OK, Matt,

Time to step back and understand the nature of what you are trying to set up. Also time to help you to understand how MySQL allows you to configure their products.

You are trying to set up a database server. This means there are two components to make this work. Part one is a program running somewhere that takes requests and responds with answers. To do this is manages several files containing data in several places on one or more drives. This part is the server. Part two is the client. The client makes requests to the server and handles the responses. There are several types of clients available to work with MySQL servers. Most of them are designed for human interaction. I assume you are using one to test your setup (though you haven't said which one you are using)

============= PART ONE -- setting up the server. You may or may not have accomplished any or all of these steps in your previous attempts (we don't know because you left that information out of your initial posts).

A) FIND THE DOCUMENTATION - How about I just give you this one for free: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/installing.html B) READ THE DOCUMENTATION - this is an important step overlooked by many new administrators. You should try an entire mental "dry run" installation by reading through the documentation so that you are at least partially familiar with the process. C) Locate a copy of the server suitable for your operating system -- there are pre-compiled binaries (another term for ready-to-use versions) of the server available for the most popular platforms. D) Install using a method appropriate for your OS. For windows, you have 3 choices: 1) an unautomated ZIP file (my recommendation), 2) a self-extracting exe, and 3) an MSI file. Many new users pick the MSI because they think it will be less hassle. For the over 80% where it works correctly, this does indeed turn out to be a very hands-off method of installing the server. I encourage everyone to use the unautomated ZIP. It's not that hard to follow along and you get a better understanding of what you are doing and what may be wrong later. E) configure your installation - edit the config file (on windows it is called "my.ini") so that when the server is started it knows several very important bits of information: where you put the data files, what port it needs to listen to for incoming requests, and anything else about any option you want to either turn on, turn off, or modify. Details are in the reading. Most installation packages come with various examples of config files, each example roughly tuned to different sizes of installations. Make sure you put this file where the server program can find it (again details are in the reading and vary by platform)

PART TWO - testing the installation (I think this is where you think you are)

a) complete part one - this is critical to the success of part two

b) make sure that the server installed in part one is actually running. On windows systems you can either start the server every time you want to use it or it can be managed for you as a "service". Services are unautomated programs that perform a variety of functions. Services are started as the machine boots and are shutdown as it turns off. Services can also be manually controlled and configured if the need arises. In a general sense of the terms a windows service is equivalent to a unix (linux, etc) daemon. Frequently you will see servers (database servers, web servers, ftp servers, remote access servers, etc) just called daemons as it applies to any computing platform.

Refer to the manual for various ways of testing troubleshooting an installation: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/post-installation.html http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/windows-testing.html http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/windows-troubleshooting.htm

c) start your client in such a way that it knows where the server is (which socket or address/port combination) , which mysql you want to use to make this connection (not which OS user, which database user), and the password needed to authenticate the account you are using. A typical command would be (assuming you were already in the folder where mysql.exe resides) :

mysql -u root

d) send various commands to the server to test that it is responding with reasonable information - what you can do varies by your level of experience.

===================

You have left out a LOT of details of what you have and haven't done. Without more history to your problem, it's very difficult to diagnose its cause. Should I come to you some day (in your role as systems engineer) and say "My computer is beeping at me. Help me make it stop" ? You would need to know what I was doing when the beeping started and what I have tried to do to make it stop correct? Same with us. The more information you can give us the easier it will be to get you operational.

Shawn Green Database Administrator Unimin Corporation - Spruce Pine

Matt Carolan <mpca...@us.ibm.com> wrote on 03/16/2006 11:31:04 AM:

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