How does this work?

This Dockerfile and docker-compose file will refresh data from a remote Postgres server/db to a local running postgres container.

What does it do?

It launches a postgres container and persists the postgres data at /Users/username/pgdata on your local machine. By default, the postgres user is pg , the postgres db is called pg and the postgres user password is password.

In addition to launching a postgres container, it also launches a ruby container with pgsync installed. Pgsync then pulls prod data from the remote Postgres instance and dumps the data into your locally running postgres container.

Edits that need to be made by you:

1. Edit the docker-compose.yml file. Edit username on line 9 and add your local username on your Mac.

Basic usage

docker-compose up

This will bring up the two containers. If everything goes well, you will start to see pgsync logs. It will take 60 seconds before pgsync starts - this gives enough time to allow the postgres container services to fully startup.

Other usage

After syncing, if you want to check out the db using a PG client (like Postico or PgAdmin), run this in docker (be sure to substitute username for you local username):

docker run -d --name="postgres" \
-v /Users/username/pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data \
-p 5432:5432 \
-e POSTGRES_USER='pg' \
-e POSTGRES_PASSWORD='password' \
postgres

This should launch a postgres container with your sync'd data. It will be available at localhost:5432. Connect with preferrend PG client using username pg and password password

Gotchas

If you launch the Postgres docker container and choose to expose port 5432 on your Mac (ie. -p 5432:5432) you need to make sure you don't have a local Postgres service running on your Mac. If you do, you're gonna have a bad time. Make sure to stop any local running Postgres instance on your Mac. To check, open up Activity Monitor on your Mac and search postgres to see if any processes are running.

How to stop a local running Postgres service?

brew services stop postgresql

or

pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres stop

Then launch your Postgres Docker container and hookup your PG client to it.

TODO

Add environment variables for flexibility.