Unable to connect railway.app postgres to nestjs application

Question

I have a NestJS application where app.module.ts has the following information

import { Module } from '@nestjs/common';
import { TypeOrmModule } from '@nestjs/typeorm';
import { AppController } from './app.controller';
import { AppService } from './app.service';
import { UserModule } from './user/user.module';
import { CertificationsModule } from './certifications/certifications.module';

@Module({
  imports: [
    TypeOrmModule.forRoot({
      type: 'postgres',
      url: process.env.DATABASE_PRIVATE_URL,
      database: process.env.PGDATABASE || process.env.POSTGRES_DB,
      host: process.env.PGHOST,
      port: parseInt(process.env.PGPORT),
      username: process.env.PGUSER || process.env.POSTGRES_USER,
      password: process.env.PGPASSWORD || process.env.POSTGRES_PASSWORD,
      autoLoadEntities: true,
      synchronize: false,
      ssl: true,
      extra: {
        ssl: {
          rejectUnauthorized: true,
        },
      },
    }),
    UserModule,,
    CertificationsModule,
  ],
  controllers: [AppController],
  providers: [AppService],
})
export class AppModule {}

and these are the environment variables I am getting from railway.app Postgres DB:

DATABASE_PRIVATE_URL=***
DATABASE_URL=***
PGDATA=***
PGDATABASE=***
PGHOST=***
PGPASSWORD=***
PGPORT=***
PGUSER=***
POSTGRES_DB=***
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=***
POSTGRES_USER=***
SSL_CERT_DAYS=***

I have tried every possible combination but in the end I only get this:

Error: connect ETIMEDOUT 35.212.181.170:5432

at TCPConnectWrap.afterConnect [as oncomplete] (node:net:1555:16)

[Nest] 45  - 12/07/2023, 7:03:32 PM   ERROR [TypeOrmModule] Unable to connect to the database. Retrying (2)...

Error: connect ETIMEDOUT 35.212.181.170:5432

at TCPConnectWrap.afterConnect [as oncomplete] (node:net:1555:16)

Is there any configuration that is missing from my end?

Answer 1

In NestJS, you can use environment variables by utilizing the config module along with the dotenv module to load environment variables from a .env file.

Install the required packages:

npm install --save @nestjs/config dotenv
npm install --save-dev @types/dotenv

Create a .env file in your project's root directory and add your environment variable:

DB_URL=your_actual_database_url_here

Create a configuration module to load environment variables. Create a file named config.module.ts:

// config.module.ts
import { Module } from '@nestjs/common';
import { ConfigModule } from '@nestjs/config';

@Module({
  imports: [
    ConfigModule.forRoot({
      isGlobal: true,
    }),
  ],
})
export class MyConfigModule {}

Import and use this MyConfigModule in your AppModule:

// app.module.ts
import { Module } from '@nestjs/common';
import { ConfigModule } from '@nestjs/config';
import { TypeOrmModule } from '@nestjs/typeorm';
import { UserModule } from './user/user.module';
import { CertificationsModule } from './certifications/certifications.module';

import { MyConfigModule } from './config.module';

@Module({
  imports: [
    ConfigModule.forRoot({
      isGlobal: true,
    }),
    TypeOrmModule.forRoot({
      type: 'postgres',
      url: process.env.DB_URL, // Use the environment variable here
      autoLoadEntities: true,
      synchronize: false,
    }),
    UserModule,
    CertificationsModule,
    MyConfigModule, // Add your config module here
  ],
  controllers: [AppController],
  providers: [AppService],
})
export class AppModule {}

Now, your TypeORM configuration will use the DB_URL environment variable from the .env file. Remember to replace your_actual_database_url_here in the .env file with your actual database URL.