Installing and customizing Postgres and Redis in a Docker Laravel environment

Let's configure Postgresql and Redis in our docker-compose.yml and our Laravel application so we can use Postgresql as a database backend and Redis as a cache server.

• Add the two new services (Postgres and Redis) to the docker-compose.yml file:

version: "3.7"
# creates the volumes to use with postgres and redis so we have data persistence
volumes:
    postgres-data:
    redis-data:
networks:
    frontend:
    backend:
services:
    proxy:
        image: nginx:latest
        ports:
            - "8080:80"
        volumes:
            - ./:/var/www/app
            - ./docker/nginx/nginx-site.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
        networks:
            - frontend
            - backend
    php:
        build:
            context: ./docker/php
            dockerfile: Dockerfile
        image: laravelgis-php:latest
        volumes:
            - ./:/var/www/app
        networks:
            - backend
# the postgres service using the latest official image, it also maps the postgres-data volume
# to /var/lib/postgresql/data in the container, maps the local port 5432 to the container 
# port 5432 and specifies the database, user and password to use (they will be created the first time
# the container is run).
     postgres:
         image: postgres:latest
         volumes:
             - postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
         ports:
             - "5432:5432"
         environment:
             POSTGRES_PASSWORD: 12345
             POSTGRES_USER: laravelgis
             POSTGRES_DB: laravelgis
             PGDATA: /var/lib/postgresql/data
         networks:
             - backend
# the redis service using the latest official image and mapping the redis-data volume to
# /data in the container as well as local port 6379 to container port 6379.
     redis:
         image: redis:latest
         sysctls:
             - net.core.somaxconn=511
         ports:
             - "6379:6379"
         volumes:
             - redis-data:/data
         networks:
             - backend

The last changes to the docker-compose.yml file will:

• create two local docker volumes to store database and cache files;
• add a Postgres service based on the latest official docker image, using the postgres-data volume and create a database called laravelgis and a user called laravelgis with password 12345 (security is not an issue as it's a development environment, never use weak passwords in production!);
• add a Redis service based on the latest docker official image using the redis-data volume.

Now, when you run "docker-compose up" again, you should be able to access Postgres on your development host on port 5432 and Redis on port 6379 with any cli/gui client.

• Now lets ajust our .env file with the new services:

APP_NAME=Laravel
APP_NAME="Laravel GIS Project"
APP_ENV=local
APP_KEY={YOUR_APP_KEY}
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_URL=http://localhost
APP_URL=http://localhost:8080

LOG_CHANNEL=stack
LOG_DEPRECATIONS_CHANNEL=null
LOG_LEVEL=debug

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=
DB_CONNECTION=pgsql
DB_HOST=postgres
DB_PORT=5432
DB_DATABASE=laravelgis
DB_USERNAME=laravelgis
DB_PASSWORD=12345

BROADCAST_DRIVER=log
CACHE_DRIVER=file
CACHE_DRIVER=redis
FILESYSTEM_DISK=local
QUEUE_CONNECTION=sync
SESSION_DRIVER=file
SESSION_LIFETIME=120

MEMCACHED_HOST=127.0.0.1

REDIS_HOST=127.0.0.1
REDIS_HOST=redis
REDIS_PASSWORD=null
REDIS_PORT=6379

(...)

• Rerun "docker-compose up" and then run "docker exec -it laravel-gis_php_1 php artisan migrate", the initial Laravel migrations should now run correctly against our postgres service:

Note, you can run "docker-compose up -d" to have your stack running in the background and then "docker-compose stop" or "docker-compose down" to stop or altogether remove the containers.

• You can probably see the pattern, you can run "docker exec -it laravel-gis_php_1" and then any command you would typically run in a Laravel application; knowing this, we can add it in our ~/.bash_aliases file:

alias dr="docker exec -it laravel-gis_php_1"

• After saving the file, run "source ~/.bashrc" (or relaunch your terminal) and you should be able to install the frontend dependencies like this (pretty much like you would do with Laravel Sail):

dr npm install

• Finally, we will install Laravel Jetstream which will provide us with a terrific authentication boilerplate and most of the libraries we will use (Laravel Livewire, Alpine.js and Tailwind CSS):

dr composer require laravel/jetstream
dr php artisan jetstream:install livewire
dr npm install
dr npm run build
dr php artisan migrate

• You can now browse to "http://localhost:8080/register" you should see the Jetstream Register form like the screen below. You can register a user to use for development.

We now have a fully functional Laravel / php development environment running in docker with Postgres as a database and Redis as a cache repository; in the next post, we will leave the backend a little and peak into the frontend with OpenLayers.

The commit for this post is available here (the content of the .env file is commited in the .env.example file: laravel-postgres-and-redis