I really like TimescaleDB as a PostgreSQL-based time series database, and I especially love installing it in Docker containers, just like I would with PostgreSQL. However, I had some trouble updating the TimescaleDB extension version in Docker, so I thought I’d share my solution in case someone else needs it.
My problem was that after updating my “docker-compose.yml” file to use the latest TimescaleDB version (v2.3.0 at the time of writing), I got the following error when I tried to do database operations. Previously I was using TimescaleDB v1.6.0.
ERROR: could not access file "$libdir/timescaledb-1.6.0": No such file or directory
Here are the official instructions for updating the TimescaleDB extension.
Here’s a super-helpful StackOverflow answer.
First ensure you’ve got the latest Docker image installed:
docker pull timescale/timescaledb:latest-pg12
Start the container as you’ve done before, whether you’re using docker run ... or docker-compose up -d --build…
Here’s my “docker-compose.yml” file:
version: '3.7'
services:
timescale:
# Name of the image and tag the Dockerfile creates (update this as needed)
# image: timescale/timescaledb:1.6.0-pg12
image: timescale/timescaledb:latest-pg12
volumes:
# Main TimescaleDB external volume
- type: volume
# source: timescale-db # the volume name
source: timescale-db-volume
# source: project_timescale-db
target: /var/lib/postgresql/data # the location in the container where the data are stored
read_only: false
# Custom postgresql.conf file will be mounted (see command: as well)
- type: bind
source: ./postgresql_custom.conf
target: /postgresql_custom.conf
read_only: false
env_file: .env
command: ["-c", "config_file=/postgresql_custom.conf"]
ports:
- 0.0.0.0:5432:5432
networks:
traefik-public:
deploy:
# Either global (exactly one container per physical node) or
# replicated (a specified number of containers). The default is replicated
mode: replicated
# For stateless applications using "replicated" mode,
# the total number of replicas to create
replicas: 1
placement:
constraints:
# Since this is for the stateful database,
# only run it on the swarm manager, not on workers
- "node.role==manager"
restart_policy:
condition: on-failure
# Uses a named volume to persist our data
volumes:
timescale-db-volume:
external: true
networks:
# Use the previously created public network "traefik-public", shared with other
# services that need to be publicly available via this Traefik
traefik-public:
external: true
Here’s a template for my “.env” environment variables file:
# For the Postgres/TimescaleDB init/default setup.
# Create postgres user, set password, name the host in Docker,
# set the port, create the database, and set the (default) location for data.
# The docker-compose.yml file specifies this as timescale
POSTGRES_HOST=timescale
POSTGRES_PORT=
POSTGRES_DATABASE=
PGDATA=/var/lib/postgresql/data
POSTGRES_USER=
# POSTGRES_PASSWORD initializes the database password for TimescaleDB
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=
# AWS RDS
POSTGRES_HOST_RDS=
POSTGRES_PORT_RDS=
POSTGRES_DATABASE_RDS=
POSTGRES_USER_RDS=
POSTGRES_PASSWORD_RDS=
# For AWS
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=
# For TimescaleDB backups
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=
Connect to the running Docker container and start psql immediately:
docker exec -it <container> psql -X -U postgres
Connect to the database you want to update (e.g. for a DB called “mydb”) to update its TimescaleDB extension. This step was missing in the official documentation.
postgres=# \c mydb
You are now connected to database "mydb" as user "postgres".
Alternately, connect directly to the chosen database on startup:
docker exec -it <container> psql -X -U postgres -d mydb
Update the extension:
mydb=# ALTER EXTENSION timescaledb UPDATE;
ALTER EXTENSION
Check the version now!
mydb=# SELECT default_version, installed_version FROM pg_available_extensions where name = 'timescaledb';
default_version | installed_version
-----------------+-------------------
2.3.0 | 2.3.0
(1 row)
TimescaleDB should be updated and working fine now. :)
Cheers,
Sean
Comments