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Installing MySQL 3.23 - (Solaris)

by Jeff Hunter, Sr. Database Administrator

Overview

The following article provides the steps necessary to successfully install the binary version of MySQL, release 3.23, on Solaris 2.8 and higher. These procedures should work as well on versions of Solaris as early as version 2.6.

I typically install MySQL in /usr/local/mysql as the UNIX root account. I then create a UNIX mysql account that will have access to manage databases.

Once you've installed MySQL, you will need to initialize the grant tables, start the server, and make sure that the server works okay. You may also elect to arrange for the server to be started and stopped automatically when your system starts up and shuts down.

Installing the grant tables is accomplished by running the mysql_install_db script. This creates the mysql database which will hold all database privileges, the test database which you can use to test MySQL, and also privilege entries for the user that run mysql_install_db and a root user (without any passwords).

Create MySQL User Account:

  % groupadd -g 116 mysql
  % useradd -u 174 -c "MySQL Software Owner" \
      -d /u01/app/mysql -g "mysql" -m -s /bin/bash mysql
  % passwd mysql

Create MySQL UserID:

  % mkdir /u01
  % mkdir /u01/app
  % mkdir /u01/app/mysql
  % chown -R mysql:mysql /u01/app/mysql
   

Uncompress / Installing Binary Version of MySQL

NOTE: Because of a bug in Solaris tar, Solaris users should use gnu tar to unpack archives.

  % su -
  % cp mysql-3.23.54-sun-solaris2.8-sparc.tar /usr/local
  % cd /usr/local
  % gunzip mysql-3.23.54-sun-solaris2.8-sparc.tar.gz
  % gtar xvf mysql-3.23.54-sun-solaris2.8-sparc.tar
  % ln -s mysql-3.23.54-sun-solaris2.8-sparc mysql
  % cd mysql
  % scripts/mysql_install_db
  % chown -R root .
  % chown -R mysql data
  % chgrp -R mysql .

Starting and Stopping the MySQL Database Software

Starting the MySQL Database

  % bin/safe_mysqld --user=mysql &

Stopping the MySQL Database

  % bin/mysqladmin -u root shutdown

NOTE:

The safe_mysqld startup script of MySQL 3.23.54 includes a small bug that leads to a "syntax error" message on startup. Here is a quick hint on how to fix it: Open bin/safe_mysqld with a text editor. Go to line 162 and look for the following text: if $NOHUP_NICENESS -gt 0 then $NOHUP_NICENESS="nice --$NOHUP_NICENESS nohup" Change it to look like this: if test $NOHUP_NICENESS -gt 0 then NOHUP_NICENESS="nice --$NOHUP_NICENESS nohup" (Make sure to add "test" to the if-statement and remove the dollar sign from the $NOHUP_NICENESS= line) This error will be fixed for MySQL 3.23.54a, which will be released shortly.

Testing the Installation

Ensure that the MySQL Software, the mysqld server, is running and you have set up the initial MySQL grant tables containing the privileges that determine how users are allowed to connect to the server. This is normally done with the mysql_install_db script.

• Using mysqladmin

    % mysqladmin ping
    mysqld is alive

    % mysqladmin version
    mysqladmin  Ver 8.23 Distrib 3.23.54, for pc-linux on i686
    Copyright (C) 2000 MySQL AB & MySQL Finland AB & TCX DataKonsult AB
    This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software,
    and you are welcome to modify and redistribute it under the GPL license
  
    Server version          3.23.54
    Protocol version        10
    Connection              Localhost via UNIX socket
    UNIX socket             /tmp/mysql.sock
    Uptime:                 59 min 45 sec
  
    Threads: 1  Questions: 2  Slow queries: 0 
    Opens: 6  Flush tables: 1  Open tables: 0
    Queries per second avg: 0.001

• Ensure you can shutdown and startup the server

  Starting the MySQL Database

    % bin/safe_mysqld --user=mysql &

  Stopping the MySQL Database

    % bin/mysqladmin -u root shutdown

• Try several simple tests

    % mysqlshow
    +-----------+
    | Databases |
    +-----------+
    | mysql     |
    | test      |
    +-----------+

    % mysqlshow -u root mysql
    Database: mysql
    +--------------+
    |    Tables    |
    +--------------+
    | columns_priv |
    | db           |
    | func         |
    | host         |
    | tables_priv  |
    | user         |
    +--------------+

    % mysql -u root -e "select host, db, user from db" mysql
    +------+---------+------+
    | host | db      | user |
    +------+---------+------+
    | %    | test    |      |
    | %    | test\_% |      |
    +------+---------+------+

   % mysql -u root mysql
    Reading table information for completion of table and column names
    You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A
  
    Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
    Your MySQL connection id is 15 to server version: 3.23.54
  
    Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.
  
    mysql> select host, db, user from db;
    +------+---------+------+
    | host | db      | user |
    +------+---------+------+
    | %    | test    |      |
    | %    | test\_% |      |
    +------+---------+------+
    2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Example:

.bash_profile $HOME/.bash_profile for the "mysql" user account.     gtar Because of a bug in Solaris tar, Solaris users should use gnu tar to unpack archives. Right-click the above link and choose "Save Target As..." to download