Launchpad Database Setup

There are two ways to set up your launchpad database.

Automated Launchpad Database Setup

To set up postgres for running Launchpad, try using the launchpad-database-setup script from the Launchpad source tree. If you have one (see RocketFuelSetup), you should find it in utilities/.

WARNING: Do not use this script if you are using postgres for anything besides Launchpad. The script expects a freshly installed postgresql database, so It will destroy any postgres databases you already have on your system. If that is a problem for you, use the manual procedure instead and adapt to your needs.

Manual Launchpad Database Setup

The initial Launchpad database should be done on your system with the following sequence of commands:

1. If you have any versions of PostgreSQL other than 9.3 on your system: Launchpad requires PostgreSQL 9.3 on port 5432. Ensure that any existing PostgreSQL clusters are not running on port 5432.

   • Edit /etc/postgresql/$OTHER_VERSION/*/postgresql.conf and change the port= settings to 5433, 5434, 5435 etc. For example, if you have postgresql 9.1 installed and nothing fancy (only one cluster) edit /etc/postgresql/9.1/main/postgresql.conf:

     port = 5432

     and replace that by

     port = 5433

     You may also want to edit `/etc/postgresql/$OTHER_VERSION/*/start.conf to select which instances are run on startup, or even uninstall the earlier PostgreSQL versions.
2. Install packages (Done by rocketfuel-setup, if you used that.):

   • sudo apt-get install launchpad-database-dependencies

     which is equivalent to:

     sudo aptitude install postgresql-9.3, postgresql-contrib-9.3, postgresql-plpython-9.3, postgresql-client-9.3, postgresql-9.3-slony1-2, postgresql-9.3-debversion

3. Nuke the default database and recreate with the current required locale:

   • $ sudo pg_dropcluster 9.3 main --stop-server
     
     $ LC_ALL=C sudo pg_createcluster 9.3 main --start --encoding UNICODE

4. add the following lines at the top of the file /etc/postgresql/8.4/main/pg_hba.conf:

   • # allow unauthenticated connections to localhost
     local   all         all                               trust
     host    all         all         127.0.0.1/32          trust
     host    all         all         ::1/128               trust

     Note that this gives all accounts on your local box full access to PostgreSQL - if this is a problem talk to StuartBishop for more detailed instructions (this requires occasional maintenance).

5. Add the following options to /etc/postgresql/9.3/main/postgresql.conf:

   • # Enable launchpad full text searching in database
     search_path='$user,public,ts2'
     # Per Bug #90809, standard_conforming_strings should be 'on'
     standard_conforming_strings=off
     escape_string_warning=off
     
     #enable_seqscan=false
     log_statement='none'
     log_line_prefix='[%t] %q%u@%d '
     fsync = off

     The first two are required. enable_seqscan helps tune queries as it forces PostgreSQL to use indexes if they are available (PostgreSQL often won't use them with our sample data because it is more efficient to simply scan the entire table), but will cause things to run a bit slower. The log_* statements output all queries sent to the server to /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-9.3-main.log, which helps you debug and understand what your code (and in particular Storm) is doing. The fsync = off line improves performance at the slightly increased risk of database integrity loss, by disabling fsyncs from PostgreSQL. This change makes certain development tasks more efficient, for example, the amount of time required to create a new database can be dramatically reduced. In exchange, if your computer crashes, you would need to recreate the whole PostgreSQL cluster.

6. Restart the PostgreSQL server:

   • sudo service postgresql restart

7. Make sure your default PostgreSQL user is a superuser. Your default PostgreSQL user has the same name as your login account (if it existed already, and it was not a superuser, drop it first):

   • sudo -u postgres dropuser $(id -un)
     sudo -u postgres createuser -s -d $(id -un)

8. Create the databases, users, permissions and populate it with sampledata:

   • cd $your_launchpad_checkout; make schema

9. Profit! Enjoy your shiny new launchpad database.