Heroku is one-stop solution to upgrade your database plan and deploy it using RoR. Let’s find out steps to upgrade your database plan on Heroku and Rails Setup.

1. How to
Upgrade
Your
Database
Plan on
Heroku and
Rails Setup?
www.bacancytechnology.com

2. Ruby on Rails is a very established web
framework, and Heroku is a platform as a
service that offers for building, running, and
operating the applications in the cloud
itself.
Since you are reading this, I assume either
you have some horrifying task of playing
with the production database or are just
curious! So let’s get right into it.
This method works on any Postgres plan
you have on Heroku.

3. Follow these 09
steps to upgrade
your plan on Heroku
and Rails set up and
experience how
things work
wonders.
==================

4. This step is for absolute beginners; the
complete process will be done on Heroku
Rails Console.For accessing your console,
use this command :
heroku run rails c --app your-app-name
====================================
Step 1: Firing up your
Heroku App Console

5. Perhaps the most important thing you
should never forget is to ensure that your
current database is safe. Therefore we will
start with backing up your database and
then downloading it. For this process, use
these commands in your console.
heroku pg:backups:capture --app your-app-
name
heroku pg:backups:download --app your-
app-name
==================================
Step 2: Backing Up
Current Database

6. Since we are done with backing up the
database, now we need the current
information of the application regarding
Postgres.
pg:info command comes in handy here.
I would suggest saving the output of this as
it will be helpful later.
heroku pg:info --app your-app-name
==================================
Step 3: Get your
application’s current
information.

7. After you get the information from
Postgres, you need to create another
database with a required plan ( for me, it’s
hobby-basic ). Find the command below:
// use pg:wait command to notify you when
provisioning ( database creation ) is
complete. //
heroku pg:wait --app your-app-name
> HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_SILVER_URL
//Sample o/p – your’s can be different
====================================
Step 4: Creating your
new database

8. Until now, all the above processes didn’t
affect your current database, but now we
will be copying all the data from our
existing database to the newly created
database. Since we don’t miss out on any
entries, we have to take down our website.
Yes, I feel sad too.
//Scaling workers to 0 to ensure that delay
jobs don’t write to our database. //
heroku ps:scale worker=0 --app your-app-
name
//Entering maintenance mode
Heroku maintenance:on --app your-app-
name
==================================
Step 5: Enter
maintenance mode

9. //This command copies all the content from
DATABASE_URL(Current Database name
which you will find in pg:info command ) to
HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_SILVER_URL
heroku pg:copy DATABASE_URL
HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_SILVER_URL --app
your-app-name
//Enter app name again to confirm when it
prompts.
your-app-name
====================================
Step 6: Transfer data
from old DB to new DB

10. Since we have copied all the data to the new
database and are ready to use it, we need to
promote it. It means we are attaching this
newly created database as a primary
database to our application.
Heroku pg:promote
HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_SILVER_URL --app
your-app-name
==================================
Step 7: Promote the new
DB / connect the DB to
live

11. Everything is done, and our newly created
database is ready to use. Now it’s time to
bring our app back to life. I love this step
3000. At this point, anxiety must be kicking
in along with that smirk of hoping it will
work; anyway, let’s get this thing running.
To do so, follow me.
//Scaling workers to 1 to ensure workers
start writing to the database
heroku ps:scale worker=1 --app your-app-
name
// Finally exiting maintenance mode
heroku maintenance:off --app your-app-
name
====================================
Step 8: Exit maintenance
mode

12. Since we have moved to our new database
and don’t need the old database anymore,
we can delete it. Follow this to achieve it.
( Not mandatory )
You can use this database as a follower too.
heroku addons:destroy
HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_CRIMSON_URL --
app your-app-name
Run pg:info command to find your
application’s database url,
HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_CRIMSON_URL
in my case.
====================================
Step 9: Deprovisioning
old database

13. But wait. There’s more!
Bonus: Add follower database
To add a follower database, use this in step 3
heroku addons:create heroku-
postgresql:standard-0 --follow
DATABASE_URL --app your-app-name
====================================

14. So, this was all about how to upgrade your
database plan on Heroku and Rails setup. I
hope you have understood it pretty well. I
have tried my best to go through Heroku’s
official documentation and bring this blog
to you.
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15. Thank you