The cost of downtime can range from loss of business to severe reputation damage. Database downtime feels inevitable but is often preventable. The causes of database issues that lead to downtime can be categorized in the following ways: Human error System immaturity Application issues In this post, we will explore how PlanetScale can mitigate all three. Downtime due to human error We’ve all done it, dropped the wrong table or index and caused queries to dramatically slow or fail. This can lead to entire site outages, as well as cascading failure that impacts other systems. With standard MySQL, if you drop a table that you later find out was still in use, you are in a situation where you now have to restore from backup. Selecting the right backup, restoring, and bringing your site back online can take hours, which of course leads to high levels of stress for you and your team. To help prevent this type of outage, PlanetScale warns you if the table …

Dropping or removing an unused table from a database schema can be challenging. Even after triple checking that all of your apps have migrated away from querying the table, there may still be that one rogue script that accesses it. Running the dreaded DROP TABLE statement can cause a host of unintentional problems if that table is still being used elsewhere. It completely erases the table definition, partitions, and the data in that table. Before you drop a table, you should double (or triple!) check when a table was last queried. When was the table you want to drop last accessed? You can manually check when a table was last accessed, but it's a bit complicated. The following query will show you the last time a table was written to, but not read:SELECT update_time FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_name='tablename'

To see time last accessed in general, you can use the audit plugin for MySQL Enterprise edition that allows you to see …

Today, we are excited to share that connection strings are available to all PlanetScale users. As a company that obsesses over making databases more accessible to developers, you might have struggled with why PlanetScale didn’t have a way to connect to your database with connection strings. And we heard you! You can now use the tools you're familiar with to connect to PlanetScale databases, whether that’s with Rails, Python, Prisma, Laravel, or any other MySQL client. Connection strings also enable you to connect to other serverless computing platforms like AWS Lambda or Vercel. Within PlanetScale, you can generate a new password and automatically get client code for many popular frameworks and languages for you to connect your PlanetScale database.

Strong passwords, never stored in plain text PlanetScale connection strings are built with security as a priority, so you can spend less time worrying if your database connections are …