Running Multiple Databases

Nitro is no longer supported. Please see our announcement and DDEV migration guide.

You can configure Nitro to run multiple database engines and versions, whether it’s for different projects you work with or testing your plugin’s database support.

When running init for the first time, Nitro will ask you if you want to use MySQL and PostgreSQL. If you entered yes to both, your config file will look something like this:

databases:
  - engine: mysql
    version: "8.0"
    port: "3306"
  - engine: postgres
    version: "13"
    port: "5432"

Nitro also supports MariaDB (opens new window). Change the engine to mariadb and use a supported version tag (opens new window).

If we wanted to run MySQL 5.7 in addition to the initially-configured MySQL 8.0, we could use the edit command and add the engine to nitro.yaml:

databases:
  - engine: mysql
    version: "8.0"
    port: "3306"
  - engine: mysql
    version: "5.7"
    port: "33061"
  - engine: postgres
    version: "13"
    port: "5432"

We’ve specified port 33061 above—and not the default 3306—because MySQL 8.0 is already running on that port and each database must have its own. (See How Nitro Works for more on Nitro’s layout and those internal and external ports.)

Running apply will create the new database container and prompt you to update your hosts file.

Not sure what port to use? Run the portcheck command to see if a given port is available on your host machine.