10 KiB
Upgrading PostgreSQL for Auto DevOps
Auto DevOps provides an in-cluster PostgreSQL database for your application.
The version of the chart used to provision PostgreSQL:
- Is 0.7.1 in GitLab 12.8 and earlier.
- Can be set to from 0.7.1 to 8.2.1 in GitLab 12.9 and later.
GitLab encourages users to migrate their database to the newer PostgreSQL chart.
This guide provides instructions on how to migrate your PostgreSQL database, which involves:
- Taking a database dump of your data.
- Installing a new PostgreSQL database using the newer version 8.2.1 of the chart and removing the old PostgreSQL installation.
- Restoring the database dump into the new PostgreSQL.
Prerequisites
- Install
kubectl
. - Ensure that you can access your Kubernetes cluster using
kubectl
. This varies based on Kubernetes providers. - Prepare for downtime. The steps below include taking the application offline so that the in-cluster database does not get modified after the database dump is created.
TIP: Tip: If you have configured Auto DevOps to have staging, consider trying out the backup and restore steps on staging first, or trying this out on a review app.
Take your application offline
If required, take your application offline to prevent the database from being modified after the database dump is created.
-
Get the Kubernetes namespace for the environment. It typically looks like
<project-name>-<project-id>-<environment>
. In our example, the namespace is calledminimal-ruby-app-4349298-production
.$ kubectl get ns NAME STATUS AGE minimal-ruby-app-4349298-production Active 7d14h
-
For ease of use, export the namespace name:
export APP_NAMESPACE=minimal-ruby-app-4349298-production
-
Get the deployment name for your application with the following command. In our example, the deployment name is
production
.$ kubectl get deployment --namespace "$APP_NAMESPACE" NAME READY UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE production 2/2 2 2 7d21h production-postgres 1/1 1 1 7d21h
-
To prevent the database from being modified, set replicas to 0 for the deployment with the following command. We use the deployment name from the previous step (
deployments/<DEPLOYMENT_NAME>
).$ kubectl scale --replicas=0 deployments/production --namespace "$APP_NAMESPACE" deployment.extensions/production scaled
-
You also will need to set replicas to zero for workers if you have any.
Backup
-
Get the service name for PostgreSQL. The name of the service should end with
-postgres
. In our example the service name isproduction-postgres
.$ kubectl get svc --namespace "$APP_NAMESPACE" NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE production-auto-deploy ClusterIP 10.30.13.90 <none> 5000/TCP 7d14h production-postgres ClusterIP 10.30.4.57 <none> 5432/TCP 7d14h
-
Get the pod name for PostgreSQL with the following command. In our example, the pod name is
production-postgres-5db86568d7-qxlxv
.$ kubectl get pod --namespace "$APP_NAMESPACE" -l app=production-postgres NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE production-postgres-5db86568d7-qxlxv 1/1 Running 0 7d14h
-
Connect to the pod with:
kubectl exec -it production-postgres-5db86568d7-qxlxv --namespace "$APP_NAMESPACE" bash
-
Once, connected, create a dump file with the following command.
-
SERVICE_NAME
is the service name obtained in a previous step. -
USERNAME
is the username you have configured for PostgreSQL. The default isuser
. -
DATABASE_NAME
is usually the environment name. -
You will be asked for the database password, the default is
testing-password
.
## Format is: # pg_dump -h SERVICE_NAME -U USERNAME DATABASE_NAME > /tmp/backup.sql pg_dump -h production-postgres -U user production > /tmp/backup.sql
-
-
Once the backup dump is complete, exit the Kubernetes exec process with
Control-D
orexit
. -
Download the dump file with the following command:
kubectl cp --namespace "$APP_NAMESPACE" production-postgres-5db86568d7-qxlxv:/tmp/backup.sql backup.sql
Retain persistent volumes
By default the persistent
volumes
used to store the underlying data for PostgreSQL is marked as Delete
when the pods and pod claims that use the volume is deleted.
This is signficant as, when you opt into the newer 8.2.1 PostgreSQL, the older 0.7.1 PostgreSQL is deleted causing the persistent volumes to be deleted as well.
You can verify this by using the following command:
$ kubectl get pv
NAME CAPACITY ACCESS MODES RECLAIM POLICY STATUS CLAIM STORAGECLASS REASON AGE
pvc-0da80c08-5239-11ea-9c8d-42010a8e0096 8Gi RWO Delete Bound minimal-ruby-app-4349298-staging/staging-postgres standard 7d22h
pvc-9085e3d3-5239-11ea-9c8d-42010a8e0096 8Gi RWO Delete Bound minimal-ruby-app-4349298-production/production-postgres standard 7d22h
To retain the persistent volume, even when the older 0.7.1 PostgreSQL is
deleted, we can change the retention policy to Retain
. In this example, we find
the persistent volume names by looking at the claims names. As we are
interested in keeping the volumes for the staging and production of the
minimal-ruby-app-4349298
application, the volume names here are
pvc-0da80c08-5239-11ea-9c8d-42010a8e0096
and pvc-9085e3d3-5239-11ea-9c8d-42010a8e0096
:
$ kubectl patch pv pvc-0da80c08-5239-11ea-9c8d-42010a8e0096 -p '{"spec":{"persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy":"Retain"}}'
persistentvolume/pvc-0da80c08-5239-11ea-9c8d-42010a8e0096 patched
$ kubectl patch pv pvc-9085e3d3-5239-11ea-9c8d-42010a8e0096 -p '{"spec":{"persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy":"Retain"}}'
persistentvolume/pvc-9085e3d3-5239-11ea-9c8d-42010a8e0096 patched
$ kubectl get pv
NAME CAPACITY ACCESS MODES RECLAIM POLICY STATUS CLAIM STORAGECLASS REASON AGE
pvc-0da80c08-5239-11ea-9c8d-42010a8e0096 8Gi RWO Retain Bound minimal-ruby-app-4349298-staging/staging-postgres standard 7d22h
pvc-9085e3d3-5239-11ea-9c8d-42010a8e0096 8Gi RWO Retain Bound minimal-ruby-app-4349298-production/production-postgres standard 7d22h
Install new PostgreSQL
CAUTION: Caution: Using the newer version of PostgreSQL will delete the older 0.7.1 PostgreSQL. To prevent the underlying data from being deleted, you can choose to retain the persistent volume.
TIP: Tip: You can also
scope the
AUTO_DEVOPS_POSTGRES_CHANNEL
and POSTGRES_VERSION
variables to
specific environments, e.g. staging
.
- Set
AUTO_DEVOPS_POSTGRES_CHANNEL
to2
. This opts into using the newer 8.2.1-based PostgreSQL, and removes the older 0.7.1-based PostgreSQL. - Set
POSTGRES_VERSION
to9.6.16
. This is the minimum PostgreSQL version supported. - Set
PRODUCTION_REPLICAS
to0
. For other environments, useREPLICAS
with an environment scope. - If you have set the
DB_INITIALIZE
orDB_MIGRATE
variables, either remove the variables, or rename the variables temporarily toXDB_INITIALIZE
or theXDB_MIGRATE
to effectively disable them. - Run a new CI pipeline for the branch. In this case, we run a new CI
pipeline for
master
. - Once the pipeline is successful, your application will now be upgraded with the new PostgreSQL installed. There will also be zero replicas which means no traffic will be served for your application (to prevent new data from coming in).
Restore
-
Get the pod name for the new PostgreSQL, in our example, the pod name is
production-postgresql-0
:$ kubectl get pod --namespace "$APP_NAMESPACE" -l app=postgresql NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE production-postgresql-0 1/1 Running 0 19m
-
Copy the dump file from the backup steps to the pod:
kubectl cp --namespace "$APP_NAMESPACE" backup.sql production-postgresql-0:/tmp/backup.sql
-
Connect to the pod:
kubectl exec -it production-postgresql-0 --namespace "$APP_NAMESPACE" bash
-
Once connected to the pod, run the following command to restore the database.
- You will be asked for the database password, the default is
testing-password
. USERNAME
is the username you have configured for PostgreSQL. The default isuser
.DATABASE_NAME
is usually the environment name.
## Format is: # psql -U USERNAME -d DATABASE_NAME < /tmp/backup.sql psql -U user -d production < /tmp/backup.sql
- You will be asked for the database password, the default is
-
You can now check that your data restored correctly after the restore is complete. You can perform spot checks of your data by using the
psql
.
Reinstate your application
Once you are satisfied the database has been restored, run the following steps to reinstate your application:
- Restore the
DB_INITIALIZE
andDB_MIGRATE
variables, if previously removed or disabled. - Restore the
PRODUCTION_REPLICAS
orREPLICAS
variable to its original value. - Run a new CI pipeline for the branch. In this case, we run a new CI
pipeline for
master
. After the pipeline is successful, your application should be serving traffic as before.