External Database (Postgres)

Our database service, Postgres, comes installed, by default, with OpenReplay and runs in a dedicated container on your instance for a lower cost of deployment. If you’re looking for greater scalability or easier operations, you can still use an external Postgres (i.e. AWS RDS or GCP Cloud SQL).

Update your Postgres variables

The very first step is to update all postgres variables in openreplay/scripts/helmcharts/vars.yaml and point them towards the external database:

  postgresqlPassword: "changeMePassword"
  postgresqlHost: "postgresql.db.svc.cluster.local"
  postgresqlPort: "5432"
  postgresqlUser: "postgres"
  postgresqlDatabase: "postgres"

Export existing schema and data

Note: If you’re starting fresh and haven’t yet installed OpenReplay, then simply proceed with the setup and ignore the following steps.

The local schema and recorded data must now be exported to the external Postgres:

First, backup the local database:

kubectl exec -n db postgresql-postgresql-0 -- bash -c 'PGPASSWORD=<postgresPassword from vars.yaml> pg_dumpall -U postgres '"  > ~/path/to/dump.sql

Install the Postgres client on your OpenReplay instance and ensure it has access to the external database:

sudo apt install postgresql-client

Restore the backup into the new externalPostgres:

PGPASSWORD=PG_PASSWORD psql -U PG_USERNAME -h [RDS_URL} -d postgres < /path/to/dump.sql

Finally, restart all OpenReplay services:

cd openreplay/scripts/helmcharts && ./openreplay-cli -I

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues, please connect to our Slack or check out our Forum and get help from our community.