Have been trying to add my Google Cloud PostgreSQL database to metabase..

Installing Metabase

There are currently at least 2-3 different methods of installing mb. I downloaded the .jar file.

Running it on my localhost, port 3000:

java -jar metabase.jar

The UI is so pretty! Create an account and log in!

Adding database

I ran into many issues:

• Because my db instance was configured with SSL on, sslmode=verify-ca, I needed 3 .pem files to connect to the db
• As a result, I kept getting authentication errors

Some of my workarounds I had was,

1. Try to add the filepaths of the .pem files as additional JDBC connection string options [x]
2. Attempted to add the .pem files as a keystore [It was too complicated for my simple tiny brain]
3. Cri

So in the end, I found this site which thankfully pointed me in the right direction!

Google SQL Proxy

So the idea is that the cloud SQL Proxy would provide secure access to your db instances without having to whitelist IP or configure SSL!

Follow the instructions for sql or postgres.

After setting up, run in one terminal:

./cloud_sql_proxy -instances=<instance-name>=tcp:5432

Make sure you stop your own postgres server on your local machine (I'm using MacOS)

brew services stop postgres

Run in another terminal:

java -jar metabase.jar

When you add database, use localhost for the hostname. Key in the username, password and all and the db will be added!!!

Metabase for Production

• Do the same thing on a separate VM
• Use a compute engine VM in the same project as the Google Cloud SQL instance

Ok back to work. hehe.