Automating the updating of GeoLocation database (GeoIP2 by MaxMind)

August 4, 2021

There are multiple ways of doing this.

Direct download script (with cron)

code

GEOIPUPDATE_LICENSE_KEY=''

#https://download.maxmind.com/app/geoip_download?edition_id=GeoLite2-Country&license_key=${GEOIPUPDATE_LICENSE_KEY}&suffix=tar.gz

curl "https://download.maxmind.com/app/geoip_download?edition_id=GeoLite2-Country&license_key=${GEOIPUPDATE_LICENSE_KEY}&suffix=tar.gz" -o GeoLite2-Country.tar.gz \
  && tar -xzvf GeoLite2-Country.tar.gz \
  && mkdir -p /var/opt/maxmind/ \
  && mv GeoLite2-Country_*/GeoLite2-Country.mmdb /var/opt/maxmind/GeoLite2-Country.mmdb

geoipupdate tool with cron

code

# top of crontab
MAILTO=your@email.com

38 2 * * 0,4 /usr/local/bin/geoipupdate
# end of crontab

As a Docker container using geoipupdate tool
As part of docker.compose.yml using official Docker container for geoipupdate

code

geoipupdate:
  container_name: geoip_update
  image: maxmindinc/geoipupdate
  restart: unless-stopped
  environment:
    GEOIPUPDATE_ACCOUNT_ID: ${GEOIPUPDATE_ACCOUNT_ID}
    GEOIPUPDATE_LICENSE_KEY: ${GEOIPUPDATE_LICENSE_KEY}
    GEOIPUPDATE_EDITION_IDS: GeoLite2-Country
    GEOIPUPDATE_FREQUENCY: 96 # number of hours between geoipupdate runs, 96 is four days, GeoIP2 Country is updated twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays
  volumes:
    - ./data/maxmind:/usr/local/share/GeoIP

This assumes you have a .env file in the project root that has your account ID and license key. Otherwise you can just hard code these values

code

# .env

# MaxMind Credentials
GEOIPUPDATE_ACCOUNT_ID=123456
GEOIPUPDATE_LICENSE_KEY=7CajsdbjkasbdkKj

Automating the updating of GeoLocation database (GeoIP2 by MaxMind)

Links