docker-babelfishpg

Docker image for Babelfish for PostgreSQL.

Babelfish for PostgreSQL is a collection of extensions for PostgreSQL that enable it to use the Tabular Data Stream (TDS) protocol and Transact-SQL (T-SQL) allowing apps designed for Microsoft SQL Server to utilize PostgreSQL as their database. For more details, see "Goodbye Microsoft SQL Server, Hello Babelfish" from the AWS News Blog.

Quick Start

WARNING: Make sure to create a database dump to backup your data before installing a new image to prevent risk of data loss when changing images.

To create a new container, run:

docker run -d -p 1433:1433 jonathanpotts/babelfishpg

Example Data

Use the example_data.sql script to populate the database with example data.

You can then query the database using commands such as:

SELECT * FROM example_db.authors;

SELECT * FROM example_db.books;

Advanced Setup

To initialize with a custom username, append -u my_username to the docker run command where my_username is the username desired.

To initialize with a custom password, append -p my_password to the docker run command where my_password is the password desired.

To initialize with a custom database name, append -d my_database to the docker run command where my_database is the database name desired. This is the name of the database that Babelfish for PostgreSQL uses internally to store the data and is not accessible via TDS.

Migration Mode

By default, the single-db migration mode is used. To use a different migration mode, append -m migration_mode to the docker run command where migration_mode is the value for the migration mode desired.

For more information about migration modes, see Single vs. multiple instances.

Encryption (SSL) Support

Starting with the 2.3.0 image pushed on Mar 4, 2023, encryption (SSL) support has been added to the image. You will need to configure PostgreSQL to use SSL; for instructions, see Secure TCP/IP Connections with SSL.

As a very basic example, to enable encryption with a self-signed certificate that expires in 365 days and has a subject of localhost, in the container's terminal run the following commands:

cd /data/babelfish
openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -text -out server.crt -keyout server.key -subj "/CN=localhost"
chmod og-rwx server.key
echo "ssl = on" >> postgresql.conf

Then restart the container and encryption support should be enabled.

Connecting

If you are hosting the container on your local machine, the server name is localhost. Otherwise, use the IP address or DNS-backed fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for the server you are hosting the container on.

Use SQL Server Authentication mode for login.

The default login for Babelfish is:

• Username: babelfish_user
• Password: 12345678

If you specified a custom username and/or password, use those instead.

Many features in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) are currently unsupported.

Connection string

Assuming Babelfish is hosted on the local machine, using the default settings, and you are trying to connect to a database named example_db, the connection string is:

Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=example_db;Persist Security Info=true;User ID=babelfish_user;Password=12345678

Data Volume

Database data is stored in the /data volume.

Building Docker Image

NOTE: Because Git on Windows changes line-endings from LF to CRLF by default, make sure that start.sh has LF line-endings before building or an error will occur when running a container from the image.

To build the Docker image, clone the repository and then run docker build ..

To use a different Babelfish version, you can:

• Change ARG BABELFISH_VERSION=<BABELFISH_VERSION_TAG> in the Dockerfile
• -or-
• Run docker build . --build-arg BABELFISH_VERSION=<BABELFISH_VERSION_TAG>

The Babelfish version tags are listed at https://github.com/babelfish-for-postgresql/babelfish-for-postgresql/tags.

Other Extensions

Adding other extensions is outside of the scope of this project. They may not be able to be used through Babelfish and may cause issues with the Babelfish extensions or not work as expected.

To address previous extension request issues, I have created branches for the plpython3u and postgis extensions. You can use them as examples for making modifications to add extensions you may need.

Future issues requesting that extensions be added to this project will most likely be closed.