Adminer

Install Adminer, a lightweight single-file database manager for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite

Adminer is a full-featured database management tool contained in a single PHP file. It's a lighter, faster alternative to phpMyAdmin. Supports MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and more.

Requirements

PHP installed (7.4+)
Nginx or Apache
MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL

Download Adminer

# Create a directory for the tool
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/adminer

# Download the latest single-file version
sudo wget -O /var/www/adminer/index.php https://github.com/vrana/adminer/releases/download/v4.8.1/adminer-4.8.1.php

# Set permissions
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/adminer

Nginx configuration

Create a virtual host with IP restriction (never expose Adminer publicly):

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/adminer

server {
    listen 8080;
    server_name _;  # or your server IP

    root /var/www/adminer;
    index index.php;

    # Restrict to your IP only
    allow YOUR_IP;
    deny all;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
    }
}

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/adminer /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

Access at http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:8080

Always restrict Adminer access by IP. Never leave it publicly accessible, it exposes your entire database to brute force attacks.

Apache configuration

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/adminer.conf

<VirtualHost *:8080>
    DocumentRoot /var/www/adminer

    <Directory /var/www/adminer>
        Options -Indexes
        AllowOverride None
        Require ip YOUR_IP
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

sudo a2ensite adminer
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Adminer can require a custom login plugin on top of database credentials. Create a login-password wrapper:

sudo nano /var/www/adminer/index.php

Replace the content with:

<?php
function adminer_object() {
    class AdminerLogin extends Adminer {
        function login($login, $password) {
            return $password != '';  // Require non-empty password
        }
    }
    return new AdminerLogin;
}
include './adminer-4.8.1.php';

Or use the official login-password plugin:

sudo wget -O /var/www/adminer/plugins/login-password-less.php \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vrana/adminer/master/plugins/login-password-less.php

Connect to different database types

On the Adminer login page:

System	Server	Credentials
MySQL/MariaDB	`127.0.0.1`	root or any DB user
PostgreSQL	`127.0.0.1:5432`	postgres or any role
SQLite	(leave blank)	path to .sqlite file

Access via SSH tunnel (most secure)

Instead of exposing Adminer on any port, access it only through an SSH tunnel:

# On your local machine
ssh -L 8080:localhost:8080 user@your-server-ip

Then open http://localhost:8080 in your browser. Port 8080 doesn't need to be open in the firewall at all.

Keep Adminer updated

LATEST=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/vrana/adminer/releases/latest | grep tag_name | cut -d '"' -f 4 | tr -d 'v')
sudo wget -O /var/www/adminer/index.php \
  "https://github.com/vrana/adminer/releases/download/v${LATEST}/adminer-${LATEST}.php"

Remove when not needed

When you're done with maintenance, remove or disable Adminer:

sudo rm /var/www/adminer/index.php
# or disable the vhost
sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/adminer
sudo systemctl reload nginx

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