Using PostgreSQL Server on Micro Cloud Foundry

With the recent news that PostgreSQL is now available in the Micro Cloud Foundry, I decided to take it for a test spin. I downloaded the Micro Cloud Foundry VM zip file which is about 1.0GB big. After downloading it I unzipped it on my MacBookPro and use VMware Fusion 4.0.2 to open the VM. As the VM booted up the console shows a message

Micro Cloud Foundry not configured

I selected the option 1 to configure the Micro Cloud. It asked me to configure my VM user password, Networking (DHCP or Static) and then asked me to enter my Cloud Foundry configuration token which was provided to me after I had created a pgtest.cloudfoundry.me domain  just before the download.

It took about 5 minutes to setup the cloud

After the setup: I got my micro cloud foundry setup with my local IP (looked like a bridge connection rather than NAT).

Then I installed the VMC tool on my Mac using  (Need Ruby)
(NOTE: Skip directly to ssh part if you donot want to install Ruby/vmc)

$ gem install vmc

$ vmc target http://api.pgtest.cloudfoundry.me

Got me connected to my micro cloud.
Then I did a

$ vmc register

to create my user account using a email id and password
Then I logged into the MicroCloud using

$ vmc login

Now when I do the following I see the PostgreSQL Service available with other databases also.

$ vmc services

============== System Services ==============

+------------+---------+---------------------------------------+
| Service    | Version | Description                           |
+------------+---------+---------------------------------------+
| mongodb    | 1.8     | MongoDB NoSQL store                   |
| mysql      | 5.1     | MySQL database service                |
| postgresql | 9.0     | PostgreSQL database service (vFabric) |
| rabbitmq   | 2.4     | RabbitMQ messaging service            |
| redis      | 2.2     | Redis key-value store service         |
+------------+---------+---------------------------------------+

=========== Provisioned Services ============

As you can see there are no provisioned services currently.


Here if you are like a Java/Spring developer you want to creating an application using Xin Li's post on "PostgreSQL for Micro Cloud Foundry- Spring Tutorial".

I am not interested in developing Java applications but I want access to the postgresql server directly.

Now comes the ssh part.

Currently the PostgreSQL server is not exposed externally from the Micro Cloud.
But on the console of Micro Cloud VM, you can configure the password of vcap user. Which means now you have ssh access to the Micro Cloud VM.

$ ssh vcap@mircrocloudip

$ cd /var/vcap/store/postgresql

$ vi postgresql.conf 

and edit listen_address to add your database client ip address out there.
For my demo setup I just opened it to all

listen_addresses='*'

Next assign a Postgres password for the "vcap" user

$ /var/vcap/packages/postgresql/bin/psql -d postgres
psql (9.0.4)
Type "help" for help.

postgres=# ALTER USER vcap WITH PASSWORD 'secret';

ALTER ROLE

postgres=#\q

Now I exit from Micro Cloud VM and using the console I restart the services.
Now the PostgreSQL service can be accessed from postgres client anywhere.

For example from a Macbook Pro

$ psql -h microcloudip -d postgres -U vcap
Password for user vcap:
psql (9.0.5, server 9.0.4)
Type "help" for help.

postgres=#


Try it out!