EspoCRM on Google Cloud Run

EspoCRM is an open-source, GPLv3-licensed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform built on PHP and Apache. This module deploys EspoCRM on Cloud Run v2 on top of the App_CloudRun foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud infrastructure.

This guide focuses on the cloud services EspoCRM uses and how to explore and operate them from the Google Cloud Console and the command line. For the mechanics common to every Cloud Run application — service identity, ingress and load balancing, scaling and concurrency, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_CloudRun foundation guide rather than repeating them here.

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1. Overview

EspoCRM runs as a PHP/Apache container on Cloud Run v2. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	Cloud Run v2	Apache/PHP service, 1 vCPU / 2 GiB by default, serverless autoscaling; scale-to-zero supported
Database	Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0	Required — EspoCRM does not support PostgreSQL; connected over private-IP TCP
Object storage	Cloud Storage + Filestore (NFS)	A dedicated espocrm-data GCS bucket is provisioned but not mounted by default; a shared NFS volume is mounted at /var/lib/espocrm for uploads (enable_nfs = true by default)
Cache	Redis (optional)	Optional object cache; disabled by default
Secrets	Secret Manager	Auto-generated ESPOCRM_ADMIN_PASSWORD; database password
Ingress	Cloud Run URL / Cloud Load Balancing	Default run.app URL; optional external HTTPS load balancer + custom domain

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• MySQL 8.0 is mandatory. The database engine is fixed by the shared application layer (database_type = "MYSQL_8_0"); EspoCRM does not support PostgreSQL.
• The database is reached over private-IP TCP, not a socket. enable_cloudsql_volume defaults to false on Cloud Run. EspoCRM's MySQL PDO connection needs a real TCP host, so cloud-entrypoint.sh dials the Cloud SQL private IP (DB_IP). Cloud SQL MySQL does not force SSL on private-IP TCP, so no extra TLS wiring is required.
• The admin account is bootstrapped automatically. The upstream installer creates the admin user with the auto-generated ESPOCRM_ADMIN_PASSWORD on first boot — retrieve it from Secret Manager to log in.
• Schema is created on first boot, not by a migrate job. db-init creates the database and user; the upstream docker-entrypoint.sh then runs the install/migrate action automatically when the container starts.
• Scale-to-zero is enabled by default (min_instance_count = 0, max_instance_count = 1). Cold starts add several seconds of latency to the first request after idle. Set min_instance_count = 1 to avoid cold starts.
• NFS is enabled by default. enable_nfs = true mounts a shared Filestore volume at /var/lib/espocrm, so EspoCRM's uploaded attachments and runtime data persist across container restarts and are shared across instances — unlike a bare Cloud Run deployment with only ephemeral disk. The auto-provisioned espocrm-data GCS bucket is not mounted anywhere by default.
• Single instance by default. max_instance_count = 1 — Cloud Run has no built-in session affinity, so keep the service single-instance unless you have verified EspoCRM's behaviour under concurrent PHP sessions across replicas.
• ESPOCRM_SITE_URL is derived from the predicted service URL at plan time and resolved by the entrypoint, so EspoCRM's absolute links and installer checks use the real Cloud Run host rather than localhost.
• Public ingress by default. ingress_settings = "all" so the CRM UI is reachable; enabling IAP puts Google sign-in in front of it.

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2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them

All commands assume PROJECT and REGION are set. Service and resource names are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. Cloud Run — the EspoCRM service

EspoCRM runs as a Cloud Run v2 service that autoscales by request load between the minimum and maximum instance counts. Each deployment creates an immutable revision; traffic can be split across revisions for safe rollouts.

• Console: Cloud Run → select the service for revisions, traffic, logs, and metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services list --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run revisions list --service <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"

See App_CloudRun for scaling, concurrency, execution environment, and traffic splitting.

B. Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0

EspoCRM stores all application data (contacts, leads, opportunities, activities, users) in a managed Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0 instance. Because enable_cloudsql_volume defaults to false, the service connects over the private IP (DB_IP) via VPC egress on port 3306; no public IP is exposed. On first deploy an initialization Job creates the application database and user.

• Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --database=<db-name> --project "$PROJECT"

The instance name, database, user, and password secret are in the Outputs. See App_CloudRun for the connection model, backups, and password rotation.

C. Cloud Storage & NFS

A dedicated Cloud Storage bucket (espocrm-data) is provisioned automatically, but it is not mounted anywhere by default (gcs_volumes defaults to []). The actual persistent store for EspoCRM's uploaded attachments and runtime data is a shared NFS (Filestore) volume, mounted at /var/lib/espocrm because enable_nfs = true by default. Additional GCS buckets can be declared via storage_buckets, and mounted via gcs_volumes (requires the gen2 execution environment) if you want to use the bucket.

• Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets; Filestore → Instances.
• CLI:

  gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud storage ls gs://<data-bucket>/        # bucket name is in the Outputs
  gcloud filestore instances list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun for GCS Fuse, NFS, and CMEK options.

D. Redis (object cache)

Redis is disabled by default. When enable_redis = true is set, REDIS_HOST and REDIS_PORT are injected and EspoCRM uses Redis as its object cache backend to reduce database load. When redis_host is left empty and enable_nfs is true, the NFS server VM's IP is used as the Redis endpoint.

• Console: Memorystore → Redis (if using a managed instance).
• CLI:

  redis-cli -h <redis-host> ping
  # Confirm the Redis env injected into the running revision:
  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" \
    --format='value(spec.template.spec.containers[0].env)'

E. Secret Manager

The first-run admin password (ESPOCRM_ADMIN_PASSWORD) is generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager, then injected into the service as a secret env var. The database password is managed separately by the foundation.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

  gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~espocrm-admin-password"
  gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<secret-name> --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun for injection and rotation details.

F. Networking & ingress

The service is reachable at its run.app URL by default. An external HTTPS load balancer with a custom domain, Cloud CDN, and Cloud Armor can be layered on; ingress settings and VPC egress control connectivity. EspoCRM connects to Cloud SQL over the VPC, so VPC egress must reach the private IP.

• Console: Cloud Run (service URL); Network services → Load balancing.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" --format='value(status.url)'
  gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun.

G. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Container logs flow to Cloud Logging; Cloud Run and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring, with optional uptime checks and alert policies.

• Console: Logging → Logs Explorer; Monitoring → Dashboards / Alerting.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services logs read <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" --limit 50

The cloud-entrypoint.sh prints the resolved ESPOCRM_DATABASE_* and ESPOCRM_SITE_URL values at startup — a quick way to confirm the DB host and site URL the container is using.

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3. EspoCRM Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. An initialization Job runs db-init.sh using mysql:8.0-debian. It resolves the Cloud SQL connection (Auth Proxy socket if present, otherwise private-IP TCP), idempotently creates the application database and user, grants privileges, and verifies the app user can connect (warming the MySQL 8 caching_sha2_password auth cache). The job runs on apply and is safe to re-run.
• Schema created on first boot. There is no separate migrate job. Once db-init has provisioned the database, the upstream EspoCRM docker-entrypoint.sh runs the install/migrate action automatically on container start, creating the schema and the admin user.
• Admin login is auto-generated. The admin user's password comes from the ESPOCRM_ADMIN_PASSWORD secret. Retrieve it before your first login:

  gcloud secrets versions access latest \
    --secret="secret-<resource_prefix>-espocrm-admin-password" --project "$PROJECT"

  Change it in the EspoCRM UI (Administration → Users) once you are in.
• Site URL must match the reachable host. EspoCRM builds absolute links from ESPOCRM_SITE_URL; the entrypoint sets it from the predicted run.app URL (or CLOUDRUN_SERVICE_URL at runtime). If you front the service with a custom domain, set the site URL to that host so links and OAuth redirects are correct.
• Health path. Startup uses a TCP probe on port 80; the liveness probe is HTTP GET / — EspoCRM serves its login page there unauthenticated (200). Allow several minutes on first boot for the install/migrate step (the default liveness probe has a 300-second initial delay).
• Uploads persist on NFS. With enable_nfs = true (default), EspoCRM's attachments and runtime data live under the shared /var/lib/espocrm Filestore mount, surviving container restarts and shared across instances. The espocrm-data GCS bucket is provisioned but not mounted by default.
• Inspect job execution:

  gcloud run jobs list --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run jobs executions list --job <job-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"

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4. Configuration Variables

Variables are grouped exactly as they appear on the deployment platform. Only settings specific to or notable for EspoCRM are listed; every other input is inherited from App_CloudRun with its standard behaviour.

Group 3 — Application Identity

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	espocrm	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
display_name	EspoCRM	Human-readable name shown in the Console.
application_version	latest	Image tag for espocrm/espocrm; latest is pinned internally to 10.0.2. Pin to a specific release in production.
php_memory_limit	512M	PHP memory limit; raise for heavy plugins or large media.
upload_max_filesize	64M	Maximum single-file upload size (≤ post_max_size).
post_max_size	64M	Maximum POST size; must be ≥ upload_max_filesize.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only.
cpu_limit	1000m	CPU per instance; minimum 1 vCPU for EspoCRM + MySQL.
memory_limit	2Gi	Memory per instance; minimum 512Mi (PHP 8.x).
min_instance_count	0	0 enables scale-to-zero; set 1 to avoid cold starts.
max_instance_count	1	Keep at 1 unless shared storage + session affinity are confirmed.
container_port	80	Apache listens on port 80.
execution_environment	gen2	Gen2 required for NFS and GCS Fuse mounts.
timeout_seconds	300	Maximum request duration (0–3600 seconds).
enable_cloudsql_volume	false	EspoCRM connects to MySQL over private-IP TCP, not the socket.

Group 5 — Access & Ingress Control

Variable	Default	Description
ingress_settings	all	Public access to the CRM UI.
vpc_egress_setting	PRIVATE_RANGES_ONLY	Route RFC 1918 traffic (incl. Cloud SQL private IP) via VPC.
enable_iap	false	Require Google sign-in in front of EspoCRM.
iap_authorized_users / iap_authorized_groups	[]	Who may access through IAP.

Group 11 — Storage & Filesystem

Variable	Default	Description
create_cloud_storage	true	Creates the espocrm-data bucket. Not mounted anywhere unless you add a matching gcs_volumes entry.
storage_buckets	[{ name_suffix = "data" }]	Bucket definitions provisioned when create_cloud_storage is true.
enable_nfs	true	Mounts a shared Filestore volume for EspoCRM's uploaded attachments and runtime data — persists across restarts by default.
nfs_mount_path	/var/lib/espocrm	Container mount path for the NFS volume.
gcs_volumes	[]	No GCS Fuse mount by default; the espocrm-data bucket stays unmounted unless you add an entry here.

Group 12 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	MYSQL_8_0	Cloud SQL engine. EspoCRM requires MySQL — do not select PostgreSQL.
db_name	espocrm	MySQL database name. Immutable after first deploy.
db_user	espocrm	Application database user. Password auto-generated in Secret Manager.
database_password_length	32	Generated DB password length (valid range 16–64).

Group 21 — Redis Cache

Variable	Default	Description
enable_redis	false	Enable Redis as EspoCRM's object cache backend.
redis_host	""	Redis endpoint. Leave empty to use the NFS server IP (requires enable_nfs = true).
redis_port	6379	Redis port.

All other inputs follow standard App_CloudRun behaviour.

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5. Outputs

Returned on a successful deployment — the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

Output	Description
service_name	Cloud Run service name.
service_url	Default run.app URL of the service.
service_location	Region the service runs in.
stage_services	Stage-specific service URLs (Cloud Deploy).
load_balancer_ip / load_balancer_url	External HTTPS load balancer IP / URL (when enabled).
database_instance_name	Cloud SQL instance name.
database_name / database_user	Application database name / user.
database_password_secret	Secret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_port	DB endpoint / port.
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets.
network_name / network_exists / regions	VPC network, presence, regions.
container_image / container_registry	Deployed image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels / uptime_check_names	Monitoring status, channels, uptime checks.
initialization_jobs	Names of the setup jobs (db-init).
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix	Naming identifiers.
project_id / project_number	Project identifiers.
cicd_enabled / github_repository_url / github_repository_owner / github_repository_name / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and details.
artifact_registry_repository / cloudbuild_trigger_name / cloudbuild_trigger_id	Registry and build trigger.
vpc_sc_enabled / vpc_sc_perimeter_name / vpc_sc_dry_run_mode	VPC-SC status.
audit_logging_enabled / artifact_registry_cmek_enabled	Audit logging and CMEK status.

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6. Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults

Risk: Critical (data loss / outage / security) — High (service degraded) — Medium (cost or partial degradation) — Low (minor).

Inherited plan-time validation. This module passes its configuration through the App_CloudRun foundation engine, which validates values and combinations at plan time — an out-of-range redis_port/backup_retention_days, a gen1 runtime with NFS/GCS mounts, IAP with no authorized identities. Invalid configuration fails the plan with a clear, named error before any resource is created, so most mistakes below are caught up front rather than at apply or runtime.

Setting	Sensible value	Risk	Consequence if wrong
database_type	MYSQL_8_0	Critical	EspoCRM only supports MySQL; selecting PostgreSQL breaks startup.
db_name / db_user	Set once	Critical	Immutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and destroys all data.
ESPOCRM_ADMIN_PASSWORD (auto-generated)	Retrieve from Secret Manager; change in UI	Critical	Only sets the admin password on the first install; losing it locks you out until reset via DB.
enable_backup_import	false unless restoring	Critical	Enabling without a valid backup URI fails the import job.
enable_nfs	true	High	Disabling it drops EspoCRM's attachment storage to ephemeral container disk — uploads are lost when an instance scales down or is recycled.
max_instance_count	1 unless verified safe	Medium	Uploads are NFS-backed by default, but Cloud Run has no built-in session affinity — verify EspoCRM's behaviour under concurrent PHP sessions before scaling beyond 1 instance.
enable_cloudsql_volume	false (private-IP TCP)	High	Forcing the socket without a matching entrypoint path can break the MySQL connection; EspoCRM dials the private IP by design.
ESPOCRM_SITE_URL (auto-derived)	Actual service / custom-domain URL	High	A wrong site URL breaks absolute links, the installer check, and OAuth redirects.
memory_limit	2Gi	High	Below 512Mi PHP 8.x OOM-kills during install/migrate and under load.
cpu_limit	1000m	Medium	Below 1 vCPU slows first-boot install and heavy plugin processing.
enable_iap	only when public UI not needed	Medium	IAP requires Google sign-in for every request, including API integrations.
min_instance_count	1 for production	Medium	Scale-to-zero (0) adds cold-start delay and, without a shared volume, drops local uploads on scale-down.
application_version	Pin in production	Medium	latest maps to a pinned tag internally, but pinning explicitly avoids surprise upgrades on redeploy.

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For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — service identity, scaling and concurrency, ingress and load balancing, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_CloudRun. EspoCRM-specific application configuration shared with the GKE variant is described in EspoCRM_Common.