Techniques are described for closing one or more connections with a database management system (DBMS) as part of a planned operation such as maintenance and load balancing. In an embodiment, a request is received for a planned operation of a database server of a DBMS that requires releasing and migrating database sessions. Over a database connection with the database server, the DBMS or a Client-Driver on the client system that interfaces with the DBMS, may receive request(s) from the client system. Based on the request(s), a safe point, for the database connection with the database server, at which the database connection of the client system with the database server can be closed without affecting the success of execution of next one or more command that the client system intended to request the DBMS to execute on the database server, is determined. In an embodiment, in response to the request(s), the DBMS and/or Client-Driver, while the connection is valid, provide to the client system an invalid status for a connection test request. Such a response may cause the client system to use a different database connection to connect with the DBMS. After returning the response to the client system, the DBMS and/or Client-Driver causes the database session with the DBMS to close. In an embodiment, for database sessions to be released, the DBMS identifies a safe point in a database session by a detected request boundary or where the session states are determined to be recoverable or the failover is determined to be expected to succeed. At such a safe point, all database session states are known, and failing the session over to another database instance offering the requested service can be performed safely and transparent to applications.