Xeround Cloud Database for MySQL Applications – User Guide

The Xeround Database Manager is a browser-based tool that enables Xeround users to manage their MySQL DB in the cloud.

All Xeround cloud DB instances installed on any of the available data centers are displayed in a single page within your Database Manager online console, for easy management. The management tools available are those related to the Xeround’s aspects of the databases, while any SQL related management can be done via any standard SQL management tool (e.g., MySQL Workbench, SQLyog etc.).

Overview:
Database Manager Main Page | Database Health and State | Monitoring and Thresholds

Working with Your Cloud Database:
Database Actions | The Database List | The Information Area

Database Manager Main Page

Once logged in, the user is presented with the Database Manager’s main page. The page includes the following functional areas:

1. Main Menu – enables navigation between the Database Manager main page and all other pages.
2. Database Actions – provides access to the main actions available on the database instances. All actions other than “Create New”, relate to the currently selected database instance.
3. Database List – a list of all database instances belonging to the currently logged in user. Every line in the list represents a database and provides some essential information about it. The list itself enables selecting a database (multiple selection is planned) in order to see more in-depth information about it or perform an action on it.
4. Information Area – in depth information about the selected database instance. The information is separated, for ease of use, into four tabs:
   1. Details – static information related to the instance such as creation time and IP addresses as well as the ability to modify instance-specific data such as password and plan.
   2. Monitoring – real time view of the instance’s performance measures according to a user-defined time line.
   3. Backup/Export – view all existing backups/export files for the particular DB Instance. From this tab you can also restore your database from a backup – either to an existing DB Instance or to a new one.
   4. Events – view of all system messages related to the instance, enabling close control over events the database underwent.
   5. Advanced – configure SSL connection to the DB Instance.

Database Status Indicators

Indicators of your database activity and status – such as Database Health and Database State – are shown in the Database Main List, under the “Status” column.

Database Health

A database instance’s health is affected by the status of all system components, network, hardware and software and is determined according to the number of available replicas. Database’s health indicators are as followed:

• Healthy – both replicas of all data objects are available, i.e. the database is fully functional and provides high availability.
• No connectivity – the database is functional but there may be a temporary networking problem which restricted access to it. The system will automatically repair itself to restore connectivity. As the system is “self-healing”, no user action is required to initiate the process.
• Critical – the database is functional but there may be data consistency problems or an actual loss of data. Note that a Critical status on any of Xeround’s databases triggers a real time alert to a Xeround administrator which will fix the problem as quickly as possible.

Database State

On top of the database’s health, another important indicator is its state which indicates what has been done with it and what can be done. The optional states of a database are:

Static States – these states require specific actions to change:

• Active – the database is fully functional with all components up and running.
• Stopped – the database components are installed but not running; hence minimizing resource usage. For the same reason, the data itself is kept in persistent storage and not in memory.
• Failed – the last operation has failed; hence the database is not functional.

Progress States – shown while the database is performing a task, usually shown along with its progress:

• Initializing – the database components are being installed and initial memory is being allocated.
• Starting – the database components are being started either from an ‘Initialized’ or ‘Stopped’ state. If the original state was ‘Stopped’, the actual data is restored from the persistent storage.
• Stopping – the database components are being stopped and are releasing all used resources.
• Scaling – database is being scaled, either up (adding more servers) or down (removing used servers). In both cases the database is still fully functional.
• Dropping – following a drop request, the database is removed and all allocated resources are freed.
• Restoring – following a Restore request, the backed-up data is being restored.

Monitoring and Thresholds

The system monitors many criteria and provides various metrics related to the database activity. Some of these metrics are informative while others trigger events.

The metrics presented for your database are shown in the Database List and on Monitoring tab:

• Database size – actual data size of your instance
• Connections – number of open connections on all instance front ends
• CPU – actual CPU usage
• Operations – number of operations per second.

Data size & connections:

Xeround Cloud Database comes in three editions: Xeround FREE, Xeround BASIC and Xeround PRO – each with different threshold limitations on database size, throughput and number of connections.

Xeround FREE and Xeround BASIC
When your database reaches any of the system-defined thresholds for your chosen plan you will see an indicator of a red bar in the Database List columns of either DB Size, Ops, CPU or Connections. This will also be displayed in your Monitoring tab. If you want to increase your limits you should upgrade your DB instance to a different plan.

Xeround PRO – Auto Scaling
As apposed to Xeround FREE and Xeround BASIC plans, with Xeround PRO – as your database reaches its system-defined thresholds it will automatically scale out/up as it requires more throughput or capacity. Once the peak has ended and the database resources are underutilized, your Xeround PRO instance will automatically scale back down/in.

Auto scaling is done on-the-fly and does not involve any code changes to your app or any architectural considerations to support scaling. This linear, practically unlimited, scalability is extremely granular and can accommodate any peak or demand from the application.

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Working with Databases

Working with databases is done via the options available on the Database Action menu displayed at the top of the DB Instance Manager console. The menu is context sensitive and only enables those operations that are applicable to the selected database instance.

The actions available in the menu are:

1. Create New – used to create a new database instance. Upon selection, the New Database wizard is presented, enabling the user to choose the desired plan (Xeround FREE, Xeround BASIC or Xeround PRO) and later fill the information required for the creation of the new cloud database.
   
   Step 1: Select your database plan

   Step 2: Select your datacenter

   The list presents only those datacenters that are applicable to the logged-in user and to the requested database plan.

   Step 3: Fill in the information required for the creation of your cloud database
   

   1. DB Instance Name – the logical name used to access the database and to manage it via the Database Manager.
   2. DB Instance Initial Size – this relates only to Xeround PRO database instances and specifies the initial amount of memory to be allocated to the database. Xeround is fully scalable and elastic; hence resources allocation will be adjusted (both up and down) according to the database’s actual size. Nevertheless, providing a good estimate of the initial size will optimize resource usage during initial load. Note that if you choose a larger initial size than the actual data you import to Xeround, your database will automatically shrink to its actual size a week after its creation.
   3. User Name & Password – the MySQL credentials used to access the database (unrelated to the Xeround credentials).
   4. Daily Backup Time – this relates only to Xeround PRO database instances and allows you to select the desired time for your daily backup run.
   5. DB Instance Description – a textual description related to the database.

   The ‘Create New’ option is always enabled and does not relate to the selected database.

2. Drop – completely removes the database and all its components from the system, including Backups and Export files; hence the database will no longer be available.
3. Backup – initiates “hot-backup” for your Xeround PRO database instance. The backup is done online with no service downtime or interruptions. During the backup process your database is still accessible to the application and may be updated. Backup files can be used for restore purpose from the “Backup/Export” tab.
4. Export – initiates export (SQL Dump) for your Xeround BASIC database instance. You can always import the export file back using the Restore option from the “Backup/Export” tab.
5. Change Plan – used to upgrade your DB instance to a different edition. The change plan process creates a new instance and imports your current data into it. During the process your database is not accessible.

The Database List

The database list includes all database instances that belong to the logged in user. The list enables selecting a single database at a time which affects the available operations and presented information. Each row in the list includes the following information:

1. Database name – the name as was given during the create process
2. Plan – the database edition and billing plan
3. Status – a combination of a graphic and textual indications of the database health and state (see above for all available options)
4. Data Size – a graphical and textual indication of the memory used. The calculation takes into account the number of replicas and the distributed nature of the database. For example, a database that was originally allocated as 2GB and currently occupies 1.5GB will be shown as 75% occupied although it physically will consume twice the resources due to it being replicated twice.
   The color indication of the memory consumption is dependent on the thresholds defined (see above). Green color means that the database size is below the warning threshold, Yellow means the database size is above the warning level and below the critical level, and Red means the database size is above the critical threshold.
   Note that actual usage includes the data itself and overhead required for managing the database such as index information.
5. Operations / sec – average number of read & write operations performed during the last measurement period (usually 3 seconds)
6. CPU usage – a graphical and textual indication of the maximum CPU usage amongst all components. The color indication of the CPU usage is dependent on the thresholds defined (see above).
7. Connections – a graphical and textual indication of the number of open connections to the database. The color indication is based on of the thresholds defined (see above) and the maximum provided by the system
8. Messages – number of unread messages available in the messages tab.

The Information Area

The information area includes four separate tabs each providing different information regarding the selected database.

Details Tab

The details tab provides general information about the database instance, and the ability to change some of its parameters:

• Instance ID – a unique ID provided by the system. This ID is used in messages from the system and should be provided when communicating with support.
• If the database instance is in Trial period, number of days left for the trial is presented.
• “End Trial” button – removes the limits that apply to the database while in Trial mode.
• Plan – the database plan (Xeround FREE, Xeround BASIC, or Xeround PRO).
• “Change Plan” link – enables changing the plan of your database instance. The “change plan” process might take a few minutes to complete during which the database is not accessible. The billing plan will be updated automatically according to the new requested plan.
• Username – the user name used to login to the database. The “Change Password“ link enables changing the password associated with the username.
• Creation Date – the date the database was created
• Size – the size provided and allocated when created. The actual size can be calculated according to this size and the scalability factor.
• Data Center – the physical datacenter where the database is hosted.
• DNS – the DNS hostnames for connecting to your database. Round-robin DNS is used on all of Xeround’s datacenters and guarantees high availability of the connection to your database in a way that does not require you to tweak your application.
  • The Internal DNS points to the internal IP addresses and is used for accessing your DB from within the same datacenter
  • The External DNS is used for connecting externally.
    * Due to Rackspace’s architecture, users running their DB instance on Rackspace’s data center should use the External DNS only to connect to their app.
• Thresholds – the current thresholds values, Warning and Critical, associated with each of the performance metrics. A scale-up/out event will be triggered once the threshold reaches Critical level. Scale-down will automatically be triggered once the system calculates that the database is underutilized and that decreasing its resources will keep the database below the Warning threshold.
  

Monitoring Tab

The monitoring tab provides graphical presentation of the main performance metrics. Each of the graphs shows the actual value measured along with the defined threshold values.

The data is measured continuously and presented in the granularity required by the user: (last minute, last hour, etc.). When “Last minute” is selected, the graph presents the actual data, while for all other options it presents either the Average, Minimum or Maximum values measured within each time slot.

Events Tab

The events tab enables browsing through all system events related to the selected database. Each event includes:

• Date and time of the event
• Severity – one of Error, Warning or Info
• Message – the actual message describing the event
• Request ID – for user initiated events (for example “Scale Up”), a unique ID that enables viewing all events associated to this request.
• Code – an internal message code to be used if and when communicated to the support.

Events can be marked as read by selecting some or all and clicking on the “Mark as Read” link.

Visibility of events can be filtered by both Severity and read status; hence enabling easier focus on a desired event.

Note: Currently the events are sorted by date, with newer events first, but in future versions sorting will be enabled for all columns.

Backup/Export Tab

The Backup/Export tab relates to Xeround PRO and Xeround BASIC editions and provides a list of all available backup files. For Xeround PRO instances the tab includes details and all manual and scheduled backups. For Xeround BASIC the tab lists the manual export files and the system backups taken hourly and kept for 7 days.

To restore your data — select a file from available Backups/export files and click the “Restore” link. Restore can be done to the existing DB Instance or to a new one.

Note that during the free trial this information is not presented manual backups as well as Restore are disabled.

Advanced Tab

The Advanced tab relates to Xeround PRO and Xeround BASIC editions and allows configuration of SSL connection to your DB Instance.

To establish SSL connection to your instance – click the “CA certificate” link , download and save the “ca-cert.pem” file.
For client-side SSL – click to download both “client certificate” and “client private key” links. Save the files {instance-id}-client-cert.pem & {instance-id}-client-key.pem.

Regenerate certificates – this action will generate new certificates and revoke the current ones. Click on Client-Certificate and Client-private-key links and save the new files.
During regeneration of certificates and until you replace the certificates on your client side, the connection is not SSL secured.
Also, as this process involves a reset of our front-end components, you might experience some connection timeouts during the process.

Please Note: Your MySQL accounts should not be defined with REQUIRE SSL clause.
The SSL connection is between your application and Xeround front-ends. As Xeround provides a distributed storage engine, internal communication between all Xeround components are secured by default (regardless of the REQUIRE SSL setting).
Turning on the REQUIRE SSL clause in MySQL will cause connections to fail due to the fact that the distributed SQL frontends will fail to communicate with each other.