Focalboard on Google Cloud Run

Focalboard is a self-hosted, open-source Kanban and project-board server from the Mattermost project — a Go backend serving a built React frontend for managing tasks, boards, and workflows. This module deploys Focalboard 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 Focalboard 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

Focalboard runs as a single Go 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	Go service on port 8000, 2 vCPU / 4 GiB by default; serverless autoscaling with scale-to-zero
Database	Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15	Required — the engine is fixed (database_type = POSTGRES_15)
Attachment storage	Cloud Storage (GCS FUSE)	A dedicated bucket mounted at /data via gcsfuse so uploaded attachments survive restarts
Secrets	Secret Manager	Auto-generated FOCALBOARD_ADMIN_PASSWORD; database password managed by the foundation
Ingress	Cloud Run URL / Cloud Load Balancing	Default run.app URL; optional external HTTPS load balancer + custom domain

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• PostgreSQL 15 is mandatory. The database engine is fixed by the shared application layer; Focalboard has no MySQL or SQLite path in this module.
• Focalboard reads config.json, not env vars, for the DB connection. A custom entrypoint regenerates /opt/focalboard/config.json from the Foundation-injected DB_* values on every start, so no DSN is baked into the image.
• Attachments live on a gcsfuse-mounted GCS bucket at /data. Cloud Run has no block-PVC option, so enable_gcs_storage_volume = true mounts the storage bucket at the Focalboard filespath. Board data (cards, boards, users) lives in PostgreSQL; only uploaded files land on the bucket.
• No Redis is used. enable_redis = false — Focalboard keeps all board state in PostgreSQL and needs no external cache or queue.
• Scale-to-zero is enabled (min_instance_count = 0, max_instance_count = 5). Cold starts add a few seconds of latency to the first request after idle; set min_instance_count = 1 to keep an instance warm.
• The image is a mirrored custom build. The official mattermost/focalboard image is thin-wrapped and mirrored into Artifact Registry; application_version defaults to 7.11.4, and latest maps to that pinned tag at build time (latest is not a published Focalboard tag).
• Native auth, first-user-is-owner. authMode = native and public shared boards are enabled; the first account registered via the UI becomes the workspace owner. There is no pre-seeded admin.

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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 Focalboard service

Focalboard runs as a Cloud Run v2 service listening on port 8000, autoscaling 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" \
    --filter="metadata.name~focalboard"
  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 PostgreSQL 15

Focalboard stores all board data (boards, cards, blocks, users, sessions) in a managed Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 instance. The service connects privately — on Cloud Run over the VPC private IP with sslmode=require, or via the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy Unix socket when enable_cloudsql_volume = true; no public IP is exposed. On first deploy an initialization Job creates the application database and role.

• 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 — attachment bucket

A dedicated Cloud Storage bucket (the storage suffix) is provisioned automatically and mounted at /data via gcsfuse so uploaded board attachments persist across instance restarts and scale-to-zero. Additional buckets can be declared via storage_buckets.

• Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets.
• CLI:

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

See App_CloudRun for GCS Fuse and CMEK options.

D. Secret Manager

One application secret is generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager: FOCALBOARD_ADMIN_PASSWORD (a 24-char random string, injected as a SERVICE secret env). The database password is managed separately by the foundation.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

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

See App_CloudRun for injection and rotation details.

E. 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.

• 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.

F. 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. The entrypoint prints the resolved DB host, name, user, and sslmode at startup — useful for confirming the connection wiring.

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

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

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3. Focalboard Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. An initialization Job runs db-init.sh using postgres:15-alpine. It idempotently creates the application role (LOGIN CREATEDB) and database, grants privileges, and reassigns the public schema owner to the app role so Focalboard can run its migrations. No Postgres extensions are installed. The job is safe to re-run.
• Migrations run on start. Focalboard applies its own schema migrations on every boot as the application user, so upgrading application_version applies schema changes without a separate migration step.
• config.json is generated at runtime. Focalboard has no env-var override for the DB connection; the entrypoint writes /opt/focalboard/config.json from the injected DB_* vars each start. On Cloud Run it connects over the private IP with sslmode=require (preferring DB_IP, since the Cloud SQL socket does not always materialise).
• Health path. Startup, liveness, and readiness probes target / — the web UI, which returns 200 once the server binds its port and completes migrations. Allow up to ~7–8 minutes on first boot (60-second startup initial delay + a 15s×30 retry window).
• First-run setup. Focalboard runs in authMode = native; open the service URL and register the first account, which becomes the workspace owner. enablePublicSharedBoards is on, so boards can be shared via public links.
• Attachments vs. data. Board content lives in PostgreSQL; only uploaded files are written to the gcsfuse-mounted bucket at /data. If the bucket mount is missing, uploads fail but board editing still works.
• Inspect the running config and jobs:

  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" \
    --format='value(spec.template.spec.containers[0].env)'
  gcloud run jobs list --project "$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 Focalboard are listed; every other input is inherited from App_CloudRun with its standard behaviour.

Group 3 — Application Identity

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	focalboard	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
application_version	7.11.4	Focalboard image tag; latest maps to the pinned 7.11.4 at build time.
display_name	Focalboard	Human-readable name shown in the Console.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only.
cpu_limit	2000m	CPU per instance.
memory_limit	4Gi	Memory per instance.
min_instance_count	0	0 enables scale-to-zero; set 1 to avoid cold starts.
max_instance_count	5	Maximum instances. Safe to raise — board state is in PostgreSQL, not per-instance.
container_port	8000	Focalboard listens on port 8000.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Cloud SQL Auth Proxy socket; the entrypoint also falls back to private-IP TCP.
enable_image_mirroring	true	Mirror the mattermost/focalboard image into Artifact Registry.
cpu_always_allocated	false	Request-based (cold-start) billing. Focalboard has no background workers or WebSocket server, so scale-to-zero is safe.

Group 12 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	POSTGRES_15	Fixed — Focalboard requires PostgreSQL 15.
application_database_name	crappdb	Cloud SQL database name, injected as DB_NAME. Immutable after first deploy.
application_database_user	crappuser	Application DB user, injected as DB_USER. Password auto-generated in Secret Manager.
enable_auto_password_rotation	false	Optional DB password rotation.

Group 13 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks

Variable	Default	Description
initialization_jobs	[]	Leave empty to use the built-in db-init job.

Group 14 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe	HTTP /, 60s delay, 10s timeout, 15s period, 30 retries	Startup probe. Allow ~7–8 minutes on first boot for migrations.
liveness_probe	HTTP /, 60s delay, 5s timeout, 30s period, 3 retries	Liveness probe.
uptime_check_config	{ enabled=false, path="/" }	Cloud Monitoring uptime check; disabled by default.

Group 21 — Redis

Variable	Default	Description
enable_redis	false	Focalboard does not require Redis; leave off.

All other inputs follow standard App_CloudRun behaviour and defaults.

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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 details (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 (the attachment bucket).
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 IAP configuration with no authorized identities, a gen1 runtime with GCS mounts, a database_type that does not match an enabled extension, an out-of-range backup_retention_days. Invalid configuration fails the plan with a clear, named error before any resource is created.

Setting	Sensible value	Risk	Consequence if wrong
application_database_name / application_database_user	Set once	Critical	Injected as DB_NAME/DB_USER and immutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and orphans all board data.
Attachment bucket / enable_gcs_storage_volume	Keep the gcsfuse mount at /data	Critical	Without a persistent mount at filespath, uploaded attachments are written to ephemeral instance disk and lost on restart / scale-to-zero.
database_type	POSTGRES_15	Critical	Any other engine breaks Focalboard startup — there is no MySQL/SQLite path here.
application_version	Pin a real tag (7.11.4)	High	mattermost/focalboard:latest is not a published tag; the build maps latest to the pinned FOCALBOARD_VERSION, but pinning explicitly avoids surprises.
container_port	8000	High	Focalboard binds 8000; a mismatched port makes the startup probe never pass.
enable_redis	false	Medium	Focalboard needs no Redis; enabling it wires an unused dependency.
min_instance_count	1 for latency-sensitive use	Medium	Scale-to-zero (0) adds cold-start latency to the first request after idle.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Medium	The entrypoint falls back to private-IP TCP with sslmode=require, but the Auth Proxy socket is the primary path.

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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. Focalboard-specific application configuration shared with the GKE variant is described in Focalboard_Common.