              version: latest

Finally, you'll need to define plans for Blacksmith to deploy. The following sections discuss those in great detail.

The standalone topology is as straightforward as they come: a singe dedicated VM that runs postgresql bound on all interfaces, to port 5432.

Here's a diagram to clear things up:

• vm_type - The name of a BOSH vm_type from your cloud-config. You can use this to size your PostgreSQL appropriate to your workload requirements, in terms of RAM and CPU. Increasing the disk size via the VM type is not going to net you much of a gain (see the disk_size and persist options instead.

• network - The name of the network to deply these instances to. This network should be defined in your cloud-config, and should be large enough to handle your anticipated service footprint. It does not need any static IP addresses.

  By default, VMs will be deployed into a network named postgresql-service.

• disk - The size of the persistent disk where PostgreSQL will store its data files. By default, you get a 4G disk. If, for whatever reason, you don't want a persistent disk, you can set this to 0.

A single standalone plan, persistent, with 4G of disk:

instance_groups:
  - name: blacksmith
    jobs:
      - name:    postgresql-blacksmith-plans
        release: postgresql-forge
        properties:
          plans:
            smalldb:
              type: standalone
              disk: 4_096

Here's a configuration that provides two different sizes of persistent standalone, each in their own networks:

instance_groups:
  - name: blacksmith
    jobs:
      - name:    postgresql-blacksmith-plans
        release: postgresql-forge
        properties:
          plans:
            small:
              type: standalone
              net:  a-side
              disk: 4_096

            large:
              type: standalone
              net:  b-side
              disk: 16_384

The cluster topology leverages PostgreSQL's native WAL replication, and mixes in PGPoolII for query routing. All nodes in the cluster participate in replication. Postgres itself runs on the nonstandard port 6432, and PGPool assumes the canonical 5432 port.

Here's a diagram:

• vm_type - The name of a BOSH vm_type from your cloud-config. You can use this to size your PostgreSQL appropriate to your workload requirements, in terms of RAM and CPU.

• azs - A list of BOSH availability zone names (per cloud-config), across which to stripe the nodes. By default, nodes will be put in z1 and z2.

• network - The name of the network to deply these instances to. This network should be defined in your cloud-config, and should be large enough to handle your anticipated service footprint. It does not need any static IP addresses.

  By default, VMs will be deployed into a network named postgresql-service.

• instances - How many PostgreSQL instances to spin. Must be at least 2, and defaults to 3.

Here's the configuration for the 3-node cluster pictured in the topology digram above:

instance_groups:
  - name: blacksmith
    jobs:
      - name:    postgresql-blacksmith-plans
        release: postgresql-forge
        properties:
          plans:
            clustered:
              type:      cluster
              instances: 3

Here, we provide two different clustered configurations, varied based on size.

instance_groups:
  - name: blacksmith
    jobs:
      - name:    postgresql-blacksmith-plans
        release: postgresql-forge
        properties:
          plans:
            medium:
              type:      cluster
              vm_type:   medium
              instances: 3

            large:
              type:      cluster
              vm_type:   large
              instances: 7

If you find a bug, please raise a Github Issue first, before submitting a PR.