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Configuring external services

8 months ago5 min read
Server v4.1
Server Admin
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This page describes how to configure external services for use with either a new CircleCI server v4.x installation or migrating internal Postgres and MongoDB data from existing CircleCI server v4.x installation to your externalized datastores.

PostgreSQL

Best practices for PostgreSQL

Consider running at least two PostgreSQL replicas to allow recovery from primary failure and for backups. The table below shows the recommended specifications for PostgreSQL machines:

# of Daily Active Users# of PostgreSQL ReplicasCPURAMDiskNIC Speed

<50

2

8 Cores

16 GB

100 GB

1 Gbps

50 - 250

2

8 Cores

16 GB

200 GB

1 Gbps

250 - 1000

3

8 Cores

32 GB

500 GB

10 Gbps

1000 - 5000

3

8 Cores

32 GB

1 TB

10 Gbps

5000+

3

8 Cores

32 GB

1 TB

10 Gbps

Migrating from an internal PostgreSQL to an externalized source

When a CircleCI server instance is deployed, Postgres is deployed internally by default via its helm chart. However, as an operator, you may wish to externalize this database to have better control over scalability and availability. Once you have configured your external Postgres, you may use the guide below to migrate your Postgres data to your external database.

1. Disable the application

Disable the CircleCI server application by scaling down the application layer pods. No Data is lost in this process, but the application will be unreachable.

Scale down your application layer pods:

namespace=<your-server-namespace>
kubectl -n "$namespace" scale deploy -l "layer=application" --replicas="0"

Running kubectl -n "$namespace" get pods will show most of your pods scaling to down, leaving your database pods running including Postgres.

2. Validate access to your external PostgreSQL from within the cluster (optional)

  1. Confirm that pods within your CircleCI Server cluster can access your external Postgres. You can do this from within your internal Postgres.

    PG_POD=$(kubectl -n "$namespace" get pods | grep postgresql | tail -1 | awk '{print $1}')
    kubectl exec -it -n "$namespace" "$PG_POD" -- bash
  2. While still connected to the pod run:

    psql -h <your-external-postgres-host> -U postgres -p <your-external-postgres-port>

You should be able to connect to your external Postgres at this point. If not, resolve any issues before proceeding.

3. Generate export of your internal PostgreSQL

  1. Retrieve your internal Postgres credentials:

    PG_PASSWORD=$(kubectl -n "$namespace" get secrets postgresql -o jsonpath="{.data.postgresql-password}" | base64 --decode)
  2. Connect to your Postgres pod and perform a Postgres dump:

    kubectl -n "$namespace" exec -it "$PG_POD" -- bash -c "export PGPASSWORD='$PG_PASSWORD' && pg_dumpall -U postgres -c" > circle.sql
  3. Clean up the Postgres Dump. Your internally deployed Postgres uses the username postgres. However, during the restore, the Postgres dump will drop all resources before trying to create new ones, including the postgres user. Access the Postgres pod where the dump is stored and run the following commands on the Postgres dump file to remove the lines that would delete the Postgres user.

    PG_POD=$(kubectl -n "$namespace" get pods | grep postgresql | tail -1 | awk '{print $1}')
    kubectl exec -it -n "$namespace" "$PG_POD" -- bash
    
    sed -i".bak" '/DROP ROLE postgres/d' circle.sql
    sed -i".bak" '/CREATE ROLE postgres/d' circle.sql
    sed -i".bak" '/ALTER ROLE postgres WITH SUPERUSER INHERIT CREATEROLE CREATEDB LOGIN REPLICATION BYPASSRLS PASSWORD/d' circle.sql

4. Restore your data in your external PostgreSQL

While still connected to your the internally deployed Postgres, restore the dumped data to your external Postgres:

psql -h <your-external-postgres-host> -U postgres -p <your-external-postgres-port> < circle.sql

Now your external Postgres will have your CircleCI server data. In the next section you will update CircleCI server to point to your external Postgres.

Connecting your external PostgreSQL instance to CircleCI server

Once you have set up your external PostgreSQL instance, add the following to your values.yaml file so that your CircleCI server instance can access it.

postgresql:
  internal: false
  postgresqlHost: <domain> # The domain or IP address of your PostgreSQL instance
  postgresqlPort: <port> # The port of your PostgreSQL instance

The changes will take effect upon running helm install/upgrade. If you are completing a migration to an externalized Postgres instance then when you perform helm upgrade, the scaled down pods will be scaled back to their replica numbers as defined by your values.yaml.

Back up PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL provides official documentation for backing up and restoring your PostgreSQL 12 install, which can be found here.

We strongly recommend the following:

  • Take daily backups

  • Keep at least 30 days of backups

  • Use encrypted storage for backups as databases might contain sensitive information

  • Perform a backup before each upgrade of CircleCI server

MongoDB

Migrating from an internal MongoDB to an externalized source

When a CircleCI server instance deployed, MongoDB is deployed internally by default via its helm chart. However, as an operator, you may wish to externalize this database to have better control over scalability and availability. Once you have configured your external MongoDB, you may use the guide below to migrate your Mongo data to your external database.

1. Disable the application

Disable the CircleCI server application by scaling down the application layer pods. No Data is lost in this process, but the application will be unreachable.

Scale down your application layer pods:

namespace=<your-server-namespace>
kubectl -n "$namespace" scale deploy -l "layer=application" --replicas="0"

Running kubectl -n "$namespace" get pods will show most of your pods scaling to down, leaving your database pods running, including Mongo.

2. Validate access to your external MongoDB from within the cluster (optional)

  1. Confirm that pods within your CircleCI server cluster can access your external MongoDB. You can do this from within your internal MongoDB pod:

    MONGO_POD="mongodb-0"
    kubectl exec -it -n "$namespace" "$MONGO_POD" -- bash
  2. While still connected to the pod run the following:

    mongo --username <username> --password --authenticationDatabase admin --host <external-mongodb-host> --port <external-mongodb-port>

You should be able to connect to your external MongoDB at this point. If not, resolve any issues before proceeding.

3. Generate export of your internal MongoDB

  1. Retrieve your internal MongoDB credentials:

    MONGO_POD="mongodb-0"
    MONGODB_USERNAME="root"
    MONGODB_PASSWORD=$(kubectl -n "$namespace" get secrets mongodb -o jsonpath="{.data.mongodb-root-password}" | base64 --decode)
  2. Create a backup directory in your MongoDB pod:

    kubectl -n "$namespace" exec "$MONGO_POD" -- mkdir -p /tmp/backups/
  3. Generate a MongoDB database dump to the backup directory you just created:

    kubectl -n "$namespace" exec -it "$MONGO_POD" -- bash -c "mongodump -u '$MONGODB_USERNAME' -p '$MONGODB_PASSWORD' --authenticationDatabase admin --db=circle_ghe --out=/tmp/backups/"

4. Restore your data in your external MongoDB

Use the generated MongoDB backup to restore the data to your external MongoDB:

kubectl -n "$namespace" exec "$MONGO_POD" -- mongorestore --drop -u "$MONGODB_USERNAME" -p "$MONGODB_PASSWORD" --authenticationDatabase admin /tmp/backups/circle_ghe;

Now your external MongoDB will have your CircleCI server data. In the next section you will update CircleCI server to point to your external MongoDB.

Connecting your external MongoDB instance to CircleCI server

Once you have configured your external MongoDB instance, add the following to your values.yaml file to connect your CircleCI server instance.

mongodb:
  internal: false
  hosts: <hostname:port> # this can be a comma-separated list of multiple hosts for sharded instances
  ssl: <ssl-enabled>
  # If using an SSL connection with custom CA or self-signed certs, set this
  # to true
  tlsInsecure: false
  # Any other options you'd like to append to the MongoDB connection string.
  # Format as query string (key=value pairs, separated by &, special characters
  # need to be URL encoded)
  options: <additional-options>
  auth:
    database: <authentication-source-database
    mechanism: SCRAM-SHA-1

The changes will take effect upon running helm install/upgrade. If you are completing a migration to an externalized MongoDB instance then when you perform helm upgrade, the scaled down pods will be scaled back to their replica numbers as defined by your values.yaml.


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