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Bitnami Secure Image for PostgreSQL

What is PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL (Postgres) is an open source object-relational database known for reliability and data integrity. ACID-compliant, it supports foreign keys, joins, views, triggers and stored procedures.

Overview of PostgreSQL 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 postgresql bitnami/postgresql: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.

How to deploy PostgreSQL in Kubernetes?

Deploying Bitnami applications as Helm Charts is the easiest way to get started with our applications on Kubernetes. Read more about the installation in the Bitnami PostgreSQL Chart GitHub repository.

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 PostgreSQL Docker Image is to pull the prebuilt image from the Docker Hub Registry.

docker pull bitnami/postgresql: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/postgresql:[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 .

Persisting your database

If you remove the container all your data and configurations will be lost, and the next time you run the image the database will be reinitialized. To avoid this loss of data, you should mount a volume that will persist even after the container is removed.

For persistence you should mount a directory at the /bitnami/postgresql path. If the mounted directory is empty, it will be initialized on the first run.

docker run \
    -v /path/to/postgresql-persistence:/bitnami/postgresql \
    bitnami/postgresql:latest

or by modifying the docker-compose.yml file present in this repository:

services:
  postgresql:
  ...
    volumes:
      - /path/to/postgresql-persistence:/bitnami/postgresql
  ...

NOTE: As this is a non-root container, the mounted files and directories must have the proper permissions for the UID 1001.

Connecting to other containers

Using Docker container networking, a PostgreSQL server running inside a container can easily be accessed by your application containers.

Containers attached to the same network can communicate with each other using the container name as the hostname.

Using the Command Line

In this example, we will create a PostgreSQL client instance that will connect to the server instance that is running on the same docker network as the client.

Step 1: Create a network

docker network create app-tier --driver bridge

Step 2: Launch the PostgreSQL server instance

Use the --network app-tier argument to the docker run command to attach the PostgreSQL container to the app-tier network.

docker run -d --name postgresql-server \
    --network app-tier \
    bitnami/postgresql:latest

Step 3: Launch your PostgreSQL client instance

Finally we create a new container instance to launch the PostgreSQL client and connect to the server created in the previous step:

docker run -it --rm \
    --network app-tier \
    bitnami/postgresql:latest psql -h postgresql-server -U postgres

Using a Docker Compose file

When not specified, Docker Compose automatically sets up a new network and attaches all deployed services to that network. However, we will explicitly define a new bridge network named app-tier. In this example we assume that you want to connect to the PostgreSQL server from your own custom application image which is identified in the following snippet by the service name myapp.

version: '2'

networks:
  app-tier:
    driver: bridge

services:
  postgresql:
    image: bitnami/postgresql:latest
    networks:
      - app-tier
  myapp:
    image: YOUR_APPLICATION_IMAGE
    networks:
      - app-tier

IMPORTANT:

  1. Please update the YOUR_APPLICATION_IMAGE_ placeholder in the above snippet with your application image
  2. In your application container, use the hostname postgresql to connect to the PostgreSQL server

Launch the containers using:

docker-compose up -d

Configuration

Environment variables

Customizable environment variables

Name Description Default Value
POSTGRESQL_VOLUME_DIR Persistence base directory /bitnami/postgresql
POSTGRESQL_DATA_DIR PostgreSQL data directory ${POSTGRESQL_VOLUME_DIR}/data
POSTGRESQL_EXTRA_FLAGS Extra flags for PostgreSQL initialization nil
POSTGRESQL_INIT_MAX_TIMEOUT Maximum initialization waiting timeout 60
POSTGRESQL_PGCTLTIMEOUT Maximum waiting timeout for pg_ctl commands 60
POSTGRESQL_SHUTDOWN_MODE Default mode for pg_ctl stop command fast
POSTGRESQL_CLUSTER_APP_NAME Replication cluster default application name walreceiver
POSTGRESQL_DATABASE Default PostgreSQL database postgres
POSTGRESQL_INITDB_ARGS Optional args for PostreSQL initdb operation nil
ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD Allow password-less access no
POSTGRESQL_INITDB_WAL_DIR Optional init db wal directory nil
POSTGRESQL_MASTER_HOST PostgreSQL master host (used by slaves) nil
POSTGRESQL_MASTER_PORT_NUMBER PostgreSQL master host port (used by slaves) 5432
POSTGRESQL_NUM_SYNCHRONOUS_REPLICAS Number of PostgreSQL replicas that should use synchronous replication 0
POSTGRESQL_SYNCHRONOUS_REPLICAS_MODE PostgreSQL synchronous replication mode (values: empty, FIRST, ANY) nil
POSTGRESQL_PORT_NUMBER PostgreSQL port number 5432
POSTGRESQL_ALLOW_REMOTE_CONNECTIONS Modify pg_hba settings so users can access from the outside yes
POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE PostgreSQL replication mode (values: master, slave) master
POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER PostgreSQL replication user nil
POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USE_PASSFILE Use PGPASSFILE instead of PGPASSWORD no
POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSFILE_PATH Path to store passfile ${POSTGRESQL_CONF_DIR}/.pgpass
POSTGRESQL_SR_CHECK Create user on PostgreSQL for Stream Replication Check no
POSTGRESQL_SR_CHECK_USERNAME Stream Replication Check user sr_check_user
POSTGRESQL_SR_CHECK_DATABASE Stream Replication Check database postgres
POSTGRESQL_SYNCHRONOUS_COMMIT_MODE Enable synchronous replication in slaves (number defined by POSTGRESQL_NUM_SYNCHRONOUS_REPLICAS) on
POSTGRESQL_FSYNC Enable fsync in write ahead logs on
POSTGRESQL_USERNAME PostgreSQL default username postgres
POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_LDAP Enable LDAP for PostgreSQL authentication no
POSTGRESQL_LDAP_URL PostgreSQL LDAP server url (requires POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_LDAP=yes) nil
POSTGRESQL_LDAP_PREFIX PostgreSQL LDAP prefix (requires POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_LDAP=yes) nil
POSTGRESQL_LDAP_SUFFIX PostgreSQL LDAP suffix (requires POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_LDAP=yes) nil
POSTGRESQL_LDAP_SERVER PostgreSQL LDAP server (requires POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_LDAP=yes) nil
POSTGRESQL_LDAP_PORT PostgreSQL LDAP port (requires POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_LDAP=yes) nil
POSTGRESQL_LDAP_SCHEME PostgreSQL LDAP scheme (requires POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_LDAP=yes) nil
POSTGRESQL_LDAP_TLS PostgreSQL LDAP tls setting (requires POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_LDAP=yes) nil
POSTGRESQL_LDAP_BASE_DN PostgreSQL LDAP base DN settings (requires POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_LDAP=yes) nil
POSTGRESQL_LDAP_BIND_DN PostgreSQL LDAP bind DN settings (requires POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_LDAP=yes) nil
POSTGRESQL_LDAP_BIND_PASSWORD PostgreSQL LDAP bind password (requires POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_LDAP=yes) nil
POSTGRESQL_LDAP_SEARCH_ATTR PostgreSQL LDAP search attribute (requires POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_LDAP=yes) nil
POSTGRESQL_LDAP_SEARCH_FILTER PostgreSQL LDAP search filter (requires POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_LDAP=yes) nil
POSTGRESQL_INITSCRIPTS_USERNAME Username for the psql scripts included in /docker-entrypoint.initdb $POSTGRESQL_USERNAME
POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD Password for the PostgreSQL created user nil
POSTGRESQL_POSTGRES_PASSWORD Password for the PostgreSQL postgres user nil
POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD Password for the PostgreSQL replication user nil
POSTGRESQL_SR_CHECK_PASSWORD Password for the Stream Replication Check user nil
POSTGRESQL_INITSCRIPTS_PASSWORD Password for the PostgreSQL init scripts user $POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD
POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_TLS Whether to enable TLS for traffic or not no
POSTGRESQL_TLS_CERT_FILE File containing the certificate for the TLS traffic nil
POSTGRESQL_TLS_KEY_FILE File containing the key for certificate nil
POSTGRESQL_TLS_CA_FILE File containing the CA of the certificate nil
POSTGRESQL_TLS_CRL_FILE File containing a Certificate Revocation List nil
POSTGRESQL_TLS_PREFER_SERVER_CIPHERS Whether to use the server TLS cipher preferences rather than the client yes
POSTGRESQL_SHARED_PRELOAD_LIBRARIES List of libraries to preload at PostgreSQL initialization pgaudit
POSTGRESQL_PGAUDIT_LOG Comma-separated list of actions to log with pgaudit nil
POSTGRESQL_PGAUDIT_LOG_CATALOG Enable pgaudit log catalog (pgaudit.log_catalog setting) nil
POSTGRESQL_PGAUDIT_LOG_PARAMETER Enable pgaudit log parameter (pgaudit.log_parameter setting) nil
POSTGRESQL_LOG_CONNECTIONS Add a log entry per user connection nil
POSTGRESQL_LOG_DISCONNECTIONS Add a log entry per user disconnection nil
POSTGRESQL_LOG_HOSTNAME Log the client host name when accessing nil
POSTGRESQL_CLIENT_MIN_MESSAGES Set log level of errors to send to the client error
POSTGRESQL_LOG_LINE_PREFIX Set the format of the log lines nil
POSTGRESQL_LOG_TIMEZONE Set the log timezone nil
POSTGRESQL_TIMEZONE Set the timezone nil
POSTGRESQL_MAX_CONNECTIONS Set the maximum amount of connections nil
POSTGRESQL_TCP_KEEPALIVES_IDLE Set the TCP keepalive idle time nil
POSTGRESQL_TCP_KEEPALIVES_INTERVAL Set the TCP keepalive interval time nil
POSTGRESQL_TCP_KEEPALIVES_COUNT Set the TCP keepalive count nil
POSTGRESQL_STATEMENT_TIMEOUT Set the SQL statement timeout nil
POSTGRESQL_PGHBA_REMOVE_FILTERS Comma-separated list of strings for removing pg_hba.conf lines (example: md5, local) nil
POSTGRESQL_USERNAME_CONNECTION_LIMIT Set the user connection limit nil
POSTGRESQL_POSTGRES_CONNECTION_LIMIT Set the postgres user connection limit nil
POSTGRESQL_WAL_LEVEL Set the write-ahead log level replica
POSTGRESQL_DEFAULT_TOAST_COMPRESSION Set the postgres default compression nil
POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD_ENCRYPTION Set the passwords encryption method nil
POSTGRESQL_DEFAULT_TRANSACTION_ISOLATION Set transaction isolation nil
POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_NODES Override value for synchronous_standby_names in postgresql.conf. Should be set if REPMGR_NODE_NAME nil
POSTGRESQL_PERFORM_RESTORE Flag to skip deletion of recovery.signal file to enable native recovery. e.g by using wal-g no
POSTGRESQL_AUTOCTL_CONF_DIR Path to the configuration dir for the pg_autoctl command ${POSTGRESQL_AUTOCTL_VOLUME_DIR}/.config
POSTGRESQL_AUTOCTL_MODE pgAutoFailover node type, valid values [monitor, postgres] postgres
POSTGRESQL_AUTOCTL_MONITOR_HOST Hostname for the monitor component monitor
POSTGRESQL_AUTOCTL_HOSTNAME Hostname by which postgres is reachable $(hostname --fqdn)

Read-only environment variables

Name Description Value
POSTGRESQL_BASE_DIR PostgreSQL installation directory /opt/bitnami/postgresql
POSTGRESQL_DEFAULT_CONF_DIR PostgreSQL configuration directory $POSTGRESQL_BASE_DIR/conf.default
POSTGRESQL_CONF_DIR PostgreSQL configuration directory $POSTGRESQL_BASE_DIR/conf
POSTGRESQL_MOUNTED_CONF_DIR PostgreSQL mounted configuration directory $POSTGRESQL_VOLUME_DIR/conf
POSTGRESQL_CONF_FILE PostgreSQL configuration file $POSTGRESQL_CONF_DIR/postgresql.conf
POSTGRESQL_PGHBA_FILE PostgreSQL pg_hba file $POSTGRESQL_CONF_DIR/pg_hba.conf
POSTGRESQL_RECOVERY_FILE PostgreSQL recovery file $POSTGRESQL_DATA_DIR/recovery.conf
POSTGRESQL_LOG_DIR PostgreSQL logs directory $POSTGRESQL_BASE_DIR/logs
POSTGRESQL_LOG_FILE PostgreSQL log file $POSTGRESQL_LOG_DIR/postgresql.log
POSTGRESQL_TMP_DIR PostgreSQL temporary directory $POSTGRESQL_BASE_DIR/tmp
POSTGRESQL_PID_FILE PostgreSQL PID file $POSTGRESQL_TMP_DIR/postgresql.pid
POSTGRESQL_BIN_DIR PostgreSQL executables directory $POSTGRESQL_BASE_DIR/bin
POSTGRESQL_INITSCRIPTS_DIR Init scripts directory /docker-entrypoint-initdb.d
POSTGRESQL_PREINITSCRIPTS_DIR Pre-init scripts directory /docker-entrypoint-preinitdb.d
POSTGRESQL_DAEMON_USER PostgreSQL system user postgres
POSTGRESQL_DAEMON_GROUP PostgreSQL system group postgres
POSTGRESQL_USE_CUSTOM_PGHBA_INITIALIZATION Initialize PostgreSQL with the custom, mounted pg_hba.conf file no
POSTGRESQL_AUTOCTL_VOLUME_DIR The pg_autoctl home directory ${POSTGRESQL_VOLUME_DIR}/pgautoctl
POSTGRESQL_PGBACKREST_VOLUME_DIR The pgbackrest home directory ${POSTGRESQL_VOLUME_DIR}/pgbackrest
POSTGRESQL_PGBACKREST_LOGS_DIR The pgbackrest logs directory ${POSTGRESQL_PGBACKREST_VOLUME_DIR}/logs
POSTGRESQL_PGBACKREST_BACKUPS_DIR The pgbackrest backups directory ${POSTGRESQL_PGBACKREST_VOLUME_DIR}/backups
POSTGRESQL_PGBACKREST_SPOOL_DIR The pgbackrest spool directory ${POSTGRESQL_PGBACKREST_VOLUME_DIR}/spool
POSTGRESQL_PGBACKREST_CONF_FILE The pgbackrest configuration file ${POSTGRESQL_DATA_DIR}/pgbackrest.conf
POSTGRESQL_FIRST_BOOT Flag for startup (necessary for repmgr) yes
NSS_WRAPPER_LIB Flag for startup (necessary for repmgr) /opt/bitnami/common/lib/libnss_wrapper.so

On container start

When the container is executed, it will execute the files with extension .sh located at /docker-entrypoint-preinitdb.d before initializing or starting postgresql.

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

Passing extra command-line flags to PostgreSQL

Passing extra command-line flags to the postgresql service command is possible through the following env var:

  • POSTGRESQL_EXTRA_FLAGS: Flags to be appended to the postgres startup command. No defaults

Initializing a new instance

When the container is executed for the first time, it will execute the files with extensions .sh, .sql and .sql.gz located at /docker-entrypoint-initdb.d.

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

Setting the root password on first run

In the above commands you may have noticed the use of the POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD environment variable. Passing the POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD environment variable when running the image for the first time will set the password of the postgres user to the value of POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD (or the content of the file specified in POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD_FILE).

docker run --name postgresql -e POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=password123 bitnami/postgresql:latest

or by modifying the docker-compose.yml file present in this repository:

services:
  postgresql:
  ...
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=password123
  ...

Note! The postgres user is a superuser and has full administrative access to the PostgreSQL database.

Refer to Creating a database user on first run if you want to set an unprivileged user and a password for the postgres user.

Creating a database on first run

By passing the POSTGRESQL_DATABASE environment variable when running the image for the first time, a database will be created. This is useful if your application requires that a database already exists, saving you from having to manually create the database using the PostgreSQL client.

docker run --name postgresql -e POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=my_database bitnami/postgresql:latest

or by modifying the docker-compose.yml file present in this repository:

services:
  postgresql:
  ...
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=my_database
  ...

Creating a database user on first run

You can also create a restricted database user that only has permissions for the database created with the POSTGRESQL_DATABASE environment variable. To do this, provide the POSTGRESQL_USERNAME environment variable.

docker run --name postgresql -e POSTGRESQL_USERNAME=my_user -e POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=password123 -e POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=my_database bitnami/postgresql:latest

or by modifying the docker-compose.yml file present in this repository:

services:
  postgresql:
  ...
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_USERNAME=my_user
      - POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=password123
      - POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=my_database
  ...

Note! When POSTGRESQL_USERNAME is specified, the postgres user is not assigned a password and as a result you cannot login remotely to the PostgreSQL server as the postgres user. If you still want to have access with the user postgres, please set the POSTGRESQL_POSTGRES_PASSWORD environment variable (or the content of the file specified in POSTGRESQL_POSTGRES_PASSWORD_FILE).

Auditing

The Bitnami PostgreSQL Image comes with the pgAudit module enabled by default. Thanks to this, audit information can be enabled in the container with these environment variables:

  • POSTGRESQL_PGAUDIT_LOG: Comma-separated list with different operations to audit. Find in the official pgAudit documentation the list of possible values. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_PGAUDIT_LOG_CATALOG: Session logging enabled in the case where all relations in a statement are in pg_catalog. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_LOG_CONNECTIONS: Add log entry for logins. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_LOG_DISCONNECTIONS: Add log entry for logouts. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_LOG_HOSTNAME: Log the client hostname. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_LOG_LINE_PREFIX: Define the format of the log entry lines. Find in the official PostgreSQL documentation the string parameters. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_LOG_TIMEZONE: Set the timezone for the log entry timestamp. No defaults.

Session settings

The Bitnami PostgreSQL Image allows configuring several parameters for the connection and session management:

  • POSTGRESQL_USERNAME_CONNECTION_LIMIT: If a user different from postgres is created, set the connection limit. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_POSTGRES_CONNECTION_LIMIT: Set the connection limit for the postgres user. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_STATEMENT_TIMEOUT: Set the statement timeout. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_TCP_KEEPALIVES_INTERVAL: TCP keepalive interval. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_TCP_KEEPALIVES_IDLE: TCP keepalive idle time. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_TCP_KEEPALIVES_COUNT: TCP keepalive count. No defaults.

Configuring time zone

The Bitnami PostgreSQL Image allows configuring the time zone for PostgreSQL with the following environment variables:

  • POSTGRESQL_TIMEZONE: Sets the time zone for displaying and interpreting time stamps.
  • POSTGRESQL_LOG_TIMEZONE: Sets the time zone used for timestamps written in the server log.

Modify pg_hba.conf

By default, the Bitnami PostgreSQL Image generates local and md5 entries in the pg_hba.conf file. In order to adapt to any other requirements or standards, it is possible to change the pg_hba.conf file by:

  • Mounting your own pg_hba.conf file in /bitnami/postgresql/conf
  • Using the POSTGRESQL_PGHBA_REMOVE_FILTERS with a comma-separated list of patterns. All lines that match any of the patterns will be removed. For example, if we want to remove all local and md5 authentication (in favour of hostssl only connections, for example), set POSTGRESQL_PGHBA_REMOVE_FILTERS=local, md5.

Preloading shared libraries

It is possible to modify the list of libraries that PostgreSQL will preload at boot time by setting the POSTGRESQL_SHARED_PRELOAD_LIBRARIES. The default value is POSTGRESQL_SHARED_PRELOAD_LIBRARIES=pgaudit. If, for example, you want to add the pg_stat_statements library to the preload, set POSTGRESQL_SHARED_PRELOAD_LIBRARIES=pgaudit, pg_stat_statements.

Setting up a streaming replication

A Streaming replication cluster can easily be setup with the Bitnami PostgreSQL Docker Image using the following environment variables:

  • POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE: Replication mode. Possible values master/slave. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER: The replication user created on the master on first run. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD: The replication users password. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD_FILE: Path to a file that contains the replication users password. This will override the value specified in POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_MASTER_HOST: Hostname/IP of replication master (slave parameter). No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_MASTER_PORT_NUMBER: Server port of the replication master (slave parameter). Defaults to 5432.

In a replication cluster you can have one master and zero or more slaves. When replication is enabled the master node is in read-write mode, while the slaves are in read-only mode. For best performance its advisable to limit the reads to the slaves.

Step 1: Create the replication master

The first step is to start the master.

docker run --name postgresql-master \
  -e POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=master \
  -e POSTGRESQL_USERNAME=my_user \
  -e POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=password123 \
  -e POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=my_database \
  -e POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER=my_repl_user \
  -e POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD=my_repl_password \
  bitnami/postgresql:latest

In this command we are configuring the container as the master using the POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=master parameter. A replication user is specified using the POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER and POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD parameters.

Step 2: Create the replication slave

Next we start a replication slave container.

docker run --name postgresql-slave \
  --link postgresql-master:master \
  -e POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=slave \
  -e POSTGRESQL_MASTER_HOST=master \
  -e POSTGRESQL_MASTER_PORT_NUMBER=5432 \
  -e POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER=my_repl_user \
  -e POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD=my_repl_password \
  bitnami/postgresql:latest

In the above command the container is configured as a slave using the POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE parameter. Before the replication slave is started, the POSTGRESQL_MASTER_HOST and POSTGRESQL_MASTER_PORT_NUMBER parameters are used by the slave container to connect to the master and replicate the initial database from the master. The POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER and POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD credentials are used to authenticate with the master. In order to change the pg_hba.conf default settings, the slave needs to know if POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD is set.

With these two commands you now have a two node PostgreSQL master-slave streaming replication cluster up and running. You can scale the cluster by adding/removing slaves without incurring any downtime.

Note: The cluster replicates the master in its entirety, which includes all users and databases.

If the master goes down you can reconfigure a slave to act as the master and begin accepting writes by creating the trigger file /tmp/postgresql.trigger.5432. For example the following command reconfigures postgresql-slave to act as the master:

docker exec postgresql-slave touch /tmp/postgresql.trigger.5432

Note: The configuration of the other slaves in the cluster needs to be updated so that they are aware of the new master. This would require you to restart the other slaves with --link postgresql-slave:master as per our examples.

With Docker Compose the master-slave replication can be setup using:

version: '2'

services:
  postgresql-master:
    image: bitnami/postgresql:latest
    ports:
      - 5432
    volumes:
      - postgresql_master_data:/bitnami/postgresql
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=master
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER=repl_user
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD=repl_password
      - POSTGRESQL_USERNAME=my_user
      - POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=my_password
      - POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=my_database
  postgresql-slave:
    image: bitnami/postgresql:latest
    ports:
      - 5432
    depends_on:
      - postgresql-master
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=slave
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER=repl_user
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD=repl_password
      - POSTGRESQL_MASTER_HOST=postgresql-master
      - POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=my_password
      - POSTGRESQL_MASTER_PORT_NUMBER=5432

volumes:
  postgresql_master_data:

Scale the number of slaves using:

docker-compose up --detach --scale postgresql-master=1 --scale postgresql-slave=3

The above command scales up the number of slaves to 3. You can scale down in the same way.

Note: You should not scale up/down the number of master nodes. Always have only one master node running.

Synchronous commits

By default, the slave instances are configured with asynchronous replication. In order to guarantee more data stability (at the cost of some performance), it is possible to set synchronous commits (i.e. a transaction commit will not return success to the client until it has been written in a set of replicas) using the following environment variables.

  • POSTGRESQL_SYNCHRONOUS_COMMIT_MODE: Establishes the type of synchronous commit. The available options are: on, remote_apply, remote_write, local and off. The default value is on. For more information, check the official PostgreSQL documentation.
  • POSTGRESQL_NUM_SYNCHRONOUS_REPLICAS: Establishes the number of replicas that will enable synchronous replication. This number must not be above the number of slaves that you configure in the cluster.

With Docker Compose the master-slave replication with synchronous commits can be setup as follows:

version: '2'

services:
  postgresql-master:
    image: bitnami/postgresql:latest
    ports:
      - 5432
    volumes:
      - postgresql_master_data:/bitnami/postgresql
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=master
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER=repl_user
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD=repl_password
      - POSTGRESQL_USERNAME=my_user
      - POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=my_password
      - POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=my_database
      - POSTGRESQL_SYNCHRONOUS_COMMIT_MODE=on
      - POSTGRESQL_NUM_SYNCHRONOUS_REPLICAS=1
    volumes:
      - /path/to/postgresql-persistence:/bitnami/postgresql
  postgresql-slave:
    image: bitnami/postgresql:latest
    ports:
      - 5432
    depends_on:
      - postgresql-master
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=slave
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER=repl_user
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD=repl_password
      - POSTGRESQL_MASTER_HOST=postgresql-master
      - POSTGRESQL_MASTER_PORT_NUMBER=5432
  postgresql-slave2:
    image: bitnami/postgresql:latest
    ports:
      - 5432
    depends_on:
      - postgresql-master
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE=slave
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER=repl_user
      - POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD=repl_password
      - POSTGRESQL_MASTER_HOST=postgresql-master
      - POSTGRESQL_MASTER_PORT_NUMBER=5432

In the example above, commits will need to be written to both the master and one of the slaves in order to be accepted. The other slave will continue using asynchronous replication. Check it with the following SQL query:

postgres=# select application_name as server, state,
postgres-#       sync_priority as priority, sync_state
postgres-#       from pg_stat_replication;
| server      | state     | priority | sync_state |
|-------------|-----------|----------|------------|
| walreceiver | streaming | 0        | sync       |
| walreceiver | streaming | 0        | async      |

Note: For more advanced setups, you can define different replication groups with the application_name parameter, by setting the POSTGRESQL_CLUSTER_APP_NAME environment variable.

LDAP authentication

In order to use LDAP authentication you need to enable it setting the environment variable POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_LDAP to yes.

There are two ways of setting up the LDAP configuration:

  • By configuring POSTGRESQL_LDAP_URL, where you can configure all the associated parameters in the URL.
  • Setting up the parameters POSTGRESQL_LDAP_xxxx independently.

The LDAP related parameters are:

  • POSTGRESQL_LDAP_SERVER: IP addresses or names of the LDAP servers to connect to. Separated by spaces.
  • POSTGRESQL_LDAP_PORT: Port number on the LDAP server to connect to
  • POSTGRESQL_LDAP_SCHEME: Set to ldaps to use LDAPS. Default to none.
  • POSTGRESQL_LDAP_TLS: Set to 1 to use TLS encryption. Default to none.
  • POSTGRESQL_LDAP_PREFIX: String to prepend to the user name when forming the DN to bind. Default to none.
  • POSTGRESQL_LDAP_SUFFIX: String to append to the user name when forming the DN to bind. Default to none.
  • POSTGRESQL_LDAP_BASE_DN: Root DN to begin the search for the user in. Default to none.
  • POSTGRESQL_LDAP_BIND_DN: DN of user to bind to LDAP. Default to none.
  • POSTGRESQL_LDAP_BIND_PASSWORD: Password for the user to bind to LDAP. Default to none.
  • POSTGRESQL_LDAP_SEARCH_ATTR: Attribute to match against the user name in the search. Default to none.
  • POSTGRESQL_LDAP_SEARCH_FILTER: The search filter to use when doing search+bind authentication. Default to none.
  • POSTGRESQL_LDAP_URL: URL to connect to, in the format: ldap[s]://host[:port]/basedn[?[attribute][?[scope][?[filter]]]] .

For more information refer to Postgresql LDAP auth configuration documentation.

Securing PostgreSQL traffic

PostgreSQL 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:

  • POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_TLS: Whether to enable TLS for traffic or not. Defaults to no.
  • POSTGRESQL_TLS_CERT_FILE: File containing the certificate file for the TLS traffic. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_TLS_KEY_FILE: File containing the key for certificate. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_TLS_CA_FILE: File containing the CA of the certificate. If provided, PostgreSQL will authenticate TLS/SSL clients by requesting them a certificate (see ref). No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_TLS_CRL_FILE: File containing a Certificate Revocation List. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_TLS_PREFER_SERVER_CIPHERS: Whether to use the server's TLS cipher preferences rather than the client's. Defaults to yes.

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

  1. Using docker run

    $ docker run \
    -v /path/to/certs:/opt/bitnami/postgresql/certs \
    -e ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
    -e POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_TLS=yes \
    -e POSTGRESQL_TLS_CERT_FILE=/opt/bitnami/postgresql/certs/postgres.crt \
    -e POSTGRESQL_TLS_KEY_FILE=/opt/bitnami/postgresql/certs/postgres.key \
    bitnami/postgresql:latest

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

    services:
  postgresql:
  ...
    environment:
      ...
      - POSTGRESQL_ENABLE_TLS=yes
      - POSTGRESQL_TLS_CERT_FILE=/opt/bitnami/postgresql/certs/postgres.crt
      - POSTGRESQL_TLS_KEY_FILE=/opt/bitnami/postgresql/certs/postgres.key
    ...
    volumes:
      ...
      - /path/to/certs:/opt/bitnami/postgresql/certs
  ...

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

Configuration file

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

/path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/
└── postgresql.conf

0 directories, 1 file

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

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

Step 1: Run the PostgreSQL image

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

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

or using Docker Compose:

version: '2'

services:
  postgresql:
    image: bitnami/postgresql:latest
    ports:
      - 5432:5432
    volumes:
      - /path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/:/bitnami/postgresql/conf/

Step 2: Edit the configuration

Edit the configuration on your host using your favorite editor.

vi /path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/postgresql.conf

Step 3: Restart PostgreSQL

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

docker restart postgresql

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose restart postgresql

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

Allow settings to be loaded from files other than the default postgresql.conf

Apart of using a custom postgresql.conf, you can include files ending in .conf from the conf.d directory in the volume at /bitnami/postgresql/conf/. For this purpose, the default postgresql.conf contains the following section:

##------------------------------------------------------------------------------
## CONFIG FILE INCLUDES
##------------------------------------------------------------------------------

## These options allow settings to be loaded from files other than the
## default postgresql.conf.

include_dir = 'conf.d'  # Include files ending in '.conf' from directory 'conf.d'

In your host, you should create the extended configuration file under the conf.d directory:

mkdir -p /path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/conf.d/
vi /path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/conf.d/extended.conf

If you are using your custom postgresql.conf, you should create (or uncomment) the above section in your config file, in this case the /path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/ structure should be something like

/path/to/postgresql-persistence/conf/
├── conf.d
│   └── extended.conf
└── postgresql.conf

1 directory, 2 files

Specifying initdb arguments

Specifying extra initdb arguments can easily be done using the following environment variables:

  • POSTGRESQL_INITDB_ARGS: Specifies extra arguments for the initdb command. No defaults.
  • POSTGRESQL_INITDB_WAL_DIR: Defines a custom location for the transaction log. No defaults.
docker run --name postgresql \
  -e POSTGRESQL_INITDB_ARGS="--data-checksums" \
  -e POSTGRESQL_INITDB_WAL_DIR="/bitnami/waldir" \
  bitnami/postgresql:latest

or by modifying the docker-compose.yml file present in this repository:

services:
  postgresql:
  ...
    environment:
      - POSTGRESQL_INITDB_ARGS=--data-checksums
      - POSTGRESQL_INITDB_WAL_DIR=/bitnami/waldir
  ...

Stopping settings

You can control the parameters used to stop postgresql in the initialization process by using:

  • POSTGRESQL_PGCTLTIMEOUT that will set the timeout for the pg_ctl command.
  • POSTGRESQL_SHUTDOWN_MODE that will indicate the shutdown mode used.

Installing extra locales

The Dockerfile provides two arguments to configure extra locales at build time:

  • WITH_ALL_LOCALES: Enable all supported locales. Default: no
  • EXTRA_LOCALES: Comma separated list of extra locales to enable. No defaults

For example, to build an image with support for the es_ES.UTF-8 UTF-8 locale, you can add the following argument to your build command:

docker build --build-arg EXTRA_LOCALES="es_ES.UTF-8 UTF-8" ...

Environment variables aliases

The Bitnami PostgreSQL container allows two different sets of environment variables. Please see the list of environment variable aliases in the next table:

Environment Variable Alias
POSTGRESQL_USERNAME POSTGRES_USER
POSTGRESQL_DATABASE POSTGRES_DB
POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD POSTGRES_PASSWORD
POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD_FILE POSTGRES_PASSWORD_FILE
POSTGRESQL_POSTGRES_PASSWORD POSTGRES_POSTGRES_PASSWORD
POSTGRESQL_POSTGRES_PASSWORD_FILE POSTGRES_POSTGRES_PASSWORD_FILE
POSTGRESQL_PORT_NUMBER POSTGRES_PORT_NUMBER
POSTGRESQL_INITDB_ARGS POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS
POSTGRESQL_INITDB_WAL_DIR POSTGRES_INITDB_WAL_DIR
POSTGRESQL_DATA_DIR PGDATA
POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_USER POSTGRES_REPLICATION_USER
POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE POSTGRES_REPLICATION_MODE
POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD POSTGRES_REPLICATION_PASSWORD
POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD_FILE POSTGRES_REPLICATION_PASSWORD_FILE
POSTGRESQL_CLUSTER_APP_NAME POSTGRES_CLUSTER_APP_NAME
POSTGRESQL_MASTER_HOST POSTGRES_MASTER_HOST
POSTGRESQL_MASTER_PORT_NUMBER POSTGRES_MASTER_PORT_NUMBER
POSTGRESQL_NUM_SYNCHRONOUS_REPLICAS POSTGRES_NUM_SYNCHRONOUS_REPLICAS
POSTGRESQL_SYNCHRONOUS_COMMIT_MODE POSTGRES_SYNCHRONOUS_COMMIT_MODE
POSTGRESQL_SHUTDOWN_MODE POSTGRES_SHUTDOWN_MODE

IMPORTANT: Changing the POSTGRES_USER will not change the owner of the database that will continue being the postgres user. In order to change the database owner, please access using postgres as user ($ psql -U postgres ...) and execute the following command:

alter database POSTGRES_DATABASE owner to POSTGRES_USER;

It is possible to change the user that PostgreSQL will use to execute the init scripts. To do so, use the following environment variables:

Environment variable Description
POSTGRESQL_INITSCRIPTS_USERNAME User that will be used to execute the init scripts
POSTGRESQL_INITSCRIPTS_PASSWORD Password for the user specified in POSTGRESQL_INITSCRIPT_USERNAME

Default toast compression

The default toast compression is pglz, but you can modify it by setting the environment variable POSTGRES_DEFAULT_COMPRESSION with the desired value. For example: POSTGRES_DEFAULT_COMPRESSION='lz4'.

FIPS configuration in Bitnami Secure Images

The Bitnami PostgreSQL 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.

Logging

The Bitnami PostgreSQL Docker image sends the container logs to the stdout. To view the logs:

docker logs postgresql

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose logs postgresql

You can configure the containers logging driver using the --log-driver option if you wish to consume the container logs differently. In the default configuration docker uses the json-file driver.

Maintenance

Upgrade this image

Bitnami provides up-to-date versions of PostgreSQL, including security patches, soon after they are made upstream. We recommend that you follow these steps to upgrade your container.

Step 1: Get the updated image

docker pull bitnami/postgresql:latest

or if you're using Docker Compose, update the value of the image property to bitnami/postgresql:latest.

Step 2: Stop and backup the currently running container

Stop the currently running container using the command

docker stop postgresql

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose stop postgresql

Next, take a snapshot of the persistent volume /path/to/postgresql-persistence using:

rsync -a /path/to/postgresql-persistence /path/to/postgresql-persistence.bkp.$(date +%Y%m%d-%H.%M.%S)

Step 3: Remove the currently running container

docker rm -v postgresql

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose rm -v postgresql

Step 4: Run the new image

Re-create your container from the new image.

docker run --name postgresql bitnami/postgresql:latest

or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose up postgresql

Notable Changes

9.6.16-centos-7-r71, 10.11.0-centos-7-r72, 11.6.0-centos-7-r71, and 12.1.0-centos-7-r72

  • 9.6.16-centos-7-r71, 10.11.0-centos-7-r72, 11.6.0-centos-7-r71, and 12.1.0-centos-7-r72 are considered the latest images based on CentOS.
  • Standard supported distros: Debian & OEL.

9.6.15-r93, 9.6.15-ol-7-r108, 9.6.15-centos-7-r107, 10.10.0-r923, 10.10.0-ol-7-r106, 10.10.0-centos-7-r107, 11.5.0-r89, 11.5.0-centos-7-r103, 11.5.0-ol-7-r108, 12.0.0-r21, 12.0.0-centos-7-r34 and 12.0.0-ol-7-r32

  • Adds LDAP authentication support

9.6.15-r82, 9.6.15-ol-7-r92, 9.6.15-centos-7-r91, 10.10.0-r82, 10.10.0-ol-7-r90, 10.10.0-centos-7-r91, 11.5.0-r80, 11.5.0-centos-7-r87, 11.5.0-ol-7-r92, 12.0.0-r11, 12.0.0-centos-7-r17 and 12.0.0-ol-7-r17

  • Adds Postgis extension to postgresql, version 2.3.x to Postgresiql 9.6 and version 2.5 to 10, 11 and 12.

9.6.12-r70, 9.6.12-ol-7-r72, 10.7.0-r69, 10.7.0-ol-7-r71, 11.2.0-r69 and 11.2.0-ol-7-r71

  • Decrease the size of the container. It is not necessary Node.js anymore. PostgreSQL configuration moved to bash scripts in the rootfs/ folder.
  • This container is backwards compatible with the previous versions, as the mount folders remain unchanged.
  • The POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD variable must be passed to the slaves so they generate the proper pg_hba.conf admission rules.

9.6.11-r66, 9.6.11-ol-7-r83, 10.6.0-r68, 10.6.0-ol-7-r83, 11.1.0-r62 and 11.1.0-ol-7-r79

9.6.11-r38, 10.6.0-r39 and 11.1.0-r34

  • The PostgreSQL container now contains options to easily configure synchronous commits between slaves. This provides more data stability, but must be configured with caution as it also has a cost in performance. For more information, check Synchronous Commits.

9.6.9-r19 and 10.4.0-r19

  • The PostgreSQL container has been migrated to a non-root user approach. Previously the container ran as the root user and the PostgreSQL daemon was started as the postgres user. From now on, both the container and the PostgreSQL daemon run as user 1001. As a consequence, the data directory must be writable by that user. You can revert this behavior by changing USER 1001 to USER root in the Dockerfile.

9.5.3-r5

  • The POSTGRES_ prefix on environment variables is now replaced by POSTGRESQL_
  • POSTGRES_USER parameter has been renamed to POSTGRESQL_USERNAME.
  • POSTGRES_DB parameter has been renamed to POSTGRESQL_DATABASE.
  • POSTGRES_MODE parameter has been renamed to POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_MODE.

9.5.3-r0

  • All volumes have been merged at /bitnami/postgresql. Now you only need to mount a single volume at /bitnami/postgresql for persistence.
  • The logs are always sent to the stdout and are no longer collected in the volume.

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. For production-ready deployments, we highly recommend utilizing its associated Bitnami Helm chart.

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.