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Connecting To A Database

How to start using Beekeeper Studio with your database of choice.

The connection screen allows you to enter connection information for your database.

Supported Database Types

Beekeeper Studio currently supports the following database types:

  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • SQLite
  • SQL Server (even SS 2005 works)
  • Amazon Redshift
  • CockroachDB
  • MariaDB
  • Oracle Database

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The Beekeeper Studio Connection Screen

Connection Mode

You can connect to some databases with either a socket or a TCP connection. Socket connections only work when the database server is running on your local machine (it’s the default set-up for a MySQL installation for example). TCP connections require a hostname and port.

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TCP (Host/Port) connection example

Note that SSL, SSH, and other advanced connection options are only available with a TCP connection.

SSL

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Beekeeper Studio’s SSL Configuration

There are three ways to connect to a database with SSL

  1. Trust the server: Connect with SSL without providing your own certificate. This is the default.
  2. Required Cert: Connect with SSL, provide your own certs, and disable rejectUnauthorized.
  3. Verified Cert: Connect with SSL, provide your own certs, and enable rejectUnauthorized.

Here’s a table of how the various sslmode flags from command line clients map to Beekeeper:

sslmode Turn on SSL? rejectUnauthorized
disable no n/a
allow no n/a
prefer no n/a
require yes false
verify-ca yes false
verify-full yes true

You can provide your own custom certificate files if needed.

SSH

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Beekeeper Studio’s SSH configuration

Server Configuration

Before you can use an SSH tunnel to connect to your database, you need to make sure your SSH server is setup correctly.

Firstly make sure the following line is set in your /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

AllowTcpForwarding yes

ssh-rsa public keys

If you are using an ssh key generated by the ssh-rsa algorithm, you’ll need to enable support for this algorithm in your ssh server.

To do this, you can add the following line to the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file on your SSH server

PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes +ssh-rsa

Yes, the + is intentional

Client Configuration Options

Beekeeper supports tunneling your connection via SSH. To connect to a remote database using your SSH account on that machine:

  1. Activate the SSH Tunnel to reveal the ssh connection detail fields

  2. Enter the SSH Hostname or IP address of the remote SSH server

  3. Change the SSH server’s Port if it doesn’t accept connections on the default port 22

  4. Enter Bastion Host (JumpHost) (optional) if your server’s network requires that you connect through a JumpHost

  5. Enter the Keepalive Interval (optional) to specify, in seconds, how often to ping the server while idle to prevent getting disconnected due to a timeout. This is equivalent to the ServerAliveInterval option you might use on the ssh commmand line, or in your ~/.ssh/config file -- Entering 0 (zero) disables this feature

  6. Select your SSH Authentication method:

    • SSH Agent if your local machine is running an SSH Agent, you only need to provide the remote SSH Username of your ssh account on the server

    • Username and Password to enter both your SSH Username and SSH Password (also see the Save Passwords option, below)

    • Key File Select your SSH Private key File (and optionally enter your Key File PassPhrase) if you use your SSH Public Key on the server for authentication

  7. Enter a name for your Connection (optionally check the Save Passords checkbox) and Press Save to have Beekeeper remember all of the above for you

  8. Press the Connect button to access your database!

Once you are connected to your database Beekeeper Studio allows you to open tabs to do the following things:

  1. SQL Editor: Write and execute SQL Queries (this is what tabs do by default)
  2. Table Explorer: View table contents

File Associations

Beekeeper Studio provides file associations so you can do the following things without opening the app:

  • Double click a sqlite .db file in a file browser to open it in Beekeeper Studio!
  • Open URLs and files from the terminal:

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