PhpMyAdmin on Cloud Run — Lab Guide

Overview

Estimated time: 45–90 minutes

phpMyAdmin is the most popular open-source web tool for administering MySQL and MariaDB databases over the browser — browse and edit tables, run SQL, manage users, and import/export data. This lab takes you through the full operational lifecycle of the phpMyAdmin on Cloud Run module on Google Cloud: deploy it, access and verify it, run it day-to-day, observe it, diagnose common problems, and tear it down.

Unlike most modules in this repository, phpMyAdmin does not own or provision a database — it is a client that connects to a MySQL/MariaDB server that already exists elsewhere (the platform's shared Cloud SQL instance, another Cloud SQL instance, or any reachable host). "Deploying" phpMyAdmin means standing up the web UI and its connectivity path to that external server, not creating new data storage.

The lab focuses on operating the Cloud Run module and the Google Cloud platform, not on phpMyAdmin product features. For the complete list of provisioned services and every configuration input (organised by group), see the Configuration Guide — this lab deliberately does not duplicate that detail so it stays accurate over time.

Objectives

By the end of this lab you will be able to:

Deploy the module from the RAD platform and locate the resources it provisions.
Access and verify the running service, and confirm which MySQL/MariaDB server it targets.
Perform day-2 operations — inspect, scale, update the version, and pin or widen the MySQL target.
Observe the service with Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring.
Diagnose and resolve the most common deployment and runtime issues.
Tear the deployment down cleanly.

Prerequisites

Services_GCP deployed in the target project (provides the VPC, Cloud SQL, Artifact Registry, and shared service accounts this module depends on — and, if you want phpMyAdmin to administer it, the platform's shared MySQL instance).
A Google Cloud project with billing enabled.
gcloud CLI authenticated: gcloud auth login and gcloud auth application-default login.
Project Owner (or equivalent) IAM on the project.
RAD platform access with permission to deploy modules into the project.
Access to (or credentials for) a MySQL/MariaDB server you intend to administer — phpMyAdmin creates no database of its own.

Set these shell variables once; every task below reuses them:

export PROJECT="<your-gcp-project-id>"
export REGION="us-central1"          # the region you deploy into

Task 1 — Deploy the module [Automated]

In the RAD platform, open PhpMyAdmin (Cloud Run), set project_id, and review the inputs. Configure only what you need — the Configuration Guide documents every input by group, with defaults. Decide up front whether you want pma_arbitrary = "1" (default — users type any MySQL host at login) or a fixed pma_host with pma_arbitrary = "0" (single pinned server, e.g. the platform's Cloud SQL private IP). Review the estimated cost (if credits are enabled) and click Deploy, which opens the deployment status page with real-time logs.
The platform builds the thin custom container image (FROM phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin), mirrors it into Artifact Registry, and provisions the Cloud Run service. There is no Cloud SQL instance, no Secret Manager secret, and no database-initialisation job — phpMyAdmin provisions no data store of its own. First deploys typically take only 5–10 minutes (an image build and a Cloud Run rollout — none of the Cloud SQL provisioning time other application modules incur).

When it completes, discover the service with a name-agnostic filter (so the command keeps working regardless of the deployment suffix):

SERVICE=$(gcloud run services list --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" \
  --filter="metadata.name~phpmyadmin" --format="value(metadata.name)" --limit=1)
SERVICE_URL=$(gcloud run services describe "$SERVICE" \
  --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" --format="value(status.url)")
echo "Service: $SERVICE"
echo "URL:     $SERVICE_URL"

Task 2 — Access & verify [Manual]

Confirm the service is up. phpMyAdmin serves its login page at / with a 200 as soon as Apache/PHP is ready — there is no database-connectivity dependency to wait on, since phpMyAdmin holds no database of its own:
```
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" "$SERVICE_URL/"   # expect 200
```

Confirm which MySQL/MariaDB server phpMyAdmin is configured to target by inspecting the injected PMA_* env vars on the running revision:

gcloud run services describe "$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" \
  --format='value(spec.template.spec.containers[0].env)'

Open $SERVICE_URL in a browser.
- If PMA_ARBITRARY = "1" (default), the login page shows a server-input box — type the MySQL/MariaDB host, then your username and password for that server.
- If a fixed pma_host is set (PMA_ARBITRARY = "0"), only username and password are shown, scoped to that one server. In both cases, authenticate with the target MySQL server's own account — phpMyAdmin has no admin account of its own to create, and stores nothing between requests beyond the session cookie.
To administer the platform's shared Cloud SQL MySQL instance, first find its private IP:
```
gcloud sql instances list --project="$PROJECT" --filter="databaseVersion~MYSQL"
gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project="$PROJECT" \
  --format='value(ipAddresses[0].ipAddress)'
```
Enter that IP as the server (arbitrary mode) or confirm it matches the configured pma_host (pinned mode). Reaching a private-IP MySQL server requires the service's VPC egress to route private ranges (vpc_egress_setting = "PRIVATE_RANGES_ONLY", the default).

Task 3 — Operate & keep it running (Day-2) [Manual]

Inspect the service and its revisions (each deploy creates an immutable revision; traffic shifts to the newest healthy one):

gcloud run services describe "$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION"
gcloud run revisions list --service="$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION"

Scale by changing the min/max instance inputs and clicking Update on the deployment details page — the module owns the service spec, so scaling is a configuration change, not a manual gcloud edit (a manual edit would be reverted on the next apply). phpMyAdmin scales to zero by default (min_instance_count = 0, forced by the module) since it is a stateless, interactive admin console with no background work.
Update the application version by changing the version input in the RAD platform and applying it via Update; a new image builds and a new revision rolls out. Because phpMyAdmin holds no schema and no cryptographic keys, redeploys and version bumps carry none of the migration/key-rotation risk other stateful modules have.
Re-point or widen the MySQL target by changing pma_host / pma_arbitrary / pma_port in the RAD platform and applying Update — no data migration is involved since phpMyAdmin owns no data.
Manage ingress and access control — because phpMyAdmin grants full database administration to anyone who reaches it with valid MySQL credentials, review ingress_settings and consider enabling enable_iap (with iap_authorized_users/iap_authorized_groups) before leaving it running:
```
gcloud run services describe "$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" \
  --format='value(spec.template.metadata.annotations)'
```

Task 4 — Observe: Logging & Monitoring [Manual]

Logs — from the CLI or the Logs Explorer:
```
gcloud run services logs read "$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" --limit=50
```
Logs Explorer filter: resource.type="cloud_run_revision" AND resource.labels.service_name="<service>".
Monitoring — open the Cloud Run dashboard for the service and review request count, request latency (P50/P95/P99), instance count (scale-to-zero and cold-start behaviour), and CPU/memory utilisation. The module also provisions an uptime check when the service is publicly reachable; confirm it is green under Monitoring → Uptime checks, and review Alerting → Policies.

Task 5 — Troubleshoot & debug [Manual]

Durable techniques for the failure modes you are most likely to hit. These are platform-level diagnostics and do not change with phpMyAdmin releases.

Revision unhealthy / service won't serve: inspect the latest revision and its logs for Apache/PHP startup errors. The startup probe targets / with a short initial delay (10s) and up to ~6 retries at a 10s period — phpMyAdmin boots in a few seconds, so a probe failure almost always points at the container itself, not a slow dependency (it has none).
```
gcloud run revisions list --service="$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION"
gcloud run services logs read "$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" --limit=100
```
Login page loads but every login fails: this is a MySQL-side credential or reachability problem, not a phpMyAdmin or Cloud Run issue — phpMyAdmin stores no credentials of its own. Confirm the target host is correct, the account exists on that MySQL server, and the account's host-grants (user@host) allow a connection from the Cloud Run service's egress path.
"Cannot connect" / timeout at login: confirm vpc_egress_setting routes private ranges, that the target MySQL server's private IP is correct, and that its firewall rules or authorized networks allow the platform VPC's range.
Wrong or unexpected MySQL host offered at login: re-check the injected PMA_* env vars on the running revision — a stale revision may still be serving traffic after an update:
```
gcloud run services describe "$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" \
  --format='value(spec.template.spec.containers[0].env)'
```
Image build failed: review Cloud Build history for the failed build's log.
403 / permission errors: verify the runtime service account's IAM roles, and (if enable_iap = true) that your identity is listed in iap_authorized_users or iap_authorized_groups.

See the Configuration Guide's Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults section for setting-specific gotchas (including why leaving ingress_settings = "all" without IAP is a Critical-risk misconfiguration for a database-admin tool, and why PMA_ARBITRARY = "1" widens the blast radius of a compromised session).

Task 6 — Tear down [Automated]

On the Deployments page, open the deployment and click the Trash icon (Delete). Delete runs terraform destroy and is irreversible (the deployment record is retained for history). If a deployment is stuck and the RAD platform can no longer manage it (for example after manual changes that conflict with the Terraform state), use Purge instead — it removes the deployment from RAD's records without destroying the cloud resources (it makes RAD forget the project). This removes everything the module created — the Cloud Run service and its Artifact Registry image. Because phpMyAdmin provisions no database, no Secret Manager secrets, and no storage bucket of its own, there is nothing else for this module to clean up — the MySQL/MariaDB server it was pointed at is not touched (it is owned elsewhere, typically by Services_GCP or another application module). Resources owned by Services_GCP (the VPC, shared Cloud SQL, registry) are managed separately and are not removed here.

Summary

Task	Type	Outcome
1 — Deploy	Automated	Module builds/mirrors the image and provisions the Cloud Run service only — no database, secrets, or storage bucket are created
2 — Access & verify	Manual	Login page returns 200; confirm the configured MySQL target; authenticate with that server's own credentials
3 — Operate	Manual	Inspect revisions, scale (scale-to-zero by default), update version, re-point the MySQL target, review ingress/IAP
4 — Observe	Manual	Query Cloud Logging; review Cloud Monitoring metrics and uptime check
5 — Troubleshoot	Manual	Diagnose revision, MySQL-connectivity, ingress/IAM, and build issues
6 — Tear down	Automated	Delete (Trash) removes the Cloud Run service and image; the external MySQL server is unaffected

By Dr Shiyghan Emmanuel Navti · Google Cloud certified: ACE · PCA · PCD · PDE · PSE · CDL

Overview​

Objectives​

Prerequisites​

Task 1 — Deploy the module [Automated]​

Task 2 — Access & verify [Manual]​

Task 3 — Operate & keep it running (Day-2) [Manual]​

Task 4 — Observe: Logging & Monitoring [Manual]​

Task 5 — Troubleshoot & debug [Manual]​

Task 6 — Tear down [Automated]​

Summary​