How to manage many MySQL and MariaDB servers from one dashboard

To manage multiple MySQL and MariaDB servers from one place, install Fleetdock on one Linux host and connect each database server to it, either through the Fleetdock agent or directly with a host, port and admin login. Fleetdock then finds the databases on every server it can log in to and gives you one list, one backup system, a data browser, a SQL console and queries that run across all of them. It runs on your own infrastructure and does not replace replication or failover.

What does "one dashboard" cover?

Once your servers are connected, the same dashboard shows:

• Servers: every machine running the agent, with CPU, memory, disk and connection charts fed by a heartbeat every 30 seconds.
• Databases: every database grouped by its database server, with engine, size and status.
• Per database: backups, users and grants (Access), schema history, the data browser and the SQL console.
• Fleet query: one SQL script on up to 500 databases, with the results merged into one table.
• Ctrl/⌘ + K finds a table or column in any database you may open.
• Activity → Audit log: who changed what, from which IP address.

Step 1: Install Fleetdock on one host

You need a Linux server with 2 vCPU and 4 GB of RAM to start, and ports 80 and 443 open. A domain is optional: without one, the installer uses an <ip>.sslip.io name that still gets a real HTTPS certificate.

curl -sSL https://fleetdock.dev/install.sh | sudo sh

The installer asks for a domain and an admin email, installs Docker if it is missing, and prints the dashboard URL and your password. fleetdock credentials shows them again later. The full walkthrough is in Getting started.

Step 2: Choose how each server connects

Each MySQL or MariaDB server can be connected in one of two ways. You can mix both in one fleet.

Step 3: Connect the servers

curl -sSL https://your-control-plane/install.sh | \
  sudo env FLEETDOCK_URL=https://your-control-plane \
           FLEETDOCK_TOKEN=<registration-token> sh

Step 4: Decide which login people browse data with

Each database server has a Data browsing connects as setting, which decides the login the data browser, SQL console, exports and imports use:

• Admin login (the default): reaches every database, so only users with instance:write on that server may browse.
• Dedicated login: a login you create on the server; its grants decide what it can do.
• Fleetdock-managed roles: Fleetdock creates a role confined to each database (fleetdock_ro_*, fleetdock_rw_*), so someone with access to one database cannot reach the others.

If teammates should see only some databases, use one of the last two, and give people the viewer or operator role rather than owner. The full model is in Security.

Step 5: Put backups and alerts on every server

Add an S3, Cloudflare R2 or S3-compatible bucket under Backups → Backup storage, then give each database a schedule with a retention period. Backups use mariadb-dump or mysqldump, are gzipped and checksummed with SHA-256. The step-by-step setup is in Scheduled backups to S3 or R2.

Under Settings → Notifications, add an email, Slack or webhook channel. Failed backups and servers that stop heartbeating for two minutes notify you automatically, and alert rules can watch CPU, memory, disk and connections.

Working across all servers at once

With everything connected, a few features replace a loop of SSH sessions.

Fleet query. Pick databases by name pattern, server and engine, and run one script on up to 500 of them, 1 to 16 at a time. This lists the five largest tables in each database, with the database and server in front of every row:

SELECT table_name,
       ROUND((data_length + index_length) / 1024 / 1024) AS size_mb
FROM information_schema.tables
WHERE table_schema = DATABASE()
ORDER BY data_length + index_length DESC
LIMIT 5;

Scripts that write need a typed confirmation, run on the first database alone and stop at the first failure by default. See Fleet query.

Top queries. A database server's Monitoring → Top queries lists its most expensive statements from performance_schema, which MySQL 8 enables by default. On MariaDB, set performance_schema=ON and restart.

Index health. Each database's page lists unused and redundant indexes with the DROP INDEX statement to review. Fleetdock never drops an index itself. See Performance.

Schema comparison. Compare with… on a database's Schema tab diffs it against another database on the same engine, such as staging against production, and writes the DDL that aligns them. See Schema history.

What Fleetdock does not do

• No replication, high availability or automatic failover. Keep MySQL replication, Galera or your provider's failover for that.
• No point-in-time recovery. Backups are logical dumps, so you can restore to the moment of a backup, not to an arbitrary second between two.
• No configuration tuning or version upgrades. Edit my.cnf and upgrade MySQL or MariaDB as you do today.
• No capacity enforcement. Server charts show headroom, but Fleetdock does not block a new container on a full machine.

Next steps

• Getting started: install and connect your first server.
• Move a database to another server when one machine fills up.
• Database-per-tenant if your servers hold one database per customer.