Using the PostgreSQL Backend

Sérgio Azevedo edited on Jan 8, 2025.

To use the PostgreSQL backend, you can either use the official Docker image or build your own binary with PostgreSQL enabled.

To run the binary or container ensure the DATABASE_URL environment variable is set (i.e. DATABASE_URL='postgresql://<user>:<password>@postgresql/vaultwarden')

Connection String Syntax:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://[[user]:[password]@]host[:port][/database]

An example docker run environment variable would be: -e 'DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user_name:user_password@db_host:5432/vaultwarden'.

If you need to set additional connection parameters, note that the DATABASE_URL value ends up getting parsed by libpq, so you can use any of the parameters listed in the libpq docs. You can either add the connection parameter to DATABASE_URL or specify it via its corresponding PG* environment variable. If running under Docker, keep in mind that any paths provided need to be from the perspective of the Docker container, not the Docker host.

If you want to use a custom schema/search-path you need to use the following connection string:
Note the URL-encoded characters such as %20 for the space and %3D for = sign

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user_name:user_password@db_host:5432/vaultwarden?application_name=vaultwarden&options=-c%20search_path%3Ddb_schema

If your password contains special characters, you will need to use percentage encoding.

!	#	$	%	&	'	(	)	*	+	,	/	:	;	=	?	@	[	]
%21	%23	%24	%25	%26	%27	%28	%29	%2A	%2B	%2C	%2F	%3A	%3B	%3D	%3F	%40	%5B	%5D

A complete list of codes can be found on Wikipedia page for percent encoding

Migrating from SQLite to PostgreSQL

An easy way of migrating from SQLite to PostgreSQL or to MySQL exists, but please, note that you are using this at your own risk and you are strongly advised to backup your installation and data!. This is unsupported and has not been robustly tested.

Create an new (empty) database for vaultwarden:

CREATE DATABASE vaultwarden;

Create a new database user and grant rights to database:

CREATE USER vaultwarden WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'yourpassword';
GRANT CONNECT ON DATABASE vaultwarden TO vaultwarden;
ALTER SCHEMA public OWNER TO vaultwarden;

Configure vaultwarden and start it, so diesel can run migrations and set up the schema properly. Do not do anything else.
Stop vaultwarden.
install pgloader
disable WAL of the SQLite database.
create the file bitwarden.load with the following content:

>load database
     from sqlite:///where/you/keep/your/vaultwarden/db.sqlite3 
     into postgresql://yourpgsqluser:yourpgsqlpassword@yourpgsqlserver:yourpgsqlport/yourpgsqldatabase
     WITH data only, include no drop, reset sequences
     EXCLUDING TABLE NAMES LIKE '__diesel_schema_migrations'
     ALTER SCHEMA 'bitwarden' RENAME TO 'public'
;

run the command pgloader bitwarden.load and you might see some warnings, but the migration should complete successfully
Start vaultwarden again.

Migrating from MySQL to PostgreSQL

Tested with MariaDB 10.11.9, PostgreSQL 15.8-1 and Vaultwarden 1.32.0

Please, note that you are using this at your own risk and you are strongly advised to backup your installation and data!. This is unsupported and has not been robustly tested.

Create a new (empty) database for vaultwarden:

CREATE DATABASE vaultwarden;

Create a new database user and grant rights to database:

CREATE USER vaultwarden WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'yourpassword';
GRANT ALL ON DATABASE vaultwarden TO vaultwarden;
GRANT all privileges ON database vaultwarden TO vaultwarden;

Configure vaultwarden and start it, so diesel can run migrations and set up the schema properly. Do not do anything else.
Stop vaultwarden.
Install pgloader. Make sure that you have the latest version of pgloader, the official Ubuntu repository has an outdated version which does not work well with newer versions of PostgreSQL. The newest version can be obtained from the PostgreSQL Apt Repository
Create the file vaultwarden.load with the following content:

>load database
     from mysql://yourmysqluser:yourmysqlpassword@yourmysqlserver:yourmysqlport/yourmysqldatabase 
     into postgresql://yourpgsqluser:yourpgsqlpassword@yourpgsqlserver:yourpgsqlport/yourpgsqldatabase
     WITH data only
     EXCLUDING TABLE NAMES MATCHING '__diesel_schema_migrations'
     ALTER SCHEMA 'vaultwarden' RENAME TO 'public'
;

Optionally add ?sslmode=require to the PostgreSQL connection string if your connection requires SSL

Run the command pgloader vaultwarden.load and you might see some warnings, but the migration should complete successfully. If there are errors, it is likely that you have an outdated version of pgloader!
Start vaultwarden again