---
title: External databases
slug: reference/external-databases
docTags: 
createdAt: 2025-09-03T14:40:39.919Z
---

Connections to external structured databases can be added to augment time series data and event data. These databases can be used to [detect events](docId\:DS_e9HUV8qe7bNgq4y3cd) and/or [fill event properties](docId\:aGU54_scLo0Ds8tAWVn2D). 

## Configuration

Available at `Configuration > External databases`, when viewing or editing an external database, are the following fields:

### Name

**Description:** The administrative name for your external database

### Description 

**Description:** Give your database a description if you like *(optional)*

### Database type

**Description:** The type of database you would like to connect to. Factry Historian supports several types of database:

- Postgres
- MySQL
- Oracle
- SQL Server
- SQLite
- SAP (hdb and ase)

### Connection string

**Description:** $USER and $PASSWORD can be used as placeholders to exclude this sensitive data from the connection string. When these placeholders are present, their fields will be made available. These placeholders are filled in when creating a connection with the values filled in in the next two steps.

### Username

**Description:** The username for the database connection. Preferably make sure this is a user that has read-only permissions on the database.

### Password

**Description:** The password for the database connection.

### Timeout

**Description:** The timeout used when querying the database, in milliseconds
**Default:** 5000

### Retry interval

**Description:** Determines how often the connection can be retried
**Default:** 10000

## How-Tos

- [Creating an external database connection](docId\:wFSr6QG3CAMLBiB7g_VzA)