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Databases (PostgreSQL)

DotDeployer installs PostgreSQL on your own server — never on infrastructure it owns — and it’s never exposed to the internet.

Steps:

1. Open the server from Servers, go to its Databases tab.
2. Create a PostgreSQL database and a user for it. Each site gets its own database and user, so sites on the same server never share data by accident.
3. Attach the database to a site from the site’s Database tab, or create one directly from there. The connection string lands on the site’s Environment tab automatically.

Connecting from your laptop: database ports are never opened to the internet. Connect with an SSH tunnel through DotDeployer instead — the server’s Databases tab has the connect details for opening a tunnel from your own machine with any Postgres client (psql, Azure Data Studio, DBeaver, and so on).

EF Core: point your DbContext at the connection string DotDeployer put in your environment variables. Migrations run the same way they would against any Postgres server — there’s nothing DotDeployer-specific about the connection.

Backups: scheduled backups run to your own S3 or DigitalOcean Spaces bucket — DotDeployer never stores a copy itself. See Backups.

One-click delete: removing a database from the Databases tab is available the same way it was created — DotDeployer never deletes one without you asking.