TeamCity 9.0 Help

Setting up an External Database

TeamCity stores build history, users, build results and some run time data in an SQL database. See also description of what is stored where on Manual Backup and Restore page.

This page covers external database setup for the first use with TeamCity 8.1 and above. For earlier versions, select the documentation corresponding to your TeamCity version.

If you evaluated TeamCity with the internal database, please refer to Migrating to an External Database.

Default Internal Database

On the first TeamCity run, using an internal database based on the HSQLDB database engine is suggested by default. The internal database suits evaluation purposes only; it works out of the box and requires no additional setup.

However, we strongly recommend using an external database as a back-end TeamCity database in a production environment. An external database is usually more reliable and provides better performance: the internal database may crash and lose all your data (e.g. on the "out of disk space" condition). Also, the internal database may become extremely slow on large data sets (say, database storage files over 200Mb). Please also note that our support does not cover any performance or database data loss issues if you are using the internal database.

In short, do not EVER use internal HSQLDB database for production TeamCity instances.

Selecting External Database Engine

As a general rule you should use the database that better suits your environment and that you can maintain/configure better in your organization. While we strive to make sure TeamCity functions equally well under all of the supported databases, issues can surface in some of them under high TeamCity-generated load.

You may also want to estimate the required database capacity.

Supported Databases

TeamCity supports the following databases:

  • MySQL

  • PostgreSQL

  • Oracle

  • MS SQL

General Steps

  1. Configure the external database to be used by TeamCity (see the database-specific sections below).

  2. Run the TeamCity server for the first time.

  3. Select an external database to be used and specify the database connection settings. If required, you can later manually modify your database connection settings. Note that TeamCity creates its own database schema on the first start and actively modifies it during the upgrade. The schema is not changed when TeamCity is working normally. The user account used by TeamCity should have permissions to create new, modify and delete existing tables in its schema, in addition to usual read/write permissions on all tables.

  4. You may also need to download the JDBC driver for your database.

    Due to licensing terms, TeamCity does not bundle driver jars for external databases. You will need to download the Java JDBC driver and put the appropriate .jar files (see driver-specific sections below) from it into the < >/lib/jdbc directory. Please note that the .jar files should be compiled for the Java version not greater than the one used to run TeamCity, otherwise you might see "Unsupported major.minor version" errors related to the database driver classes.

Database-specific Steps

The section below describes the required configuration on the database server and the TeamCity server.

MySQL

Supported versions

On MySQL server side

Recommended database server settings:

The MySQL user account that will be used by TeamCity must be granted all permissions on the TeamCity database. This can be done by executing the following SQL commands from the MySQL console:

create database <database-name> collate utf8_bin; create user <user-name> identified by '<password>'; grant all privileges on <database-name>.* to <user-name>; grant process on *.* to <user-name>;

On TeamCity server side (with MySQL)

JDBC driver installation:

  1. Download the MySQL JDBC driver from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/. If the MySQL server version is 5.5 or newer, the JDBC driver version should be 5.1.23 or newer.

  2. Place mysql-connector-java- * -bin.jar from the downloaded archive into the < >/lib/jdbc. Proceed with the TeamCity setup.

PostgreSQL

Supported versions

On PostgreSQL server side

  1. Create an empty database for TeamCity in PostgreSQL.

    • Make sure to set up the database to use UTF8.

    • Grant permissions to modify this database to the user account used by TeamCity to work with the database.

  2. see also recommendations for PostgreSQL server settings

TeamCity does not specify which schema will be used for its tables. By default, PostgreSQL creates tables in the 'public' schema ('public' is the name of the schema). TeamCity can also work with other PostgreSQL schemas. To switch to another schema, do the following: Create a schema named exactly as the user name: this can be done using the pgAdmin tool or with the following SQL:

create schema teamcity authorization teamcity;

The schema has to be empty (it should not contain any tables).

On TeamCity server side (with PostgreSQL)

  1. Check you JRE version to determine which JDBC driver is required. If you are using Java 1.6 to run TeamCity server, you need the JDBC4 version. For Java 1.7 (recommended) or 1.8 (recommended since TeamCity 9.1), use the JDBC41 version.

  2. Download the required PostgreSQL JDBC driver and place it into the < >/lib/jdbc. Proceed with the TeamCity setup.

Oracle

Supported versions

On Oracle server side

  1. Create an Oracle user account/schema for TeamCity.

    • Make sure that the national character set of the database instance is UTF or Unicode.

    • Grant the CREATE SESSION, CREATE TABLE, permissions to a user whose account will be used by TeamCity to work with this database. TeamCity, on the first connect, creates all necessary tables and indices in the user's schema. (Note: TeamCity never attempts to access other schemas even if they are accessible)

On TeamCity server side (with Oracle)

  1. Get the Oracle JDBC driver. Supported driver versions are 11.1 and higher. Place the following files:

    • ojdbc7.jar

    • orai18n.jar (can be omitted if missing in the driver version) into the < >/lib/jdbc directory.

      It is strongly recommended to locate the driver in your Oracle server installation. Contact your DBA for the files if required. Alternatively, download the Oracle JDBC driver from the Oracle web site. Make sure the driver version is compatible with your Oracle server.

  2. Proceed with the TeamCity setup.

Microsoft SQL Server

Supported versions

On MS SQL server side

  1. Create a new database. As the primary collation, it is recommended to use the collation corresponding to your locale. We also suggest using the case-sensitive collation (collation name ending with '_CS_AS'), which is mandatory for the certain functionality (like using non-Windows build agents).

  2. Create TeamCity user and ensure that this user is the owner of the database (grant the user dbo rights). This requirement is necessary because the user needs to have ability to modify the database schema. If you're going to use SSL connections, ensure that the version of MS SQL server and the version of java (on the TeamCity side) are compatible. We recommend using the latest update of SQL server:

    • SQL Server 2012 and later - all versions

    • SQL Server 2008R2 - Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 1 cumulative update 6

    • SQL Server 2008 - Service Pack 3 cumulative update 4

    • SQL Server 2005 - only with JDK 6 update 27 or lower on the TeamCity side See details on compatibility issues.

  3. Allocate sufficient transaction log space. The requirements vary depending on how intensively the server will be used. It's recommended to setup not less then 1Gb.

  4. Make sure SQL Server Browser is running

  5. Make sure TCP/IP protocol is enabled for SQL Server instance

  6. Make sure that the "no count" setting is disabled: the enabled "no count" setting prevents TeamCity from starting queued builds. Disable the setting in the database defaults as follows:

    1. In MS SQL Server Management Studio, connect to your database server.

    2. Right-click the server instance in Object Explorer.

    3. Choose Properties.

    4. Select the Connections tab.

    5. In the Default Connection Options frame, "no count" must be unchecked.

It is recommended to monitor the database performance regularly. For example, perform reindexing once every several months.

On TeamCity server side (with MS SQL)

  1. Download the MS sqljdbc_4.2.x package (.exe or .tar.gz depending on your TeamCity server platform) from the Microsoft Download Center.

  2. Unpack the downloaded package into a temporary directory.

  3. Copy the sqljdbc42.jar from the just downloaded package into the /lib/jdbc directory. The Integrated security setup will need additional steps, see below.

  4. Proceed with the TeamCity setup.

Additional connection settings

To specify additional settings, change < TeamCity Data Directory >\config\database.properties file while TeamCity server is not running:

If you use a named instance, you need to manually modify the < TeamCity Data Directory >\config\database.properties file and specify the instance name in the connection URL as follows:

connectionUrl=jdbc:sqlserver://<host>\\<instance_name>:1433;databaseName=<database_name> ...

If you prefer to use MS SQL integrated security (Windows authentication), it is required to install sqljdbc_auth.dll from the driver package. Incorrect installation of the dlls often results in the "This driver is not configured for integrated authentication" error

  1. Determine the bitness of TeamCity server Java/JVM in use. You might want to use JVM with the same bitness as Windows. Note that you will need to perform manual switch to 64-bit JVM as by default 32 bit JVM is bundled.

  2. Copy the <sql_jdbc_home>/enu/auth/x86/sqljdbc_auth.dll (in case of 32-bit Java) or <sql_jdbc_home>/enu/auth/x64/sqljdbc_auth.dll (in case of 64-bit Java) file into a directory and specify the directory in "-Djava.library.path=DIRECTORY_WITH_DLL" TeamCity server JVM option. Reportedly, as an alternative to adding the JVM option, you can also copy the .dll into Windows/System32 directory and ensure that there are no other sqljdbc_auth.dll files in your system (in the PATH-listed directories).

  3. In the <TeamCity Data Directory>\config\database.properties file, specify the connection URL (with no user names or passwords) as follows:

    connectionUrl=jdbc:sqlserver://<host>:1433;databaseName=<database name>;integratedSecurity=true

    More details about setting up integrated security for MS SQL native JDBC driver can be found in Microsoft documentation for MS SQL 2005 and MS SQL 2008.

Database Configuration Properties

The database connection settings are stored in < >\config\database.properties file. The file is a Java properties file. You can modify it to specify required properties for your database connections.

TeamCity uses Apache DBCP for database connection pooling. Please refer to http://commons.apache.org/dbcp/configuration.html for detailed description of configuration properties.

For all supported databases there are template files with database-specific properties located in the <TeamCity Data Directory>/config directory. The files have the following naming format: database.<database_type>.properties.dist and can be used as a reference on the required settings.

Installation and Upgrade: Migrating to an External Database

Installation and Upgrade: Common Problems

Last modified: 20 April 2023
TeamCity Maintenance Mode Migrating to an External Database