Hey folks, I’m thinking about moving my MySQL database from a cloud provider to a self-hosted setup. My project gets about 5k hits per minute. Right now I’m using a cloud service, but I found a much beefier dedicated server option for roughly the same price.
I’m wondering if anyone has recent experience with maintaining their own database server. How much work is it to keep everything updated and running smoothly? Are there any good tools or methods you use to make it easier?
I’m mainly curious about the trade-offs between managed cloud databases and self-hosted setups on dedicated hardware. Is the extra performance worth the potential headaches? Would love to hear your thoughts!
Having managed MySQL databases both in the cloud and on-premises, I can say it’s definitely viable to self-host, but there are trade-offs to consider. With 5k hits per minute, you’re in a range where self-hosting can offer significant cost savings and performance benefits. However, be prepared for increased responsibility in areas like backups, security patches, and scaling.
The decision hinges on your team’s database administration skills, the criticality of uptime for your application, and your comfort with infrastructure management. Tools such as Percona Monitoring and Management can help ease the burden, though a learning curve still exists.
Ultimately, if you have the necessary expertise or are willing to invest in developing it, and you value fine-grained control over your database environment, self-hosting is a viable option. Ensure that you have robust monitoring, backup, and disaster recovery processes in place before making the transition.
I’ve been down this road before, and it’s definitely doable to manage your own MySQL database in production. With 5k hits per minute, you’re at a scale where self-hosting can make sense financially and performance-wise.
That said, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. You’ll need to stay on top of security updates, optimize query performance, and handle backups yourself. It can be a bit of a time sink, especially at first.
One thing that’s helped me tremendously is setting up automated monitoring and alerts. Tools like Prometheus and Grafana have been lifesavers for keeping tabs on database health and performance. Also, make sure you have a solid backup strategy - test those restores regularly!
If you’ve got the skills (or time to learn) and don’t mind the extra responsibility, self-hosting can be rewarding. Just be prepared for some late nights when things inevitably go sideways. And always have a fallback plan in case you need to quickly revert to a managed solution.
i’ve run my own mysql setup for a while now. it’s totally doable but requires some effort. backups and security are key. tools like percona toolkit help alot. the perfomance boost can be worth it, but be ready for some sleepless nights when things go wrong. make sure you got solid monitoring setup too