# Forest Admin with Rails - Is direct DB Access required?
**URL:** https://community.forestadmin.com/t/forest-admin-with-rails-is-direct-db-access-required/7629
**Category:** Help me!
**Tags:** setup
**Created:** [November 19, 2024, 5:18pm UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/forest-admin-with-rails-is-direct-db-access-required/7629 "2024-11-19T17:18:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@KidA001](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/KidA001)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2024, 5:18pm UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/forest-admin-with-rails-is-direct-db-access-required/7629/1 "2024-11-19T17:18:06Z")
Hi All - I used ForestAdmin a lot with my previous employer, but it’s been about 5-years. The company I work for now is scoping it out as a tool and we are trying to setup a demo account. I’m a bit confused as it’s asking for a DB Connection string which was not required in the past.
In the past with Rails we would install the Forest SDK/Gem, add credentials and it would be able to talk to forest from there. Our DB does not have a publicly accessible endpoint. Is a DB connection string a new requirement?
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### Author:  [@anon7284711](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/anon7284711)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2024, 10:42am UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/forest-admin-with-rails-is-direct-db-access-required/7629/2 "2024-11-20T10:42:20Z")
Hello @KidA001
We’re excited to see you again after a long time, we have a lot of new feature waiting for you 😉
The new onboarding defaults to a Cloud installation, it’s a setup where everything is handled and hosted by Forest Admin, you can find more about it in our [documentation](https://docs.forestadmin.com/cloud/quick-start).
You can [schedule a meet](https://meetings-eu1.hubspot.com/parker-budding/forest-admin-introduction) with our team so that we can guide you to the appropriate onboarding flow for your needs.
If you choose self-hosted and are still using Rails, I suggest you to look at our [new agent gem](https://rubygems.org/gems/forest_admin_agent) !
Best regads,
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### Author:  [@KidA001](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/KidA001)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2024, 3:51pm UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/forest-admin-with-rails-is-direct-db-access-required/7629/3 "2024-11-20T15:51:47Z")
Do both install methods (cloud install or self hosted) require a direct connection to the DB now?
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### Author:  [@anon7284711](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/anon7284711)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2024, 8:31am UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/forest-admin-with-rails-is-direct-db-access-required/7629/4 "2024-11-21T08:31:05Z")
The self-hosted version works as you remember, the database credentials are only configured on the agent you are hosting on your server, and it does not need to be publicly accessible as shown on this [documentation page](https://docs.forestadmin.com/documentation/reference-guide/how-it-works).
Whereas the Cloud install would require a publicly accessible database, or at least you would need to whitelist our IP adresses, so that the agent we host for you can access the database.
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### Author:  [@KidA001](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/KidA001)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2024, 4:55pm UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/forest-admin-with-rails-is-direct-db-access-required/7629/5 "2024-11-22T16:55:59Z")
The documentation says:
But when I signup for an account there is nowhere in the signup flow that lets me select an existing rails app to provide an URL for. It requires that I provide a DB string. I have scoured the documentation to see the exact setup steps for linking an existing rails project and I can’t find it. Forest used to be very easy to setup but the documentation for setting up a existing rails project doesn’t exist, just vague references to providing a URL but no documentation or screenshots that show the process.
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### Author:  [@anon7284711](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/anon7284711)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2024, 8:35am UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/forest-admin-with-rails-is-direct-db-access-required/7629/6 "2024-11-25T08:35:09Z")
Hello @KidA001
As stated earlier the new onboarding defaults to a Cloud installation.
You should have received a meeting invitation from the Forest team to guide you on other hosting choices.
It seems that documentation page is no longer up to date, I’ll forward it to the team so it can be updated. Thanks for the heads up.
I’ll reach you via private message to unlock you.
Best regards,
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### Author:  [@Maxwell](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/Maxwell)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2025, 2:57pm UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/forest-admin-with-rails-is-direct-db-access-required/7629/7 "2025-05-30T14:57:21Z")
@anon7284711 I had the same problem here.
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### Author:  [@anon7284711](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/anon7284711)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2025, 8:06am UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/forest-admin-with-rails-is-direct-db-access-required/7629/8 "2025-06-02T08:06:31Z")
Hello @Maxwell, could you please open a new ticket for your issue and describe the problem.
Thanks
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### Author:  [@Maxwell](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/Maxwell)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2025, 1:05pm UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/forest-admin-with-rails-is-direct-db-access-required/7629/9 "2025-06-03T13:05:07Z")
I got the url for this creating flow, that is: [https://app.forestadmin.com/projects/create?customHosting=true](https://app.forestadmin.com/projects/create?customHosting=true)
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### Author:  [@anon7284711](https://community.forestadmin.com/u/anon7284711)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2025, 10:05am UTC](https://community.forestadmin.com/t/forest-admin-with-rails-is-direct-db-access-required/7629/10 "2025-06-05T10:05:49Z")