# Set up a staging server

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/set-up-a-staging-server/225951>\
**Category:** Sysadmins\
**Tags:** how-to\
**Created:** [May 3, 2022, 5:24am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/set-up-a-staging-server/225951 "2022-05-03T05:24:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 35

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![manuel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/manuel/32/468169_2.png) [@manuel](https://meta.discourse.org/u/manuel)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 11:12am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/set-up-a-staging-server/225951/35 "2024-11-30T11:12:02Z")

</div>

I’m trying to seed test data on my staging server, but I get an error:

```plaintext
rake aborted!
Database commands are only supported in development environment

```

This is on a multisite setup, so the commands I’m running are:

```plaintext
./launcher enter web_only
ALLOW_DEV_POPULATE=1 bundle install
RAILS_DB=instance-x ALLOW_DEV_POPULATE=1 rake dev:populate

```

Which I’ve been using without issues so far, but now I get this error. Can I set an environment variable to allow database commands in production?

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