Guide to change database configuration.

[stockarea]

I have my own database hosted at RDS and want to use that rather than MySQL docker container. Can someone help and guide me how to configure that in docker rather than using the docker instance. I am new to docker and little confused as where to do it.

[shivthakker]

Hi @stockarea , we do have support packages for implementation. You can schedule some time with me here: https://calendly.com/shiv-10

[roncodes]

I have my own database hosted at RDS and want to use that rather than MySQL docker container. Can someone help and guide me how to configure that in docker rather than using the docker instance. I am new to docker and little confused as where to do it.

We recommend configuring your external database, such as Amazon RDS, by setting the DATABASE_URL environment variable to a valid MySQL connection string. Alternatively, you can specify the database connection details by individually setting the following environment variables: DB_HOST, DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, DB_PASSWORD, and DB_PORT.

[stockarea]

Where can I specify the environment variables? In api/.env file?
Also since my localhost is already have MySQL installed, I don't want database service to be started from docker and rather just listen to remote database server. So for that how to tell docker to not start database service and just listen to remote database connection?

[roncodes]

You have two main options for specifying environment variables when running your containers on AWS:

1. AWS ECS Task Definitions: If you're using Amazon ECS to manage your containers, you can define environment variables within your task definition.
2. Parameter Store: For more sensitive data, you might consider using AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store and referencing these parameters in your task definition or directly within your application.

For local development or testing, you can specify them in your api/.env file or directly in your docker-compose.yml or docker-compose.override.yml files under the environment section.

As for disabling the database service you also have two options:

If you already have MySQL running elsewhere or via RDS and want to prevent Docker from spinning up an additional database container, there are two ways you can achieve this:

1. Comment Out the Database Service: You can simply comment out the database service definition in your AWS ECS task definition or in your docker-compose.yml file, if you are using one for local development.
2. Use docker-compose.override.yml for Local Development: For local development, if you don't want to modify the original docker-compose.yml file, you can create a docker-compose.override.yml file with the following content:

version: '3.1'
services:
  database:
    entrypoint: /bin/echo "Database service disabled"

By doing this, the database service will be overridden to essentially do nothing when running Docker Compose, effectively disabling it. Meanwhile, you can set your application to connect to a MySQL instance running on RDS or another remote server by using the appropriate environment variables (DATABASE_URL or DB_HOST, DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, DB_PASSWORD, and DB_PORT).

[stockarea]

Thank you so much. I commented out database service and put up environment variables in api/.env and docker-compose.yml files and it is getting started. Thanks for this help

One last help needed. how can I connect to the database which is running on my local but outside docker. I know the reason of 127.0.0.1 that docker is using its own localhost server which dont' have my MySQL up and running so how can I solve this? how can I connect to my own localhost database.

[roncodes]

You're correct in noting that using 127.0.0.1 or localhost inside a Docker container will point to the container's own local network, not the host machine where your MySQL is running. Here's how you can connect to your local MySQL instance from a Docker container:

1. Use Host Network Mode (Linux Only): If you are running Docker on a Linux machine, you can start your container with host network mode by adding network_mode: "host" to your service in the docker-compose.yml file. This will allow the container to access the host's network stack.

services:
  your_api_service:
    network_mode: "host"

2. Use a Special Hostname: Regardless of your OS, Docker provides a special DNS name host.docker.internal that resolves to the internal IP address used by the host. In your connection string or DB_HOST environment variable, replace localhost or 127.0.0.1 with host.docker.internal.

services:
  your_api_service:
    environment:
      - DB_HOST=host.docker.internal

Or in your api/.env file:

DB_HOST=host.docker.internal

3. Use the Host IP Address: Same steps as 2, but you use the actual IP address of the host machine or in your case the EC2 container.

[stockarea]

Thanks you so much for this