Let’s Learn Databases!

Let’s Learn Databases!

All the joy of a database environment without the pain of setup and configuration.

This repository contains docker configurations and base scripts necessary to provide a complete database management system with sample data and web-based tooling.

Use this software to accompany the Applied Database Management textbook, the Introduction to Database Management Systems course, or to just explore databases on your own!

What’s included

  1. Microsoft Azure SQL Edge database management system.
  2. Database Provisioner Application for creating sample databases and populating data.
  3. SQL Pad a web-based query tool.
  4. Adminer a web-based database admin tool.

Hardware Requirements

  1. A computer with one of these Operating Systems:

  2. At least 8GB RAM.
  3. At least 8 GB free disk space.

Software Requirements

  1. Docker is used to manage the containers. On Windows and Mac, download Docker Desktop 3.5 or higher. Installation instructions are here:
    https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/
    You must allocate at least 1CPU and 4GB of RAM to docker.
    Mac: https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-mac/#resources
    Windows: https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-mac/#resources
    Linux/ChromeOS: No Configuration Necessary, but you will need to install docker-compose separately.
  2. Azure Data Studio. This is the client tool used to connect to the Microsoft SQL Server and compliments the web equivalents of SQL Pad and Adminer.
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/azure-data-studio/download-azure-data-studio

Installing Learn Databases

To install Learn Databases, clone or download this repository to your computer.

If you have git installed on your computer and wish to clone the repository:

  1. Open a terminal window. Make sure you are in a folder where you wish to store the code repository.
  2. Type git clone https://github.com/mafudge/learn-databases.git
    The code will download from github to your computer.

If you do not have git installed or you do not wish to clone the repository:

  1. Click https://github.com/mafudge/learn-databases/archive/master.zip to download this repository.
  2. After it downloads, unzip the file to a folder where you wish to store the code repository.

Walkthrough

Here’s a video of the walkthrough:

Watch the video of the walkthrough

https://youtu.be/CxCUrQ6knRo

Running the containers

NOTE: If you are using a Mac with the M1 chip, you must use the docker-compose-m1.yaml file. e.g. docker-compose -f docker-compose-m1.yaml ps

  1. Open a terminal window inside the learn-databases folder. This is where you cloned or unzipped the code repository.
  2. Type : docker-compose up -d to start everything. This might take some time as images are downloaded and/or built.
  3. Type : docker-compose ps to see the mssql, webapp, sqlpad, adminer containers in a running Up state.

Creating the Sample Databases

The Database Provisioner webapp can be used to create the sample databases. It will also display the database login information.

  1. To launch the *Database Provisioner application, open a web browser and connect to:
    http://localhost:5000 Database Connection information appears in the upper right, and a list of databases you can provision appears in the application window.
    • Click the icon in the Info section to learn about each database.
    • Click the Create button to generate the database schema and initial data for a database.
    • If the database is updatable, Click the Update button to bring the data current.
    • You can click Drop at any time to remove the database, or Recreate to place the database back in its initial state.

Note: These commands can take time depending on the size or complexity of the database. Please be patient!

Connecting with Azure Data Studio

  1. Open Azure Data Studio
  2. Under Servers select Add New Connection
  3. Fill in the connection information based on the information displayed in the Database Provisioner application.
  4. Here’s a quick tutorial you can follow to learn Azure Data Studio.
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/azure-data-studio/quickstart-sql-server

Connecting with SQL Pad

SQL Pad is a browser-based query tool. You can connect to the SQL Server database and execute any query in the SQL language.

  1. Open a web browser and connect to:
    http://localhost:5001 to launch the SQL Pad web application.
  2. Click on Connections
  3. Click Add Connection
  4. Enter a connection name and choose SQL Server for the driver. Enter the connection information from the Database Provisioner application.

Connecting with Adminer

Adminer is a browser-based database admin tool. You can create database objects and edit data without using the SQL language.

  1. Open a web browser and connect to:
    http://localhost:5002 to launch the Adminer web application.
  2. From the login screen, choose MS SQL as the system and then enter the connection information from the Database Provisioner application.

Stopping the containers

When you are finished using the database, you might want to stop the docker containers to save the CPU and Memory resources on your host computer. The containers will remain up, even between reboots, until you tell docker to stop them.

To stop all containers, type: docker-compose down.

If you want to just stop one of the containers you can use the stop option. For example to stop the Adminer service container, type:
docker-compose stop adminer

To start an individual service, you can use the start option:
docker-compose start sqlpad

Or to start all containers, you can use:
docker-compose up -d