MySQL
MySQL is a free database management system. It is characterized by high speed, stability, and ease of use. It is the ideal solution for small and medium-sized companies.
Configuring MySQL
Installation and configuration of the MySQL server should be carried out by the administrator themselves.
All the operations described in this article to set up MySQL were carried out with the help of free web application phpMyAdmin.
Official phpMyAdmin website: http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/index.php
Detailed instructions on how to install and configure this application can be found on the website.
To start phpMyAdmin , open your browser and enter the following address in the address bar:
http://computer_name/Tools/phpMyAdmin/
where,
computer_name –is the name of the computer on which phpMyAdmin is installed.
In the browser window, the main page will load, shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1.First of all, you need to create a database. For this, you must choose a name for the database and enter it on the main page, select a method for the lines to be sorted and click Create.
The database creation form is shown in Figure 2.
Activity - name of database being created
utf8_unicode_ci - method for sorting lines
It is recommended that you choose a simple and intuitive name for the database, for example, Activity.
Figure 2.On selecting Create a message will appear, notifying you that the database was created successfully.
Figure 3.The next step is to create a database user and assign them the privilege to manage the database.
To go to the edit users and privileges pages, you will need to return to the main page and select Privileges.
Figure 4.On the page that opens, a list of existing users will appear (Figure 5). The properties of any of these users can be edited as you like, but we recommend you create a new user to manage the database you have just created.
Creating a new user may increase the security of the database significantly, and also make accessing it simpler.
On the page that is open, select the Add a new user link.
Figure 5.On the form that follows, you must choose and enter a username, the IP address of the computer from which you will be connecting, and a password.
Figure 6.The following should be taken into account:
- Data Center and the MySQL server may be installed on different computers.
- In the Host field you must specify the IP address of the computer on which Data Center is installed. It is from this computer that connections to the MySQL server will be initialized.
- If the connection to the database will be made from a local computer, you may enter “localhost” in the Host field.
- If you need to allow access to the database to all users from a given computer, simply specify Any user as the Username value and give the IP address of the computer in the Host field.
- The user password may be left blank, but we strongly recommend for security reasons NOT to use a blank password.
Besides completing the fields mentioned above, on this page you must select the privileges to be assigned to the user you are creating. We recommend you select all privileges by clicking Check All.
Once you have completed the form, click GO.
A message will appear, notifying you that the SQL request to create a user was completed successfully.
Figure 7.Data Center Configuration
Once the new database is created, Data Center should be set up in order to work with it. For this, you must open the program’s management console, go to the Configuration page shown in Figure 8, and select Data Storage Settings.
Figure 8.In the window that opens, you will need to select a database type (in our case, MySQL).
Figure 9.On the second tab, you must specify the parameters for connecting to the database (Figure 10).
Figure 10.Here:
192.168.0.166 – IP address of MySQL server
3306 – port through which the connection will be made (3306 used by default)
User1 – name of the user created earlier with the help of phpMyAdmin
Password – password of the user created earlier with the help of phpMyAdmin
Activity – name of the database created earlier, to which the connection will be made
To test that the parameters are correct, click Test Connection.
Once you click Test Connection, the program will attempt to connect to the database, and if the connection settings have been specified correctly, the message shown in Figure 11 will appear.
Figure 11.Next, click OK.
A message will appear notifying you that Data Center must be restarted for the new parameters to be applied (Figure 12).
Figure 12.Click Yes, and Data Center will restart automatically. Once Data Center is restarted, all changes will take effect and the program will begin using the new database to store information.
To test the efficiency of the new database, simply print any document so that it prints to the database (on a virtual printer, or from a computer with an agent working in Client Side Monitoring mode installed). If the actions described above have been carried out correctly, the program will allow you to format a report displaying information about the printed text document.
The status of the database can be viewed on the “Statistics” tab of the data storage management dialog (Figure 13).
Figure 13.Conclusion:
MySQL is the optimal solution for the majority of companies for a whole list of reasons:
- it is free of charge.
- the server is very simple to set up.
- setting up the program to store information in the MySQL DBMS may significantly speed up the process of writing and accessing data, and also increase reliability.
