Add a database to Strapi
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Once Your Strapi application has been deployed on Upsun, you might want to add and configure a service to your application.
This guide will show you how to provision and connect to two different databases on Upsun:
- PostgreSQL
- Oracle MySQL
1. Branch 
Like all updates to your Upsun projects, first create a new dedicated environment to test this change.
git checkout -b upgrade-db 2. Install the Node.js package
yarn add pgyarn add mysql 3. Add a new service
Add a new service to your .upsun/config.yaml file:
applications: myapp: source: root: "/" type: "nodejs:20" [...] services: database: type: postgresql:18applications: myapp: source: root: "/" type: "nodejs:20" [...] services: database: type: oracle-mysql:8.0 4. Add a new relationship
Add a new relationship to your .upsun/config.yaml file to allow access to the new service
applications: myapp: source: root: "/" type: "nodejs:20" [...] relationships: database: services: database: type: postgresql:18applications: myapp: source: root: "/" type: "nodejs:20" [...] relationships: database: services: database: type: oracle-mysql:8.0 5. Update .environment
When you previously ran upsun project:init, the command generated some Strapi-specific environment variables:
# Set Strapi-specific environment variables export DATABASE_HOST="$DB_HOST" export DATABASE_PORT="$DB_PORT" export DATABASE_NAME="$DB_PATH" export DATABASE_USERNAME="$DB_USERNAME" export DATABASE_PASSWORD="$DB_PASSWORD" export DATABASE_SCHEME="$DB_SCHEME" # Set secrets needed by Strapi, if they are not set # Prefer setting these as project secret variables with upsun variable:create env:SECRET_NAME --sensitive=true if [ -z "$ADMIN_JWT_SECRET" ]; then export ADMIN_JWT_SECRET="$PLATFORM_PROJECT_ENTROPY" fi if [ -z "$JWT_SECRET" ]; then export JWT_SECRET="$PLATFORM_PROJECT_ENTROPY" fi if [ -z "$API_TOKEN_SALT" ]; then export API_TOKEN_SALT="$PLATFORM_PROJECT_ENTROPY" fi if [ -z "$APP_KEYS" ]; then export APP_KEYS="$PLATFORM_PROJECT_ENTROPY" fiUpsun will actually generate service credentials automatically for you in the runtime container, so we don’t need the first half of this file anymore. Remove the first block (pertaining to DATABASE credentials).
Then, add a single additional variable that will set the DATABASE_CLIENT variable at the appropriate time:
# Set secrets needed by Strapi, if they are not set # Prefer setting these as project secret variables with upsun variable:create env:SECRET_NAME --sensitive=true if [ -z "$ADMIN_JWT_SECRET" ]; then export ADMIN_JWT_SECRET="$PLATFORM_PROJECT_ENTROPY" fi if [ -z "$JWT_SECRET" ]; then export JWT_SECRET="$PLATFORM_PROJECT_ENTROPY" fi if [ -z "$API_TOKEN_SALT" ]; then export API_TOKEN_SALT="$PLATFORM_PROJECT_ENTROPY" fi if [ -z "$APP_KEYS" ]; then export APP_KEYS="$PLATFORM_PROJECT_ENTROPY" fi # Switch to configure to the production database service _only_ at deploy time. if [ -z "$PLATFORM_ENVIRONMENT" ]; then export DATABASE_CLIENT="postgres" fi# Set secrets needed by Strapi, if they are not set # Prefer setting these as project secret variables with upsun variable:create env:SECRET_NAME --sensitive=true if [ -z "$ADMIN_JWT_SECRET" ]; then export ADMIN_JWT_SECRET="$PLATFORM_PROJECT_ENTROPY" fi if [ -z "$JWT_SECRET" ]; then export JWT_SECRET="$PLATFORM_PROJECT_ENTROPY" fi if [ -z "$API_TOKEN_SALT" ]; then export API_TOKEN_SALT="$PLATFORM_PROJECT_ENTROPY" fi if [ -z "$APP_KEYS" ]; then export APP_KEYS="$PLATFORM_PROJECT_ENTROPY" fi # Switch to configure to the production database service _only_ at deploy time. if [ -z "$PLATFORM_ENVIRONMENT" ]; then export DATABASE_CLIENT="mysql" fi 6. Push to the environment
Commit and push the changes to the Upsun environment:
git commit -am "Add a new service" git push origin upgrade-dbNote
If you are using Upsun as your primary remote, you can use the upsun branch and upsun push commands directly. If instead you had already set up an integration to GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket, make sure to open a pull/merge request to judge the revision.