Databases Overview

DanubeData provides fully managed database instances with MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB support.

What are Database Instances?

Database instances are managed database servers that provide:

• Automated Setup: Deploy in minutes
• Automated Backups: Daily backups (managed PostgreSQL adds 30-day continuous backups)
• High Availability: Read replicas and automatic failover
• Storage Autoscaling: Optional automatic disk growth before you run out of space
• In-Place Version Upgrades: Move MySQL and PostgreSQL to a newer engine version without recreating
• SQL Studio: An in-browser data studio included free with every PostgreSQL instance
• Monitoring & Alerts: Real-time metrics with configurable metric alerts and health monitoring
• Security: Firewall integration and encrypted (TLS/SSL) connections

Supported Database Engines

MySQL

• Versions: 8.0, 8.4, 9.0, 9.1
• Use cases: Web applications, e-commerce, CMS
• Features: InnoDB storage, full-text search, JSON support

PostgreSQL

• Versions: 15, 16, 17, 18
• Use cases: Analytics, complex queries, GIS applications
• Features: JSONB, full-text search, one-click PostGIS, connection pooler, SQL Studio

MariaDB

• Versions: 10.11, 11.4, 11.6
• Use cases: Drop-in MySQL replacement
• Features: Improved performance, better replication

Key Features

📊 Performance Monitoring

• Real-time CPU, memory, and disk metrics
• Query performance tracking
• Connection monitoring
• Slow query logs

🔒 Security

• Firewall protection
• Private networking
• Encrypted connections (TLS/SSL)
• Encrypted backups

💾 Automated Backups

• Daily automated backups with 3-day retention
• Managed PostgreSQL adds 30-day continuous backups
• Point-in-time recovery
• Manual snapshots

📈 Scalability

• Read replicas for scaling reads
• Vertical scaling (resize instances)
• Storage autoscaling (optional automatic disk growth)
• In-place engine version upgrades (MySQL, PostgreSQL)
• Connection pooling (built-in pgBouncer proxy for PostgreSQL)

⚙️ Customization

• Custom parameter groups
• Version selection
• Storage configuration

Getting Started

Create a Database

1. Navigate to Databases in the main menu
2. Click Create Database Instance
3. Select your database engine (MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MariaDB)
4. Choose a version
5. Select a resource profile
6. Configure networking and security
7. Click Create Database

Your database will be ready in 2-3 minutes!

Connect to Your Database

Once your database is running, you'll receive:

• Hostname: The connection endpoint
• Port: 3306 for MySQL/MariaDB, 5432 for PostgreSQL on the private network. With public access enabled, the public hostname listens on its own port instead — see below
• Database Name: The ready-to-use database we created for you, shown right in the credentials card
• Username: Database username
• Password: Secure password (shown once)

Example Connection String:

mysql -h your-db-hostname -P 3306 -u admin -p

By default a database is reachable only from within your private network. To connect from outside DanubeData, enable public access (DNS) on the instance — its firewall opens automatically so external clients can connect right away, and closes again the moment you turn public access back off.

The public endpoint uses a different port than the private one. Public traffic arrives through a shared load balancer, where your instance gets its own dedicated port — not 3306 or 5432. Those engine ports stay correct for private-network connections. Always copy the port shown next to the endpoint in the dashboard, or read it from the API:

DNS records cannot carry a port number, so resolving the hostname tells you nothing about which port to use. API clients should read connection_host and connection_port — they always resolve to the correct pair:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $DANUBEDATA_TOKEN" \
  https://api.danubedata.ro/api/v1/database/$DATABASE_ID/credentials

{
  "host": "postgresql-orders.acme.danubedata.ro",
  "port": 5438,
  "username": "pguser",
  "database": "orders",
  "password": "...",
  "connection_info": "postgresql://pguser:...@postgresql-orders.acme.danubedata.ro:5438/orders"
}

The read-replica ("reader") endpoint is private-network only and always uses the engine port, even when public access is enabled.

Resource Profiles

Read Replicas

Scale read operations by creating replicas:

1. Go to your database instance page
2. Click Replicas tab
3. Click Add Replica
4. Select a node and resource profile
5. Click Create Replica

Benefits

• Offload read queries from primary
• Runs on a separate host in the same datacenter
• Automatic synchronization
• Promote to primary if needed

Backups & Recovery

Automated Backups

• Performed daily automatically
• 3-day retention
• No performance impact
• Stored securely

Manual Snapshots

1. Go to your database page
2. Click Snapshots tab
3. Click Create Snapshot
4. Enter a name
5. Click Create

Restore from Backup

1. Navigate to Snapshots
2. Click Restore on a snapshot
3. Choose to restore to existing or new instance

Parameter Groups

Customize database configuration:

1. Navigate to Parameter Groups
2. Click Create Parameter Group
3. Select database engine and version
4. Configure parameters
5. Attach to your database instance

Default (system) parameter groups are version-scoped — the dropdown filters to groups that match your instance's engine version. Custom parameter groups remain compatible across versions. See Parameter Groups for the full reference.

Storage Autoscaling

Turn on autoscaling for any managed database and its storage grows automatically before it fills up — so a full disk never takes your database offline.

• Enable anytime: Switch it on when creating a database, or later from the instance's edit page. It's off by default — nothing changes unless you opt in.
• Your thresholds: Set the usage level that triggers growth (default 80% used) and how much storage to add each time (default 80 GiB), per instance.
• Controlled growth: A cooldown between scale-events keeps storage from growing too aggressively, and a maximum size cap (within your plan and account limits) keeps it bounded — set a lower cap yourself for tighter control.
• Transparent cost: The instance page shows autoscaling status and the projected monthly cost of the next scale-up, billed at the standard per-GiB storage rate.

Storage grows but never shrinks automatically. Pick a maximum size that fits your budget.

Version Upgrades

Move a MySQL or PostgreSQL instance to a newer engine version in place — no need to recreate it or dump and reload your data.

1. Open the Updates tab on your database instance
2. Pick an available target version
3. Start the upgrade — a snapshot is taken automatically first, so you can restore if anything looks wrong afterward
4. Track progress live on the instance page; the instance shows an Updating status across the dashboard while the upgrade runs

Available today for MySQL and PostgreSQL, and upgrades follow supported version paths (for example, MySQL 8.0 → 8.4 → 9.0/9.1). Take a manual snapshot first if you want an extra restore point.

SQL Studio

Every managed PostgreSQL instance includes SQL Studio — a full database GUI in your browser, with no client to install and no credentials to copy:

• Browse schemas, tables, and rows with sorting, filters, and pagination
• Edit data with staged, transactional commits (applied all-or-nothing)
• Run ad-hoc SQL with a read-only safe mode, saved snippets, query history, and CSV/JSON export
• Create, rename, duplicate, and drop tables; import from CSV; visualize relationships with ER diagrams

SQL Studio is included free with every PostgreSQL plan. It is not available for MySQL or MariaDB. See the SQL Studio guide for details.

High Availability

For managed PostgreSQL, enable the High availability setting to run your instance with a synchronized standby and automatic failover — if the primary becomes unhealthy, a standby is promoted for you, with near-zero downtime during planned changes. Replication, standby provisioning, and failover are all handled by the platform.

All engines also support read replicas, which add read capacity through a load-balanced reader endpoint and can be promoted to primary for resilience.

Cloning

Need a copy of a database — for staging, testing, or a migration dry-run? Clone any managed database into a brand-new instance from the dashboard. The clone is an independent instance with its own connection details and password; changes to it never affect the original.

Monitoring

Track database performance:

Key Metrics

• CPU Usage: Monitor compute resources
• Memory Usage: Track RAM and buffer pool
• Connections: Active and max connections
• Queries per Second: Throughput
• Disk I/O: Read/write operations
• Replication Lag: For replicas

Metric Alerts

Set your own thresholds on a database and get an email when they're breached — and again when they resolve:

• High CPU usage
• Memory exhaustion
• Disk usage Create and manage these from the Alerts section; see Alerting.

Health Monitoring

We watch the health of your database around the clock. If it runs into trouble — a crash loop, out-of-memory, image-pull failure, and more — your whole team is notified by email and in the Notification Center, and a warning banner appears on the instance page. Alerts clear themselves automatically once the database recovers. No setup required.

Log Explorer

Search, filter, and live-tail your database logs from the Logs page under Observability — by level, keyword, or regex pattern — or jump straight into a database's logs from its own instance page. See Logs.

Best Practices

Performance

1. Use appropriate indexes
2. Optimize queries
3. Configure buffer pool size
4. Use connection pooling
5. Monitor slow queries

Security

1. Use strong passwords
2. Enable firewalls
3. Use private networks
4. Restrict access by IP
5. Enable SSL/TLS

Reliability

1. Enable automated backups
2. Take manual snapshots before major changes
3. Test restore procedures
4. Monitor replication lag
5. Set up read replicas

Cost Optimization

1. Right-size your instance
2. Stop idle databases to pause hourly compute billing
3. Clean up old data
4. Archive historical data
5. Delete unused snapshots

Troubleshooting

High CPU Usage

1. Identify slow queries
2. Add missing indexes
3. Optimize queries
4. Consider upgrading instance

Connection Errors

1. Check firewall rules
2. Verify connection details
3. Check max connections setting
4. Review connection pool settings

Replication Lag

1. Check network connectivity
2. Review primary load
3. Increase replica resources
4. Optimize queries on primary

Next Steps

• MySQL Documentation
• PostgreSQL Documentation
• MariaDB Documentation
• Database Replicas
• Parameter Groups

Need help? Contact our support team through the dashboard.