# How to connect to an external database running on localhost

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-connect-to-an-external-database-running-on-localhost/163683
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [September 10, 2020, 9:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-connect-to-an-external-database-running-on-localhost/163683 "2020-09-10T21:02:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 2

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### Author: ![simon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/simon/32/339122_2.png) [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2020, 3:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-connect-to-an-external-database-running-on-localhost/163683/2 "2020-09-11T15:59:01Z")

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> [@isaac1104](#):
>
> My question is, is it possible to login to discourse using that separate users table that is running locally on my macbook?
> 
> I tried the [Official Single-Sign-On for Discourse (sso)](https://meta.discourse.org/t/official-single-sign-on-for-discourse-sso/13045) method but I wasn’t able to get this to work

You can get SSO to work in a local development environment, but it might be difficult to configure it to work with the Docker development environment. You could try installing Discourse without Docker on your Mac by following this guide: [Install Discourse on macOS for development](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beginners-guide-to-install-discourse-on-macos-for-development/15772). With that setup, your Discourse site will be on `http://localhost:3000`. You’ll be able to make SSO requests directly to it without having to deal with networking issues.

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