Create and connect
Postgres, MySQL and Redis on your server, on a private network, with their connection string as a variable.
Warden runs databases as containers on your server, with their data in a Docker volume that survives restarts and upgrades of the container.
Engines
Section titled “Engines”| Engine | Versions (first is the default) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PostgreSQL | 18, 17, 16 | The usual choice |
| MySQL | 9.7, 8.4 | Needs about 400 MB of memory |
| Redis | 8.10, 8.8, 8.6 | Caches and queues, saved to disk |
Create a database
Section titled “Create a database”Add service → Database: pick the Engine, a Name, the Version and the Server, and name the Connection string variable (default DATABASE_URL, or REDIS_URL for Redis). Warden generates a strong password, stores it encrypted, and shows each step of creating the database live.
Connecting your apps
Section titled “Connecting your apps”The connection string is saved as a secret environment variable in the database’s environment, so every service there gets it on its next deploy.
If a service has its own variable with the same name (copied from a laptop’s .env, for example), it overrides the one Warden made, and the app tries to connect to the wrong place. Remove the service’s copy.
Inside the private network the database’s host is its container’s name, not localhost: inside a container, localhost is the container itself.
Overview
Section titled “Overview”A database’s Overview shows its engine, host, port, database name and user. Reveal shows the connection string (recorded in the audit log), and Restart restarts it. Creating, restarting and restoring each show up as a step-by-step log.
Delete a database
Section titled “Delete a database”Danger zone → Delete database removes the container and its connection variable. Its backups are deleted too.
The data is kept by default: the volume stays on the server. To delete the data as well, turn on Also delete all its data and type the database’s name. That can’t be undone.