Level 15
Update: when trying to interact with the application itself (from the browser or postman), it reads the .env values correctly and shows that the correct_database_name.table does not exist which is what i'm expecting to see.
Jul 14, 2022
8
Level 15
Laravel Artisan is not reading the .env file on DigitalOcean LAMP droplet with DB Cluster
I have a laravel app that is deployed on the LAMP digital ocean droplet that is tied to a database cluster (From digital ocean).
Whenever I try to run php artisan migrate, it doesn't consider the .env file at all. Instead, it connects to the defaultdb on the same database cluster. I don't understand how or why it does that. From where does the application get the correct host domain, username, password and "defaultdb" as a db name for the database?
I'm freaking out. is my application sentient?
Level 39
Have you run : php artisan config:clear
Level 15
@sr57 Hello, thanks for the prompt reply.
I've run every possible clear command in the universe. No difference.
I've noticed that this issue also happens on another laravel application on the same server with the same setup.
I'm starting to think it's a server error instead of a single application error.
but what could it be?
Level 39
I don't use DO but you should have a config to access a remote db
For instance I found this link
Level 15
@sr57 I think my problem is somewhere on the server itself. Somehow, the db connections are getting overridden by default connection params from somewhere in the server.
After investigating a bit, I found a file in the root directory which contained connection details to the db cluster. I tried renaming and moving that file hoping it would break whatever is using it, but nothing changed.
I'll keep looking around. Will keep this thread updated.
Level 15
@sr57 To clarify a bit, I can access the cluster normally from within my droplet. Just not the DB that I want. the connection is defaulted to a specific db, namely defaultdb and it seems that overriding the .env file has no effect on the artisan tool.
my guess is that somewhere, somehow, the php-cli has a default db connection ? i don't even know if that makes sense but I think this is what is happening.
Level 15
And after more than a few hours of debugging and frustration; I fixed it.
The issue was that the LAMP droplet + db cluster had a local environment variable DATABASE_URL which was somehow overriding Laravel's Artisan migrate command.
After running unset DATABASE_URL everything worked as expected.
In case anyone comes across this, I used env | grep DATABASE to see what environment variables were already set in the server. and I tried to unset them one by one. Eventually, the unset DATABASE_URL worked.
4 likes
Level 1
@michaelyousrie Wow Michael, thank you. I've been trying to track this down all day, and was at the end of my rope. This was a lifesaver. Nice job!
1 like
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