Copy dump file to docker container and load it on startup

[harald_pehl]

Hi,

I'd like to copy a dump file to a docker container and load it using neo4j-admin load as part of an extension script in my docker container.

In particular I have the following workflow

Start an empty Neo4j community instance:

docker run \
  --detach \
  --name=neo4j-analyse \
  --publish=7687:7687 \
  --volume=$PWD/data:/data \
  --env NEO4J_AUTH=neo4j/neo5j \
  neo4j

Run a process which populates the database

Stop the neo4j-analyse instance:

docker stop neo4j-analyse

Dump the data to a local file:

docker run --interactive --tty --rm \
  --volume=$PWD/data:/data \
  --volume=$PWD/dump:/dump \
  --user="$(id -u):$(id -g)" \
  neo4j \
  neo4j-admin dump --database=neo4j --to=/dump/db.dump

Build a Neo4j image which contains the dump file and populates the database at startup:

docker build --tag neo4j-model .

The directory for the docker build contains the dump file db.dump, the Dockerfile:

FROM neo4j

COPY db.dump /db.dump
COPY extension-script.sh /extension-script.sh
ENV EXTENSION_SCRIPT=/extension-script.sh

and the extension-script.sh:

#!/bin/sh
neo4j-admin load --from=/db.dump --database=neo4j --force

Start the final docker container:

docker run \
  --detach \
  --name=neo4j-model \
  --publish=7474:7474 --publish=7687:7687 \
  --env NEO4J_AUTH=none \
  --env NEO4J_dbms_read__only=true \
  neo4j-model

I can see in the log that the dump file is loaded and Neo4j is started. If I want to connect with the Neo4j browser, I get the following error:

ERROR DatabaseNotFoundError
Database "neo4j" is unavailable, its status is "offline."

What am I doing wrong? Any hints suggestions and ideas are highly appreciated!

Thanks Harald

[harald_pehl]

I was able to solve my problem, using a custom entrypoint in my Dockerfile.

For those interested, here are links to the Dockerfile and the custom entrypoint:

github.com

model-graph-tools/analyzer/blob/main/src/main/docker/neo4j/Dockerfile

FROM neo4j

LABEL maintainer="Harald Pehl <hpehl@redhat.com>"

COPY --chown=neo4j db.dump db.dump
COPY --chown=neo4j mgt-entrypoint.sh mgt-entrypoint.sh
RUN chmod +x mgt-entrypoint.sh

ENV NEO4J_AUTH=neo4j/mgttgm
ENV NEO4J_dbms_read__only=true
ENTRYPOINT ["./mgt-entrypoint.sh"]

github.com

model-graph-tools/analyzer/blob/main/src/main/docker/neo4j/mgt-entrypoint.sh

#!/bin/bash

# THANK YOU! Special shout-out to @marcellodesales on GitHub
# https://github.com/marcellodesales/neo4j-with-cypher-seed-docker/blob/master/wrapper.sh for such a great example script

# Log the info with the same format as NEO4J outputs
log_info() {
  # https://www.howtogeek.com/410442/how-to-display-the-date-and-time-in-the-linux-terminal-and-use-it-in-bash-scripts/
  printf '%s %s\n' "$(date -u +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S:%3N%z") INFO  MGT: $1"
  return
}

# turn on bash's job control
# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11821378/what-does-bashno-job-control-in-this-shell-mean/46829294#46829294
set -m

log_info "Import database dump"
neo4j-admin load --from=./db.dump --database=neo4j --force
log_info "DONE"

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[naman]

Also when I use the second method of custom entrypoint, the data is loaded in the neo4j database but the container closes and I cannot open neo4j-browser at my localhost!!

[naman]

Hey thanks, this works perfectly!!
The only issue is I cannot write to my database, so when i try setting
ENV NEO4J_dbms_read__only=false or ENV NEO4J_writable = true , I am unable to load the data as it gives me the error that neo4j is running, then when i run "neo4j stop" the same error still persists!