Databases on Windows

WinPanel can run three database servers for you, and treats them as one feature. Which one a database is on is a choice you make when you create it, not three separate parts of the panel to learn.

Engine	What it is for
MariaDB	MySQL-compatible. What WordPress and most PHP applications expect.
PostgreSQL	The relational database most modern application frameworks default to.
MongoDB	Stores documents rather than rows. Common in Node.js and JavaScript projects.

None of them are installed to begin with, and nothing about an engine you have not installed is shown anywhere in the panel - not in a dropdown, not as a greyed-out option. If you have installed only PostgreSQL, PostgreSQL is simply what “add a database” means on your server.

Installing one

1. Open Settings, and find the Programs section.
2. Press Install next to the database server you want.

That is the whole procedure. WinPanel downloads the pinned release, checks it against the SHA-256 the publisher published, unpacks it, creates and initialises a data directory under its own data folder, generates an administrative password and stores it encrypted, registers a Windows Service, starts it, and adds it to the watchdog that restarts it if its process ever dies behind Windows’ back.

Each server listens on 127.0.0.1 only by default, on its standard port - 3306, 5432 and 27017. Nothing is exposed to the network and no firewall rule is opened, because a hosted database is reached by applications on the same machine.

Removing a database server removes the program and leaves its data exactly where it is. Reinstalling picks the same data back up.

Creating a database

Once at least one server is installed, Databases appears in the sidebar, and a Databases tab appears on every website.

Creating one asks for an engine, a name, a storage allowance, and - optionally - a website to attach it to. A database does not have to belong to a website: plenty of what people self-host is an application, a bot or a mobile backend rather than a site on this server, and all of it still needs somewhere to keep its data. A database made for a website shows up on that website’s tab as well as on the main page. A storage allowance of 0 means unlimited for that individual database. It is separate from the account’s aggregate database quota described below.

You are shown the name, username and password once, when the database is made. The password is then only in WinPanel’s encrypted vault; you can reveal it again, or set a new one, from either page.

Names

The name you type gets a prefix in front of it. Each server has one flat namespace shared by everyone on the machine, so without a prefix the second person to ask for shop would either be refused for no reason they could see or - much worse - handed the first one’s data. So shop becomes something like wp_a1b2c3…_shop, and that full name is what you put in your connection string.

Logins

Each database gets exactly one login, created with it, named the same as the database. You do not create users separately, and there is no step where a database exists but nothing can reach it.

That login can reach exactly that database and nothing else:

• MariaDB: a user granted privileges on that schema alone, and only from 127.0.0.1.
• PostgreSQL: a role that owns the database, with CONNECT revoked from PUBLIC. This matters more than it sounds - PostgreSQL grants every role access to every database by default, so the default is not safe on a shared server and WinPanel changes it.
• MongoDB: a dbOwner created inside the database itself, so its credentials are meaningless anywhere else. Access control is on from the very first start, which is what keeps WinPanel’s MongoDB out of the category the internet is famous for finding open.

Connecting

Creating a database shows you a connection string with the password already in it, along with the host, port, database name and username separately - and, for MongoDB, the auth source. The host is this server’s first reachable IPv4 address, so the same string can be used from a developer’s computer and by an application deployed back here. That is the one moment the password is on screen, so copy it then.

mysql://<name>:<password>@<server-ip>:3306/<name>
postgresql://<name>:<password>@<server-ip>:5432/<name>
mongodb://<name>:<password>@<server-ip>:27017/<name>?authSource=<name>

Afterwards, Connect on any database reopens the same block with PASSWORD left as a placeholder, and Show password fills the real one back in. The password is never lost - it is in WinPanel’s encrypted vault - and New password replaces it if it ever escapes.

MongoDB’s authSource is not optional. Its login lives inside its own database rather than in admin, and a driver that is not told so looks in admin, finds nothing, and reports the password as wrong.

Because the servers are bound to loopback by default, the database is still local-only until you enable remote access. A website WinPanel hosts can use 127.0.0.1 while it remains local; once remote access is enabled, the displayed server-address URI works both from your own computer and from an application running here. See Remote connections.

Looking inside

Each database has an Open button, and you do not need pgAdmin, MySQL Workbench or MongoDB Compass to see what is in it.

• MariaDB and PostgreSQL open in Adminer, already signed in - tables, rows, editing, and a SQL console. Adminer never sits on a public domain: WinPanel runs it on a private, loopback-only PHP server and proxies it behind the panel’s own sign-in. The password never reaches your browser either - opening it mints a one-shot ticket that a small plugin swaps for the real credentials on the server side. Install Database browser (Adminer) from Settings to get this.
• MongoDB opens a browser and editor built into the panel: collections, document counts, paging, JSON filters and the documents themselves. Insert, update, replace and delete documents without leaving WinPanel. MongoDB has no Adminer driver that works on Windows - the one it has needs a PECL extension PHP does not ship - so WinPanel reads and writes it directly through the database’s own login.

Desktop tools still work if you prefer them. Paste the connection string into Compass, pgAdmin, DBeaver or psql and they will connect from the server itself.

Remote connections

Each database decides for itself, and the decision belongs to whoever owns it rather than to whoever owns the server - the person who needs to connect is the customer or the developer they hired, and an administrator has no way of knowing what address that is.

Press Remote access next to a database on the Databases page and choose one of:

• This server only - the default. Nothing off this machine can reach it.
• Any IP - anyone who can reach the server may try to sign in. Only the password stands in the way.
• Chosen addresses - only the IP addresses or CIDR ranges you list, plus this server’s first reachable IPv4 address, which WinPanel always includes for applications running here.

Add my IP fills in the address your browser reached the panel from, so you do not have to look it up. It is not offered when you are signed in on the server itself, because loopback would let nothing new in.

Databases on one engine share a port, so the first database to want remote access opens it for that engine. That does not put anybody else’s data within reach: the login is restricted to the same addresses the owner chose, and a database that asked for nothing stays reachable only from this machine.

Engine	What holds the line
MariaDB	The account exists only for the listed addresses - user@203.0.113.42, or a netmask for a range. There is no user@% unless the owner asked for Any IP.
PostgreSQL	A pg_hba.conf line naming that one database, that one role and that one source. Never host all all.
MongoDB	An authentication restriction on the login itself, so it answers only to the listed addresses.

The listeners are IPv4, so an IPv6 entry is allowed through the firewall but still will not connect. A cloud-provider firewall, router port-forward or NAT rule may also be needed - those are outside the panel’s control. Use the server’s reachable public address as the connection host; never 0.0.0.0, which is a listener address and not a destination.

Once a database is reachable remotely, the connection details shown in the panel use the server’s first non-loopback address as a convenience. Replace it with the public address or DNS name when the server is behind NAT.

Moving a database to a website

A database does not have to be tied to a website, and the one it is tied to can be changed at any time from the Used by column on the Databases page. Nothing moves and nothing is rewritten - the database keeps its name, its login and its contents, and only the website it is listed under changes.

Handing a website to another account takes its databases with it, so the new owner can see the password their own site is using and the previous owner can no longer reach it.

Allowances

Databases are something you sell, so they are something you can limit.

• Per account - on the People page, each customer has a Databases number. It counts every database they hold, across every engine, whether or not it belongs to one of their websites. New customers start at 0, which keeps the whole feature out of their panel until you decide otherwise.
• Per website - a website can additionally be capped, so a customer with an allowance of ten cannot spend all ten on one site.
• Storage per account - Database storage on the People page is the total that may be allocated across the customer’s databases. No limit means unlimited; 0 means no database storage may be allocated.
• Storage per database - each database receives part of that account total when it is created, and its allowance can be changed later from the main Databases page. The panel refuses an unlimited database inside a finite account quota, or any allocation that would take the account total over its quota. 0 means unlimited for an individual database when the account itself is unlimited. Current engine-reported usage appears beside the allowance.

Choose No limit for an unlimited account quota. Administrators and the owner are never limited.

The storage figure is an allocation enforced by the panel when databases are created, resized or transferred. MariaDB, PostgreSQL and MongoDB do not share a native hard-quota mechanism, so it is not a write-time disk boundary; usage above an allocation is reported and the allowance cannot be reduced below current usage.

WordPress

Nothing changes. A WordPress site still creates its own MariaDB database during setup and writes wp-config.php for it. Under a finite account storage quota, that database receives the unallocated remainder. It appears alongside every other one, and changing its password from the panel rewrites wp-config.php in the same breath - so the site does not go offline waiting for somebody to edit a file.

If something goes wrong

• “Installed but did not finish setting up” - the program is on disk but WinPanel does not hold an administrative password for it, so it cannot manage anything. Reinstall it from Settings; existing data is left alone.
• A database vanishes from the list - WinPanel checks the server before listing, and drops its record for a database that is no longer there. A database server that is down is never mistaken for one whose databases are gone; nothing is removed in that case.
• The server keeps stopping - check Server health. WinPanel watches each database service, and can tell “somebody stopped this” from “an orphaned process is holding the port so it can never start”, which is the failure that otherwise looks like nothing at all.