Databases
From StackWiki
Stack has multiple database servers running for our users: both MySQL and PostgreSQL servers are available for members and associations. Web-based administration tools are available for all database servers (naturally command line tools are installed on all servers as well).
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Requesting a database
Databases are not created automatically on account creation, but can be requested from the Unix Committee by email or in person. Currently new databases are available on one of our MySQL 5.1 servers and our PostgreSQL 8.3 server. If you wish to use an older version of a database server, this may or may not be possible. It is possible to have both a MySQL database and a PostgreSQL database; it is also possible to have more than one database (with or without another username) of the same type.
Upgrading from one database version to another is possible by requesting a database on the new server, making an export ("dump") e.g. with the web-based administration and doing an import ("restore") on that server. If needed, the Unix Committee or Stack Helpdesk can provide assistance.
If a database is no longer needed, we ask you to report this to the Unix Committee so the database can be removed.
Using databases from scripts or tools
To connect to to the database from within Stack (or from a script running on a Stack server), you can use the short name of the database server, e.g. db6 for the MySQL 5 server or db4 for the PostgreSQL 8 server. It is also possible to connect to the database from anywhere else in the world, by using the full name, e.g. db4.stack.nl.
Web-based administration
Stack provides a central web interface (phpMyAdmin) for managing MySQL databases, and phpPgAdmin for managing PostgreSQL databases. We advise that users do not install their own installations of these software packages but use the ones provided by Stack. The web-based interfaces will prompt you for the database server. If you use localhost as a server (this only applies to association accounts), select server db2 from the list of servers.
| server | software | admin url |
|---|---|---|
| db2 db5 db6 db7 | MySQL 5.0.x MySQL 5.0.x MySQL 5.1.x MySQL 5.1.x | https://dbadmin.stack.nl/mysql/dbx/ |
| db0 db4 | PostgreSQL 7.4.x PostgreSQL 8.3.x | https://dbadmin.stack.nl/pgsql/ |
If you don't have a SQL database account yet, feel free to request one from the Unix Committee. This also applies if you wish to use a second database, or replace your database by one running a newer version of MySQL or PostgreSQL. New databases are only available on MySQL ≥ 5.1 (db6) and PostgreSQL ≥ 8.3 (db4).
Backups
All databases are backed up daily. To restore old versions of tables, please contact the Unix Committee. More information can be found on the backups page.
