Using an External Database

By default, Subsonic uses an in-process HSQLDB database which requires no setup or maintenance. Starting with Subsonic 6.1, advanced users have the option to use an external database instead. The following databases are supported:

  • MySQL (tested with version 5.6 and 5.7)
  • PostgreSQL (tested with version 9.6)
  • MariaDB (tested with version 10.1)

Setup

  1. Make sure you are using Java 8.
  2. Install MySQL/PostgreSQL/MariaDB, or use an existing database server.
  3. Create an empty database called "subsonic".
  4. Set the JDBC URL of the database as a start-up option to Subsonic (see below).

JDBC URL

MySQL / MariaDB jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/subsonic?user=root&password=mysecretpassword&characterEncoding=UTF-8
PostgreSQL jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/subsonic?user=postgres&password=mysecretpassword

Remember to change hostname, port, user and password according to your installation.

Start-up option

The JDBC URL must be given as a start-up option. This is done differently depending on how you installed Subsonic.

WindowsAdd -Dsubsonic.db=<JDBC URL> in C:\Program Files (x86)\Subsonic\subsonic-service.exe.vmoptions
MacAdd -Dsubsonic.db=<JDBC URL> in /Applications/Subsonic.app/Contents/Info.plist
LinuxAdd --db=<JDBC URL> to SUBSONIC_ARGS in /etc/default/subsonic (Ubuntu/Debian) or /etc/sysconfig/subsonic (Fedora/RPM).

Migration

Please note that there is no automatic data migration from HSQLDB to MySQL/PostgreSQL/MariaDB.