Databases on web hosting

Nearly every content management system needs a database. WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, almost anything with a login.

Creating one#

You give it a name. We create the database, a user for it and a password, and hand you back:

• The database name
• The username
• The password
• The host
• The port

Those five values are what your application's installer asks for. Copy them straight across.

Names are prefixed with your account's own name, so two customers can never end up with the same database name and nobody can guess yours.

Your plan sets how many databases you can have.

Listing them#

The page will show each database with its users and how much space it is using. That last number counts against your plan's disk allowance, so a database that has grown unexpectedly is worth looking at.

Changing the password#

You will be able to generate a new password for a database at any time.

Anything using the old password stops working the moment you do, so update your application's configuration first, or be ready to do it immediately after.

For WordPress that is DB_PASSWORD in wp-config.php.

Deleting one#

Deleting a database destroys every table and row in it and cannot be undone.

Take a copy first. A backup of your account includes your databases, so taking one before you delete anything is the cheap insurance.

Connecting from outside#

The connection details work from your application on the account. Whether you can connect from your own machine, for a tool like a desktop database client, depends on the host allowing it. If you need that, ask us.

The practical way to work on a database is usually through a web based tool you install on the site itself, or by exporting and importing a dump file.

What this is not#

This is a database for your website. It is not a managed database service with its own replicas and failover. That is a different product, Managed Databases, and it is separate from a hosting account.