CouchDB Docker updates delete my admin users

[Owl-Tec]

Hello Everyone,

I have this strange issue where when a new Docker image of CouchDB is released and I deploy it to my environment, all of my existing admin users are deleted from the "main config" in the instance. The good news is that the data in the database is NOT touched.

I am running CouchDB off my Synology (DS1621+) and I am using the latest image of CouchDB.

Any thoughts? Is it because I need to save a configuration file or something in persistent storage?

Here is my Docker configuration file:

version: "3.9"
services:
  couchdb:
    image: couchdb
    container_name: obsidian-couchdb
    hostname: obsidian-couchdb
    network_mode: host
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/storage/obsidian-couchdb/data:/opt/couchdb/data:rw
      - /volume1/docker/storage/obsidian-couchdb/local.ini:/opt/couchdb/etc/local.ini
    environment:
     COUCHDB_USER: XXXX
     COUCHDB_PASSWORD: XXXX
    restart: on-failure:5

Here are some logs from my container as it started:

2024/07/23 06:01:04,stderr,[notice] 2024-07-23T12:01:04.780026Z nonode@nohost <0.327.0> -------- rexi_buffer : cluster stable

2024/07/23 06:01:04,stderr,[notice] 2024-07-23T12:01:04.779958Z nonode@nohost <0.323.0> -------- rexi_server : cluster stable

2024/07/23 06:00:55,stderr,"[info] 2024-07-23T12:00:55.029043Z nonode@nohost <0.574.0> -------- open_result error {not_found,no_db_file} for _replicator
"
2024/07/23 06:00:55,stderr,[notice] 2024-07-23T12:00:55.028445Z nonode@nohost <0.441.0> -------- Started replicator db changes listener <0.572.0>

2024/07/23 06:00:55,stderr,[notice] 2024-07-23T12:00:55.024376Z nonode@nohost <0.419.0> -------- couch_replicator_clustering : cluster stable

2024/07/23 06:00:50,stderr,[notice] 2024-07-23T12:00:50.216514Z nonode@nohost <0.103.0> -------- config: [couchdb] uuid set to 7a579b469621104ed20a1e62473d9b1d for reason nil

2024/07/23 06:00:50,stderr,[notice] 2024-07-23T12:00:50.135524Z nonode@nohost <0.457.0> -------- All system databases exist.

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,[info] 2024-07-23T12:00:49.981306Z nonode@nohost <0.367.0> -------- Apache CouchDB has started on http://any:5984/

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,[info] 2024-07-23T12:00:49.981187Z nonode@nohost <0.367.0> -------- Apache CouchDB has started. Time to relax.

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,[notice] 2024-07-23T12:00:49.931138Z nonode@nohost <0.360.0> -------- mem3_reshard finished reloading jobs

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,[notice] 2024-07-23T12:00:49.931044Z nonode@nohost <0.360.0> -------- mem3_reshard starting reloading jobs

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,[notice] 2024-07-23T12:00:49.927124Z nonode@nohost <0.361.0> -------- mem3_reshard db monitor <0.361.0> starting

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,[notice] 2024-07-23T12:00:49.926959Z nonode@nohost <0.360.0> -------- mem3_reshard start init()

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,[notice] 2024-07-23T12:00:49.918390Z nonode@nohost <0.358.0> -------- mem3_reshard_dbdoc start init()

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,[notice] 2024-07-23T12:00:49.781973Z nonode@nohost <0.327.0> -------- rexi_buffer : started servers

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,[notice] 2024-07-23T12:00:49.779369Z nonode@nohost <0.323.0> -------- rexi_server : started servers

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,[info] 2024-07-23T12:00:49.766541Z nonode@nohost <0.248.0> -------- Apache CouchDB has started. Time to relax.

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,[notice] 2024-07-23T12:00:49.695185Z nonode@nohost <0.103.0> -------- config: [admins] couchadmin set to '****' for reason nil

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,[info] 2024-07-23T12:00:49.681730Z nonode@nohost <0.249.0> -------- Starting couch_sup

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,[info] 2024-07-23T12:00:49.681644Z nonode@nohost <0.248.0> -------- Apache CouchDB 3.3.3 is starting.

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,[info] 2024-07-23T12:00:49.675495Z nonode@nohost <0.248.0> -------- Preflight check: Asserting Admin Account

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,

2024/07/23 06:00:49,stderr,[info] 2024-07-23T12:00:49.673021Z nonode@nohost <0.248.0> -------- Preflight check: Checking For Monsters

Thanks for the help!

[rnewson]

admins are stored in the .ini files, so perhaps you are not preserving those through updates? you should not store them in default.ini as that is how we ship updated default configuration.

[Owl-Tec]

I don't think I am as I am just saving the "local.ini" file and nothing else. Off the top of your head, do you know what .ini file would be storing the admin accounts (or does each admin user have their own .ini file)?

[rnewson]

in a non-docker situation it would typically be local.ini, so check there first. it'll have a line [admins] with the key/value for each admin afterward

[Owl-Tec]

Thanks, I checked my local.ini file and I do not see a line called "Admins" so I will implement that.

[Owl-Tec]

Okay, a recent update whacked my admin users (like last time) but thanks to the help of @rnewson I went ahead and implement the fix previously mentioned which resolved the issue. In the future when the server is updated with a new image, the previously created admin users will still be in the database.

First of all, I removed the environment section from my docker configuration file:

version: "3.9"
services:
  couchdb:
    image: couchdb
    container_name: obsidian-couchdb
    hostname: obsidian-couchdb
    network_mode: host
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/storage/obsidian-couchdb/data:/opt/couchdb/data:rw
      - /volume1/docker/storage/obsidian-couchdb/local.ini:/opt/couchdb/etc/local.ini
    restart: on-failure:5

Then I added the [admins] section to my local.in file:

[couchdb]
single_node=true
max_document_size=50000000
max_http_request_size=4294967296

[chttpd]
require_valid_user = true

[chttpd_auth]
require_valid_user = true
authentication_redirect = /_utils/session.html

[httpd]
WWW-Authenticate = Basic realm="couchdb"
enable_cors = true

[cors]
origins = app://obsidian.md,capacitor://localhost,http://localhost
credentials = true
headers = accept, authorization, content-type, origin, referer
methods = GET, PUT, POST, HEAD, DELETE
max_age = 3600

[admins]
admin1 = XXX
admin2 = XXX

Hopefully this helps someone in the future.