authelia/docs/content/en/reference/integrations/database-integrations.md

---
title: "Database Integrations"
description: "A database integration reference guide"
lead: "This section contains a database integration reference guide for Authelia."
date: 2022-11-19T16:47:09+11:00
draft: false
images: []
menu:
  reference:
    parent: "integrations"
weight: 320
toc: true
---

We generally recommend using [PostgreSQL] for a database. If high availability is not a consideration we also support
[SQLite3].

It is also a general recommendation that if you're using [PostgreSQL], [MySQL], or [MariaDB]; that you do not
automatically upgrade the major/minor version of these databases, and pin the image tag so at most the patch version
is updated. For example for database version `x.y.z` only the `z` should change, `x` and `y` should remain the same.

It is also generally recommended that you do not rely on automatic update tools to perform this action
unless you are sure they shut down the container properly (i.e. with a graceful stop).

## PostgreSQL

The only current support criteria for [PostgreSQL] at present is that the version you're using is supported by the
[PostgreSQL] developers. See [Vendor Supported Versions](#vendor-supported-versions) more information.

We generally perform integration testing against the latest supported version of [PostgreSQL] and that is generally the
recommended version for new installations.

### Vendor Supported Versions

See the [PostgreSQL Versioning Policy](https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/) for information on the versions
and platforms that are currently supported by this vendor.

## MySQL

[MySQL] and [MariaDB] are both supported as part of the [MySQL] implementation. This is generally discouraged as
[PostgreSQL] is widely considered as a significantly better database engine. If you choose to go with [MySQL], we
recommend specifically using the [MariaDB] backend.

[MySQL] comes with some rigid support requirements in addition to the standard requirements for us supporting a third
party.

1. Must both support the `InnoDB` engine and this engine must be the default engine.
2. Must support the `utf8mb4` charset.
3. Must support the `utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci` collation.
4. Must support maximum index size of no less than 2048 bytes. The default maximum index size for the InnoDB engine is
   3072 bytes on:
    1. [MySQL] [8.0](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/innodb-limits.html) or later.
    2. [MySQL] [5.7](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/innodb-limits.html) provided
         [innodb_large_prefix](#innodb-large-prefixes) or later.
    3. [MariaDB] [10.3](https://mariadb.com/kb/en/innodb-system-variables/#innodb_large_prefix) or later.
5. Must support ANSI standard time behaviours. See [ANSI standard time behaviours](#ansi-standard-time-behaviours).

We generally perform integration testing against the latest supported version of [MySQL] and [MariaDB], and the latest
supported version of [MariaDB] is generally the recommended version for new installations.

### Specific Notes

#### InnoDB Large Prefixes

This can be configured in the [MySQL] configuration file by setting the `innodb_large_prefix` value to on.
According to the Oracle documentation this is the default behaviour in
[MySQL] [5.7](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/innodb-parameters.html#sysvar_innodb_large_prefix) and it can't be
turned off in [MySQL] [8.0](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/innodb-limits.html) or in [MariaDB] 10.3 and later.

```cnf
[mysqld]
innodb_large_prefix = ON
```

#### ANSI standard time behaviours

This can be configured in the [MySQL] configuration file by setting the `explicit_defaults_for_timestamp` value to on.
According to the Oracle documentation this is the default behaviour in
[MySQL] [5.7](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/server-system-variables.html#sysvar_explicit_defaults_for_timestamp)
and [MySQL] [8.0](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/server-system-variables.html#sysvar_explicit_defaults_for_timestamp).
This is however not the default behaviour in
[MariaDB](https://mariadb.com/kb/en/server-system-variables/#explicit_defaults_for_timestamp) before 10.10.

```cnf
[mysqld]
explicit_defaults_for_timestamp = ON
```

#### Upgrades

[MySQL] and [MariaDB] have several standard databases named `mysql`, `sys`, and `performance_schema`. These databases
are outside the scope for an application to manage. These engines may not prevent you using a version of [MySQL] or
[MariaDB] with these databases which is incompatible.

It is your responsibility to ensure these tables are upgraded as per the `mysql_upgrade`
[documentation for MySQL](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/mysql-upgrade.html) and
[documentation for MariaDB](https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mysql_upgrade/). Some containers or some versions of [MySQL] and
[MariaDB] may do this for you, but this is out of scope for us to support.

### Vendor Supported Versions

#### MariaDB Vendor Supported Versions

See the [MariaDB Server Releases](https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb-server-release-dates/) for information on the
versions and platforms that are currently supported by this vendor.

#### MySQL Vendor Supported Versions

See the [MySQL Supported Platforms](https://www.mysql.com/support/supportedplatforms/database.html) for information on
the versions and platforms that are currently supported by this vendor.

[PostgreSQL]: https://www.postgresql.org/
[MySQL]: https://www.mysql.com/
[MariaDB]: https://mariadb.org/
[SQLite3]: https://www.sqlite.org/index.html