Running DT with containers and PostgreSQL - Need to some basic setup guidance

[nigellh]

Hi, I have never used PsotgreSQL so complete newbie from that point of view. Or current method of running DT is basically the curl command to get the docker-compose.yml file, tweak the localhost to the server address to allow remote access and docker compose up-d. Works great.

Unfortunately, that uses the H2 database and every couple of months it corrupts and I have to rebuild from scratch.

I have no idea how to get DT working with PostrgreSQL. The documentation (from my point of view) is thin, particularly from a PostgreSQL newbie point of view.

• Is PostgreSQL in the DT containers?
• Do I just need to enable it?
• Is there a yaml file with it all set up?

Hoping someone can help as I really do not want to have to keep rebuilding it from scratch and I am the only one that knows how! It is not technically a production system, but I have a good number of people who use it for looking at vulnerabilities.

[nscuro]

You can take inspiration from the setup we use for testing during development:

• https://github.com/DependencyTrack/dependency-track/blob/master/dev/docker-compose.yml
• https://github.com/DependencyTrack/dependency-track/blob/master/dev/docker-compose.postgres.yml

Merge them into one file and it should be good to go:

services:
  apiserver:
    image: dependencytrack/apiserver:4.11.5
    depends_on:
    - postgres
    environment:
      ALPINE_DATABASE_MODE: "external"
      ALPINE_DATABASE_URL: "jdbc:postgresql://postgres:5432/dtrack"
      ALPINE_DATABASE_DRIVER: "org.postgresql.Driver"
      ALPINE_DATABASE_USERNAME: "dtrack"
      ALPINE_DATABASE_PASSWORD: "dtrack"
    ports:
    - "127.0.0.1:8080:8080"
    volumes:
    - "apiserver-data:/data"
    restart: unless-stopped

  frontend:
    image: dependencytrack/frontend:4.11.5
    environment:
      API_BASE_URL: "http://localhost:8080"
    ports:
    - "127.0.0.1:8081:8080"
    restart: unless-stopped

  postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: "dtrack"
      POSTGRES_USER: "dtrack"
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: "dtrack"
    ports:
    - "127.0.0.1:5432:5432"
    volumes:
    - "postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data"
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  apiserver-data: { }
  postgres-data: { }

Some instructions for PostgreSQL specific configuration are here: https://dependencytrack.github.io/hyades/latest/operations/database/#basic-configuration

For a small installation you should be fine without additional config, but if performance is important to you, you should definitely have a look at that.

[nigellh]

@nscuro Thank you, it starts which is fantastic, but stuck.

When I try to connect the browser on a separate system to http://nlh-scan-24-041.fyre.ibm.com:8080 (using the yml file at the end) I get unable to connect. I did also change ports to remove the IP address in front (as not in the base yml version) but did not make any affect.

Have I missed or messed something?

If I go on to the server browser with localhost:8080 I get, so guessing it is running in someway.

#####################################################
# This Docker Compose file contains three services
#    Dependency-Track API Server
#    Dependency-Track FrontEnd
#	   Postgres Database
#####################################################

services:
  apiserver:
    image: dependencytrack/apiserver:4.11.5
    depends_on:
    - postgres
    environment:
      ALPINE_DATABASE_MODE: "external"
      ALPINE_DATABASE_URL: "jdbc:postgresql://postgres:5432/dtrack"
      ALPINE_DATABASE_DRIVER: "org.postgresql.Driver"
      ALPINE_DATABASE_USERNAME: "dtrack"
      ALPINE_DATABASE_PASSWORD: "dtrack"
    ports:
    - "127.0.0.1:8080:8080"
    volumes:
    - "apiserver-data:/data"
    restart: unless-stopped

  frontend:
    image: dependencytrack/frontend:4.11.5
    environment:
      API_BASE_URL: "http://nlh-scan-24-041.fyre.ibm.com:8081"
    ports:
    - "8081:8080"
    restart: unless-stopped

  postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: "dtrack"
      POSTGRES_USER: "dtrack"
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: "dtrack"
    ports:
    - "127.0.0.1:5432:5432"
    volumes:
    - "postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data"
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  apiserver-data: { }
  postgres-data: { }

[nscuro]

If you're accessing the deployment from another machine, you need to remove 127.0.0.1: from the apiserver service as well. And you need to change API_BASE_URL of the frontend service to point to port 8080 instead of 8081.

I think in the docker-compose.yml from the website, apiserver is running on port 8081 and frontend on 8080. In the YAML I posted, it's the other way around.

[nscuro]

services:
  apiserver:
    image: dependencytrack/apiserver:4.11.5
    depends_on:
    - postgres
    environment:
      ALPINE_DATABASE_MODE: "external"
      ALPINE_DATABASE_URL: "jdbc:postgresql://postgres:5432/dtrack"
      ALPINE_DATABASE_DRIVER: "org.postgresql.Driver"
      ALPINE_DATABASE_USERNAME: "dtrack"
      ALPINE_DATABASE_PASSWORD: "dtrack"
    ports:
    - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
    - "apiserver-data:/data"
    restart: unless-stopped

  frontend:
    image: dependencytrack/frontend:4.11.5
    environment:
      API_BASE_URL: "http://dtrack.example.com:8080"
    ports:
    - "8081:8080"
    restart: unless-stopped

  postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: "dtrack"
      POSTGRES_USER: "dtrack"
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: "dtrack"
    ports:
    - "127.0.0.1:5432:5432"
    volumes:
    - "postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data"
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  apiserver-data: { }
  postgres-data: { }

[nigellh]

Hi, Just copied and pasted your last post and changed the example url to

http://nlh-scan-24-041.fyre.ibm.com

Still would not connect with

http://nlh-scan-24-041.fyre.ibm.com:8081

So I hard coded the IP address and used that in the link and I am in. I have had these server name vs IP address hiccups before and no idea why.

As always @nscuro thank you

[nigellh]

@nscuro Hi Niklas. Sorry to bother you. Setting up a new instance and DT 4.11.5 and PSQL 16-Alpine give me access denied.

I tried 4.12.2 for DT as that was the latest and the same, but 4.12.1 allowed me to fail on the postgresql:16-alpine

Admittedly this does not appear on the list of official images https://hub.docker.com/_/postgres so I tried 17-alpine and a whole lot more to try and pull one in and I get

permission denied while trying to connect to the Docker daemon socket at unix:///var/run/docker.sock: Post "http://%2Fvar%2Frun%2Fdocker.sock/v1.45/images/create?fromImage=postresql&tag=17-alpine": dial unix /var/run/docker.sock: connect: permission denied

Even just pulling them.

Is there some knack to know which one will work. I have just copied the docker.yaml file we created from above that worked on the other systems at the time the previous versions were available (and so far run flawlessly thank you (I know, tempting fate!)).

Any help gratefully received.

[nscuro]

Your user doesn't have permission to use Docker on the machine. If this is a corporate VM or similar, chances are high that you need root privileges to interact with Docker.

To use Docker as non-root user, there are some additional steps that you (or your operations team) need to take, see https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/linux-postinstall/#manage-docker-as-a-non-root-user

[nigellh]

Now don't I feel really dumb. I knew I had set it all up and even set it so that I did not need to enter sudo for docker commands.

It really, really helps if I had logged out and back in to make that work. Sorry! Please have a laugh at my expense!

[nigellh]

It was even in the instructions! I have just highlighted them to make it even more obvious to a numpty like me