Creating Databases in Plesk Obsidian

Plesk Obsidian provides a straightforward and robust interface for managing your websites and their associated databases. This guide will walk you through the essential steps for creating and removing databases, as well as effectively managing database users within your Plesk environment, ensuring your web applications run smoothly.

How to Create a Database in Plesk

Database management in Plesk Obsidian is centrally located within the Websites & Domains section, under the Databases tab. This intuitive interface allows you to efficiently create, modify, and remove databases as required for your web applications.

To initiate the creation of a new database, you will be prompted to specify a unique and descriptive name for it. Furthermore, if your subscription grants the necessary permissions, you will have the flexibility to select a specific database type (such as MySQL or PostgreSQL) and designate the preferred database server on which your new database should be hosted. This level of control ensures your database infrastructure perfectly aligns with your application's technical specifications and performance needs.

For enhanced organization and streamlined management, Plesk allows you to associate a database with a specific website. By selecting the relevant site in the Related site box during the database creation process, you can easily identify which database is linked to which website directly from the main Databases page. This feature is particularly beneficial when overseeing numerous websites and their corresponding databases, significantly simplifying your administrative oversight.

Managing Database Users

It is a fundamental requirement that every database has at least one associated user account; otherwise, the database will remain inaccessible. Plesk offers convenient methods for managing these user accounts:

• You have the option to create a new database user concurrently with the database itself by selecting the Create a database user checkbox during the database creation process.
• Alternatively, you can associate an existing user account with the database at a later stage, providing valuable flexibility in user management and permissions allocation.

For a more in-depth understanding of managing individual user accounts and their properties, please refer to the comprehensive documentation on Database User Accounts.

Should a database user require access to all databases within your selected subscription, you can simply enable the option User has access to all databases within the selected subscription. This streamlines access management for users who require broad permissions across multiple databases.

Moreover, if your administrative permissions allow, you can establish highly granular access control rules for individual database users. This functionality enhances security and resource management by allowing you to define precise privileges. Detailed information on configuring these custom access rules can be found in the guide titled Setting Up Custom Access Rules.

How to Remove a Database

When a database is no longer necessary, Plesk provides a straightforward method for its removal. To proceed, navigate to Websites & Domains > Databases and locate the Remove Database link situated beneath the specific database you intend to delete.

It is important to understand a key restriction: you can only remove databases and database users that are not actively utilized by installed APS applications. If the Remove Database link is grayed out or unavailable for a particular database, it signifies that an application is currently dependent on it. In such scenarios, the database can only be removed by first uninstalling the associated application. This safeguard is in place to prevent accidental data loss and maintain the operational integrity of your deployed applications.