Using Containers for Go Development: Local Database Setup

--- title: Use containers for Go development linkTitle: Develop your app weight: 20 keywords: get started, go, golang, local, development description: Learn how to develop your application locally. aliases: - /get-started/golang/develop/ - /language/golang/develop/ - /guides/language/golang/develop/ --- ## Prerequisites Work through the steps of the [run your image as a container](run-containers.md) module to learn how to manage the lifecycle of your containers. ## Introduction In this module, you'll take a look at running a database engine in a container and connecting it to the extended version of the example application. You are going to see some options for keeping persistent data and for wiring up the containers to talk to one another. Finally, you'll learn how to use Docker Compose to manage such multi-container local development environments effectively. ## Local database and containers The database engine you are going to use is called [CockroachDB](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/product/). It is a modern, Cloud-native, distributed SQL database. Instead of compiling CockroachDB from the source code or using the operating system's native package manager to install CockroachDB, you are going to use the [Docker image for CockroachDB](https://hub.docker.com/r/cockroachdb/cockroach) and run it in a container. CockroachDB is compatible with PostgreSQL to a significant extent, and shares many conventions with the latter, particularly the default names for the environment variables. So, if you are familiar with Postgres, don't be surprised if you see some familiar environment variables names. The Go modules that work with Postgres, such as [pgx](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/jackc/pgx), [pq](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/lib/pq), [GORM](https://gorm.io/index.html), and [upper/db](https://upper.io/v4/) also work with CockroachDB. For more information on the relation between Go and CockroachDB, refer to the [CockroachDB documentation](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/v20.2/build-a-go-app-with-cockroachdb.html), although this isn't necessary to continue with the present guide. ### Storage The point of a database is to have a persistent store of data. [Volumes](/manuals/engine/storage/volumes.md) are the preferred mechanism for persisting data generated by and used by Docker containers. Thus, before you start CockroachDB, create the volume for it. To create a managed volume, run : ```console $ docker volume create roach roach ``` You can view the list of all managed volumes in your Docker instance with the following command: ```console $ docker volume list DRIVER VOLUME NAME local roach ``` ### Networking The example application and the database engine are going to talk to one another over the network. There are different kinds of network configuration possible, and you're going to use what's called a user-defined bridge network. It is going to provide you with a DNS lookup service so that you can refer to your database engine container by its hostname. The following command creates a new bridge network named `mynet`: ```console $ docker network create -d bridge mynet 51344edd6430b5acd121822cacc99f8bc39be63dd125a3b3cd517b6485ab7709 ``` As it was the case with the managed volumes, there is a command to list all networks set up in your Docker instance: ```console $ docker network list NETWORK ID NAME DRIVER SCOPE 0ac2b1819fa4 bridge bridge local 51344edd6430 mynet bridge local daed20bbecce host host local 6aee44f40a39 none null local ``` Your bridge network `mynet` has been created successfully. The other three networks, named `bridge`, `host`, and `none` are the default networks and they had been created by the Docker itself. While it's not relevant to this guide, you can learn more about Docker networking in the [networking overview](/manuals/engine/network/_index.md) section. ### Choose good names for volumes and networks

This section guides you through setting up a local development environment for a Go application using Docker containers. It focuses on running a CockroachDB database engine in a container and connecting it to your application. Key aspects covered include creating Docker volumes for persistent data storage and setting up a user-defined bridge network for container communication. It also provides instructions for creating a Docker volume and network.