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Bitnami Secure Image for PgBouncer

What is PgBouncer?

PgBouncer is a connection pooler for PostgreSQL. It reduces performance overhead by rotating client connections to PostgreSQL databases. It supports PostgreSQL databases located on different hosts.

Overview of PgBouncer Trademarks: This software listing is packaged by Bitnami. The respective trademarks mentioned in the offering are owned by the respective companies, and use of them does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

TL;DR

docker run --name pgbouncer bitnami/pgbouncer:latest

Warning: This quick setup is only intended for development environments. You are encouraged to change the insecure default credentials and check out the available configuration options in the Configuration section for a more secure deployment.

⚠️ Important Notice: Upcoming changes to the Bitnami Catalog

Beginning August 28th, 2025, Bitnami will evolve its public catalog to offer a curated set of hardened, security-focused images under the new Bitnami Secure Images initiative. As part of this transition:

  • Granting community users access for the first time to security-optimized versions of popular container images.
  • Bitnami will begin deprecating support for non-hardened, Debian-based software images in its free tier and will gradually remove non-latest tags from the public catalog. As a result, community users will have access to a reduced number of hardened images. These images are published only under the “latest” tag and are intended for development purposes
  • Starting August 28th, over two weeks, all existing container images, including older or versioned tags (e.g., 2.50.0, 10.6), will be migrated from the public catalog (docker.io/bitnami) to the “Bitnami Legacy” repository (docker.io/bitnamilegacy), where they will no longer receive updates.
  • For production workloads and long-term support, users are encouraged to adopt Bitnami Secure Images, which include hardened containers, smaller attack surfaces, CVE transparency (via VEX/KEV), SBOMs, and enterprise support.

These changes aim to improve the security posture of all Bitnami users by promoting best practices for software supply chain integrity and up-to-date deployments. For more details, visit the Bitnami Secure Images announcement.

Why use Bitnami Secure Images?

  • Bitnami Secure Images and Helm charts are built to make open source more secure and enterprise ready.
  • Triage security vulnerabilities faster, with transparency into CVE risks using industry standard Vulnerability Exploitability Exchange (VEX), KEV, and EPSS scores.
  • Our hardened images use a minimal OS (Photon Linux), which reduces the attack surface while maintaining extensibility through the use of an industry standard package format.
  • Stay more secure and compliant with continuously built images updated within hours of upstream patches.
  • Bitnami containers, virtual machines and cloud images use the same components and configuration approach - making it easy to switch between formats based on your project needs.
  • Hardened images come with attestation signatures (Notation), SBOMs, virus scan reports and other metadata produced in an SLSA-3 compliant software factory.

Only a subset of BSI applications are available for free. Looking to access the entire catalog of applications as well as enterprise support? Try the commercial edition of Bitnami Secure Images today.

Why use a non-root container?

Non-root container images add an extra layer of security and are generally recommended for production environments. However, because they run as a non-root user, privileged tasks are typically off-limits. Learn more about non-root containers in our docs.

Supported tags and respective Dockerfile links

Learn more about the Bitnami tagging policy and the difference between rolling tags and immutable tags in our documentation page.

You can see the equivalence between the different tags by taking a look at the tags-info.yaml file present in the branch folder, i.e bitnami/ASSET/BRANCH/DISTRO/tags-info.yaml.

Subscribe to project updates by watching the bitnami/containers GitHub repo.

Get this image

The recommended way to get the Bitnami pgbouncer Docker Image is to pull the prebuilt image from the Docker Hub Registry.

docker pull bitnami/pgbouncer:latest

To use a specific version, you can pull a versioned tag. You can view the list of available versions in the Docker Hub Registry.

docker pull bitnami/pgbouncer:[TAG]

If you wish, you can also build the image yourself by cloning the repository, changing to the directory containing the Dockerfile and executing the docker build command. Remember to replace the APP, VERSION and OPERATING-SYSTEM path placeholders in the example command below with the correct values.

git clone https://github.com/bitnami/containers.git
cd bitnami/APP/VERSION/OPERATING-SYSTEM
docker build -t bitnami/APP:latest .

Configuration

Environment variables

Customizable environment variables

Name Description Default Value
PGBOUNCER_LOG_FILE If set, log PgBouncer output to log file in addition to stdout. nil
PGBOUNCER_DATABASE PgBouncer advertised database. postgres
PGBOUNCER_PORT PgBouncer port 6432
PGBOUNCER_LISTEN_ADDRESS PgBouncer listen address 0.0.0.0
PGBOUNCER_AUTH_USER PgBouncer authentication user nil
PGBOUNCER_AUTH_QUERY PgBouncer authentication query nil
PGBOUNCER_AUTH_TYPE PgBouncer authentication type scram-sha-256
PGBOUNCER_AUTH_HBA_FILE HBA configuration file to use nil
PGBOUNCER_AUTH_IDENT_FILE Ident map file to use nil
PGBOUNCER_STATS_USERS PgBouncer comma-separated list of database users that are allowed to connect and run read-only queries. nil
PGBOUNCER_POOL_MODE PgBouncer pool mode. Allowed values: session (default), transaction and statement. nil
PGBOUNCER_INIT_SLEEP_TIME PgBouncer initialization sleep time 10
PGBOUNCER_SERVER_FAST_CLOSE Disconnect a server in session pooling mode immediately or after the end of the current transaction if it is in close_needed mode, rather than waiting for the session end (default: 0). 0
PGBOUNCER_INIT_MAX_RETRIES PgBouncer initialization maximum retries 10
PGBOUNCER_QUERY_WAIT_TIMEOUT PgBouncer maximum time queries are allowed to spend waiting for execution (default: 120). nil
PGBOUNCER_MAX_CLIENT_CONN PgBouncer maximum number of client connections allowed (default: 120). nil
PGBOUNCER_MAX_DB_CONNECTIONS PgBouncer maximum number of database connections allowed (default: 0). nil
PGBOUNCER_IDLE_TRANSACTION_TIMEOUT PgBouncer maximum time for a client to be in 'idle in transaction' state (default: 0.0). nil
PGBOUNCER_SERVER_IDLE_TIMEOUT PgBouncer maximum time in seconds a server connection can be idle. If 0 then the timeout is disabled (default: 600). nil
PGBOUNCER_SERVER_RESET_QUERY PgBouncer query sent to server on connection release before making it available to other clients (default: DISCARD ALL). nil
PGBOUNCER_DEFAULT_POOL_SIZE PgBouncer maximum server connections to allow per user/database pair (default: 20). nil
PGBOUNCER_MIN_POOL_SIZE PgBouncer has at least this amount of open connections (default: 0). nil
PGBOUNCER_RESERVE_POOL_SIZE PgBouncer allows this amount of additional connections (default: 0). nil
PGBOUNCER_RESERVE_POOL_TIMEOUT If a client has not been serviced in this time, use additional connections from the reserve pool. 0 disables. Default: 5.0 [seconds]. nil
PGBOUNCER_IGNORE_STARTUP_PARAMETERS Ignore startup parameters in PgBouncer extra_float_digits
PGBOUNCER_STATS_PERIOD PgBouncer stats period 60
PGBOUNCER_MAX_PREPARED_STATEMENTS PgBouncer maximum number of cached prepared statements (default: 0). nil
PGBOUNCER_EXTRA_FLAGS Extra flags for PgBouncer initialization nil
PGBOUNCER_FAIL_ON_INVALID_DSN_FILE Whether init process should fail if any DSN_FILE is not found. false
PGBOUNCER_SERVER_ROUND_ROBIN Defaults to LIFO server connection (0) reuse for performance but recommends uniform usage for systems with round-robin (1) setups to evenly distribute load. 0
PGBOUNCER_APPLICATION_NAME_ADD_HOST PgBouncer add the client host address and port to the application name setting set on connection start nil
PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_SSLMODE PgBouncer authentication type disable
PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_CA_FILE PgBouncer TLS authentication CA file nil
PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_CERT_FILE PgBouncer TLS authentication cert file nil
PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_KEY_FILE PgBouncer TLS authentication key file nil
PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_CIPHERS PgBouncer TLS authentication ciphers fast
PGBOUNCER_SERVER_TLS_SSLMODE PgBouncer server authentication type disable
PGBOUNCER_SERVER_TLS_CA_FILE PgBouncer server TLS authentication CA file nil
PGBOUNCER_SERVER_TLS_CERT_FILE PgBouncer server TLS authentication cert file nil
PGBOUNCER_SERVER_TLS_KEY_FILE PgBouncer server TLS authentication key file nil
PGBOUNCER_SERVER_TLS_PROTOCOLS PgBouncer server TLS authentication protocol secure
PGBOUNCER_SERVER_TLS_CIPHERS PgBouncer server TLS authentication ciphers fast
PGBOUNCER_LOG_CONNECTIONS PgBouncer log connections nil
PGBOUNCER_LOG_DISCONNECTIONS PgBouncer log disconnections nil
PGBOUNCER_LOG_POOLER_ERRORS PgBouncer log pooler errors nil
PGBOUNCER_LOG_STATS PgBouncer log stats nil
PGBOUNCER_SERVER_LIFETIME PgBouncer server lifetime nil
PGBOUNCER_SERVER_CONNECT_TIMEOUT PgBouncer server connect timeout nil
PGBOUNCER_SERVER_LOGIN_RETRY PgBouncer server login retry nil
PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_LOGIN_TIMEOUT PgBouncer client login timeout nil
PGBOUNCER_AUTODB_IDLE_TIMEOUT PgBouncer autodb idle timeout nil
PGBOUNCER_QUERY_TIMEOUT PgBouncer query timeout nil
PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_IDLE_TIMEOUT PgBouncer client idle timeout nil
POSTGRESQL_USERNAME PostgreSQL backend default username postgres
POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD Password for the PostgreSQL created user nil
POSTGRESQL_DATABASE Default PostgreSQL database ${PGBOUNCER_DATABASE}
POSTGRESQL_HOST PostgreSQL backend hostname postgresql
POSTGRESQL_PORT PostgreSQL backend port 5432
PGBOUNCER_SET_DATABASE_USER Whether to include the backend PostgreSQL username in the database string. no
PGBOUNCER_SET_DATABASE_PASSWORD Whether to include the backend PostgreSQL password in the database string. no
PGBOUNCER_USERLIST Additional content for PGBOUNCER_AUTH_FILE file nil
PGBOUNCER_CONNECT_QUERY Query which will be executed after a connection is established. nil
PGBOUNCER_FORCE_INITSCRIPTS Force the init scripts running even if it is not in the first start. false
PGBOUNCER_SOCKET_DIR PgBouncer socket dir /tmp/
PGBOUNCER_SOCKET_MODE PgBouncer socket mode 0777
PGBOUNCER_SOCKET_GROUP PgBouncer socket group nil
PGBOUNCER_DAEMON_USER PostgreSQL daemon user pgbouncer
PGBOUNCER_DAEMON_GROUP PostgreSQL daemon group pgbouncer

Read-only environment variables

Name Description Value
PGBOUNCER_BASE_DIR PgBouncer installation directory. ${BITNAMI_ROOT_DIR}/pgbouncer
PGBOUNCER_CONF_DIR PgBouncer configuration directory. ${PGBOUNCER_BASE_DIR}/conf
PGBOUNCER_LOG_DIR PgBouncer logs directory. ${PGBOUNCER_BASE_DIR}/logs
PGBOUNCER_TMP_DIR PgBouncer temporary directory. ${PGBOUNCER_BASE_DIR}/tmp
PGBOUNCER_PID_FILE PgBouncer pid file. ${PGBOUNCER_TMP_DIR}/pgbouncer.pid
PGBOUNCER_CONF_FILE PgBouncer configuration file. ${PGBOUNCER_CONF_DIR}/pgbouncer.ini
PGBOUNCER_AUTH_FILE PgBouncer authentication file. ${PGBOUNCER_CONF_DIR}/userlist.txt
PGBOUNCER_VOLUME_DIR PgBouncer volume directory. ${BITNAMI_VOLUME_DIR}/pgbouncer
PGBOUNCER_MOUNTED_CONF_DIR PgBouncer mounted configuration directory. ${PGBOUNCER_VOLUME_DIR}/conf
PGBOUNCER_INITSCRIPTS_DIR PgBouncer init scripts directory. /docker-entrypoint-initdb.d
NSS_WRAPPER_LIB Flag for startup (necessary for the postgresql client) /opt/bitnami/common/lib/libnss_wrapper.so

Daemon settings

The following parameters can be set for the PgBouncer daemon:

Authentication

The authentication mode can be set using the PGBOUNCER_AUTH_TYPE variable, which can be set to any of the values available in the official PgBouncer documentation. In the case of the scram-sha-256 authentication type (default value), set the backend PostgreSQL credentials as using the variables described in the Environment Variables table.

Extra arguments to PgBouncer startup

In case you want to add extra flags to the PgBouncer command, use the PGBOUNCER_EXTRA_FLAGS variable. Example:

docker run --name pgbouncer \
  -e PGBOUNCER_EXTRA_FLAGS="--verbose" \
  bitnami/pgbouncer:latest

Exposed database

  • PGBOUNCER_DATABASE: PgBouncer exposed database. Default: postgres.

In case you'd like pgbouncer to expose your database with a different name, you can use the PGBOUNCER_DATABASE variable. To expose the same database name as the backend, set PGBOUNCER_DATABASE="$POSTGRESQL_DATABASE". To expose a "fallback database" (wildcard that matches any)), set PGBOUNCER_DATABASE="*".

Initializing a new instance

When the container is launched, it will execute the files with extension .sh located at /docker-entrypoint-initdb.d.

In order to have your custom files inside the docker image you can mount them as a volume.

docker run --name pgbouncer \
  -v /path/to/init-scripts:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d \
  bitnami/pgbouncer:latest

Or with docker-compose

pgbouncer:
  image: bitnami/pgbouncer:latest
  volumes:
    - /path/to/init-scripts:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d

Securing PgBouncer traffic

PgBouncer supports the encryption of connections using the SSL/TLS protocol. Should you desire to enable this optional feature, you may use the following environment variables to configure the application:

  • PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_SSLMODE: TLS traffic settings. Defaults to disable. Check the official PgBouncer documentation for the available values for client_tls_sslmode.

  • PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_CERT_FILE: File containing the certificate file for the TLS traffic. No defaults.

  • PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_KEY_FILE: File containing the key for certificate. No defaults.

  • PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_CA_FILE: File containing the CA of the certificate. If provided, PgBouncer will authenticate TLS/SSL clients by requesting them a certificate . No defaults.

  • PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_CIPHERS: TLS ciphers to be used. Defaults to fast.Check the official PgBouncer documentation for the available values for client_tls_ciphers.

  • PGBOUNCER_SERVER_TLS_SSLMODE: Server TLS traffic settings. Defaults to disable. Check the official PgBouncer documentation for the available values for server_tls_sslmode.

  • PGBOUNCER_SERVER_TLS_KEY_FILE: File containing the key to authenticate against PostgreSQL server. No defaults.

  • PGBOUNCER_SERVER_TLS_CERT_FILE: File containing the certificate associated to previous private key. PostgreSQL server can validate it. No defaults.

  • PGBOUNCER_SERVER_TLS_CA_FILE: File containing the CA of the server certificate. If provided, PgBouncer will authenticate TLS/SSL clients by requesting them a certificate . No defaults.

  • PGBOUNCER_SERVER_TLS_PROTOCOLS: TLS protocols to be used in server connection. Defaults to secure. Check the official PgBouncer documentation for the available values for server_tls_protocols.

  • PGBOUNCER_SERVER_TLS_CIPHERS: TLS ciphers to be used in server connection. Defaults to fast. Check the official PgBouncer documentation for the available values for server_tls_ciphers.

When enabling TLS, PgBouncer will support both standard and encrypted traffic by default but prefer the latter. Below there are some examples of how to quickly set up client TLS traffic:

  1. Using docker run

    $ docker run \
    -v /path/to/certs:/opt/bitnami/pgbouncer/certs \
    -e PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_SSLMODE=require \
    -e PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_CERT_FILE=/opt/bitnami/pgbouncer/certs/pgbouncer.crt \
    -e PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_KEY_FILE=/opt/bitnami/pgbouncer/certs/pgbouncer.key \
    bitnami/pgbouncer:latest

  2. Modifying the docker-compose.yml file present in this repository:

    services:
  pgbouncer:
  ...
    environment:
      ...
      - PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_SSLMODE=require
      - PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_CERT_FILE=/opt/bitnami/pgbouncer/certs/pgbouncer.crt
      - PGBOUNCER_CLIENT_TLS_KEY_FILE=/opt/bitnami/pgbouncer/certs/pgbouncer.key
    ...
    volumes:
      ...
      - /path/to/certs:/opt/bitnami/pgbouncer/certs
  ...

Alternatively, you may also provide this configuration in your custom configuration file.

Configuration file

The image looks for pgbouncer.ini file in /opt/bitnami/pgbouncer/conf/. You can mount a volume at /bitnami/pgbouncer/conf/ and copy/edit the pgbouncer.ini file in the /path/to/pgbouncer-persistence/conf/. The default configurations will be populated to the conf/ directory if it's empty.

/path/to/pgbouncer-persistence/conf/
└── pgbouncer.ini

0 directories, 1 file

As PgBouncer image is non-root, you need to set the proper permissions to the mounted directory in your host:

sudo chown 1001:1001 /path/to/pgbouncer-persistence/conf/

Step 1: Run the PgBouncer image

Run the PgBouncer image, mounting a directory from your host.

docker run --name pgbouncer \
    -v /path/to/pgbouncer-persistence/conf/:/bitnami/pgbouncer/conf/ \
    bitnami/pgbouncer:latest

or using Docker Compose:

version: '2'

...

services:
  pgbouncer:
    image: bitnami/pgbouncer:latest
    ports:
      - 6432:6432
    volumes:
      - /path/to/pgbouncer-persistence/conf/:/bitnami/pgbouncer/conf/

Step 2: Edit the configuration

Edit the configuration on your host using your favorite editor.

vi /path/to/pgbouncer-persistence/conf/pgbouncer.ini

Step 3: Restart PgBouncer

After changing the configuration, restart your PgBouncer container for changes to take effect.

docker restart pgbouncer

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose restart pgbouncer

Refer to the server configuration manual for the complete list of configuration options.

How to connect with multiple PostgreSQL servers

It is possible to connect a single PgBouncer instance with multiple PostgreSQL backends. By using as many PGBOUNCER_DSN_${i} environment variables (with i starting at zero, 0) as needed, and the PGBOUNCER_USERLIST_FILE variable pointing to a mounted volume with the required credentials for any extra PostgreSQL database in the format "<postgresql-user>" "<password>".

The PgBouncer initialization process requires one PostgreSQL backend to be configured using the different POSTGRESQL_* variables listed in the Environment Variables section, but the rest of backends connections can be provided using the method explained in this section. An example docker-compose.yaml for this scenario can be found below

  pg1:
    image: docker.io/bitnami/postgresql:latest
    volumes:
      - pg1_data:/bitnami/postgresql
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=password1
      - POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=db1

  pg2:
    image: docker.io/bitnami/postgresql:latest
    volumes:
      - pg2_data:/bitnami/postgresql
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=password2
      - POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=db2

  pg3:
    image: docker.io/bitnami/postgresql:latest
    volumes:
      - pg3_data:/bitnami/postgresql
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=password3
      - POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=db3

  pgbouncer:
    image: docker.io/bitnami/pgbouncer:latest
    ports:
      - 6432:6432
    volumes:
      - ./userlists.txt:/bitnami/userlists.txt
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_HOST=pg1
      - POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=password1
      - POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=db1
      - PGBOUNCER_AUTH_TYPE=trust
      - PGBOUNCER_USERLIST_FILE=/bitnami/userlists.txt
      - PGBOUNCER_DSN_0=pg1=host=pg1 port=5432 dbname=db1
      - PGBOUNCER_DSN_1=pg2=host=pg2 port=5432 dbname=db2
      - PGBOUNCER_DSN_2=pg3=host=pg3 port=5432 dbname=db3
volumes:
  pg1_data:
    driver: local
  pg2_data:
    driver: local
  pg3_data:
    driver: local

And this is the content of the userlists.txt file:

"postgres" "password1"
"postgres" "password2"
"postgres" "password3"

Once initialized, the scenario above provides access to three diferent PostgreSQL backends from a single PgBouncer instance. As an example, you can request the PostgreSQL version of the backend server number two (notice it is the only running PostgreSQL 15.x in this scenario):

$ docker exec -it -u root debian-12-pgbouncer-1 psql -p 6432 -U postgres pg2 -c "show server_version;"
 server_version
 ----------------
  15.4
  (1 row)

FIPS configuration in Bitnami Secure Images

The Bitnami PgBouncer Docker image from the Bitnami Secure Images catalog includes extra features and settings to configure the container with FIPS capabilities. You can configure the next environment variables:

  • OPENSSL_FIPS: whether OpenSSL runs in FIPS mode or not. yes (default), no.

Using docker-compose.yaml

Please be aware this file has not undergone internal testing. Consequently, we advise its use exclusively for development or testing purposes.

If you detect any issue in the docker-compose.yaml file, feel free to report it or contribute with a fix by following our Contributing Guidelines.

Contributing

We'd love for you to contribute to this container. You can request new features by creating an issue or submitting a pull request with your contribution.

Issues

If you encountered a problem running this container, you can file an issue. For us to provide better support, be sure to fill the issue template.

License

Copyright © 2025 Broadcom. The term "Broadcom" refers to Broadcom Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.