Last Reviewed: December 13, 2022

Add Database

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Now that you've set up your Pantheon Dev environment, you need to import your database.

Create a .sql Dump File

The Database import requires a single .sql dump that contains the site's content and configurations.

Create a .sql dump using the mysqldump utility.
Compress the resulting archive with gzip to reduce the size for a faster transfer:
```
mysqldump -uUSERNAME -pPASSWORD DATABASENAME > ~/db.sql
gzip ~/db.sql
```
- Replace USERNAME with a MySQL user with permissions to access your site's database.
- Replace PASSWORD with the MySQL user's password. To force a password prompt, move -p to the end of the command and leave it blank. This prevents your MySQL password from being visible on your terminal.
- Replace DATABASE with the name of your site database within MySQL.
- ~/db.sql defines the output target to a file named db.sql in your user's home directory. Adjust to match your desired location.

The resulting file will be named db.sql.gz You can use either the Pantheon Dashboard or a MySQL client to add your site's database.

Add Your Database to Pantheon's Platform

Select the Dev environment in the Site Dashboard.
Select Database / Files.
Click Import and add your archive accordingly (based on file size):
If your archive is under 100MB, upload the file directly:
1. Navigate to the MySQL database field > click File > Choose File.
2. Select your local archive file > click Import.
  
  Note: If you recently imported the database and need to re-import, refresh the page and use a new filename for the database file.
If your archive is less than 500MB, import it from URL:
1. Navigate to the MySQL database field.
2. Click URL.
3. Paste a publicly accessible URL for the .sql.gz file > click Import.
  Info:
  Note
  Change the end of Dropbox URLs from dl=0 to dl=1 to import your archive correctly.
The following instructions allow you to add database archives larger than 500MBs using the command line MySQL client. You can also use a GUI client like Sequel Ace or Navicat. For more information, see Accessing MySQL Databases.
1. Navigate to the Pantheon Site Dashboard.
2. Open the Dev environment.
3. Click Connection Info.
4. Copy the Database connection string.
  The Database connection string will look similar to this:
  mysql -u pantheon -p{random-password} -h dbserver.dev.{site-id}.drush.in -P {site-port} pantheon
5. cd into the directory containing your .sql file in your terminal.
6. Paste the connection string and append it with: < database.sql.
  Your command will look like:
  mysql -u pantheon -p{random-password} -h dbserver.dev.{site-id}.drush.in -P {site-port} pantheon < database.sql
  If you encounter a connection-related error, the DB server could be in sleep mode. To resolve this, load the site in your browser to wake it up, and try again. For more information, see Troubleshooting MySQL Connections.
  The .sql file is imported to the Dev environment after you run the command.

Add Database

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