Version: 0.5.5

Adminer on Aruba Cloud

Deploy Adminer — a lightweight, single-file PHP database administration tool — on Aruba Cloud using Terraform and cloud-init. Adminer supports MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and SQLite from a single PHP file served by Apache.

Provider version: arubacloud/arubacloud ~> 0.5 | Terraform: ≥ 1.9

Introduction

Adminer is a full-featured database management tool contained in a single PHP file. Compared to phpMyAdmin it is lighter, faster to deploy, and just as capable for day-to-day DB administration tasks. This example provisions a minimal VM with:

Apache2 + PHP 8.1 — the smallest viable stack for Adminer
Adminer.php downloaded directly from the official GitHub release
PHP database drivers for MySQL (php-mysql), PostgreSQL (php-pgsql), and SQLite (php-sqlite3)
Port 80 restricted to admin_cidr — Adminer is never exposed to the public internet

Security note: Adminer has no built-in rate limiting or IP restriction. Always set admin_cidr to your specific management IP (e.g. 203.0.113.42/32) and never deploy with the default 0.0.0.0/0 in production.

Architecture Overview

Infrastructure Created

Resource	Name pattern	Description
`arubacloud_project`	`adminer-prod`	Project container
`arubacloud_vpc`	`adminer-prod-vpc`	Virtual Private Cloud
`arubacloud_subnet`	`adminer-prod-subnet`	Basic subnet
`arubacloud_securitygroup`	`adminer-prod-vm-sg`	Security group
`arubacloud_securityrule`	`adminer-prod-vm-ssh`	SSH ingress
`arubacloud_securityrule`	`adminer-prod-vm-admin-ui`	Admin UI ingress TCP 80
`arubacloud_elasticip`	`adminer-prod-vm-eip`	VM public IP
`arubacloud_blockstorage`	`adminer-prod-boot`	20 GB boot disk (Performance)
`arubacloud_keypair`	`adminer-prod-keypair`	SSH public key
`arubacloud_cloudserver`	`adminer-prod-vm`	CloudServer VM

Estimated Monthly Cost

Resource	Spec	Est. cost/mo
CloudServer VM	CSO1A2 — 1 vCPU / 2 GB	~€9
Boot disk	20 GB Performance	~€3
Elastic IP	—	~€3
Total		~€15/mo

Requirements

Terraform ≥ 1.9
ArubaCloud Terraform Provider ~> 0.5
An ArubaCloud account with OAuth2 API credentials
An SSH key pair
A database server reachable from the VM (on the same VPC or via public IP)

Variables

Required

Variable	Description
`arubacloud_client_id`	ArubaCloud OAuth2 client ID
`arubacloud_client_secret`	ArubaCloud OAuth2 client secret
`ssh_public_key`	SSH public key content

Optional

Variable	Default	Description
`app_name`	`"adminer"`	Short name used in all resource names
`environment`	`"prod"`	Environment label
`location`	`"ITBG-Bergamo"`	ArubaCloud region
`zone`	`"ITBG-1"`	Availability zone
`billing_period`	`"Hour"`	`"Hour"` or `"Month"`
`vm_flavor`	`"CSO1A2"`	CloudServer flavor
`vm_image`	`"LU22-001"`	Boot disk image (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS)
`vm_disk_size_gb`	`20`	Boot disk size in GB
`ssh_cidr`	`"0.0.0.0/0"`	CIDR for SSH — restrict in production
`admin_cidr`	`"0.0.0.0/0"`	CIDR for web UI — always restrict
`adminer_version`	`"4.8.1"`	Adminer release version

Outputs

Output	Description
`adminer_url`	Adminer web interface URL
`vm_public_ip`	Public IP address of the VM
`ssh_command`	SSH command to connect to the VM

Deployment Instructions

1. Clone and navigate

git clone https://github.com/arubacloud/terraform-arubacloud-examples.git
cd terraform-arubacloud-examples/adminer

2. Configure variables

cp terraform.tfvars.example terraform.tfvars

Set your credentials and restrict CIDRs to your management IP:

arubacloud_client_id     = "your-client-id"
arubacloud_client_secret = "your-client-secret"
ssh_public_key           = "ssh-ed25519 AAAA..."
ssh_cidr                 = "203.0.113.42/32"
admin_cidr               = "203.0.113.42/32"

3. Deploy

terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply

Bootstrap takes approximately 2–3 minutes.

4. Connect to a database

terraform output adminer_url

Open the URL in your browser and enter:

Server: hostname or IP of your database server
Username / Password: your database credentials
Database: database name (optional — leave blank to list all)

Security Recommendations

Always restrict admin_cidr to your management IP. Adminer exposes database credentials in the browser and has no built-in brute-force protection. Default 0.0.0.0/0 is acceptable only for initial testing on a disposable VM.
Do not store sensitive DB credentials in terraform.tfvars. Use environment variables (TF_VAR_*) or a secrets manager when automating deployments.
Consider adding HTTP Basic Auth. For an additional authentication layer before Adminer loads, enable Apache Basic Auth:
```
sudo htpasswd -c /etc/apache2/.htpasswd admin
```
Then add the following to /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf inside the <VirtualHost> block:
```
<Directory /var/www/html>
    AuthType Basic
    AuthName "Restricted"
    AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/.htpasswd
    Require valid-user
</Directory>
```
Reload Apache: sudo systemctl reload apache2
Use a VPN. The most secure approach is to keep admin_cidr locked to your WireGuard or other VPN tunnel CIDR, and access Adminer only over VPN.

Troubleshooting

Adminer page not loading

# Check Apache is running
sudo systemctl status apache2

# Check Adminer PHP file exists
ls -la /var/www/html/adminer.php

# Check cloud-init completed successfully
sudo cat /var/log/cloud-init-output.log | tail -30

Cannot connect to database

Verify the database host is reachable from the VM:

ssh ubuntu@$(terraform output -raw vm_public_ip)
# For MySQL:
nc -zv <db-host> 3306
# For PostgreSQL:
nc -zv <db-host> 5432

Check the security group on your database server allows inbound connections from the Adminer VM's IP.

Introduction​

Architecture Overview​

Infrastructure Created​

Estimated Monthly Cost​

Requirements​

Variables​

Required​

Optional​

Outputs​

Deployment Instructions​

1. Clone and navigate​

2. Configure variables​

3. Deploy​

4. Connect to a database​

Security Recommendations​

Troubleshooting​

Adminer page not loading​

Cannot connect to database​

References​