Your Drupal application’s database contains the application’s content, configuration, and log information. When you import or create an application in Cloud Platform, you have several environments you can use to develop and manage your application, with each environment having its own database allowing your application to have several databases associated with it, depending on which environment you are working in.
You can use the Environments page in the Cloud Platform user interface to copy a database from one of your application’s environments to another by dragging the database between environments. You can use the Application > Environments page to add, back up, delete databases, or restore and delete database backups.
Adding a database
Drupal sets up the application’s primary database when you install Drupal. Your application can also require more databases. You can create more databases by using the Cloud Platform user interface.
Note for Cloud Platform CD environments
You cannot create databases for Cloud Platform CD environments.
Note
Cloud Classic and Cloud Next support up to 100 databases. If you need to exceed beyond that limit, contact your Acquia account manager.
Access your application, and click Actions > Add Database.
Alternatively, access a specific environment in your application, and click Databases > Add Database.
Enter the database name, and click Add Database. Adding a database creates unique databases for each environment and adds a block for the database on the Databases page.
If the database is for a new website using Drupal multisite, enter the website name. Then, add the include statement from the Databases page to the
settings.phpfile in the multisite directory (for example,docroot/sites/[sitename]/settings.php). For more information, see About Drupal multisite installations.If the database is for added content for an existing application, enter a name (for example, for a postal code database, use “postalcodes”), and use
db_set_active('[Database]')within Drupal to access it. Do not add the include statement from the Databases page to thesettings.phpfile unless you intend the new database to be your application’s default Drupal database.
Note
Database roles have a character limit of 62, and can include a-z, A-Z, 0-9, - (dash), and _ (underscore) characters. However, database roles cannot have a leading or trailing dash or underscore. In addition, you cannot use the . (dot) character.
Database names can include a-z, A-Z, and 0-9. However, database names cannot include - (dash), _ (underscore), and . (dot) characters.
The following are the limits for database connections:
250 connections in production environments
25 connections in non-production environments
Configuring your application to use environment databases
To view the include statement, which is also known as the require statement) for your database:
Access a specific environment in your application, and click Databases.
Select a specific database and click PHP.
The include statement must be at the end of the settings.php file in your
/sites directory, but it must be before any other Cloud Platform-specific
entries in settings.php, including Memcached configuration code or any code using environment variables.
The database include statement causes your application to use a unique database
for each environment allowing you to use the same settings.php file in each
of your Cloud Platform environments.
When you use the Cloud Platform user interface to install a Drupal
distribution or import a website archive, or import an application using the
Acquia Connector, Cloud Platform creates the database include statement
in your settings.php file. Otherwise, you must edit the settings.php
file to add the include statement. Do not add the include statement
unless you intend the new database to be your application’s default Drupal
database.
Copying a database across environments
As you develop your application, you may often want to update an environment with the version of the database from a different environment. Most commonly, you may want to update your Dev or Stage environment databases with the content and configuration from your Prod environment.
Sign in to the Cloud Platform user interface and access your application.
In the grid view, drag the source database container to the target environment you want to contain the database copy. For example, drag the Prod database to the Dev environment.
If the application has more than one database, select the database you want to copy, or click All to select all the databases.
Click Continue.
Click Copy to confirm you want to overwrite the target environment’s database with the source environment’s database. The database migration begins, and the existing database is dropped (
drush sql-drop) during the copy process.Important
After your application is live, Acquia does not recommend copying a database into the Production environment. Doing so may lead to content loss on your application. While the database is copying, requests which cannot be served from cache will fail.
You cannot copy a database to your Production environment when your application is in the Production mode. For more information, see Using Production mode to protect your live application.
Viewing database information
To view information about your databases:
Access a specific environment in your application and click Databases.
Click the database for which you want to view detailed information.
Click Settings.
The system displays the connection information for the database.
Cloud Platform displays the environment-agnostic database name at the top of the section, along with the following fields and their values:
SSH Host: Fully-qualified domain name needed to SSH in to the environment
MySQL Host: The hostname of the database infrastructure. It is only accessible after connecting to the SSH host.
Name: Environment-specific name for the database
Username: Username needed to connect to the database
Password: Password needed to connect to the database; click Show to reveal the password
Note
Cloud Platform API users must use the database machine name for any script options.
Backing up your database
The Databases page displays the date and time of the last created backup for each database in each environment. You can also create on-demand backups and view, download, restore, and delete backups. For more information, see Backing up your application.
Deleting a database
You can use the Databases page to delete a database, so long as it is not your Drupal application’s primary database. You cannot delete the primary database for your application. Doing so would prevent your application from working.
Important
Ensure that you exercise caution before deleting a database as all environments associated with the database are impacted.
Note for Cloud Platform CD environments
You cannot delete databases from Cloud Platform CD environments.
To delete a database:
On the Databases page, locate the database that you want to delete and click Delete.
Monitoring and accessing your databases
Cloud Platform provides several tools you can use to monitor and access your application’s databases:
Access the MySQL command line. You have full grants on your application’s database, giving you complete control of the application’s database. The grants on your application’s database do not grant you access to the entire database system, nor do they grant you permission to add users or change permissions on the database system.
Administer your database with a desktop application or phpMyAdmin.
Trace database queries using an application monitoring tool, such as New Relic.