Northwind sample database for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and more

This project is inspired by Microsoft Sample Databases, but it mainly focuses on other open-source databases, such as MySQL and PostgreSQL.

This repository contains scripts to create and load the sample databases.

If you are looking for the original MS SQL Server scripts, please check out Microsoft's repository on GitHub.

This project lets you create a sample CRM-like demo database, populated with test data, in a few seconds.

Which sample should I use?

	ecommerce (recommended for new development)	northwind (classic)
Dialects	PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB (document model)	MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server, SQLite, MongoDB
Schema style	Modern: foreign keys, identity/auto-increment columns, CHECK constraints, JSON columns, generated columns, full-text search; embedded documents on MongoDB	1990s Northwind port, kept close to the original
Domain	Core e-commerce: users, addresses, catalog with variants/SKUs, carts, orders with status lifecycle, payments, shipments, inventory ledger	Classic CRM/ERP: customers, employees, orders, suppliers, territories
Use it when	You are building or learning against a contemporary database design	You follow a tutorial/book that expects Northwind, or need the well-known dataset

New to this repo? Start with ecommerce on PostgreSQL:

# 1. Start (or reset) the PostgreSQL container
./renew-pgsql-infra.sh          # Windows: ./renew-pgsql-infra.ps1

# 2. Create and seed the ecommerce database
./pgsql/renew-ecommerce.sh      # Windows: ./pgsql/renew-ecommerce.ps1

# 3. (Optional) Run the sanity checks / demo queries
docker exec -i pgsql-infra psql -U postgres -d ecommerce < pgsql/verify-ecommerce.sql

Prefer MySQL?

./renew-mysql-infra.sh          # Windows: ./renew-mysql-infra.ps1
./mysql/renew-ecommerce.sh      # Windows: ./mysql/renew-ecommerce.ps1
docker exec -i mysql-infra mysql -u root -p'YourStrong!Passw0rd' -D ecommerce < mysql/verify-ecommerce.sql

Prefer MongoDB? The same data ships as an embedded-document model (addresses inside users; variants, images and stock inside products; items, status history, payment and shipment inside orders):

./renew-mongo-infra.sh          # Windows: ./renew-mongo-infra.ps1
cd mongo/ecommerce && ./mongo_import.sh

Demo queries (top products by revenue, full-text search) are baked into pgsql/verify-ecommerce.sql and mysql/verify-ecommerce.sql — run whichever matches the dialect you loaded. For MongoDB, the equivalent revenue query is an aggregation over the embedded items array:

db.orders.aggregate([
  { $unwind: "$items" },
  { $group: { _id: "$items.productName", revenue: { $sum: "$items.lineTotal" } } },
  { $sort: { revenue: -1 } }, { $limit: 10 }
])

The Northwind instructions below remain fully supported.

Quick Start with Docker (Recommended)

The easiest way to get started is using Docker Compose, which provides pre-configured containers for MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server, and MongoDB.

Prerequisites

• Docker installed and running
• Docker Compose (included with Docker Desktop)

Starting Database Servers

Start all database servers:

docker-compose up -d

Start specific database server:

# MySQL only
docker-compose up -d mysql

# PostgreSQL only
docker-compose up -d postgres

# MS SQL Server only
docker-compose up -d mssql

# MongoDB only
docker-compose up -d mongo

Creating and Refreshing Databases (Recommended)

Use the provided renewal scripts to quickly create or refresh databases with sample data:

MySQL:

./renew-mysql-infra.sh

• Recreates the MySQL container with fresh data
• Database: northwind (lowercase, case-insensitive)
• Port: 3306
• Username: root
• Password: YourStrong!Passw0rd

PostgreSQL:

./renew-pgsql-infra.sh

• Recreates the PostgreSQL container with fresh data
• Database: northwind
• Port: 5432
• Username: postgres
• Password: YourStrong!Passw0rd

MS SQL Server:

./renew-mssql-infra.sh

• Recreates the MS SQL Server container with fresh data
• Database: northwind
• Port: 1433
• Username: sa
• Password: YourStrong!Passw0rd

MongoDB:

./renew-mongo-infra.sh

• Recreates the MongoDB container with an empty data volume
• Port: 27017, no authentication (local sample use only)
• Load data with mongo/data/mongo_import.sh (Northwind) or mongo/ecommerce/mongo_import.sh (ecommerce) — each prefers a local mongoimport and falls back to running it inside the container

Connection Examples

MySQL:

# Using Docker
docker exec -it mysql-infra mysql -u root -pYourStrong!Passw0rd -D northwind

# Using local MySQL client
mysql -h localhost -P 3306 -u root -pYourStrong!Passw0rd -D northwind

PostgreSQL:

# Using Docker
docker exec -it pgsql-infra psql -U postgres -d northwind

# Using local psql client
psql -h localhost -p 5432 -U postgres -d northwind

MS SQL Server:

# Using Docker
docker exec -it mssql-infra /opt/mssql-tools18/bin/sqlcmd -S localhost -U sa -P YourStrong!Passw0rd -d northwind -C

# Using local sqlcmd (if installed)
sqlcmd -S localhost -U sa -P YourStrong!Passw0rd -d northwind

MongoDB:

# Using Docker
docker exec -it mongo-infra mongosh northwind

# Using local mongosh client
mongosh mongodb://localhost:27017/northwind

Database Features

MySQL Configuration:

• Case-insensitive table names: Query using customer, Customer, or CUSTOMER
• Collation: utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci (accent and case insensitive)
• All 13 tables with sample data

PostgreSQL Configuration:

• Full Northwind schema with constraints
• Sample data included

MS SQL Server Configuration:

• Northwind database with singular table names
• Compatible with SQL Server 2022

MongoDB Configuration:

• No authentication (local sample use only)
• mongo/data holds flat Northwind collections; mongo/ecommerce holds the embedded-document ecommerce model

Stopping and Removing Containers

# Stop all containers
docker-compose down

# Stop and remove all data volumes (WARNING: deletes all data)
docker-compose down -v

Manual Database Installation (Without Docker)

If you prefer to install databases manually without Docker, you can use the SQL scripts directly with your local database installations.

Caveat

The sample databases in this project are customized. Some table and column names have been changed on purpose.

Differences from the MS SQL Server sample

• Some tables have additional columns, e.g. email and mobile.
• All photo sample data has been removed; a photoPath column has been added instead, for more flexible implementations.
• NorthwindCore is designed for Entity Framework.

ER Diagrams

• The ER diagrams only contain primary and foreign keys.
• The Northwind diagrams were created with MySQL Workbench; you can open the .mwb files with the same tool. The Ecommerce diagram below is written in Mermaid and renders directly on GitHub, so it stays in sync with pgsql/ecommerce.sql / mysql/ecommerce.sql as plain text instead of a binary to regenerate.

Ecommerce

erDiagram
    users {
        bigint user_id PK
    }
    addresses {
        bigint address_id PK
        bigint user_id FK
    }
    categories {
        bigint category_id PK
        bigint parent_category_id FK
    }
    products {
        bigint product_id PK
        bigint category_id FK
    }
    product_variants {
        bigint variant_id PK
        bigint product_id FK
    }
    product_images {
        bigint image_id PK
        bigint product_id FK
    }
    inventory {
        bigint variant_id PK, FK
    }
    inventory_movements {
        bigint movement_id PK
        bigint variant_id FK
        bigint order_id FK
    }
    carriers {
        bigint carrier_id PK
    }
    carts {
        bigint cart_id PK
        bigint user_id FK
    }
    cart_items {
        bigint cart_id PK, FK
        bigint variant_id PK, FK
    }
    orders {
        bigint order_id PK
        bigint user_id FK
    }
    order_items {
        bigint order_id PK, FK
        bigint variant_id PK, FK
    }
    order_status_history {
        bigint history_id PK
        bigint order_id FK
    }
    payments {
        bigint payment_id PK
        bigint order_id FK
    }
    shipments {
        bigint shipment_id PK
        bigint order_id FK
        bigint carrier_id FK
    }

    users ||--o{ addresses : has
    users ||--o{ carts : owns
    users ||--o{ orders : places
    categories ||--o{ categories : "parent of"
    categories ||--o{ products : contains
    products ||--o{ product_variants : has
    products ||--o{ product_images : has
    product_variants ||--o| inventory : tracks
    product_variants ||--o{ inventory_movements : logs
    product_variants ||--o{ cart_items : "added to"
    product_variants ||--o{ order_items : "sold in"
    carts ||--o{ cart_items : contains
    orders ||--o{ order_items : contains
    orders ||--o{ order_status_history : has
    orders ||--o{ payments : has
    orders ||--o{ shipments : has
    orders ||--o{ inventory_movements : adjusts
    carriers ||--o{ shipments : fulfills

Loading

MongoDB uses a different shape: addresses are embedded inside users; product_variants, product_images, and stock are embedded inside products; and order_items, order_status_history, payments, and shipments are embedded inside orders. See mongo/ecommerce/*.json for the document layout.

Northwind

NorthwindCore

• Every table in NorthwindCore contains an EntityId column.

Restore a database from a SQL script

Note: For easier setup, consider using the Docker method with the ./renew-mysql-infra.sh or other renewal scripts.

MySQL

Using the renewal script (recommended):

cd mysql
./renew-northwind.sh

Manual import:

mysql -u user_id -p northwind < mysql/northwind.sql

PostgreSQL

Using the renewal script (recommended):

cd pgsql
./renew-northwind.sh

Manual import:

sudo su - postgres
psql -d postgres -U postgres -f pgsql/northwind.sql

MongoDB

• First, install the MongoDB Community Server, shell, and tools
• Launch the MongoDB server

# Launch MongoDB on Linux
systemctl start mongod

• Create the northwind database and import the data (the same pattern applies to mongo/ecommerce/mongo_import.sh for the ecommerce sample)

cd mongo/data
./mongo_import.sh

mongosh mongodb://localhost:27017/northwind --eval "db.getCollectionNames()"

# Expected output:
# [
# 	'category',
# 	'customer',
# 	'employee',
# 	'employeeTerritory',
# 	'orderDetail',
# 	'product',
# 	'region',
# 	'salesOrder',
# 	'shipper',
# 	'supplier',
# 	'territory'
# ]

SQLite

• Install sqlite3
• Create the northwind database

cd db-samples/sqlite
sqlite3 northwind.db < northwind_core.sql
sqlite3 northwind.db
>.tables

JSON flat files

• JSON flat files are great for integration tests or demonstrations
• The json folder contains a few JSON flat files
• json_data.min.json is the original data set
• json_tiny.json is a version with only a small data set

MS SQL Server

This folder mssql contains the Northwind database SQL script and utilities for MS SQL Server.

Note: This version uses singular table names (e.g., Customer, SalesOrder, Product) instead of plural names. This differs from the official Microsoft Northwind database which uses plural table names (e.g., Customers, Orders, Products).

Using the renewal script (recommended):

cd mssql
./renew-northwind.sh

Manual import:

sqlcmd -S localhost -U sa -P YourStrong!Passw0rd -i mssql/northwind.sql

Docker Compose Configuration

The docker-compose.yml file includes optimized configurations for all four database servers:

• MySQL: Case-insensitive table names (lower_case_table_names=1), utf8mb4 collation
• PostgreSQL: Alpine-based lightweight image, health checks enabled
• MS SQL Server: Express edition, automatic initialization support
• MongoDB: No authentication (local sample use only), health checks enabled

To view container logs:

docker-compose logs mysql
docker-compose logs postgres
docker-compose logs mssql
docker-compose logs mongo

Troubleshooting

Container won't start:

# Check container status
docker-compose ps

# View logs
docker-compose logs <service-name>

# Restart a specific service
docker-compose restart <service-name>

Database connection refused:

• Wait 10-30 seconds after starting containers for databases to initialize
• Check if the container is healthy: docker-compose ps
• Verify port is not already in use: lsof -i :3306 (MySQL), lsof -i :5432 (PostgreSQL), lsof -i :1433 (MSSQL), lsof -i :27017 (MongoDB)

Reset everything:

# Stop containers and remove volumes (deletes all data)
docker-compose down -v

# Restart fresh
./renew-mysql-infra.sh    # or renew-pgsql-infra.sh, renew-mssql-infra.sh, or renew-mongo-infra.sh

TODO

• Add script for MongoDB
• Add script for Sqlite
• Add Mongo container