DBeaver Documentation

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Local Client Configuration

Table of contents

Overview

This article provides instructions on how to configure a local database client for use with DBeaver.

A local client refers to the database client software installed on your machine, allowing DBeaver to interact with your databases. This local installation is necessary for specific features like native backup and restore operations.

Key points to consider:

  • In the Community Edition of DBeaver on Windows, local clients are downloaded from the internet when a remote client is selected in the Local Client options, typically during the first usage of database-specific tools such as backup, or restore functions.
  • Windows users with the Enterprise, Ultimate, or Team editions enjoy a simplified process, as many local clients come pre-included with the software.

  • Mac and Linux users may need to perform additional steps to configure the local client. The exact procedure will vary depending on the system setup.

Local Client configuration for Windows

Upon initial configuration, DBeaver will attempt to automatically identify the paths to local database clients in the Windows environment. If this process is unsuccessful, manual path configuration may be necessary.

Local Client configuration for Mac and Linux

On macOS, DBeaver actively tries to find local database tools automatically, covering a range of installations without requiring specific configurations from the user.

Tips:

  • For PostgreSQL on macOS: Installing the libpq package may help DBeaver automatically detect the client. Use brew install libpq in your terminal.
  • For MySQL Users on macOS: To facilitate automatic client detection by DBeaver, consider adding the mysql-client package. This can be done using the command brew install mysql-client in the terminal.

If you encounter any issues with automatic detection, or if you're on a Linux system, follow the subsequent manual configuration steps below.

Find a database installation path

To find the installation path for the local client of a database in DBeaver, follow these general guidelines:

  • For MySQL: Use mysqldump as a keyword in your search command. This utility is often located in the bin directory of the MySQL installation.
  • For PostgreSQL: Substitute mysqldump with pg_dump when conducting your search. Like MySQL, this command should be in the bin directory of the PostgreSQL installation path.

These instructions are applicable to the most commonly used databases, MySQL and PostgreSQL.

  1. Open your terminal.

  2. Use the find command to locate the MySQL installation:

    find / -name "mysqldump" 2>/dev/null

  3. Upon successful execution, the terminal will output the path to your MySQL installation. For example: - /usr/local/mysql-8.1.0-macos13-arm64/bin/mysqldump

  4. Copy this path for use in the next steps of the configuration process.

Configure a local client in DBeaver on Mac and Linux

  1. Open DBeaver.

  2. Right-click on the respective database and navigate to Edit Connection Settings.

  3. Find the Local Client section and click on the Browse button that appears next to it.

  4. Click the Add Home button to add a new client path.

  5. For Mac users, press Command+Shift+G to open the prompt for path input. For Linux users, enter the path directly into the file selection dialog.

  6. Input the MySQL path location found earlier and confirm. Make sure to input the path up to the database version folder, omitting /bin/mysql.

    For example, if the path found is /usr/local/mysql-8.1.0-macos13-arm64/bin/mysqldump, input /usr/local/mysql-8.1.0-macos13-arm64/.

  7. After inputting the corrected path, click the Open button to select the path.

  8. Click the OK button to finalize the local client configuration.