Database Access

A Postgres database is available for EECS courses requiring database use. Faculty who want to use the database in their course can send a request to tech including the respective session, term, course and section numbers. The tech team will create a database for each student in each course. Faculty should also request access to the database for their course TAs.

At the end of the term, all user databases will be removed.

In order to access the database by command line, students use the “psql” command from any EECS tech-supported Linux system. Students must be enrolled in a course that has requested database access. Students will be automatically logged into the database, and connected to their own database which has the same name as their EECS username.

An enterprise database management tool called DBeaver Enterprise is available for students to access the database via a GUI. Students will need to complete the steps below one time:

• From the Linux terminal, type “id -u”. You will get back a number. Record that number as it will be used in a later step.
• Start DBeaver either from the command line with the “dbeaver” command, or via GNOME (Click on “Activities”, then type “dbeaver” in the search).
• When DBeaver starts, you will be prompted: “Do you want to create sample database? It can be used as an example to explore basic DBeaver Enterprise features”. You can select Yes/No.
• From the “File” menu, choose “New”, then open “DBeaver” folder, then select “Database Connection”.
• Click Next >
• Select “PostgresSQL” from the list of available databases.
• Click Next >
• In the “Connect to a database” window, change:
  • Hostname: db.eecs.yorku.ca
  • Database: <your EECS username>
  • Authentication: change to “PostgreSQL Kerberos”
  • Username: <your EECS username>
  • Kerberos user: leave default value
  • Realm: leave default value
  • KDC server: leave default value
  • Password: <enter your EECS password>
• Next, click on “Extra Configuration” which opens up a few options.
  • Check off: “Use kinit” and replace the contents of the text field with: /tmp/krb5cc_<uid> where <uid> is the number you recorded in the first step.
  • Click “Finish”.
• Under “Database Navigator” tab, you will now see: “<your EECS-username> - db.eecs.yorku.ca:5432”
• Click on the down arrow, and you will be connected to your personal database.

When you start dbeaver in the future, these settings will already be saved.