Metabase: BI Analytics Tool

Metabase is a fast, easy-to-use open-source business intelligence tool that lets your team explore and visualize data without SQL knowledge.

Metabase provides a friendly user interface with rich chart types and supports connecting to various databases, making it an ideal choice for enterprise data analysis.

Quick Start

Pigsty provides a Docker Compose configuration file for Metabase in the software template directory:

cd ~/pigsty/app/metabase

Review and modify the .env configuration file:

vim .env    # Check configuration, recommend changing default credentials

Start the service:

make up     # Start Metabase with Docker Compose

Access Metabase:

• Default URL: http://metabase.pigsty
• Alternate URL: http://10.10.10.10:3001
• First-time access requires initial setup

Management Commands

Pigsty provides convenient Makefile commands to manage Metabase:

make up      # Start Metabase service
make run     # Start with Docker (connect to external PostgreSQL)
make view    # Display Metabase access URL
make log     # View container logs
make info    # View service details
make stop    # Stop the service
make clean   # Stop and remove containers
make pull    # Pull the latest image
make rmi     # Remove Metabase image
make save    # Save image to file
make load    # Load image from file

Connect to PostgreSQL

Metabase can connect to PostgreSQL databases managed by Pigsty.

During Metabase initialization or when adding a database, select “PostgreSQL” and enter the connection information:

Database Type: PostgreSQL
Name: Custom name (e.g., "Production Database")
Host: 10.10.10.10
Port: 5432
Database Name: your_database
Username: dbuser_meta
Password: DBUser.Meta

After successful connection, Metabase will automatically scan the database schema, and you can start creating questions and dashboards.

Features

• No SQL Required: Build queries through visual interface
• Rich Chart Types: Line, bar, pie, map charts, and more
• Interactive Dashboards: Create beautiful data dashboards
• Auto Refresh: Schedule data and dashboard updates
• Permission Management: Fine-grained user and data access control
• SQL Mode: Advanced users can write SQL directly
• Embedding: Embed charts into other applications
• Alerting: Automatic notifications on data changes

Configuration

Metabase configuration is in the .env file:

# Metabase metadata database (PostgreSQL recommended)
MB_DB_TYPE=postgres
MB_DB_DBNAME=metabase
MB_DB_PORT=5432
MB_DB_USER=dbuser_metabase
MB_DB_PASS=DBUser.Metabase
MB_DB_HOST=10.10.10.10

# Application configuration
JAVA_OPTS=-Xmx2g

Recommended: Use a dedicated PostgreSQL database for storing Metabase metadata.

Data Persistence

Metabase metadata (users, questions, dashboards, etc.) is stored in the configured database.

If using H2 database (default), data is saved in the /data/metabase directory. Using PostgreSQL as the metadata database is strongly recommended for production environments.

Performance Optimization

• Use PostgreSQL: Replace the default H2 database
• Increase Memory: Add JVM memory with JAVA_OPTS=-Xmx4g
• Database Indexes: Create indexes for frequently queried fields
• Result Caching: Enable Metabase query result caching
• Scheduled Updates: Set reasonable dashboard auto-refresh frequency

Security Recommendations

1. Change Default Credentials: Modify metadata database username and password
2. Enable HTTPS: Configure SSL certificates for production
3. Configure Authentication: Enable SSO or LDAP authentication
4. Restrict Access: Limit access through firewall
5. Regular Backups: Back up the Metabase metadata database

Related Links

• Metabase Website: https://metabase.com/
• Documentation: https://www.metabase.com/docs/
• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/metabase/metabase
• Pigsty Software Template: https://github.com/pgsty/pigsty/tree/main/app/metabase