---
title: 'Dashboard'
description: 'Accessing the Dashboard!'
position: 500
category: 'Product'
menuTitle: 'Dashboard'
---
## Setup Your First Super Admin
Once you have started NocoDB, you can visit the dashboard via `example.com`. You will be redirected to `example.com/#/signup`.
Enter your work email and your password.
Your password has at least 8 letters. No other constraints on case, numbers or special characters.
## Initialize Your First Project
Once you have logged into NocoDB, you should see `My Projects`.
![Screenshot 2022-12-29 at 2 54 43 PM](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/86527202/209932699-743ffea2-986f-443f-8198-f56b597de706.png)
To create a new project, you can click `New Project`.
You need to specify the project name. The data will be stored in `NC_DB`. If it is not specified, a local SQLite will be created and used.
NC_DB is an environment variable used to store the meta data in the given database.
![Screenshot 2022-12-29 at 2 54 57 PM](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/86527202/209932936-8fe7334c-1a94-4073-ba19-478efb620808.png)
### Connecting to External Database
Click on three-dot menu adjacent to `BASES`. Pick required database option from the menu `Connect to new datasource`.
Tip: If you are running NocoDB on Docker and your local DB is running on your host machine, your Host Address would be host.docker.internal instead of localhost.
![Screenshot 2022-12-29 at 2 55 39 PM](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/86527202/209933294-9327ff16-21db-4aca-bf16-8cea8a1eb415.png)
Above menu is also accessible from `Team & Settings` > `Data Sources`. Click on `New` button to add existing database.
![Screenshot 2022-12-29 at 3 16 36 PM](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/86527202/209936942-f82a293f-2e91-48da-b9cd-79ec143d7d6f.png)
You need to specify the project name, API type, and other database parameters.
![Screenshot 2022-12-29 at 2 56 25 PM](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/86527202/209933326-e76eee13-4942-4ba8-b184-a28099c089ab.png)
Currently it supports MySQL, Postgres, MSSQL and SQLite.
You can also configure associated SSL & advanced parameters.
Tip: You can click Edit Connection JSON and modify SSL settings in "ssl".
```json
{
"client": "pg",
"connection": {
"host": "",
"port": "5432",
"user": "",
"password": "",
"database": "",
"ssl": {
"require": true,
"rejectUnauthorized": false,
"sslMode": "no-verify"
}
}
}
```
Tip: You can click Edit Connection JSON and specify the schema you want to use in "searchPath".
```json
{
"client": "pg",
"connection": {
...
},
"searchPath": [ "" ]
}
```
Click `Test Database Connection` to see if the connection can be established or not. NocoDB creates a new **empty database** with specified parameters if the database doesn't exist.