Provision a Database

The create-database template provisions a PostgreSQL or MySQL database with a single wizard, across four destinations: local Docker, Docker Compose, Kubernetes (via Bitnami Helm), or AWS RDS (via Terraform). The database is registered in the ForgePortal catalog as a kind: resource entity, making it discoverable and referenceable by services.

Prerequisites

• ForgePortal is running — see Quick Start
• Your role is developer or higher — see Role Guide
• For Kubernetes: a cluster is reachable and kubectl is configured on the machine that will apply the Helm values
• For AWS RDS: an infra repo is configured with Terraform backend, and the GitHub token has repo write scope

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Step 1 — Open the Template

1. Click Templates in the navigation.
2. Find the Create Database card.
3. Click "Create →".

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Step 2 — Fill the Wizard

Common fields (all destinations)

Field	Example	Notes
Database name	orders-db	Becomes the entity name and the Helm release / Docker container name
Engine	postgresql	postgresql or mysql
Destination	kubernetes	See options below
Owner	team-platform	Registered in the catalog

Destination: local-docker

No extra fields needed. Generates a docker-run.sh script.

Destination: docker-compose

Field	Example
Service name in Compose	orders-db
Port	5432
Data volume name	orders-db-data

Generates a docker-compose.yml service block to paste into your existing Compose file.

Destination: kubernetes

Field	Example
Namespace	databases
Storage size	10Gi
Replica count	1 (dev) / 2 (prod)
Infra repo	my-org/infra

Generates a helm-values.yaml for the Bitnami PostgreSQL chart and opens a PR.

Destination: aws-rds

Field	Example
AWS Region	us-east-1
Instance class	db.t3.medium
Storage (GB)	20
Multi-AZ	false (dev) / true (prod)
Infra repo	my-org/infra

Generates a Terraform module under infra/databases/orders-db/ and opens a PR.

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Step 3 — Watch the Run

Step	What happens
template.render	Files are generated from the Handlebars templates
scm.openPullRequest	PR opened in your infra repo (Kubernetes / AWS RDS destinations)
catalog.registerEntity	resource:orders-db entity registered in the catalog

Local Docker and Docker Compose

For these destinations, no PR is opened. The generated script / YAML snippet is shown as a step output in the run page — copy it directly from there.

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Step 4 — Apply the Configuration

Local Docker

Copy the docker run command from the run outputs:

docker run -d \
  --name orders-db \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=changeme \
  -e POSTGRES_DB=orders \
  -p 5432:5432 \
  -v orders-db-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data \
  postgres:16-alpine

Docker Compose

Paste the generated service block into your docker-compose.yml:

services:
  orders-db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: changeme
      POSTGRES_DB: orders
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"
    volumes:
      - orders-db-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

volumes:
  orders-db-data:

Kubernetes (Helm)

Merge the PR opened in your infra repo, then install:

helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
helm upgrade --install orders-db bitnami/postgresql \
  --namespace databases --create-namespace \
  -f infra/databases/orders-db/helm-values.yaml

Or if you use ArgoCD or Flux, the PR merge triggers automatic sync — no manual command needed.

AWS RDS (Terraform)

Merge the PR, then apply:

cd infra/databases/orders-db
terraform init
terraform plan -out=tfplan
terraform apply tfplan

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Step 5 — See the Entity in the Catalog

1. Go to Catalog → search for orders-db.
2. The entity is of kind: resource — you see its description, owner, and lifecycle.
3. Reference it from a service by adding to that service's entity.yaml:

spec:
  dependsOn:
    - resource:orders-db

After the next catalog scan, the relation appears in both entity detail pages.

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Next Steps

• Provision a cache — Run the Create Cache template for Redis
• Provision a queue — Run the Create Message Queue template for RabbitMQ/Kafka
• Full SRE flow — See Golden Paths Overview