Getting started: Installation
Spawn makes it easy to create disposable copies of databases for your development environment, and to automate them within DevOps pipelines. It uses a command line interface to create and manage those copies, and to make scripting and automation simple.
This tutorial will walk you through installing Spawn, using a database copy and creating an image of your own data from which you can further copies.
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Request a Spawn accountSpawn is currently a closed beta and not accepting new participants at this time.
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Installation- macOS or Linux
- Windows
Download and run the install script
Add spawnctl to your path
note
Spawn also supports Raspberry Pi (ARM-based Linux operating systems). Please follow the standard installation instructions for Linux above.
- Download
spawnctl.exe
and save to it a folder of your choosing.
note
spawnctl.exe
is not an installer, it's a command line executable that can be run directly.
We suggest creating the folder C:\Program Files\Spawn
and saving it there.
- Add the folder containing
spawnctl.exe
to your path.
note
Search for View advanced system settings from the Windows start menu and click the Environment Variables button to edit the Path
variable. You may need to restart your terminal after doing this.
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Authenticate spawnctl with your Spawn accountAuthenticate spawnctl
to link your Spawn account
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Create a copy of a sample databaseSpawn instantly creates copies of databases as cloud-hosted containers and passes the connection details back to you. These copies are called data containers. The data containers are created from data images -- prepared images of the database you want to copy, complete with all the data and configuration.
To make it easy to get started we've created some public data images based on familiar sample databases.
- PostgreSQL
- MySQL
- SQL Server
Create a copy of the PostgreSQL Pagila demo database by running
note
The --name
flag is optional. If you don't specify a name a random one will be generated for you based on the image name.
Spawn creates the database copy and returns the connection details:
Using pgAdmin (or your preferred client) you can connect to this database as normal. Copy in the server name and port, the username and password and click Connect.
This database copy is a full version of PostgreSQL running in a container. You can use it just like any other, querying and updating as normal.
List data containers to see the one that was just created:
Create a copy of the MySQL Sakila demo database by running
note
The --name
flag is optional. If you don't specify a name a random one will be generated for you based on the image name.
Spawn creates the database copy and returns the connection details:
Using MySQL Workbench (or your preferred client) you can connect to this database as normal. Copy in the server name and port, the username and password and click Connect.
This database copy is a full version of MySQL running in a container. You can use it just like any other, querying and updating as normal.
List data containers to see the one that was just created:
Create a copy of the SQL Server Wide World Importers demo database by running
note
The --name
flag is optional. If you don't specify a name a random one will be generated for you based on the image name.
Spawn creates the database copy and returns the connection details:
Using SSMS (or your preferred client) you can connect to this database as normal. Copy in the server name and port, the username and password and click Connect.
This database copy is a full version of SQL Server running in a container. You can use it just like any other, querying and updating as normal.
List data containers to see the one that was just created:
In the next section, we'll learn how to do more with your data container than just connect to it.