This guide covers the complete process of deploying a Laravel application to Google Cloud Run, using Apache as the web server, and connecting it to a PostgreSQL database hosted on Google Cloud SQL.

Prerequisites

  1. Google Cloud Project: Ensure you have a Google Cloud project.
  2. Google Cloud SDK: Install the Google Cloud SDK.
  3. Docker: Install Docker on your local machine.
  4. Laravel Application: Have your Laravel application ready for deployment.

Steps to Deploy Laravel Application

1. Set Up Google Cloud SDK

  1. Initialize the Google Cloud SDK:
    gcloud init

2. Create and Configure PostgreSQL on Google Cloud SQL

  1. Create a PostgreSQL instance:

    • Go to the Google Cloud Console.
    • Navigate to SQL and create a new PostgreSQL instance.
    • Configure the instance settings, create a database, and a user with necessary permissions.

  2. Enable the Cloud SQL Admin API:

    • Go to the API Library.
    • Search for Cloud SQL Admin API and enable it for your project.

3. Configure Cloud Run to Access Cloud SQL

  1. Obtain the connection name of your Cloud SQL instance, e.g., project-id:region:instance-id.

4. Dockerize Laravel Application with Apache

  1. Create a Dockerfile:

    # Use the official PHP image with Apache as the base image
FROM php:8.1-apache

# Set working directory
WORKDIR /var/www/html

# Install system dependencies
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
    build-essential \
    libpng-dev \
    libjpeg62-turbo-dev \
    libfreetype6-dev \
    locales \
    zip \
    jpegoptim optipng pngquant gifsicle \
    vim \
    unzip \
    git \
    curl \
    libpq-dev \
    libonig-dev \
    libzip-dev

# Clear cache
RUN apt-get clean && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

# Install PHP extensions
RUN docker-php-ext-configure gd --with-freetype --with-jpeg \
    && docker-php-ext-install pdo_pgsql mbstring exif pcntl bcmath gd zip

# Enable Apache modules
RUN a2enmod rewrite

# Install Composer
COPY --from=composer:latest /usr/bin/composer /usr/bin/composer

# Copy existing application directory contents
COPY . /var/www/html

# Copy existing application directory permissions
COPY --chown=www-data:www-data . /var/www/html

# Set the correct permissions for Laravel directories
RUN chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/storage /var/www/html/bootstrap/cache

# Expose port 80 for Apache
EXPOSE 80

# Start Apache
CMD ["apache2-foreground"]

  2. Build and Push Docker Image:

    docker build -t gcr.io/my-project-87661/your-app-name .
docker push gcr.io/my-project-87661/your-app-name

5. Deploy to Google Cloud Run

  1. Deploy the Docker image to Cloud Run and connect it to your Cloud SQL instance:
    gcloud run deploy myapp-service \
    --image gcr.io/my-project-87661/your-app-name \
    --add-cloudsql-instances my-project-87661:region:instance-id \
    --platform managed \
    --region your-region \
    --allow-unauthenticated \
    --set-env-vars "APP_KEY=base64:generated_app_key,DB_CONNECTION=pgsql,DB_HOST=/cloudsql/my-project-87661:region:instance-id,DB_PORT=5432,DB_DATABASE=your-db-name,DB_USERNAME=your-db-username,DB_PASSWORD=your-db-password"

6. Configure Laravel for Cloud SQL

  1. Database Configuration in .env:

    DB_CONNECTION=pgsql
DB_HOST=/cloudsql/my-project-87661:region:instance-id
DB_PORT=5432
DB_DATABASE=your-db-name
DB_USERNAME=your-db-username
DB_PASSWORD=your-db-password

  2. Database Configuration in config/database.php:

    'pgsql' => [
    'driver' => 'pgsql',
    'host' => env('DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
    'port' => env('DB_PORT', '5432'),
    'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', 'forge'),
    'username' => env('DB_USERNAME', 'forge'),
    'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD', ''),
    'charset' => 'utf8',
    'prefix' => '',
    'schema' => 'public',
    'sslmode' => 'prefer',
],

Additional Laravel Configuration

  1. Set Application Key: Ensure you have set the APP_KEY in your .env file. You can generate one using:

    php artisan key:generate --show

  2. Clear and Cache Configurations: Before building your Docker image, clear and cache Laravel configurations:

    php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache

Summary

This comprehensive guide walks you through deploying a Laravel application on Google Cloud Run with Apache and PostgreSQL. It includes setting up your environment, creating and pushing a Docker image, deploying the application to Cloud Run, and configuring Laravel to connect to a PostgreSQL database on Google Cloud SQL. By following these steps, your Laravel application will be correctly configured and ready for production deployment.