Databases

Some game servers or mods (like Minecraft plugins) can benefit from having a dedicated database. This can result in increased performance, and you can also connect multiple servers to the 1 database. A good use-case for this is the McMMO plugin. This allows your players levels to follow them between all of your Minecraft servers.

Database solutions

There are a few ways to do this, each with their own advantages and disadvantages

	Difficulty to configure	Difficulty to manage	Impact of cyber breach	Impact of database corruption
Shared Database
Per Node
Panel Database

Higher is worse (eg harder or less secure)

Shared database

The database is hosted on a dedicated node, and the other nodes connect to this one. The other nodes need to be able to communicate with the host.

If you migrate a server from node A to B everything will continue to function.

If your database corrupts you may lose all data for all nodes.

If one of your game servers is breached and the bad actor got your database credentials they may be able to alter the other server DBs. This is unlikely though, as Pelican creates a dedicated user per database.

Database per node

This is the most secure method, as each node has its own database - there is no communication outbound. Migrating a game server from node A to B will break the database connection

If your database corrupts you may lose all data on a single node

If one of your game servers is breached and the bad actor got your database credentials they may be able to alter DBs on the node. This is unlikely though, as Pelican creates a dedicated user per database. The bad actor will not be able to touch databases on other nodes.

Use the Panel database

This is the most dangerous option.

If one of your game servers is breached and the bad actor gained database credentials, they may be able to alter your Pelican database. This would allow them to create an administrator user and take over your Pelican install.

If your database corrupts you may lose all data for all nodes and the Panel data. This would require a Pelican reinstall or restore from backup.

Create your Database

This guide will step you through how to create a shared database from a Ptero / Pelican egg.

This requires all nodes to be able to access the machine hosting the database. If your notes are not located all at the same site, you could use a VPN client or go down the per node route.

Do not port forward your DB

Create your Database

If you haven't already, import the relevant database egg per Import eggs

I am going to assume MariaDB for this guide - your commands may be different if using something else

You may need to do some reading on your servers / mod / plugins database requirements to select the correct DB type

1. Create your database using one of your intenal ports

   Do not use one of your play / join ports. Doing so will expose your DB to the internet, which increases the risk of the db being breached or taken offline.

2. Start the database container and ensure it is marked as running. You should see something similar to

   2026-01-25  9:42:34 0 [Note] Server socket created on IP: '0.0.0.0'.
   2026-01-25  9:42:34 0 [Warning] 'user' entry '@installer' ignored in --skip-name-resolve mode.
   2026-01-25  9:42:34 0 [Warning] 'proxies_priv' entry '@% container@installer' ignored in --skip-name-resolve mode.
   2026-01-25  9:42:34 0 [Note] mariadbd: Event Scheduler: Loaded 0 events
   2026-01-25  9:42:34 0 [Note] /usr/sbin/mariadbd: ready for connections.
   Version: '11.5.2-MariaDB-ubu2404'  socket: '/home/container/run/mariadbd/mariadbd.sock'  port: 7501  mariadb.org binary distribution
   Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
   Your MariaDB connection id is 3
   Server version: 11.5.2-MariaDB-ubu2404 mariadb.org binary distribution
   
   Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
   
   Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

Add database to Pelican Panel

Now we need to add the database to the panel, assign a host and create the Database user

1. Log into your panel and navigate to the Admin UI

2. On the left, click on Database hosts

3. Click on the + symbol

4. Preperations tab:

   1. Save the provided credentails to your password manager

   2. Click next / OK

5. Database setup tab:

   1. Copy paste the commands from the Panel into the MariaDB console

   2. Run the following commands to allow for login outside of local host (127.0.0.1)

      RENAME USER 'pelicanuser'@'127.0.0.1' TO 'pelicanuser'@'%';
      FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

   3. Click on next / OK

6. Panel setup tab:

   Host	DNS name or IP of the wings node running the database container
   Port	The port selected during creation
   Display name	Whatever you want - I would suggest the hostname / DNS name of the server
   Linked nodes	Set this to any Wings nodes you want to talk to this DB. These nodes need to be able to reach the hostname / IP in the host field

   1. Click on create

Configure backup schedules

Backups are good, use backups.

Feel free to import one of my existing schedules from https://github.com/trentnbauer/PelicanEggs/tree/main/schedules

Per node

Follow the above guide, but you will need to do it for each node. In step 6, set the linked node as the machine running the database - do not set any other linked nodes.

Panel database

I will not show you how to configure this. The risk to bricking your install of Pelican is too high. Follow the shared guide

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Troubleshooting

"Unable to resolve host" or similar message.

Try your servers IP address - some containers are unable to resolve internal network names.