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RethinkDB

What is RethinkDB?​

RethinkDB is an open-source, document-oriented database built specifically for real-time apps: it can push live query results to clients as the underlying data changes. A community package, Laravel RethinkDB, provides Laravel integration.

Start RethinkDB​

./laradock start rethinkdb

Your data is created on first start and kept between restarts under DATA_PATH_HOST/rethinkdb.

Stop RethinkDB​

Stopping just pauses the container; your data is safe:

./laradock stop rethinkdb

To delete the container entirely (the data on disk is still untouched, it lives under DATA_PATH_HOST/rethinkdb):

./laradock remove rethinkdb

Configuration​

rethinkdb/defaults.env only exposes one setting, and can be overridden by adding the same line to your own .env (your .env always wins):

VariableDefaultWhat it does
RETHINKDB_PORT8090Host-side port mapped to the container's admin console port (8080 inside the container).

The RethinkDB client driver port (28015 inside the container) is not published to your host, only reachable from other containers on Laradock's internal network via rethinkdb:28015.

Open the admin console​

With the container running, open http://localhost:8090/#tables (or your RETHINKDB_PORT) and create a database named database (or whatever you plan to reference from Laravel).

Use RethinkDB from Laravel​

  1. Add a RethinkDB connection to config/database.php: 
    'connections' => [

        'rethinkdb' => [
            'name'      => 'rethinkdb',
            'driver'    => 'rethinkdb',
            'host'      => env('DB_HOST', 'rethinkdb'),
            'port'      => env('DB_PORT', 28015),
            'database'  => env('DB_DATABASE', 'test'),
        ]

        // ...

    ],
  2. In your Laravel .env, set DB_CONNECTION=rethinkdb, DB_HOST=rethinkdb, DB_PORT=28015, and DB_DATABASE=database.

DB_HOST=rethinkdb and DB_PORT=28015 only resolve from inside another Laradock container (like workspace or php-fpm); they aren't reachable from your host machine since that port isn't published.

Backup and restore​

The rethinkdb image is built with RethinkDB's official Python driver, which bundles the rethinkdb-dump and rethinkdb-restore command-line tools. They only exist inside the RethinkDB container, so open a terminal there first, then dump straight into the mounted data folder so the archive lands on your host too:

./laradock enter rethinkdb
rethinkdb-dump -f /data/rethinkdb_data/backup.tar.gz

With no -e flag, rethinkdb-dump exports every database on the server. The resulting archive is written to DATA_PATH_HOST/rethinkdb/backup.tar.gz on your host machine, since /data/rethinkdb_data is the volume mount.

Restore the same archive later (into this container or a fresh one):

./laradock enter rethinkdb
rethinkdb-restore /data/rethinkdb_data/backup.tar.gz

See RethinkDB's own docs on backing up your data for filtering to specific databases/tables with -e.

Start completely fresh (wipe all data)​

To throw away everything and start RethinkDB from a clean, empty state (⚠️ this permanently deletes every database in this container, back up first if you need anything):

./laradock stop rethinkdb
./laradock remove rethinkdb
rm -rf "${DATA_PATH_HOST:-~/.laradock/data}/rethinkdb"
./laradock start rethinkdb

DATA_PATH_HOST is whatever you have set in .env (~/.laradock/data by default), so the folder above is where RethinkDB's data actually lives on your machine. Unlike MySQL, RethinkDB doesn't auto-create any database on boot, you'll need to recreate it from the admin console or your backup afterward.

Common issues​

  • Can't connect from a host GUI client. The client-driver port (28015) isn't published to your host by compose.yml, only the admin console (RETHINKDB_PORT → 8080) is. Connect from inside a Laradock container instead, or add a port mapping yourself if you need host access.
  • App can't connect but the container is running. Confirm the app's .env uses DB_HOST=rethinkdb (the container name), not localhost.
  • Admin console shows no tables. You need to create the database/tables yourself the first time, RethinkDB doesn't auto-create anything on boot like MySQL's MYSQL_DATABASE.
  • Port already in use on your host. Change RETHINKDB_PORT in .env and restart with ./laradock restart rethinkdb.

Need a document database instead? See MongoDB. For the full list of services, see Getting Started.