If you need to run a MySQL server on a remote VPS instance, how will you manage databases hosted by the server remotely? Perhaps web-based database administration tools such as phpMyAdmin??or??Adminer??will first come to mind. These web-based management tools require a backend web server and PHP engine up and running. However, if your VPS instance is used as a standalone database server (e.g., for a multi-tier app), provisioning a whole LAMP stack for occasional database management is a waste of VPS resource.