Percona Server for MySQL is a distribution of the MySQL relational database management system created by Percona.

It addresses specific performance and efficiency challenges faced by organizations dealing with high-demand database environments and provides an alternative to traditional RDBMs.

It’s a powerful, free, open source, enterprise-grade solution with no commercial upsells, lock-in fees, or licensing costs. Database professionals with Percona also have access to 24/7 support an on-demand services. Think of it as the best parts of MySQL Community Edition mixed with the standout, enterprise-ready features of MySQL Enterprise Edition.

Percona Server is a SaaS-deployable solution. It’s compatible with a wide variety of architectures, even if you have co-located databases and thousands of tables and retention policies.

With Percona Server for MySQL, you can use backup locks (LOCK TABLES FOR BACKUP) to initiate low-impact backups for your MySQL database. This statement is an excellent alternative to the more intensive FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK, and it works for physical and logical backups.

Percona Server allows users to consolidate servers, reduce power usage, and scale easily.

Percona Server offers incredible visibility, enabling you to understand your server activity and loads at a deeper level. Not only can you analyze queries with Percona Server’s Enhanced Slow Query Logging, but you can also view user and index access statistics to gain insights into loads. Percona Server even has Query Response Time Distribution, which can provide valuable data on read and writer queries.

Percona Server provides a high level of performance and security. Not only can it scale to over 10,000 connections, but it also authenticates MySQL users using Plugin Authentication Modules (PAM) and provides built-in encryption for binary log files and InnoDB general tablespaces. This Percona database monitoring tool also has a vault keyring plug-in, which can store your encryption keys inside the HashiCorp Vault, as well as policy-based monitoring with the Audit Plugin.

Monitoring tool is designed to monitor many database management system platforms simultaneously, DPA won’t just help you identify bottlenecks and root causes of your databases themselves. DPA can also help you determine which applications are performing poorly, so you can optimize them proactively.

DPA is also an excellent tool for detecting anomalies with Percona Server and its database instances. Relying on an anomaly detection algorithm, DPA can easily identify when wait times for database instances are higher than usual. As a result, you’ll be able to take action quickly to optimize performance. DPA will use between 3 and 90 days of historical hourly data to establish a normal baseline and predict future wait times as well as a standard deviation, which can help you set effective thresholds. If DPA receives enough data, it can even take daily and weekly seasonality into account when forming predictions. Then, if your wait time during a specific hour exceeds DPA’s predicted value, the wait time meter on the homepage will change color, the Database Instance Wait Time Anomaly will be triggered, and the bars in the Anomaly Detection charts will turn yellow or red.

Additionally, you can configure alerts and reports manually to ensure you stay in the loop on the metrics that matter most to your organization and its goals. You can create a wait time alert, an administrative alert, a resources alert, or a custom alert.

DPA currently supports databases for Percona versions 8.0, 5.7, and 5.6. You have several registration options. You can use mass registration if you have multiple database instances, or you can use scripts that call the DPA API. You can use the wizard to register individual Percona database instances.

Yes, Percona offers open source software. The company offers powerful, scalable, and secure monitoring and management solutions for MySQL. Countless organizations and companies trust Percona to help them unify, monitor, manage, and optimize their database environments, all while providing adequate security.