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Databases

Databases represent a common building block in cloud architecture, and Architect makes it easier than ever for developers to create applications that require databases. Simply declare them as part of your component and they'll be automatically deployed alongside your applications.

Creating databases​

Ensuring your application has the databases it needs is as simple. Just give them a name, and specify the type and version of database you need:

databases:
  users:
    description: Store user information
    type: postgres:15
  cache:
    description: Cache query results for faster responses
    type: redis:7

Integrating databases​

Once you've created your database, it can be easily integrated into your application using Component's expression syntax:

deployments:
  api:
    image: nginx:latest
    environment:
      # You can access the whole connection string
      DB_URL: ${{ databases.users.url }} # postgresql://<user>:<pass>@<host>:<port>/<db>
      # Or just the individual parts
      DB_PROTOCOL: ${{ databases.users.protocol }}
      DB_HOST: ${{ databases.users.host }}
      DB_PORT: ${{ databases.users.port }}
      DB_USER: ${{ databases.users.username }}
      DB_PASS: ${{ databases.users.password }}
      DB_NAME: ${{ databases.users.database }}

Zero-trust security​

One of the perks of treating databases by reference instead of dealing with credentials yourself is that it allows Architect to infer which applications are accessing each database. This means that each application can be issued different credentials:

deployments:
  auth:
    environment:
      DB_USER: ${{ databases.users.username }} # user-1
      DB_PASS: ${{ databases.users.password }} # secure-pass-1

  payments:
    environment:
      DB_USER: ${{ databases.users.username }} # user-2
      DB_PASS: ${{ databases.users.password }} # secure-pass-2

Architect sends the metadata necessary to Datacenters so that they can issue unique credentials, but not all Datacenters choose to do so. If your applications are getting the same credentials, talk to the team responsible for your Datacenter to learn more.