A Neo4j container (docker) with initial data in it

Question

Other database dockers that I've worked with (like Postgres) have a mechanism to import some initial data into their empty instance once the container starts for the first time. This is usually in form of putting your SQL files in a specific folder.

I need to do the same for Neo4j. I want to compose a Neo4j docker image with some data in it. What's the right way to do this?

Answer 1

This could be achieved... There are 2 requirements:

1. set initial password, which could be achieved using bin/neo4j-admin set-initial-password <password> and then
2. import data from file in cypher format cat import/data.cypher | NEO4J_USERNAME=neo4j NEO4J_PASSWORD=${NEO4J_PASSWD} bin/cypher-shell --fail-fast

Sample Dockerfile may look like this

FROM neo4j:3.2

ENV NEO4J_PASSWD neo4jadmin
ENV NEO4J_AUTH neo4j/${NEO4J_PASSWD}

COPY data.cypher /var/lib/neo4j/import/

VOLUME /data

CMD bin/neo4j-admin set-initial-password ${NEO4J_PASSWD} || true && \
    bin/neo4j start && sleep 5 && \
    for f in import/*; do \
      [ -f "$f" ] || continue; \
      cat "$f" | NEO4J_USERNAME=neo4j NEO4J_PASSWORD=${NEO4J_PASSWD} bin/cypher-shell --fail-fast && rm "$f"; \
    done && \
    tail -f logs/neo4j.log

Building image sudo docker build -t neo4j-3.1:loaddata .

And running container docker run -it --rm --name neo4jtest neo4j-3.1:loaddata