# Operations Guide

This guide contains detailed information about how to install and configure Metabase for production use. 

If you'd prefer we take care of the details of running your Metabase instance for you, check out our hosted offering, [Metabase Cloud](https://www.metabase.com/start/hosted/index.html).

**Covered in this guide:**

*  [How to install Metabase](installing-metabase.md)
*  [How to upgrade Metabase](upgrading-metabase.md)
*  [Configuring settings using environment variables](environment-variables.md)
*  [Configuring the application database](configuring-application-database.md)
*  [Connecting Metabase to databases in your organization](../administration-guide/01-managing-databases.md)
*  [Migrating from using the H2 database to MySQL or Postgres](migrating-from-h2.md)
*  [Running database migrations manually](running-migrations-manually.md)
*  [Backing up Metabase Application Data](backing-up-metabase-application-data.md)
*  [Encrypting your database connection details at rest](encrypting-database-details-at-rest.md)
*  [Customizing the Metabase Jetty Webserver](customizing-jetty-webserver.md)
*  [Changing password complexity](changing-password-complexity.md)
*  [Changing session expiration](changing-session-expiration.md)
*  [Handling Timezones](handling-timezones.md)
*  [Configuring Logging](log-configuration.md)
*  [How to setup monitoring via JMX](jmx-monitoring.md)
*  [A word on Java versions](java-versions.md)

For scaling best practices, check out [Metabase at Scale](https://www.metabase.com/blog/scaling-metabase/index.html).