---
title: "Start, stop, and restart a DBaaS instance"
description: "Start, stop, and restart a MySQL, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL DBaaS instance, and what each action does to billing and connections."
content_type: "how-to"
product: "database"
platform: "MyAccount"
url: "/myaccount/database/how-to/start-stop-and-restart-a-database/"
topic: ["lifecycle"]
---

# Start, stop, and restart a DBaaS instance

Stop a DBaaS instance to take it offline, and start it to bring it back online. Restart it to reset
its connections or while troubleshooting.

## Before you begin

To stop or restart a DBaaS instance, it must read **Running**; to start it, **Stopped**.

## Stop a DBaaS instance

A stopped DBaaS instance is offline and is still billed until you delete it. Stop, start, and
restart act on the primary; its Read Replicas keep running and are billed as usual.

1. On the DBaaS list, open the DBaaS instance's **Actions** menu and click **Stop**. On its details
   page, the stop button at the top does the same.
2. In **Stop DBaaS**, click **Stop**.

The status moves to **Stopping**, then **Stopped**; see
[DBaaS states](/myaccount/database/concepts/database-states/) for what each state means.

## Start a DBaaS instance

1. On the DBaaS list, open the DBaaS instance's **Actions** menu and click **Start**. On its details
   page, the start button at the top does the same.
2. In **Start DBaaS**, click **Start**.

The status moves to **Resuming**, then **Running**. The DBaaS instance comes back with the same IP
addresses, username, password, and data.

## Restart a DBaaS instance

The DBaaS instance is offline for a few minutes while it restarts. Take a snapshot first so that you
have a copy to recover from; see
[Back up and restore a DBaaS instance with snapshots](/myaccount/database/how-to/create-and-restore-a-snapshot/).

1. From the DBaaS instance's **More Actions** menu, click **Restart**.
2. In **Restart DBaaS**, click **Restart**.

The status shows **Restarting** until the DBaaS instance is **Running** again.

Stopping is also the first step for a bigger disk or a higher plan. See
[Expand a DBaaS instance's disk space](/myaccount/database/how-to/expand-database-disk-space/) and
[Upgrade a DBaaS instance's plan](/myaccount/database/how-to/upgrade-a-database-plan-or-version/).
To stop the charge, delete the DBaaS instance instead; see
[Delete a DBaaS instance](/myaccount/database/how-to/delete-a-database/).