Databases are often set up with specialized software to access them. Store employees, for example, need to be able to check inventory without worrying about the inner workings of the inventory database. But sometimes it is beneficial to have an easily deployable, comprehensive view of a database. This is especially true when performing setup or maintenance.

phpMyAdmin is the perfect tool for such cases. If a LAMP stack is already in place, installation is simple: drop phpMyAdmin's files into the web file hierarchy. The phpMyAdmin interface allows the administrator to easily drop databases, truncate tables, tweak table structure, change auto-increment values, etc.