Connecting to Cloud SQL - MySQL

Before you begin

1. If you haven't already, set up a Ruby Development Environment by following the ruby setup guide and create a project.

2. Create a 2nd Gen Cloud SQL Instance by following these instructions. Note the connection string, database user, and database password that you create.

3. Create a database for your application by following these instructions. Note the database name.

4. Create a service account with the 'Cloud SQL Client' permissions by following these instructions. Download a JSON key to use to authenticate your connection.

Running locally

Follow the instructions on Microsoft's website for your operating system to make sure your development environment is properly configured. For Unix systems, this will require installing FreeTDS, while Windows systems require Ruby DevKit

Next, download and install the cloud_sql_proxy by following the instructions here.

Linux / MacOS

Use these terminal commands to initialize environment variables:

export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/path/to/service/account/key.json
export INSTANCE_HOST='127.0.0.1'
export DB_USER='<DB_USER_NAME>'
export DB_PASS='<DB_PASSWORD>'
export DB_NAME='<DB_NAME>'
export DB_PORT='1433'

Note: Saving credentials in environment variables is convenient, but not secure - consider a more secure solution such as Secret Manager to help keep secrets safe.

Then, use the following command to start the proxy in the background using TCP:

./cloud_sql_proxy -instances=<PROJECT-ID>:<INSTANCE-REGION>:<INSTANCE-NAME>=tcp:1433 sqlserver -u $DB_PASS --host 127.0.0.1 &

Windows / PowerShell

Use these PowerShell commands to initialize environment variables:

$env:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="<CREDENTIALS_JSON_FILE>"
$env:INSTANCE_HOST="127.0.0.1"
$env:DB_USER="<DB_USER_NAME>"
$env:DB_PASS="<DB_PASSWORD>"
$env:DB_NAME="<DB_NAME>"
$env:DB_PORT="1433"

Note: Saving credentials in environment variables is convenient, but not secure - consider a more secure solution such as Secret Manager to help keep secrets safe.

Then use this command to launch the proxy in a separate PowerShell session:

Start-Process -filepath "C:\<path to proxy exe>" -ArgumentList "-instances=<PROJECT-ID>:<INSTANCE-REGION>:<INSTANCE-NAME>=tcp:1433 -credential_file=<CREDENTIALS_JSON_FILE>"

Testing the application

Next, install the requirements:

bundle install

Then, setup and seed the database. You only need to do this once:

bundle exec rails db:create
bundle exec rails db:migrate
bundle exec rails db:seed

Finally, start the application:

bundle exec rails s

Navigate towards http://localhost:3000 to verify your application is running correctly.

Google App Engine Flexible

To run on GAE-Flex, create an App Engine project by following the setup for these instructions.

Next, in the Cloud console IAM section find the Cloud Build service account named 'cloudbuild' and edit its permissions to add the "Cloud SQL Client" role.

Next, update app.yaml with the correct values to pass the environment variables into the runtime.

SECRET_KEY_BASE can be found by running:

bundle exec rails secret

Next, (with the cloud_sql_proxy running locally) create your production database. You only need to do this once:

RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rails db:create
RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rails db:schema:load

Finally, the following command will deploy the application to your Google Cloud project:

gcloud beta app deploy