CI/CD pipeline troubleshooting

Services and databases

Can't connect to service

Quick answer

Make sure you're using $WSR_SERVICE_HOST_[alias] when referring to the service host.

Related documentation

For a more in-depth explanation, see our guide on connecting to services in CI/CD.

Trouble connecting to a service (e.g., a PostgreSQL database) may be caused by using the wrong kind of hostname.

Take the following example…

./.gitlab-ci.yml

# ...
run-test-suite:
  stage: test
  services:
    - name: postgres:latest
      alias: my_psql_db
  variables:
    PG_USER: user
    PG_PASS: password
    PG_URI: postgresql://$PG_USER:$PG_PASS@my_psql_db:5432/some_db
  script:
    - psql "$PG_URI"

To fix it: instead of my_psql_db, use a Workshop-style reference like $WSR_SERVICE_HOST_my_psql_db.

./.gitlab-ci.yml

# ...
run-test-suite:
  stage: test
  services:
    - name: postgres:latest
      alias: my_psql_db
  variables:
    PG_USER: user
    PG_PASS: password
-   PG_URI: postgresql://$PG_USER:$PG_PASS@my_psql_db:5432/some_db
+   PG_URI: postgresql://$PG_USER:$PG_PASS@$WSR_SERVICE_HOST_my_psql_db:5432/some_db
  script:
    - psql "$PG_URI"