Set Up a MySQL Database

This section describes how to set up a training database using MySQL. The database can be on a Windows or Linux machine and can be on a different machine to your Media Server.

To set up a MySQL database

  1. Download and install a MySQL server. Ensure that the package includes the mysql command-line tool. During installation, set up a user account with superuser privileges. The MySQL server is typically installed to run as a service. For detailed instructions, refer to the MySQL documentation.

  2. Configure the database server for use with Media Server:

    1. Open the configuration file for the MySQL server in a text editor. This file is usually my.ini on Windows, or /etc/my.cnf on Linux.
    2. So that Media Server can send large amounts of binary data (such as images) to the database, set the configuration parameter max_allowed_packet=1073741824.
    3. Save and close the configuration file.
  3. (Windows only) Add the MySQL bin directory to your PATH environment variable. This step enables you to use the command mysql to start the mysql command-line tool from the Windows Command Prompt. If you do not add the directory to the PATH environment variable, you must specify the full path of the tool. This step is usually not required on Linux because the tool is installed to a directory such as /usr/bin, which is already in the PATH.

  4. Create a new database to store Media Server training data.

    1. Open a command-prompt or terminal and start the mysql command line tool:

      mysql -u user -p

      where user is your MySQL user name.

    2. Enter your password when prompted.
    3. Run a CREATE DATABASE command to create a new database. Specify the following database settings.

      Database name Any name.
      Character set Must be Unicode–either UTF8 or UCS2.
      Collation Any that is compatible with the encoding.

      For example:

      CREATE DATABASE MediaTraining CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;
    4. Close the mysql command-line tool:

      quit
  5. Set up the database schema that Media Server requires. To do this, run the my.sql script provided in the sql folder of the Media Server installation directory.

    1. Change directory to the sql folder of the Media Server installation directory (for example, C:\MediaServer\sql on Windows or /opt/MediaServer/sql on Linux). This is important because the my.sql script refers to other files in the same directory.
    2. Run the my.sql script. Running the script non-interactively from the terminal ensures that the script terminates if an error occurs. For example:

      mysql -u user -p -v -D MediaTraining < my.sql

      where user is your MySQL user name, and MediaTraining is the name of the database you created.

  6. Create a user for Media Server to use and grant the following privileges to that user:

    Grant... On...
    Create Temporary Tables Database
    Select, Insert, Update, Delete All tables
    Execute All functions and stored procedures
    1. Start the mysql command-line tool:

      mysql -u user -p
    2. Create a new user:

      CREATE USER 'MediaServer' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

      where MediaServer is the name of the new user, and password is the password for the new user.

    3. Grant the necessary privileges to the new user:

      GRANT CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES ON MediaTraining.* TO 'MediaServer';
      GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON MediaTraining.* TO 'MediaServer';
      GRANT EXECUTE ON MediaTraining.* TO 'MediaServer';

      where MediaTraining is the name of the database you created and MediaServer is the name of the user you created for Media Server.

    4. Close the mysql command-line tool:

      quit
  7. You can now set up a data source name (DSN) so that Media Server can connect to the database. If you are running Media Server on Windows, see Create a MySQL DSN on Windows. If you are running Media Server on Linux, see Create a MySQL DSN on Linux.