ARTIFACTORY: How to configure Artifactory with an external database when using Artifactory Helm Installation

When you install Artifactory, you may want to consider using an external database in order to enhance Artifactory’s capabilities by using a production grade database as well as utilize the best practices for Artifactory’s database.

In the following article, we will list the different types of supported databases you can use and how to configure Artifactory to connect with each one of them.

Please NOTE: 
To use an external database with Artifactory, set the "postgresql.enabled" value to "false" and provide the necessary configuration details in the "database" section of the Artifactory installation. Failing to set "postgresql.enabled" to "false" will result in the internal database being used instead.

The following databases are supported:

PostgreSQL– recommended
MySQL
Oracle
MSSQL
MariaDB is not supported on helm.

PostgreSQL

Artifactory Helm Installation comes bundled with a postgresql database, however, you may want to use your own database instead. In that case, you will need to set the postgresql.enabled: false value and the database section instead for the chart to use the External database.* parameters. Without it, they will be ignored and the chart will use the internal DB, below is an example:

postgresql:
 enabled: false
database:
 type: postgresql
 driver: org.postgresql.Driver
 url: 'jdbc:postgresql://${DB_HOST}:${DB_PORT}/my-artifactory-db'
 user: <DB_USER>
 password: <DB_PASSWORD> 

In case you are using an RDS database, the following values should be used:

postgresql:
 enabled: false
database:
   type: postgresql
    driver: org.postgresql.Driver
    url: "jdbc:postgresql://test.postgres.database.azure.com:5432/artifactorydb"
    username: "artifactory@test"
    password: password
    actualUsername: artifactory@test

The same applies when setting up Xray with PostgreSQL database, But using a different prefix for the DB URL:

postgresql:
 enabled: false
database:
 type: postgresql
 driver: org.postgresql.Driver
 url: 'postgres://${DB_HOST}:${DB_PORT}/xraydb?sslmode=disable'
 user: <DB_USER>
 password: <DB_PASSWORD>

Similar settings are applied when configuring Xray with an RDS database:

postgresql:
 enabled: false
database:
    type: postgresql
    driver: org.postgresql.Driver
    url: "postgres://test.postgres.database.azure.com:5432/xraydb?sslmode=disable"
    username: "xray@test"
    password: xray
    actualUsername: xray@test

MYSQL Database

Note: Pre-start  command downloads the driver and places it in /opt/jfrog/artifactory/var/bootstrap/artifactory/tomcat/lib/ so it can be used by the Artifactory.

The example below which can be added to the values.yaml:

   postgresql:
     enabled: false
   waitForDatabase: true
   database:
     type: mysql
     driver: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
     url: 'jdbc:mysql://database-ip:3306/artdb?characterEncoding=UTF-8&elideSetAutoCommits=true&useSSL=false'
     user: artifactory
     password: password

   artifactory:

     preStartCommand: "mkdir -p /opt/jfrog/artifactory/var/bootstrap/artifactory/tomcat/lib; cd /opt/jfrog/artifactory/var/bootstrap/artifactory/tomcat/lib && curl https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/mysql/mysql-connector-java/8.0.30/mysql-connector-java-8.0.30.jar -o /opt/jfrog/artifactory/var/bootstrap/artifactory/tomcat/lib/mysql-connector-java-8.0.30.jar; chmod 644
 mysql-connector-java-8.0.30.jar"

Oracle Database

To use Artifactory with an Oracle database, it is required to instant client library files, libaio must be copied to the tomcat lib (Refer to NOTE 1 below). In addition, you will need to set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH env variable (Refer to NOTE 2 below). 

NOTE:

1. Pre-start  command downloads the driver and places it in /opt/jfrog/artifactory/var/bootstrap/artifactory/tomcat/lib/ and copies the files to tomcat lib so it can be used by the Artifactory.
2. We also use extraEnvironmentVariables to override the LD_LIBRARY_path in the system.yaml to point to the instant client.

The example below which can be added to the values.yaml:

 postgresql:
   enabled: false
 waitForDatabase: true
 database:
   type: oracle
   driver: oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver
   url: 'jdbc:oracle:thin:@database-ip:1521/ORCL'
   user: artifactory
   password: password
 artifactory:

   preStartCommand: "mkdir -p /opt/jfrog/artifactory/var/bootstrap/artifactory/tomcat/lib; cd /opt/jfrog/artifactory/var/bootstrap/artifactory/tomcat/lib && curl -o instantclient-basic-linux.x64-21.8.0.0.0dbru.zip https://download.oracle.com/otn_software/linux/instantclient/218000/instantclient-basic-linux.x64-21.8.0.0.0dbru.zip && unzip -jn instantclient-basic-linux.x64-21.8.0.0.0dbru.zip && cp /opt/jfrog/artifactory/app/artifactory/libaio/* . && ln -s /usr/lib64/libnsl.so.2 /opt/jfrog/artifactory/var/bootstrap/artifactory/tomcat/lib/libnsl.so.1 && ls -lah && rm /opt/jfrog/artifactory/var/bootstrap/artifactory/tomcat/lib/instantclient-basic-linux.x64-21.8.0.0.0dbru.zip&& cp * /opt/jfrog/artifactory/app/artifactory/libaio/"

   extraEnvironmentVariables:

   - name: LD_LIBRARY_PATH

     value: /opt/jfrog/artifactory/var/bootstrap/artifactory/tomcat/lib

MSSQL Database

To use Artifactory with an MSSQL database, adding a GO connection URL is required in order to connect to the metadata service. 
Note:

1. Pre-start  command downloads the driver and places it in /opt/jfrog/artifactory/var/bootstrap/artifactory/tomcat/lib/ so it can be used by the Artifactory.
2. We also use extraEnvironmentVariables to override the metadata.URL in the system.yaml to connect to the database using GO because common error is when the database password inside of the Go connection string's metadata.database.url is not encrypted after startup.

The example below which can be added to the values.yaml:

 postgresql:
   enabled: false
 waitForDatabase: false
 database:
   type: mssql
   driver: com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver
   url: 'jdbc:sqlserver://<db-hostname>:1433;databaseName=artifactory;authentication=NotSpecified;encrypt=false;sendStringParametersAsUnicode=false;applicationName=Artifactory Binary Repository;'
   user: 'artifactory'
   password: 'password'
 artifactory:
   extraEnvironmentVariables:
   - name: JF_METADATA_DATABASE_URL
     value: "go:sqlserver://artifactoryuser:password@IP-ADDRESS:1433/MSSQLSERVER?database=artifactory"

   preStartCommand: "mkdir -p /opt/jfrog/artifactory/var/bootstrap/artifactory/tomcat/lib; cd /opt/jfrog/artifactory/var/bootstrap/artifactory/tomcat/lib && curl -L https://github.com/microsoft/mssql-jdbc/releases/download/v11.2.0/mssql-jdbc-11.2.0.jre17.jar -o /opt/jfrog/artifactory/var/bootstrap/artifactory/tomcat/lib/mssql-jdbc-11.2.0.jre17.jar"

Applying these changes can be done by using the below helm upgrade command (depending on the helm chart you are using – artifactory, artifactory-ha or JFrog platform):

Artifactory:

helm upgrade –install artifactory jfrog/artifactory –namespace artifactory -f values.yaml

Artifactory HA:

helm upgrade –install artifactory-ha jfrog/artifactory-ha –namespace artifactory-ha -f values.yaml 

Jfrog-platform:

helm upgrade --install jfrog-platform --namespace jfrog-platform jfrog/jfrog-platform -f values.yaml