Deploy Nacos with PostgreSQL on Kubernetes: Step‑by‑Step Guide

Introduction

In the cloud‑native era, micro‑service architecture is mainstream, and Nacos is a popular service discovery and configuration management platform. Using PostgreSQL as its backend ensures data safety, persistence, and performance. This article explains how to deploy Nacos in a Kubernetes cluster and integrate it with PostgreSQL.

Prerequisites

Kubernetes cluster is available

StorageClass is configured

Ingress controller is available

PostgreSQL cluster is available

Initialize Nacos database schema

Download the initialization script and create the PostgreSQL user and database:

<code>$ sudo mkdir /etc/kubernetes/addons/nacos
$ sudo curl -L -o /etc/kubernetes/addons/nacos/nacos-pg.sql https://github.com/wuchubuzai2018/nacos-datasource-extend-plugins/raw/refs/heads/main/nacos-datasource-plugin-ext/nacos-postgresql-datasource-plugin-ext/src/main/resources/schema/nacos-pg.sql
$ CREATE USER nacos WITH PASSWORD '123456';
$ CREATE DATABASE nacos_prod OWNER nacos;
$ psql -h 172.139.20.188 -p 9999 -U nacos -W nacos_prod < /etc/kubernetes/addons/nacos/nacos-pg.sql</code>

Deploy Nacos service

Create a namespace and a ConfigMap with the Nacos configuration that enables PostgreSQL support and authentication:

<code>$ kubectl create ns nacos
$ cat <<'EOF' | sudo tee /etc/kubernetes/addons/nacos/application.properties > /dev/null
# Spring Boot related configurations
server.error.include-message=ALWAYS
server.port=8848

# Config module
spring.sql.init.platform=postgresql
db.num=1
db.url.0=jdbc:postgresql://172.139.20.188:9999/nacos_prod?tcpKeepAlive=true&reWriteBatchedInserts=true&ApplicationName=nacos_java
db.user.0=nacos
db.password.0=123456
db.pool.config.maximumPoolSize=20
# Authentication
nacos.core.auth.enabled=true
nacos.core.auth.server.identity.key=authKey
nacos.core.auth.server.identity.value=shigzh
EOF
$ kubectl create configmap nacos-config --from-file=application.properties=/etc/kubernetes/addons/nacos/application.properties -n nacos</code>

Download the PostgreSQL driver jar:

<code>$ sudo curl -o /etc/kubernetes/addons/nacos/nacos-postgresql-plugin-1.0.0.jar -L https://github.com/wuchubuzai2018/nacos-datasource-extend-plugins/releases/download/1.0.0/nacos-postgresql-plugin-1.0.0.jar</code>

Apply the Kubernetes manifests for Service, Headless Service, StatefulSet, and Ingress:

<code>$ cat <<'EOF' | sudo tee /etc/kubernetes/addons/nacos/deploy.yml > /dev/null
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: nacos
  namespace: nacos
spec:
  ports:
    - port: 8848
      name: server
      targetPort: 8848
    - port: 9848
      name: client-rpc
      targetPort: 9848
    - port: 9849
      name: raft-rpc
      targetPort: 9849
    - port: 7848
      name: old-raft-rpc
      targetPort: 7848
  selector:
    app: nacos
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: nacos-headless
  namespace: nacos
spec:
  publishNotReadyAddresses: true
  ports:
    - port: 8848
      name: server
      targetPort: 8848
    - port: 9848
      name: client-rpc
      targetPort: 9848
    - port: 9849
      name: raft-rpc
      targetPort: 9849
    - port: 7848
      name: old-raft-rpc
      targetPort: 7848
  clusterIP: None
  selector:
    app: nacos
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: StatefulSet
metadata:
  name: nacos
  namespace: nacos
spec:
  replicas: 3
  podManagementPolicy: Parallel
  serviceName: nacos-headless
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nacos
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nacos
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: nacos
          image: core.jiaxzeng.com/library/nacos/nacos-server:v2.4.3-slim
          ports:
            - containerPort: 8848
              name: client-port
            - containerPort: 9848
              name: client-rpc
            - containerPort: 9849
              name: raft-rpc
            - containerPort: 7848
              name: old-raft-rpc
          env:
            - name: NACOS_REPLICAS
              value: "3"
            - name: SERVICE_NAME
              value: "nacos-headless"
            - name: DOMAIN_NAME
              value: "cluster.local"
            - name: POD_NAMESPACE
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  apiVersion: v1
                  fieldPath: metadata.namespace
            - name: NACOS_SERVER_PORT
              value: "8848"
            - name: NACOS_APPLICATION_PORT
              value: "8848"
            - name: PREFER_HOST_MODE
              value: "hostname"
          volumeMounts:
            - name: config
              mountPath: /home/nacos/conf/application.properties
              subPath: application.properties
      volumes:
        - name: config
          configMap:
            name: nacos-config
---
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: nacos
  namespace: nacos
  annotations:
    cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: "selfsigned-cluster-issuer"
spec:
  ingressClassName: nginx
  rules:
    - host: nacos.jiaxzeng.com
      http:
        paths:
          - pathType: Prefix
            path: "/"
            backend:
              service:
                name: nacos
                port:
                  number: 8848
  tls:
    - secretName: nacos.jiaxzeng.com-tls
      hosts:
        - nacos.jiaxzeng.com
EOF
$ kubectl apply -f /etc/kubernetes/addons/nacos/deploy.yml</code>

Copy the driver into each Nacos pod:

<code>for i in `seq 0 2`; do
  kubectl -n nacos cp /etc/kubernetes/addons/nacos/nacos-postgresql-plugin-1.0.0.jar nacos-${i}:plugins/peer-finder
done</code>

Verification

Check the deployed resources:

<code>$ kubectl -n nacos get pod,svc,pvc,ingress</code>

Access the Nacos console at

http://nacos.jiaxzeng.com

(default credentials:

nacos/nacos

).

Conclusion

By following these steps, Nacos can be successfully deployed on Kubernetes with PostgreSQL as a reliable data store, enhancing system reliability and simplifying micro‑service development and operations.