resolving deadlocks, other locks: log on via mysql, show processlist and kill the few long standing queries. It's an ugly solution and should not be used freely, yet a lot better than database restart.
Exactly, but my partner wasn't the most patient person and in all fairness it was typical to 3,000 or more connections active to the database. With that many queries outstanding and the dead locks it was always a bit hairy trying to find them.. Meanwhile every teenager on the planet was hitting their refresh button trying to figure out why the site was down.. :-)
