Managed databases

• Three engines: PostgreSQL 14 through 18, MySQL 5.7 and 8.0, and MongoDB 5.0 through 7.0.
• Four plans, Solo, Pro, Ultra and Max, sized by storage and by how many connections they allow. Every plan keeps its data as three synchronous copies on SSD across four storage hosts in one Addis Ababa data centre.
• The instance is provisioned in minutes, with credentials ready to use.

• The username, password and connection string are all in the console.
• The password can be reset on demand, and the new credentials apply immediately.
• Instances are private by default. Public access is a toggle, for connecting from outside AletCloud.

A connection string is one line of text holding the host, port, username, password and database name together, so a tool can connect without each piece being typed separately. Treat it like a password: anyone holding it can read and write the data.

It rarely needs copying. An AletCloud app connected to the database already has it. Copy it for a laptop during development, for a client such as DBeaver or pgAdmin, or for the psql and mysql command line tools.

• Start, stop and restart the instance from the console.
• Rename an instance, or resize it to a larger plan as the data grows. The host, the database name and the credentials come through unchanged.
• Read recent database logs when something needs troubleshooting.
• Watch CPU, memory and storage usage.
• Delete when finished. Charging stops with the instance.

• Automated daily backups (paid plans, running databases) kept 3, 7, 14 or 30 days as you choose; 7 by default.
• No backups are taken while a database is stopped or suspended; the ones it already has are kept for their retention period.
• Backups by hand on demand, before a risky change, listed alongside the automated ones.
• Restore from any backup from the console, which replaces the current contents of the database, or download it and restore with standard tools.

Solo is free: one database per account, a gigabyte of storage, and the same engines the paid plans run. It has no expiry date. It has no automated backups, and no backups of any kind.

A paid instance is charged by the minute against its monthly price, and deleting it stops the charge at that minute. Creating one checks the wallet for a day of it first.