How to Configure a Single Instance of Liquibase for Multiple Databases

Applies to

• Liquibase Pro
• Liquibase Open Source (Community)

Summary

Liquibase is a versatile database change management tool that can be configured to deploy changes to multiple types of databases, such as Oracle and PostgreSQL, from a single instance. Below is a general guide to setting up Liquibase for this purpose.

Environment Conditions

• Any version of Liquibase Pro or Open Source

How to Configure a Single Instance of Liquibase for Multiple Databases

This article will review two popular ways to configure a single instance of Liquibase to run on multiple databases. 

Liquibase Properties Files

Step 1: Create separate configuration files for each database

Example for Oracle (liquibase.oracle.properties):

changeLogFile=oracle_changelog.xml
url=jdbc:oracle:thin:@//hostname:1521/service_name
username=oracle_user
password=oracle_password

Example for PostgreSQL (liquibase.postgres.properties):

changeLogFile=postgres_changelog.xml
url=jdbc:postgresql://hostname:5432/database_name
username=postgres_user
password=postgres_password

Step 2: Run Liquibase for Each Database

For Oracle:

liquibase --defaultsFile=liquibase.oracle.properties update

For PostgreSQL:

liquibase --defaultsFile=liquibase.postgres.properties update

CLI Arguments

The other alternative is to pass the required database information in as CLI arguments. 

liquibase \
--changeLogFile=${CHANGELOG} \
--url=${DB_URL} \
--username=${DB_USERNAME} \
--password=${DB_PASSWROD} \
update

All of the variables can be defined in the pipeline/environment. When Liquibase runs, it will deploy and connect to whatever database is given.

This strategy is preferred when Liquibase runs inside a CI/CD platform. 

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