Mastering MySQL For The Web by Sufyan Bin Uzayr

Mastering MySQL
for the Web

Mastering Computer Science
Series Editor: Sufyan bin Uzayr
Mastering MySQL for Web: A Beginner’s Guide

Mathew Rooney and Madina Karybzhanova
Mastering Python for Web: A Beginner’s Guide

Mastering Android Studio: A Beginner’s Guide

Divya Sachdeva and Reza Nafim
Mastering Swift: A Beginner’s Guide

Mastering C++: A Beginner’s Guide

Divya Sachdeva and Natalya Ustukpayeva
Mastering Git: A Beginner’s Guide

Sumanna Kaul, Shahryar Raz, and Divya Sachdeva
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The “Mastering Computer Science” series of books are

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Sufyan bin Uzayr.
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Mastering MySQL
for the Web
A Beginner’s Guide
Edited by Sufyan bin Uzayr
First edition published 2022
by CRC Press
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and by CRC Press
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CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
© 2022 Sufyan bin Uzayr
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ISBN: 9781032135137 (hbk)

ISBN: 9781032135120 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003229629 (ebk)
DOI: 10.1201/9781003229629
Typeset in Minion
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
Contents
About the Editor, xi
Chapter 1 ◾ Introduction to MySQL 1

DATABASE BASICS 7
MySQL DATABASE 8
WHAT IS MySQL AND ITS FEATURES 10
MySQL MAJOR FEATURES 13
SCALABILITY AND LIMITS 17
DISADVANTAGES 31
Chapter 2 ◾ Getting Started with MySQL 41

INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING 45
Installing MySQL on Unix/Linux 45
Installing MySQL on FreeBSD 49
Installing MySQL on Microsoft Windows 50
Additional Installation Information 51
MySQL and Virus Checking Software 53
v
vi ◾ Contents
Installing MySQL on macOS 62

Installing MySQL on macOS Using Native
Packages 64
CREATING AND MANAGING
CONNECTIONS 67
Standard TCP/IP Connection Method 71
Configuring Server Management Wizard 76
SSH Configuration 77
Windows Management 77
Review Settings 78
MySQL Config File 78
Specify Commands 79
Complete Setup 79
The Password Storage Vault 79
Updating Old Authentication Protocol
Passwords 80
Using MySQL Workbench to Upgrade Your
Password 81
ACCESSING THE MySQL VIA THE
COMMAND 82
Command Options for Connection
Establishment 83
Command Options for Encrypted
Connections 86
Command Options for Connection
Compression 94
Contents ◾ vii
Chapter 3 ◾ Data Modeling 97

CREATING AND MANAGING TABLES AND
RELATIONS 101
Primary Keys 107
Foreign Keys 108
The Relationship Editor 113
Foreign Key Tab 113
The ON DELETE Clause 117
STORING ROUTINES 118
Adding Routines to the Physical Schemata 121
The Routine Tab 123
The Privileges Tab 123
Adding Routine Groups to the Physical
Schemata 124
Adding Routine Groups to an EER Diagram 125
Modifying a Routine Group Using the
Properties Palette 126
The Routine Groups Tab 127
Stored Routine Syntax 128
Stored Routines and MySQL Privileges 129
Stored Routine Metadata 131
Stored Procedures, Functions, Triggers,
and LAST_INSERT_ID 132
REVERSE ENGINEERING A DATABASE 132
Creating a DDL Script 134
viii ◾ Contents
Chapter 4 ◾ SQL Development 139

MANAGING SQL SCRIPTS 142
Advanced Scripting Options 144
MySQL.server—MySQL Server Startup
Script 155
mysqld_multi—Manage Multiple MySQL
Servers 159
mysql_upgrade—Check and Upgrade
MySQL Tables 164
RUNNING A SQL FILE 178
EDITING DATA 180
Columns Tab 181
Indexes Tab 184
Foreign Keys Tab 185
Triggers Tab 186
Partitioning Tab 186
Chapter 5 ◾ Server Administration 189

INSTANCES 199
Creating a New Data Directory 204
Copying an Existing Data Directory 205
Starting Multiple MySQL Instances at the
Windows Command Line 205
Starting Multiple MySQL Instances as
Windows Services 208
Running Multiple MySQL Instances on Unix 211
Contents ◾ ix
CREATING AND MANAGING USERS AND

ROLES 214
Creating Roles and Granting Privileges
to Them 217
Defining Mandatory Roles 220
Checking Role Privileges 222
Activating Roles 222
Revoking Roles or Role Privileges 224
User and Role Interchangeability 226
IMPORTING AND EXPORTING DATABASE 228
Exporting a MySQL or MariaDB Database 229
Importing a MySQL or MariaDB Database 230
Chapter 6 ◾ Backing Up and Restoring

MySQL Data 233
CREATING A BACKUP FILE 234
Physical and Logical Backups 234
Online and Offline Backups 237
Local and Remote Backups 238
Snapshot Backups 239
Full and Incremental Backups 239
Full and Point-in-Time (Incremental)
Recovery 239
Making a Hot Backup with MySQL
Enterprise Backup 240
Making Backups with mysqldump 241
x ◾ Contents
Making Backups by Copying Table Files 241

Making Delimited-Text File Backups 242
Making Incremental Backups by Enabling
the Binary Log 242
Making Backups Using Replicas 243
Making Backups Using a File System
Snapshot 243
Establishing a Backup Habit 244
RESTORING FROM A BACKUP FILE 255
Reloading Delimited-Text Format Backups 257
Point-in-Time Recovery Using Binary Log 259
DUMPING DATA IN CSV FORMAT 264
TRANSFERRING DATA FROM ONE MySQL
SERVER TO ANOTHER 270
APPRAISAL, 275
INDEX, 285
About the Editor
Sufyan bin Uzayr is a writer, coder, and entrepreneur with

more than a decade of experience in the industry. He has
authored several books in the past, pertaining to a diverse
range of topics, ranging from History to Computers/IT.
Sufyan is the Director of Parakozm, a multinational IT
company specializing in EdTech solutions. He also runs
Zeba Academy, an online learning and teaching vertical
with a focus on STEM fields.
Sufyan specializes in a wide variety of technologies,
such as JavaScript, Dart, WordPress, Drupal, Linux, and
Python. He holds multiple degrees, including ones in
Management, IT, Literature, and Political Science.
Sufyan is a digital nomad, dividing his time between
four countries. He has lived and taught in universities and
educational institutions around the globe. Sufyan takes a
keen interest in technology, politics, literature, history, and
sports, and in his spare time, he enjoys teaching coding
and English to young students.
Learn more at sufyanism.com.
xi
Chapter 1
Introduction
to MySQL
IN THIS CHAPTER
➢ Introducing basics of MySQL database management

systems
➢ Getting an overview of its main features
➢ Reviewing MySQL major benefits as well as limitations
A database is a great invention that acts as a separate appli-

cation to store multiple collections of data. Each database
has one or more distinct application programming inter-
faces for producing, accessing, operating, searching, and
duplication the data it possesses.
These days it is common to use Relational Database
Management Systems (RDBMS) to hold and manage huge
DOI: 10.1201/9781003229629-1 1
2 ◾ Mastering MySqul for Web
volumes of data. An RDBMS is a software that lets you

implement a database with tables, columns, and indexes.
It not only guarantees the Referential Integrity between
the lines of various tables but also has the capacity to
update the indexes automatically. It can also interpret any
Structured Query Language (SQL) and combine informa-
tion from various resources.
To be fair, other kinds of data stores can also be of use,
such as files on the file system or large hash tables in mem-
ory, but data collecting and writing would not be so fast
and simple with that kind of system.
MySQL is one of the open-source RDBMS. It was created

by a Swedish company, MySQL AB, founded by Swedes
David Axmark, Allan Larsson, and Finland Swede Michael
Widenius. Widenius and Axmark began the original devel-
opment of MySQL in 1994. The first version of MySQL was
presented on May 23, 1995. Initially, it was created strictly
for personal usage from mini SQL (mSQL) based on the
Introduction to MySQL ◾ 3
low-level language Indexed Sequential Access Method,

which the creators thought to be too slow and at times
rigid. Since 1994, five major upgraded version releases took
place:1
Latest Minor Latest

Release General Availability Version Release End of Support
5.1 November 14, 5.1.73 12-03-2013 Dec 2013
2008; 12 years ago
5.5 December 3, 2010; 5.5.62 10-22-2018 Dec 2018
10 years ago
5.6 February 5, 2013; 5.6.51 01-20-2021 Feb 2021
8 years ago
5.7 October 21, 2015; 5.7.33 01-18-2021 Oct 2023
5 years ago
8.0 April 19, 2018; 8.0.25 05-11-2021 Apr 2026
3 years ago
If you go back to the very basics, you might wonder—why

“MySQL?” The idea behind the name is pretty simple. It
stands for a combination of “My,” the name of co-founder
Michael Widenius’s daughter, and “SQL,” the abbreviation
for Structured Query Language.
MySQL is a free and open-source software under
the terms of the GNU General Public License and is
also obtainable under a variety of proprietary licenses.
Originally, MySQL was owned and sponsored by MySQL
AB. However, in October 2005, Oracle Corporation has
acquired Innobase OY, the Finnish startup company that
developed the third-party InnoDB storage engine that
1 https://www.javatpoint.com/mysql-versions, Javatpoint
allowed MySQL to present such functionality with trans-

actions and foreign keys. Not long after the acquisition, an
Oracle press release stated that the contracts that make the
company’s software available to MySQL AB would be due
for renewal (meaning extended renegotiation) sometime
around 2006. Then, in April 2006 during the MySQL Users
Conference, MySQL AB issued a press statement that con-
firmed that MySQL AB and Innobase OY agreed to a “mul-
tiyear” extension of their contract agreement.
The same year, Oracle Corporation acquired Sleepycat
Software, makers of the Berkeley DB, a database engine
providing the basis for another MySQL storage item. This
had little impact, as Berkeley DB was not widely popular,
and was dropped (due to lack of installation) in MySQL 5.1
release in October 2006.
Two years after that, in January 2008, Sun Microsystems
bought MySQL AB for $1 billion. In April 2009, Oracle
Corporation entered into an agreement to purchase Sun
Microsystems, together with the MySQL copyright and
trademark. Sun’s board of directors approved the deal in
complete accord. It was also approved by Sun’s share-
holders and by the US government on August 20, 2009.
On December 14, 2009, Oracle stated that it would not
stop to further advance MySQL as it had done for the
previous 4 years.
Such rapid expansion has resulted in a movement against
Oracle’s acquisition of MySQL AB, also known as “Save
MySQL” from Oracle action that was started by one of the
MySQL AB founders, Monty Widenius. Together with his
team of IT experts, they collected a petition of 50,000+
developers and users and called upon the European
Commission to veto the approval of the acquisition. At the

same time, some Free Software opinion leaders (including
the cocounsel of the merger regulation procedure) advo-
cated for the unconditional approval of the merger. As part
of the negotiations with the European Commission, Oracle
has committed that the MySQL server will operate until at
least 2015 and use the dual-licensing strategy long applied
by MySQL AB, with proprietary and General Public
License versions available. The antitrust of the European
Union (EU) had been ready to spare MySQL by refusing the
condition for approval but, as revealed by WikiLeaks, the
US Department of Justice, at the request of Oracle, suppos-
edly pressured the EU to approve the merger uncondition-
ally. The European Commission, therefore, had no other
choice but to unconditionally approve Oracle’s acquisition
of MySQL AB on January 21, 2010.
In January 2010, before Oracle’s acquisition of MySQL
AB, Widenius started a General Public License only startup
project, MariaDB. MariaDB is a brand positioned to be an
alternative to MySQL but is based on the same code base of
MySQL server 5.5, aiming to maintain compatibility with
other Oracle-provided versions.
A relational database like MySQL organizes data into
one or more data tables in which data types are in direct
relation to each other; these relations therefore assist to
structure the data correctly. SQL is a language program-
mers apply to create, edit, and extract data from the
relational database as well as manage user access to the
database. In addition to relational databases and SQL,
an RDBMS like MySQL collaborates with an operating
system to execute a relational database in a computer’s
storage system and administer users, allows for network

access, and ensures testing database integrity and creation
of backups.
In addition to that, MySQL has stand-alone clients that
let users interact directly with a MySQL database using
SQL, but more often, MySQL is activated in coopera-
tion with other programs to implement applications that
require relational database assistance. People also might be
familiar with MySQL as a component of the LAMP web
application software stack, which is an acronym for Linux,
Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python. Similarly, MySQL is
used by many database-driven web applications, includ-
ing Drupal, Joomla, phpBB, and WordPress. MySQL is
also used by many popular websites, including Facebook,
Flickr, MediaWiki, Twitter, and YouTube.
MySQL is written in C and C++, but its SQL parser is
written in Yacc, meaning it also uses a home-brewed lexi-
cal analyzer. Additionally, MySQL works on many sys-
tem platforms, including AIX, BSDi, FreeBSD, HP-UX,
ArcaOS, eComStation, IBM i, IRIX, Linux, macOS,
Microsoft Windows, NetBSD, Novell NetWare, OpenBSD,
OpenSolaris, OS/2 Warp, QNX, Oracle Solaris, Symbian,
SunOS, SCO OpenServer—just to name a few. A port of
MySQL to OpenVMS is also available on an open-source
basis. Support can be obtained from the official manual,
while free support additionally can be accessed through
different Internet Relay Chats or forums. Oracle also offers
paid support via its MySQL Enterprise products, but they
widely differ in the scope of services and in price. On top
of that, a number of third-party organizations exist to pro-
vide support and services.
DATABASE BASICS
Before we proceed to explain the insights of MySQL data-

base system in detail, it is necessary to revise a few key defi-
nitions related to the database structure:2
• Database: A database can be described as a collection

of tables, with related data.
• Table: A table is a matrix with data. A table in a data-
base typically looks like a simple spreadsheet.
2 https://cloudxlab.com/assessment/displayslide/1384/mysql-database-termi-
nology, CloudxLab
• Column: One column (data element) contains data

of one and the same kind, for example, the column
postcode.
• Row: A row (= tuple, entry, or record) is a group of
related data, for example, the data of one subscription.
• Redundancy: Storing data twice, redundantly to
make the system faster.
• Primary Key: A primary key is unique. A key value
cannot occur twice in one table. With a key, you can
only find one row.
• Foreign Key: A foreign key is a linking pin between
two tables.
• Compound Key: A compound key (composite key) is
a key that consists of multiple columns because one
column is not sufficiently unique.
• Index: An index in a database resembles an index at
the back of a book.
• Referential Integrity: Referential Integrity makes sure
that a foreign key value always points to an existing row.
MySQL DATABASE
MySQL is a fast, easy-to-use RDBMS that is utilized by
many small and big businesses. MySQL is so widely popu-
lar because of many different reasons:
• First of all, it is released under an open-source license.

So you do not have to pay anything to use it.
• It is a very powerful program in its own right. It man-

ages a large subset of the functionality of the most
complex and powerful database packages.
• MySQL uses a standard form of the well-known SQL
data language.
• It can work on many operating systems and in inte-
gration with many languages such as PHP, PERL, C,
C++, and JAVA.
• MySQL works very quickly and operates well even
with truly massive data sets.
• It is not only user-friendly to its developer commu-
nity but also very friendly to PHP, the most applied
language for web development.
• It can support large databases that are up to 50 mil-
lion rows or more in a table. Normally, the default file
size limit for a table is 4GB, but you can increase this
(given that your operating system can stretch like
this) to a theoretical limit of 8 million terabytes.
• MySQL is very customizable. The open-source public
license invites programmers from all over the world
to freely modify the MySQL software to fit their own
specific needs and desires.
As already mentioned, SQL is the core of a relational

database which is great for accessing and administering
the database. By using SQL, you can include, update, or
remove rows of data, deliver subsets of information, edit
databases and perform many other actions. The different

subsets of SQL are the following:
• Data Definition Language (DDL): It allows you to

perform various operations on the database such as
CREATE, ALTER, and DELETE objects.
• Data Manipulation Language (DML): It allows you
to access and manipulate data. It helps you to insert,
update, delete, and retrieve data from the database.
• Data Control Language (DCL): It allows you to
control access to the database. Example—Grant or
Revoke access permissions.
• Transaction Control Language (TCL): It allows you
to deal with the transaction of the database. Example—
Commit, Rollback, Savepoint, Set Transaction.
WHAT IS MySQL AND ITS FEATURES

MySQL is an open-source RDBMS that works on many
platforms. It provides multiuser access to support many
storage engines and is backed by Oracle. So, you can buy
a commercial license version from Oracle to get premium
support services. The features of MySQL are as follows:3
• Ease of Management: The software can be eas-

ily downloaded, and it also has a built-in automatic
event scheduler which is very handy when scheduling
your tasks.
3 https://www.edureka.co/blog/what-is-mysql/, Edureka
• Robust Transactional Support: It is compliant with

the Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability
(ACID) property and also allows distributed multi-
version support.
• Comprehensive Application Development: MySQL

has plugin libraries to include the database in any
application. It also supports stored processes, trig-
gers, functions, views, and many more for application
development.
• High Performance: The database can provide fast

load utilities with distinct memory caches and table
index partitioning.
• Low Total Cost of Ownership: Low costs reduce

licensing costs and hardware expenditures.
• Open Source and 24/7 Support: This RDBMS can be

used on any platform and it comes with 24/7 support
for open source and enterprise edition.
• Secure Data Protection: MySQL supports power-

ful mechanisms to secure that only authorized users
have access to the databases.
• High Availability: MySQL can run high-speed mas-

ter/slave replication configurations and it offers clus-
ter servers.
• Scalability and Flexibility: With MySQL you can

easily manage deeply embedded applications and
make up data warehouses holding a massive amount
of information.
Now, that you are more or less familiar with what is

MySQL, you should take a look at the various data types
supported by it:4
• Numeric: This data type includes integers of various

sizes, floating-point of various precisions, and for-
matted numbers.
• Character string: These data types have either a fixed
or a varying number of characters. This data type also
has a variable-length string called CHARACTER
LARGE OBJECT (CLOB) which is used to specify
columns that have large text values.
• Bit string: These data types are of either a fixed length
or varying length of bits. There is also a variable-
length bit string data type called BINARY LARGE
OBJECT (BLOB), which is available to specify col-
umns that have large binary values, such as images.
• Boolean: This data type stand for TRUE or FALSE
values. Since SQL has NULL values, a three-valued
logic is used, which is UNKNOWN.
• Date and Time: The DATE data type has YEAR,
MONTH, and DAY in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
Similarly, the TIME data type has the compo-
nents HOUR, MINUTE, and SECOND in the form
HH:MM:SS. These formats can change based on the
requirement.
4 https://www.edureka.co/blog/what-is-mysql/, Edureka
• Timestamp and Interval: The TIMESTAMP data

type includes a minimum of six positions, for deci-
mal fractions of seconds and an optional WITH
TIME ZONE qualifier in addition to the DATE
and TIME fields. The INTERVAL data type men-
tions a relative value that can be used to increment
or decrement an absolute value of a date, time, or
timestamp.
MySQL MAJOR FEATURES
MySQL is available in two different editions: the open-

source MySQL Community Server and the proprietary
Enterprise Server. MySQL Enterprise Server is character-
ized by a series of proprietary extensions which install as
server plugins, but otherwise have the version number-
ing system, and are built from the same code foundation.
There are certain basic features that are available in MySQL

untouched since the very first version:
• A broad subset of ANSI SQL 99 as well as extensions

• Cross-platform support
• Stored procedures (SPs), using a procedural language
that closely adheres to SQL/PSM
• Triggers
• Cursors
• Updatable views
• Online DDL when using the InnoDB Storage Engine
• Information schema
• Performance Schema that collects and aggregates sta-
tistics about server execution and query performance
for monitoring purposes
• A set of SQL Mode options to control runtime behavior,
including a strict mode to better adhere to SQL standards
• X/Open XA distributed transaction processing (DTP)
support; two-phase commit as part of this, using the
default InnoDB storage engine
• Transactions with savepoints when using the default
InnoDB Storage Engine. The NDB Cluster Storage
Engine also supports transactions
• ACID compliance when using InnoDB and NDB
Cluster Storage Engines
• SSL support
• Query caching
• Sub-SELECTs (i.e., nested SELECTs)
• Built-in replication support
• Asynchronous replication: master–slave from one
master to many slaves or many masters to one slave
• Semi-synchronous replication: master-to-slave repli-
cation where the master waits on replication
• Synchronous replication: Multi-master replication is
provided in MySQL Cluster.
• Virtual Synchronous: Self-managed groups of MySQL
servers with multi-master support can be done using
Galera Cluster or the built-in Group Replication plugin.
• Full-text indexing and searching
• Embedded database library
• Unicode support
• Partitioned tables with the pruning of partitions in
the optimizer
• Shared-nothing clustering through MySQL Cluster
• Multiple storage engines, allowing one to choose the
one that is most effective for each table in the application
• Native storage engines InnoDB, MyISAM, Merge,
Memory (heap), Federated, Archive, CSV, Blackhole,
and NDB Cluster
• Commit grouping, gathering multiple transactions

from multiple connections together to increase the
number of commits per second
• The developers release minor updates of the MySQL
Server approximately every 2 months. The sources can
be obtained from MySQL’s website or from MySQL’s
GitHub repository, both under the GPL license.
MySQL supports various fixed-length and variable-length

string types as well as different Statements and Functions.
You can see full operator and function support in the
SELECT list and WHERE clause of queries. To illustrate:
mysql> SELECT CONCAT(first_name, ' ',

last_name)
-> FROM citizen
-> WHERE income/dependents > 10000 AND
age > 20;
Additionally, database provides full support for the

following:
• Full support for SQL GROUP BY and ORDER BY

clauses. Support for group functions (COUNT(),
AVG(), STD(), SUM(), MAX(), MIN(), and
GROUP_CONCAT())
• Support for LEFT OUTER JOIN and RIGHT OUTER
JOIN with both standard SQL and ODBC syntax
• Support for aliases on tables and columns as required
by standard SQL
• Support for DELETE, INSERT, REPLACE, and

UPDATE to return the number of rows that were
changed (impacted) or to return the number of rows
matched instead by setting a flag when connecting to
the server
• Support for MySQL-specific SHOW statements
that retrieve information about databases, stor-
age engines, tables, and indexes. Support for the
INFORMATION_SCHEMA database implemented
according to standard SQL
• Support for EXPLAIN statement to display how the
optimizer resolves a query
MySQL also supports the independence of function names

from table or column names. Meaning that the only
restriction is that for a function call, no spaces are permit-
ted between the function name and the “(” that goes after
it. Thus, you can refer to tables from different databases in
the same statement.
In terms of security, there is a great privilege and pass-
word system that is very versatile yet secure and that
enables host-based confirmation. As well as that, there is
password security by encryption of all password traffic
once you connect to a server.
SCALABILITY AND LIMITS

MySQL is perfect to support large databases. You can
easily use MySQL Server for databases that contain 50
million records that are up to 200,000 tables and about
5,000,000,000 rows. You can extend your data to support
for up to 64 indexes per table, while each index may consist

of 1–16 columns or parts of columns. An index may use a
prefix of a column for CHAR, VARCHAR, BLOB, or TEXT
column types. Just to compare, the maximum index width
for InnoDB tables is either 767 bytes or 3072 bytes. And the
maximum index width for MyISAM tables is 1000 bytes.
MySQL is known for its great connectivity. Thus, clients
can connect to MySQL Server using several protocols or by
applying TCP/IP sockets on any platform.
On Windows systems, users can connect using named
pipes, so once the server is started with the named_pipe,
the system variable gets activated. Windows servers also
support shared-memory connections if started with the
shared_memory system variable enabled. Users also have
the option of connecting through shared memory by using
the --protocol=memory variable. On Unix systems, you
can get connected just by using Unix domain socket files.
MySQL client programs can be scripted in many lan-
guages. A client library written in C is available for clients
written in C or C++, or for any language that has C bind-
ings. APIs for C, C++, Eiffel, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby,
and Tcl are also available, enabling MySQL clients to be
able to operate in many languages.
The Connector built-in interface provides MySQL
support for client programs that have Open Database
Connectivity connections. For instance, you can use MS
Access to link to your MySQL server while running on
Windows or Unix at the same time. All ODBC 2.5 func-
tions are supported, as are many others. The additional
Connector/J interface provides MySQL support for Java
client programs that use JDBC connections. MySQL
Connector/NET enables developers to easily create .NET

applications that require unlimited, high-performance data
connectivity with MySQL. It also executes the required
ADO.NET interfaces and integrates them into ADO.
NET aware tools. With this, developers can build appli-
cations using their choice of .NET languages as MySQL
Connector/NET is a fully managed ADO.NET driver that
is written in 100% C#.
In terms of localization potential, the server can provide
error messages to clients in a variety of languages. There is
also full support for several different character sets, includ-
ing latin1, german, big5, ujis, several Unicode character sets,
and others. To illustrate, even the Scandinavian characters
“å,” “ä,” and “ö” are allowed in table and column names.
All data inserted is saved in the chosen character set.
Sorting and comparisons are performed according to the
default character set and collaboration. Moreover, it is pos-
sible to modify this characteristic once the MySQL server is
started. MySQL Server also supports many different charac-
ter sets that can be identified at compile-time and runtime.
With it, the server time zone can be changed dynamically,
and individual users can set their own time zone.
As for client-related tools, MySQL includes several cli-
ent and utility systems. These include both command-line
programs such as mysqldump and mysqladmin as well as
graphical programs like MySQL Workbench that we shall
cover within this chapter only.
MySQL Server has built-in support for SQL statements
to review, optimize, and restore tables. These statements
are obtainable from the command line through the mysql-
check client. MySQL also has myisamchk, a very fast
command-line toolset for completing these operations on

MyISAM tables. As an option, MySQL programs can be
called upon with the --help or -? option to obtain online
assistance.
MySQL Workbench introduction has to start with the
simple notion describing it as a visual database design tool
that incorporates SQL development, management, data-
base design, production, and maintenance into a single
integrated development environment for the MySQL data-
base system.
The first-ever version of MySQL Workbench was
launched in September 2005 but was not included in
the MySQL Graphical User Interface Tools Bundle.
Development was rolled again in 2007, and MySQL
Workbench was announced to become the MySQL
Graphical User Interface flagship product. Version num-
bering was started at 5.0 to assert that MySQL Workbench
was created as the successor to DBDesigner4.
• MySQL Workbench 5.0 and 5.1: MySQL Workbench

5.0 and 5.1 are both specialty-based visual database
design tools for MySQL. While MySQL Workbench
5.0 was an MS Windows-only product, cross-plat-
form support was included in MySQL Workbench 5.1
and so on.
• MySQL Workbench 5.2: Starting from MySQL
Workbench 5.2, the application has turned into a
general database user interface application. Apart
from physical database modeling, it has an SQL
Editor, database migration tools, and a database

server administration interface, taking over the old
MySQL User Interface Tools Bundle.
• MySQL Workbench 6.0: In May 2013, the MySQL
Workbench Team announced that they were working
on version 6.0. The first public beta was consequently
released in June 2013, and the first general-availabil-
ity release was made in August 2013.
• MySQL Workbench 6.1: In January 2014, the MySQL
Workbench Team released its first public beta of ver-
sion 6.1. The first open-source availability release was
made in March 2014. New items include improved
Visual Explain layout, a Performance dashboard,
Performance Schema support, additional query
result views, and Microsoft Active Accessibility
support.
• MySQL Workbench 6.2: In August 2014, the MySQL
Workbench Team announced its first public beta
release of version 6.2. The first general-public release
was made in September 2014. New features include
shortcut buttons for customary operations such as
optional results tab; Microsoft Access Migration;
MySQL Fabric Integration; Spatial View Panel to
visualize spatial and geometry data; Geometry Data
Viewer; ResultSet Width; SQL editor tabs are properly
saved; Shared Snippets; a new Run SQL Script dialog;
Model Script Attachments; performance columns can
display sizes in KB, MB, or GB; the migration wizard
can resume operations of data copying if interrupted,

and MySQL connection password is now remem-
bered across all the MySQL Workbench session.
• MySQL Workbench 6.3: In March 2015, the MySQL
Workbench Team announced its first public beta
release of version 6.3. The first general-availability
release was made later in April 2015. New features
include5 a migration open data from the command
line instead of the User Interface, a Secure Sockets
Layer certificate generator, improved SQL auto-com-
pletion, a new table data import and export wizard,
and MySQL Enterprise Firewall support.
• MySQL Workbench 8.0: In April 2018, the MySQL
Workbench Team announced the first public release
of version 8.0.11 as a Release Candidate together with
MySQL Community Server 8.0.11. The first general-
availability release was issued in July 2018 together
with the server following the new policy for the
interoperable version numbers across most MySQL
products. MySQL Workbench now uses ANTLR4
backend parser and has a new auto-completion engine
that runs with object editors (for example, triggers,
views, SPs, and functions) in the visual SQL editor
and models. Moreover, the new version adds sup-
port for new language features in MySQL 8.0, such
as common table expressions and roles. There is also
support for invisible indexes and persisting of global
system variables. The new default authentication
5 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/wb-what-is-new-63.html, MySQL
plugin caching_sha2_password in MySQL 8.0 is now

established by Workbench, so resetting user accounts
to other authentication methods is no longer needed
when linking to the latest servers. Administrative
tabs are upgraded with the latest configuration
options, and the user interface was made more flex-
ible between the tabs.
Prominent features of MySQL Workbench are6

• Database Connection and Instance Management
• Wizard driven action items
• Fully scriptable with Python
• Support for custom plugins
• Windows Accessibility API compliant
• Supports MySQL Enterprise features (Audit Log,
Firewall, and Enterprise Backup)
• SQL Editor
• Schema object browsing, inspection, and search
• SQL syntax highlighter and statement parser
• SQL code completion and context-sensitive help
• Multiple and editable result sets
• Visual EXPLAIN
6 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/wb-what-is-new.html, MySQL
• SQL snippets collections

• Secure Socket Shell (SSH) connection tunneling
• Unicode support
• Data modeling
• ER diagramming
• Drag‘n’Drop visual modeling
• Reverse engineering from SQL Scripts and live
database
• Forward engineering to SQL Scripts and live
database
• Schema synchronization
• Printing of models
• Import from fabFORCE.net DBDesigner4
• Database administration
• Start and stop of database instances
• Instance configuration
• Database account management
• Instance variables browsing
• Logfile browsing
• Data dump export/import
• Performance monitoring
• Performance Schema metrics
• MySQL instance dashboard

• Query statistics
• Database migration
• Any ODBC compliant database
• Native support: Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL,
SQL Anywhere, SQLite, and Sybase ASE
At the same time, MySQL Workbench is the very first MySQL

family of products that offer two different editions—an
open-source and a proprietary edition. The “Community
Edition” is a full-featured product that is not distorted in
any way. Being the foundation for all other editions, it has
benefited from all the other development efforts. The propri-
etary “Standard Edition” extends the Community Edition
with a series of modules and plugins.
However, like any other relational database system,
MySQL database server also has its advantages and
disadvantages. Some of these advantages include the
following:
• Reduced total cost of ownership: MySQL is one of

the most popular open-source database management
systems that let you manage relational database all
by yourself. Since MySQL is open source, you can
use MySQL freely, and if you need to, it is possible
to tailor its source code according to your specific
requirement. Most of the companies opt particularly
for MySQL because this way they do not have to pay
anything for this great product.
• Portability: MySQL is a cross-platform database

server meaning that it can run on different platforms
such as Linux, Solaris, Windows—just to name a few.
Therefore, it is an excellent choice for those projects
that target multiple platform–based web applications.
As a matter of fact, we have already mentioned that
MySQL is a part of the LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL
PHP) server stack which is applied worldwide for web
application development. In addition to the portabil-
ity notion, MySQL supports many platforms with
different languages like C, C++, PHP, PERL, JAVA,
and Python.
• Seamless Connectivity: There are various secure
and smooth connection methods that are available
in order to get access to the MySQL server. The most
generally used tools include named pipes, TCP/IP
sockets, and UNIX Sockets. Additionally, the data-
base provides robust development and round-the-
clock uptime that comes with the assurance of 24/7
uptime and offers a wide range of high-availability
tools, including specialized cluster servers and mas-
ter/slave replication options. To keep these up-to-date,
MySQL maintains a very large developer community
that is committed to examining and releasing regular
repairs and updates for MySQL.
• Data Security: MySQL is globally recognized as the
most secure and reliable database management sys-
tem that is out there in popular web applications
including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Facebook, and
Twitter. The data that MySQL holds is protected via
passwords in encrypted forms that cannot be broken

even by the most complex encryption algorithms.
MySQL compatibility factor is derived from the
fact that it supports SQL as its standardized lan-
guage for querying and updating data as well as for
the administration of a database. At the same time,
there are several SQL dialects (almost as many as
there are database systems). MySQL complies to the
current SQL standard (at the moment SQL:2003),
although with a few restrictions and a large number
of necessary extensions. Through the configuration
setting SQL-mode, you can make the MySQL server
operate for the most part compatibly with various
other database systems. Among these are IBM DB/2
and Oracle.
By and large, the fact that MySQL supports the follow-
ing key tools also counts as one of its main advantages:
• Since version 4.1: MySQL is capable of processing a
query in the form SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE
x IN (SELECT y FROM table2) (Including other
numerous syntax variants for subSELECTs).
• Views: To put it simply, views relate to an SQL query
that is processed as a distinct database object and
makes available a particular view of the database.
MySQL has worked with views since version 5.0.
• SPs: This item is mostly dealing with SQL code
that is stored in the database system. SPs are typi-
cally used to simplify particular steps, such as
inserting and removing a data record. For user
programmers, this comes as an advantage since
they do not have to process the tables directly

anymore but can rely on SPs. Similar to views,
SPs assist in the management of major database
projects. SPs were applied in order to increase effi-
ciency since version 5.0.
• Triggers: Triggers are SQL commands that are
automatically activated by the server in certain
database operations (INSERT, UPDATE, and
DELETE). MySQL has supported triggers in a
limited quantity also since version 5.0.
• Unicode: MySQL has supported all of the con-
ceivable character combinations since version 4.1,
including Latin-1, Latin-2, and Unicode (both
variants UTF8 and UCS2).
• User interface: There are a number of optional
convenient user interfaces to choose from for easy
administering of a MySQL server.
• Full-text search: Full-text search clarifies and
accelerates the search for words and phrases that
are placed within a text field. If you apply MySQL
for storing text (let’s say for an Internet discussion
group), you can use full-text search to complete a
simple and efficient search function.
• Replication: Replication allows the contents of a
database to be duplicated (copied) onto a number
of other devices. In practice, this is activated for
two main reasons: to increase protection against
any potential system failure (so that if one com-
puter goes down, another can be put to facilitate
the failure) and to improve the overall rate of

database queries.
• Transactions: In the frame of a database system,
a transaction stands for the execution of several
database operations as a block. The database sys-
tem makes sure that either all of the operations are
rightfully executed or none of them. This could be
called upon, even if in the middle of a transaction
there is a power failure, the machine crashes, or
some other damage happens. Thus, for instance, it
cannot be possible that a sum of money is with-
drawn from account A but fails to be transferred in
account B because of some type of systemic error.
Transactions also give programmers a chance to inter-
rupt a series of already implemented commands (a sort
of revising). In many cases, this would lead to a serious
simplification of the programming process. In spite of
popular opinion, MySQL has supported transactions
for a long time. It is also important to mention that
MySQL can store tables in a variety of formats. The
default table format is called MyISAM, and this format
does not support transactions, but apart from it, there
are many other additional formats that do support
transactions. The most popular of them is InnoDB,
which will be described in the final chapter of this book.
• Foreign key constraints: These are certain reg-
ulations that make sure that there are no cross-
references in linked tables that lead to nowhere.
Thus, MySQL supports foreign key constraints
for InnoDB tables.
• Geographic information systems (GIS) func-

tions: Since version 4.1, MySQL has supported the
storing and processing of two-dimensional geo-
graphical data making it a well-suited tool for
GIS application.
• Programming languages: There is a variety of
different application programming interfaces and
libraries for the development of MySQL applica-
tions. For beginner programming, you can use,
among others, the languages C, C++, Java, Perl,
PHP, and Python.
• ODBC: As mentioned, MySQL supports the
ODBC interface Connector/ODBC. This allows
MySQL to be addressed by all the usual pro-
gramming languages that run under Microsoft
Windows (such as Delphi, Visual Basic). The
ODBC interface can also be implemented under
Unix, though that is rarely needed. Windows
programmers who have transferred to Microsoft’s
new .NET platform can, if they need to, make
use of the ODBC provider or the .NET interface
Connector/NET.
• Platform independence: It is not only client appli-
cations that can work under a variety of operating
systems but also MySQL server that can be admin-
istered under a number of operating systems. The
most widely used are Apple Macintosh OS X,
Linux, Microsoft Windows, and a number of Unix
variants, such as AIX, BSDI, FreeBSD, HP-UX,
OpenBSD, Net BSD, SGI Iris, and Sun Solaris.
DISADVANTAGES
Nevertheless, the MySQL database server has its disadvan-
tages. Some of these disadvantages include the following:
• MySQL early versions (5.0 or less) do not support

ROLE, COMMIT SPs.
• MySQL does not support a very large database size as
efficiently. Or simply, MySQL is simply not for large-
sized data. At the same time, MySQL works perfectly
fine in most small or medium applications, but when
data grows in size, the performance gets significantly
worse. When that happens, only the simple and
indexed query maintains good performance, and for
a complicated query, it easily gets slow sometimes
even unable to meet the request in the feasible time-
frame. Therefore, you need to carefully design your
SQL query to keep its availability no matter what.
In case you expect your application to grow very
big in size at some point in the future, you need to
rethink the decision of using MySQL as your data-
base at all. Because it may work fine at the beginning,
until one day when you need to scale it. Thus, you may
want to consider diversifying the data, that is, distrib-
uting data from one table to other multiple locations
and machines. But at the same time, MySQL does
not support auto-sharing, meaning you would have
to maintain the nodes manually. And in case you
would need an auto-failover, you should request an
external utility or start writing your own script. We
do not claim it to be impossible to make it scale, but it
would probably take some serious engineering effort
to make it work. Difficulties related to MySQL scal-

ability are mostly pushing users to switch to NoSQL
databases like MongoDB.
• MySQL does not manage transactions very efficiently,
and it is prone to data corruption.
• MySQL does not have an accomplished developing
and debugging tool compared to other databases.
• MySQL does not support SQL check constraints.
• MySQL is owned by Oracle. Meaning that even
though MySQL is an open-source product, not that
it is acquired by Oracle that has total control of the
software, it makes many developers feel uncom-
fortable about the situation, to say the least. Some
of them have turned to MariaDB because of that.
As mentioned before, when Oracle acquires Sun
Microsystem, MySQL which belongs to Sun was sold
to Oracle too. Oracle database is mainly applied in
enterprises and big corporations, so it has an obvious
dominance in that domain, but MySQL still stands as
one of their competitors. Oracle published an official
statement about keeping MySQL competitive but did
not specify any deadline to that promise. That only
means that if one day Oracle may choose to weaken
MySQL, that is, acquire to kill in the future, it will
freely be able to do so. On the other hand, it can also
decide to actually improve MySQL to make it bet-
ter, treating it like its own product. There are several
uncertainties as such discussed out there in the devel-
opers’ community.
Speaking of specific MySQL technical limitations, one

should start by getting to know Identifier Length Limits.
Here you can get to know the maximum length for each
type of identifier:7
Identifier Type Maximum Length (Characters)

Database - 64 (Network Database storage
engine: 63)
Table - 64 (Network Database storage
engine: 63)
Column - 64
Index - 64
Constraint - 64
Stored program - 64
View - 64
Table space - 64
Server - 64
Log file group - 64
Alias - 256
Compound statement label - 16
It is also worth mentioning that aliases for column names

in CREATE VIEW statements are checked against the
maximum column length of 64 characters (not the maxi-
mum alias length of 256 characters).
For constraint definitions that are not composed of any
constraint name, the server internally creates a name that
comes from the associated table name. For instance, inter-
nally produced foreign key constraint names consist of
the table name as well as _ibfk_ and a number. If the table
7 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/identifier-length.html, MySQL
name is close to the length-approved potential for con-

straint names, the additional characters necessary for the
constraint name may cause that name to exceed the limit,
ending up in an error.
Identifiers are stored in their specified Unicode (UTF-8).
This also extends to identifiers in table definitions that are
stored in .frm files and to identifiers that are located in the
grant tables in the MySQL database. The sizes of the iden-
tifier string columns in the grant tables are regulated in
characters. You can use multibyte for these items without
having to reduce the number of characters allowed for
values stored in these columns.
Next, one would have to look at the Grant Table Scope
Column Properties limitations. Scope columns in the grant
tables hold strings. The default value for each one of those
is the empty string. Here you can see the exact number of
characters permitted in each column:8
Column Name Maximum Permitted Characters
Host, Proxied_host - 60
User, Proxied_user - 16
Password - 41
Table_name - 64
Column_name - 64
Routine_name - 64
Here, Host and Proxied_host values should be converted

to lowercase prior to being stored in the grant tables. As per
access-checking standards, comparisons of User, Proxied_
user, Password, and Table_name values are case-sensitive.
8 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-reslimits-excerpt/5.7/en/grant-tables-
scope-column-properties.html, MySQL
Yet comparisons of Host, Proxied_host, Column_name,

and Routine_name values are not case-sensitive.
At the same time, MySQL has no limit on the number
of databases, but the overall file system might have a limit
on the number of directories. And while MySQL has no
limit on the number of tables, the basic file system might
have a limit on the number of files that represent tables.
Additionally, individual storage engines may also impose
engine-specific constraints. Thus, InnoDB allows no more
than 4 billion tablets.
Another limitation would be that of table size. The effec-
tive maximum table size for MySQL databases is typically
set by operating system capacity for file sizes and not by
MySQL internal constraints. If you do not know your
information operating system file size limits yet, you might
want to refer to the documentation specific to your operat-
ing system.
Windows users should also note that File Allocation
Table and Virtual File Allocation Table (FAT32) are not
considered acceptable for production use with MySQL.
You would have to use New Technology File System
designed mostly for journaling instead. If any full-table
error occurs, there are several reasons why you might have
encountered it:
• You have run out of an operating system file size

limit. For instance, you are using MyISAM tables on
an operating system that accommodates files only up
to 2GB in size, and you have met this limit for the
data file or index file.
• The disk should be full.
• You are using InnoDB tables and might not have

any spare room left in an InnoDB tablespace file.
The maximum tablespace size is also the maximum
size for a table. Typically, in that case, partitioning of
tables into multiple tablespace files is recommended
for tables larger than 1TB in size.
• You are using a MyISAM table and the space required
for the table is much bigger than what is allowed by
the internal pointer size. MyISAM lets data and index
files grow up to 256TB by default, but this limit can
be modified up to the maximum permissible size of
65,536TB (2567—1 bytes).
However, in case if you MUST use a MyISAM table that is

larger than the default limit and your operating system sup-
ports large files, the CREATE TABLE statement supports
AVG_ROW_LENGTH and MAX_ROWS options that the
server uses to determine how large a table to permit. And in
case the pointer size is too small for an existing table, you
can edit those options with ALTER TABLE to increase a
table’s maximum allowed size with the following statement:
ALTER TABLE tbl_name MAX_ROWS=1000000000

AVG_ROW_LENGTH=nnn;
Make sure you specify AVG_ROW_LENGTH only for

tables with BLOB or TEXT columns so that in this case,
MySQL will not be able to optimize the space required
based only on the number of rows.
Another thing you can do to change the default size limit
for MyISAM tables is to set the myisam_data_pointer_size,
which defines the number of bytes used for internal row

pointers. The value is applied to determine the pointer
size for new tables if you do not include the MAX_ROWS
option. The value of myisam_data_pointer_size can range
from 2 to 7. For instance, for tables that are based on the
dynamic storage format, a value of 4 allows to place tables
up to 4GB; a value of 6 permits tables up to 256TB. Tables
that incorporate the fixed storage format have a larger
maximum data length. You should be able to check the
maximum data and index sizes by using this statement:
SHOW TABLE STATUS FROM db_name LIKE

'tbl_name';
In addition, it is also possible to use myisamchk -dv/path/

to/table-index-file.
Other ways to work around file size limits for MyISAM
tables are the following:
• If your large table is to read-only, you can include

myisampack in order to try and compress it. myisam-
pack normally compresses a table by at least 50%, so
you can have, as a result, much bigger tables. myisam-
pack can also merge multiple tables into a single table.
• MySQL has a built-in function of a MERGE library
that enables you to administer a collection of
MyISAM tables that have the same structure as a sin-
gle MERGE table.
Another thing to consider is Column Count Limitation.

MySQL has a hard limit of 4096 columns per table, but the
assertive maximum may be less for a given table. The pre-

cise column limit depends on the following factors:
• Storage engines may have their own additional

restrictions that limit table column count. To illus-
trate, InnoDB has a limit of 1017 columns per table.
• Each table has an .frm file that contains the table
definition. The definition impacts the content of this
file in ways that may affect the number of columns
allowed in the table.
• The storage requirements of individual columns con-
strain the number of columns that suit a given maxi-
mum row size. Storage requirements for particular
data types depend on things like storage engine, stor-
age format, and character set.
Similar thing with Row Size Limits, the maximum row

size for a given table mainly depends on several factors.
Firstly, the internal capacity of a MySQL table can hold a
maximum row size limit of 65,535 bytes, even if the stor-
age engine allows more supporting larger rows. BLOB and
TEXT columns can only contribute 9–12 bytes toward the
row size limit due to their contents that are stored sepa-
rately from the rest of the row.
Next, the maximum row size for an InnoDB table, which
manages the data stored locally within a database page,
can only be slightly less than half a page. For instance,
the maximum row size is slightly less than 8KB for the
default 16KB InnoDB page size, which is determined by
the innodb_page_size configuration variable.
And at last, If a row containing variable-length columns

gets over the InnoDB maximum row size, InnoDB opts for
variable-length columns for external off-page storage until
the row can be placed within the InnoDB row size limit.
The amount of data put down locally for variable-length
columns that are stored off-page varies depending on the
row format. Thus, different storage formats can govern
different amounts of page header and trailer data, which
directly affects the amount of storage available for rows.
Now that we know the basic features and limitations
that MySQL contains, it is time to learn how to install, con-
figure, and access MySQL via the command line, and we
shall be doing just that in the next chapter.
Chapter 2
Getting Started
with MySQL
IN THIS CHAPTER
➢➢ Describing how to install MySQL database

➢➢ Figuring out how to create and manage MySQL
connection
➢➢ Learning how to access the MySQL via the Command
In this chapter, we are going to describe how to obtain and

install MySQL. A notion of the procedure will be mentioned
in later chapters as well. Yet it is generally recommended to
start the installation following the steps outlined:
First, you need to decide whether MySQL operates and
is supported on your platform. This one is because not all
DOI: 10.1201/9781003229629-2 41
platforms are suitable for running MySQL, and not all

platforms on which MySQL is known to operate are offi-
cially supported by Oracle Corporation.
Second, you need to choose which distribution to install.
There are several versions of MySQL available out there, and
most are available in several distribution arrangements.
You can select from pre-packaged distributions containing
binary (or precompiled) programs or from source code.
In addition, Oracle provides access to the MySQL source
code for those who just want to see recent upgrades and
test new code. Thus, while preparing to install MySQL,
decide which version and distribution format (binary or
source) to turn to.
After that, one has to determine whether to install a
development release or a General Availability (GA) release.
Development releases tend to have the newest features
but are not recommended for production use. On the
other hand, GA releases are sometimes called production
releases, meaning they are perfect for production use.
When shopping for MySQL, pay attention to the naming
scheme. In MySQL 8.0, the release names consist of three
numbers and an optional suffix (e.g., MySQL-8.0.1-dmr).
The numbers within the release name have the following
interpretation:
• The first number (8) is the major version number.

• The second number (0) is the minor version number.
A combination of the major and minor numbers will
give you the release series number that describes the
stable feature set.
Getting Started with MySQL ◾ 43
• The third number (1) is the version number within

the release series. This is upgraded with each new
bugfix release.
Release names usually also have a suffix to indicate the

stability level of the release. Releases within a series prog-
ress through a set of suffixes to show how the stability
level increases. The widely used suffixes are dmr stands
for a development milestone release. MySQL develop-
ment applies a milestone model, in which each milestone
has a small subset of thoroughly tested features. From one
milestone to the next, feature interfaces may evolve, or
features may even be canceled, based on feedback pro-
vided by community developers who tested these early
releases.
RC stands for a Release Candidate. RCs are thought to
be stable, having passed all of MySQL’s testing levels. New
features might be introduced in RC releases, but the focus
more likely is to fixing bugs or improve features introduced
earlier within the series.
The absence of a suffix means you are looking at a
GA or Production release. GA releases are stable, having
successfully passed through the earlier release stages,
and are believed to be relatively clean from serious
bugs, and perfect for use in production plans. Normally,
development within a series starts with DMR releases,
followed by RC releases, and finally reaches GA status
releases.
Once you choose which MySQL version to install, you
should select the distribution format to install for your
operating system. For most cases, a binary distribution

is the simplest option. Binary distributions are accessible
in native format for many platforms, such as RPM pack-
ages for Linux or DMG packages for macOS. Distributions
are also obtainable in more widely used formats such as
Zip archives or compressed tar files. On Windows, you
can even use the MySQL Installer to install a binary
distribution.
Sometimes, it may also be preferable to install MySQL
from a source distribution. This option is reserved in case
you might want to install MySQL at some explicit location
or you might require even more flexibility to place MySQL
items where you want.
Additionally, you want to modify mysqld with features
that might not be native to the standard binary distribu-
tions. The most common extra options used to ensure
feature availability include
• DWITH_LIBWRAP=1 for TCP wrappers support

• DWITH_ZLIB={system|bundled} for characteristics
that depend on compression
• DWITH_DEBUG=1 for debugging procedure
Thus, only after you have downloaded the distribution

that you want, you can perform any necessary post-
installation setup. In the next section, we are going to
provide instructions for installing MySQL on different
platforms and environments available on a platform-
by-platform basis: Unix, Linux/FreeBSD/Microsoft
Windows/macOS.
INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING
Installing MySQL on Unix/Linux

As a rule, Oracle provides a set of binary distributions of
MySQL. These include generic binary distributions in the
form of compressed tar files (files with a .tar.xz extension)
for a number of platforms and binaries in platform-specific
parameters for selected platforms.
This section is a brief explanation of the MySQL instal-
lation from a compressed tar file binary distribution on
Unix/Linux platforms. Normally, MySQL compressed tar
file binary distributions have names of the form MySQL-

VERSION-OS.tar.xz, where VERSION is a number (e.g.,
8.0.25), and OS indicates the type of operating system for
which the distribution is intended.
There is also a “minimal install” version of the MySQL
compressed tar file for the Linux generic binary distribu-
tion, which has a name of the form MySQL-VERSION-
OS-GLIBCVER-ARCH-minimal.tar.xz. The minimal install
distribution does not include debug binaries and is stripped
of debug items, making it significantly smaller than the reg-
ular binary distribution. If you decide to install the mini-
mal install distribution, you need to make sure to adjust for
the difference in file name format in the instructions that
follow. Thus, in order to install a compressed tar file binary
distribution, unpack it at the installation location of your
choice (typically/usr/local/MySQL). This creates the follow-
ing basic directories:1
Directory Contents of Directory

Bin - MySQL server, client, and utility programs
Docs - MySQL manual in Info format
Man - Unix manual pages
Include - Include (header) files
Lib - Libraries
Share - Error messages, dictionary, and SQL for
database installation
support-files - Miscellaneous support files
Also worth mentioning that debug versions of the MySQL

binary are accessible at the MySQL-debug file. To create
1 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/binary-installation.html, MySQL
your own debug version of MySQL from a source distribu-

tion, you can apply the appropriate configuration options
to activate debugging support.
It might be the case that your system does not natively
have a user and group to use for operating mysqld, thus
you need to create them. The following commands add
the MySQL group and the MySQL user. You might
need to require the user and group instead of MySQL.
If so, the syntax for useradd and groupadd may differ
slightly on different versions of Unix/Linux, or they may
have different names such as adduser and addgroup. To
illustrate:
shell> groupadd MySQL

shell> useradd -r -g MySQL -s/bin/false
MySQL
Here, since the user is required only for ownership grounds,

not login means, the useradd command has the -r and -s/
bin/false variables to create a user that does not have login
permissions to your server host. You can always leave out
these options if your useradd does not support them.
To obtain and unpack the distribution you should select
the directory under which you are going to unpack the dis-
tribution and change the location into it. The example here
unpacks the distribution under /usr/local. The instructions,
therefore, assume that you are allowed to create files and
directories in/usr/local. If that directory is not available,
you are expected to perform the installation as root: shell>
cd/usr/local
When you unpack the distribution, it creates the installa-

tion directory. tar that further uncompresses and unpacks
the distribution if it has z option support:
shell> tar xvf /path/to/mysql-VERSION-OS.

tar.xz
The tar command also produces a directory named

MySQL-VERSION-OS.
To install MySQL from a compressed tar file binary
distribution, your system must have GNU XZ utilities to
uncompress the distribution and a suitable tar to unpack
it. Thus, you should download and install GNU tar (http://
www.gnu.org/software/tar/), or at least use a preinstalled
version of GNU tar. Usually, this is available under gnutar,
gtar, or as tar within a GNU or Free Software directory,
such as /usr/sfw/bin or /usr/local/bin.
In case your tar does not support the xz format then
insert the xz command to unpack the distribution and tar
to unpack it. With it, replace the previous tar command
with the following alternative command to uncompress
and extract the distribution: shell> xz -dc /path/to/mysql-
VERSION-OS.tar.xz | tar x
Next, stabilize a symbolic link to the installation direc-
tory created by tar: shell> ln -s full-path-to-MySQL-VER-
SION-OS MySQL
The ln command in here creates a symbolic link to the
installation directory. This lets you refer more easily to it as
/usr/local/MySQL. To avoid having to type the pathname of
client programs always when you are working with MySQL, you
can insert the /usr/local/MySQL/bin directory to your PATH
variable shell> export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/MySQL/bin
The post-installation setup process only includes setting

distribution ownership and access permissions, initializ-
ing the data directory, and starting the MySQL server.
Installing MySQL on FreeBSD

This section provides guidance on installing MySQL on
FreeBSD Unix.
You can install MySQL on FreeBSD by utilizing the
binary distribution provided by Oracle. However, the easi-
est way to install MySQL for newbies is to use the MySQL-
server and MySQL-client ports available at http://www.
freebsd.org/. Using these ports gives you the following
advantages:
• A working MySQL with all optimizations enabled is

thought to work on any version of FreeBSD.
• Automatic configuration option.
• Startup scripts installed in /usr/local/etc/rc.d.
• The ability to use pkg_info -L command to see which
files are installed.
• The ability to use pkg_delete command to remove
MySQL if it is no longer necessary.
• Be able to access prerequisite libraries as per ldd
mysqld: libthr, libcrypt, libkrb5, libm, librt, libexecinfo,
libunwind, and libssl.
The MySQL build process requires GNU make (gmake) to

work. If you do not have GNU yet, you must install it first
before compiling MySQL.
If you wish to install the database using the ports system,

use the following set of commands:
# cd /usr/ports/databases/mysql80-server
# make
The standard port installation would then locate the server

into /usr/local/libexec/mysqld, with the startup script for the
MySQL server placed in /usr/local/etc/rc.d/mysql-server.
If you need to remove MySQL after installation using
the ports system insert the following:
# cd /usr/ports/databases/mysql80-server
# make deinstall
Installing MySQL on Microsoft Windows

The easiest and most recommended method is to down-
load MySQL Installer and let it install and modify a spe-
cific version of MySQL Server as follows:
First, download MySQL Installer from https://dev.mysql.
com/downloads/installer/ and implement it. Note that, unlike
the standard MySQL Installer, the smaller web-community
version does not include any MySQL applications, but down-
loads only the MySQL items you select to install.
Next, opt for the setup type to use for the initial instal-
lation of MySQL products:
• Developer Default: Provides a setup type that has

the selected version of MySQL Server as well as other
MySQL tools related to MySQL development, such as
MySQL Workbench.
• Server Only: Provides a setup for the selected version

of MySQL Server without other products.
• Custom: This lets you select any version of MySQL
Server and other MySQL products.
With that, MySQL is now installed. If you set MySQL

as a service, then Windows will automatically start the
MySQL server every time you restart the system. This
process also installs the MySQL Installer application
on the localhost, which can later be used to upgrade
or reconfigure the MySQL server. In addition, if you
installed MySQL Workbench on your system, you might
consider using it to check your new MySQL server con-
nection. By default, the program automatically runs after
installing MySQL.
Additional Installation Information

You can also run MySQL as a standard application or as
a Windows service. By choosing a service, you can moni-
tor and track the operation of the server through the basic
Windows service management tools.
To activate the RESTART statement, the MySQL server
forks run as a service or standalone, to enable supervision
of the server process. In case of RESTART capability is
not required, the server can be started with the no-mon-
itor option. Nevertheless, you should install MySQL on
Windows using an account that has administrator rights.
Otherwise, you might have issues with certain opera-
tions such as editing the PATH environment variable or
accessing the Service Control Manager. When installed,
MySQL does not have to be executed using a user with

Administrator privileges.
In addition to the MySQL Server package, you may need
or want additional components to use MySQL with your
application or development environment. These include,
but are not limited to:
Connector/ODBC driver and Connector/NET

driver.
Even though MySQL for Windows is available in several

distribution formats, it is still recommended to use MySQL
Installer. Since it contains more features and MySQL products
than the older MSI, it is easier to use than the compressed file,
and you do not need any additional tools to get MySQL run-
ning. MySQL Installer automatically installs MySQL Server
as well as creates an options file, starts the server, and enables
you to create various user accounts. It also includes MySQL
Workbench, MySQL for Visual Studio and can be used to
upgrade all the above-mentioned products in the future
(https://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-compat-matrix/en/).
The standard binary distribution (presented as a com-
pressed file) has all of the necessary files that you unpack
into your chosen location. This package holds all of the
data in the full Windows MSI Installer package, yet it does
not include an installation program. The source distribu-
tion format has all the code and support files for producing
the executables using the Visual Studio compiler system.
In addition, if you require tables with a size larger than
4GB, you should install MySQL on an NTFS or newer file
system. Do not forget to insert MAX_ROWS and AVG_
ROW_LENGTH when you create tables.
MySQL and Virus Checking Software

It is typical for virus-scanning software such as Norton/
Symantec Anti-Virus containing MySQL data and tempo-
rary tables to cause issues, both in terms of the operation of
MySQL and the virus-scanning software misinterpreting the
contents of the data. This is due to the fingerprinting system
utilized by the virus-scanning software, and the way in which
MySQL swiftly updates its data, which may be perceived as a
potential security risk.
Therefore, once you install MySQL Server, it is recom-
mended that you disable virus scanning on the main direc-
tory (datadir) used to collect your MySQL data. There is
usually a mechanism built into the virus-scanning soft-
ware to make sure some directories are omitted.
By default, MySQL also produces temporary folders in
the standard Windows temporary directory. To prevent
the temporary files from being scanned, they are config-
ured into a separate temporary directory for MySQL, this
way, they are placed into the virus scanning exclusion list.
To do this, you should add a configuration option for the
tmpdir parameter to your my.ini configuration file.
During the initial setup process, you are prompted to
choose the MySQL products to be installed on the host. A
good decision would be to go with the predetermined setup
type that suits your setup requirements. By default, both GA
and pre-release products are included in the download and
installation with the Developer Default, Client only, and
Full setup types. You can opt for the Only install GA prod-
ucts option to limit the product set to include GA products
only when using these setup types. Choosing one of the
following setup types regulates the initial installation only
and does not limit your ability to install or update MySQL

the following products for Windows later on:
• MySQL Shell
• MySQL Router
• MySQL Workbench
• MySQL for Visual Studio
• MySQL Connectors (for .NET / Python / ODBC /
Java / C++)
• MySQL Documentation
• MySQL Samples and Examples
In the next section, we shall describe the MySQL Installer

product catalog, the dashboard, and other items related to
production operations.
The product catalog is used to store the complete list
of released MySQL items for Microsoft Windows that are
available to download from MySQL Downloads. By default,
MySQL Installer updates the catalog at startup every seven
days, but if you wish you can also update the catalog man-
ually from the dashboard. An up-to-date catalog performs
carries out the following actions:
populates the Available Products pane of the

Select Products page and adds operation from the
dashboard.
In addition, the catalog includes all development releases

(Pre-Release), general releases (Current GA), and minor
releases (Other Releases). Products in the catalog typically

vary depending on the MySQL Installer release that you
go for.
MySQL Installer dashboard is the default setting that
you see once you start MySQL Installer after the initial
setup is complete. If you closed MySQL Installer before
the setup was over, MySQL Installer will go on with it
before it displays the dashboard. Products covered under
Oracle Lifetime Sustaining Support, are usually presented
on the dashboard. These products, such as MySQL for
Excel and MySQL Notifier, are added automatically, yet
can be modified or removed.
MySQL Installer dashboard Elements have a variety of
actions that apply to installed products or products dis-
played in the catalog. To commence the following opera-
tions, you should click on the operation link and then
select the product or products to manage. The operation
“Add” proceeds to the Select Products page. From there,
you can regulate the filter, choose one or more products
to download, and start the installation. Here, you can use
the directional arrows to move each product from the
Available Products column to the Products To Be Installed
column. To enable the Product Features page where you
can customize features, click the related check box.
For MySQL Server earlier versions, the account you uti-
lize to run MySQL Installer may not have adequate per-
mission to install the server data, therefore, interrupting
the installation process because the ExecSecureObjects
MSI action cannot be implemented. To disable that, dese-
lect the Server data files feature before trying to install the
server again.
Even though the Server data files check box was removed
from MySQL Server 8.0. and higher you can still perform
the following actions freely:
• Modify: You should use this operation to add or

delete the items associated with installed products.
Features that you can edit typically differ in complex-
ity by product. When the Program Shortcut check
box is selected, the product shall be displayed in the
Start menu under the MySQL group.
• Upgrade: This operation will load the Select Products to
Upgrade page and add all the upgrade features to it. An
installed product can have more than one upgrade ver-
sion and the operation requires a current product cata-
log. MySQL Installer upgrades all of the chosen products
in one action. You can click on the Show Details option
to view the actions performed by MySQL Installer.
• Remove: This operation enables the Remove Products
page and occupies it with the MySQL products
located in the host. You should select the MySQL
products you want to remove and then click Execute
to start the removal procedure. During the opera-
tion, an indicator will show the number of steps that
are implemented as well as a percentage of all steps.
In order to select products to remove, you can either
select the check box for one or more products or click
the Product check box to select all products.
There is also the reconfigure link in the Quick Action col-

umn next to each installed server loads that show current
configuration values for the server and then cycle through

all configuration steps allowing you to change the options
and values. You should provide credentials with root privi-
leges to reconfigure these items. Click the Log tab to show
the output of each configuration step performed by MySQL
Installer. Once completed, MySQL Installer stops the
server, applies the configuration updates, and then restarts
the server. Installed Samples and Examples associated with
a specific MySQL server version can also be remodified to
apply new feature settings.
The Catalog link lets you download the latest catalog
of MySQL products manually and then consolidate those
product changes with MySQL Installer. The catalog-down-
load option does not activate an upgrade of the products
already installed on the host. Rather, it returns to the dash-
board and inserts an arrow icon to the Version column for
each installed product that has a newer version. You can
later use the Upgrade operation to install the newer prod-
uct version.
You can also apply the Catalog link to see the current
change history of each product without having to down-
load the new catalog. Just click on the Do not update at this
time check box to view the change history.
The MySQL Installer About icon displays the cur-
rent version of MySQL Installer and general infor-
mation about MySQL. The version number is located
above the Back button. Remember to include this ver-
sion number when reporting a problem with MySQL
Installer at all times. In addition to the About MySQL
information you can also choose the following icons
from the side panel:
• License icon for MySQL Installer: This solution

includes third-party software, used under license.
If you are operating with a Commercial release
of MySQL Installer, the icon calls for the MySQL
Installer Commercial License Information User
Manual for licensing information, presenting licens-
ing information relating to third-party software
that may be included in this Commercial release. In
case you are using a Community release of MySQL
Installer, the icon shows the MySQL Installer
Community License Information User Manual for
licensing information, including licensing informa-
tion relating to third-party software that may be
included in this Community release.
Resource links icon is responsible for displaying
the latest MySQL product documentation, blogs, and
webinars.
The MySQL Installer Options icon includes information

about the following tabs:
• Product Catalog: Administers the automatic cata-

log updates. As already mentioned, MySQL Installer
checks for catalog updates at startup every seven days.
When new products or product versions are available,
MySQL Installer includes them in the catalog and
then adds an arrow icon next to the version number of
the installed products list. It is also possible to use the
product catalog option to enable or disable automatic
updates and to change the number of days between
automatic catalog downloads. Meaning, MySQL
Installer will use the number of days you set to see

whether a download should be attempted or not.
• Connectivity Settings: Several operations completed
by MySQL Installer need Internet access. This option
lets you use a default value to check the connection or
to use a different URL, one selected from a list or added
by you manually. With the Manual option selected,
new URLs can be tested, and all URLs in the list can
be validated or removed. When the Automatic option
is activated, MySQL Installer tries to connect to each
default URL in the list until a connection is made. If
no connection can be established, it results in an error.
MySQL products in the catalog are located by differ-

ent categories:2 MySQL Servers, Applications, MySQL
Connectors, and Documentation. Only the latest versions
have the function of the Available Products by default. If
you need to see a pre-release or older version of a prod-
uct, it may not be available in the default list. Anyway, it
is important to keep the product catalog updated. You can
click Catalog on the MySQL Installer dashboard to down-
load the latest manifest.
In case you want to edit the default product list, click
Add in the dashboard to open the Select Products page,
and then click Edit to open the dialog box. You can then
modify the settings and then click Filter. You should be
able to see the data filtered by Text, Category, Maturity,
Already Downloaded, and Architecture.
2 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/wb-mysql-connections-secure-
auth.html, MySQL
Moreover, you can reset one or more of the following

fields to modify the list of available products:
• Category: Stands for all Software, MySQL Servers,
Applications, MySQL Connectors, or Documentation.
• Maturity: Indicates current version, Pre-Release or
Other Releases. In case any warning appears, just con-
firm that you have the most recent product manifest by
clicking Catalog on the MySQL Installer dashboard.
In the meantime, the Commercial release of MySQL
Installer does not show any MySQL products when you
select the Pre-Release maturity filter. Products in develop-
ment are accessible from the Community release of MySQL
Installer only.
Already Downloaded option allows you to view and
administer downloaded products only. However, MySQL
Installer does not allow server upgrades between major
release versions or minor release versions but does permit
upgrades within a release series, such as an upgrade from
5.7.11 to 5.7.12. Upgrades between milestone releases are
not supported, but major development changes can take
place in milestone releases.
For upgrades to MySQL 8.0.16 server and higher, a check
box option lets you skip the upgrade check and process directly
for system tables while processing data dictionary tables in
the background. MySQL Installer does not bring about the
check box when the previous server upgrade was skipped or
when the server was modified as a sandbox InnoDB Cluster.
This pattern represents a change in how MySQL Server com-
pletes an upgrade and advances the sequence of steps that
MySQL Installer takes to the configuration process.
To select a new server version just Click Upgrade. Make

sure that the check box next to the product name in the
Upgradeable Products section has a checkmark. Deselect
the products that you do not need to be upgraded at the
time. For server milestone releases in the same release
series, MySQL Installer deselects the server upgrade and
shows a warning saying that the upgrade is not supported,
as well as provides a summary of the steps to take in order
to perform the upgrade manually.
Meanwhile, if you click on a product, it not only high-
lights it but also populates the Upgradeable Versions with
the details of each available version for the selected prod-
uct: version number, published date, and a Changes link to
see the release notes for that version.
In order to remove a local MySQL server, first, decide
whether the local data directory should be removed. If you
keep the data directory, another server installation can
reapply the data. This option is activated by default. You
can click Execute to begin uninstalling the local server but
keep in mind that all products that you selected to remove
will also uninstall at this time.
MySQL Installer stays installed on your computer and can be
upgraded from the previous version. Sometimes, other MySQL
software may request for you to upgrade MySQL Installer for
better compatibility. To identify the current version of MySQL
Installer and upgrade MySQL Installer manually you need to
first locate the installed version of MySQL Installer.
Start MySQL Installer from the search menu. Once the
MySQL Installer dashboard opens, just click the MySQL
Installer About icon. The version number would be dis-
played above the Back button.
To start an on-demand upgrade of MySQL Installer fol-

lows this order:
• Connect the computer with MySQL Installer installed

to the Internet
• Start MySQL Installer from the search menu. The
MySQL Installer dashboard opens
• Click Catalog on the bottom of the dashboard to open
the Update Catalog window
• Click Execute to begin the process. If the installed
version of MySQL Installer can be upgraded, you will
be prompted to start the upgrade
• Click Next to review all changes to the catalog and
then click Finish to return to the dashboard
• Verify the installed version of MySQL Installer
Installing MySQL on macOS

Even before you start installing MySQL on macOS you
should keep the following notions in mind:
• Other MySQL installations: The installation proce-

dure does not support MySQL installations by pack-
age managers such as Homebrew. The installation
and upgrade procedures are coming strictly from
MySQL package providers. If there are any other
installations, then consider canceling them before
implementing the installer to prevent any port con-
flicts from happening.
• Homebrew: In case you installed MySQL Server using

Homebrew to its default location, then the MySQL
installer downloads to a different location and will
not upgrade the version from Homebrew. If that hap-
pens, you might end up with multiple MySQL instal-
lations that, by default, will be using the same ports.
Thus, to prevent errors from occurring, you need to
stop the other MySQL Server instances before run-
ning this installer.
• Launched: A launchd daemon is installed in order to
alter MySQL configuration options. You might need
to consider editing it prior MySQL installation.
• Users: You may want to create a particular MySQL
user to own the MySQL directory and data. You
can do this through the Directory Utility, and the
MySQL user should already exist. For use in single-
user mode, an entry for _mysql should already exist
within the system /etc/passwd file.
• Data: Because the MySQL package installer holds the
MySQL contents into a version and platform-specific
directory, you can apply this to upgrade and move
your database between versions. You need to copy the
data directory from the old version to the new ver-
sion, or to specify an alternative datadir value to set
the location of the data directory.
• Aliases: You might need to include aliases to your
shell’s resource file to make it easier to access com-
monly practiced programs such as MySQL and
mysqladmin from the command line.
The syntax for bash is:3
alias mysql=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql
alias mysqladmin=/usr/local/mysql/bin/
mysqladmin
And for tcsh, use
alias mysql/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql
alias mysqladmin/usr/local/mysql/bin/
mysqladmin
Moreover, you can add /usr/local/MySQL/bin to your

PATH environment variable just by modifying the appro-
priate startup file for your shell.
• Removing: After you have duplicated the MySQL
database files from the previous installation and have
successfully activated the new server, you should
think about deleting the old installation files to save
disk space. In addition, you should also get rid of
the older versions of the Package Receipt directories
located in /Library/Receipts/MySQL-VERSION.pkg.
Installing MySQL on macOS Using Native Packages

The Native package is placed inside a disk image file that
you first should organize by double-clicking its icon in
the Finder. It should then mount the image and display its
contents. Before starting the installation, you would need
to stop running MySQL server instances by using either
3 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-macos-excerpt/5.7/en/macos-installation-
notes.html, MySQL
the MySQL Manager Application, the preference pane, or

mysqladmin shutdown variable in the command line.
To install MySQL using the package installer, you need
to first download the disk image (.dmg) file that holds the
MySQL package installer. Then double-click the file to
check the disk image and see through its contents. Double-
click the MySQL installer package from the disk that is
named according to the version of MySQL you have down-
loaded. For instance, for MySQL server 8.0.25 it might be
named MySQL-8.0.25-macOS-10.13-x86_64.pkg.
The initial wizard introduction screen references the
MySQL server version to install. Click Continue to begin
the installation. The MySQL community edition will
then present a copy of the relevant GNU General Public
License. Click Continue and then Agree to continue.
From the Installation Type page, you can click Install to
start the installation wizard using all defaults, and then
click Customize to modify which components to install.
However, even if the Change Install Location option is
available, the installation location still cannot be changed.
After that click Install to install MySQL Server. After a
successful new MySQL Server installation, complete the
configuration steps by choosing the default encryption type
for passwords, define the root password, and also enable or
disable MySQL server at startup. The default MySQL 8.0
password mechanism is caching_sha2_password, and this
step permits you to change it to mysql_native_password.
Most content is described in the surrounding text. To be
precise, the installer refers to caching_sha2_password as
“Use Strong Password Encryption” and mysql_native_
password as a “Use Legacy Password Encryption.”
Selecting the legacy password mechanism advances

the generated launchd file to set --default_authentication_
plugin=mysql_native_password under ProgramArguments.
Choosing strong password encryption does not set default_
authentication_plugin because the default MySQL Server
value is utilized, which is caching_sha2_password.
You should also choose a password for the root user and
decide whether MySQL Server should start after the con-
figuration step is over. A summary is the final stage and
references a successful MySQL Server installation. You can
now close the wizard.
MySQL server is now installed. If you wish not to start
MySQL, then use either launchctl from the command line or
start MySQL by clicking “Start” using the MySQL preference
pane. When installing using the package installer, the files
are installed into a directory within /usr/local matching the
name of the installation version and platform. For instance, the
installer file MySQL-8.0.25-macos10.15-x86_64.dmg installs
MySQL into /usr/local/MySQL-8.0.25-macos10.15-x86_64/
with a symlink to /usr/local/MySQL.
Here you can see the layout of this MySQL installation
directory. However, the macOS installation process does not
create nor install a sample my.cnf MySQL configuration file.

Bin- mysqld server, client and utility programs
Data- Log files, databases, where /usr/local/MySQL/
data/mysqld.local.err is the default error log
Docs- Helper documents, like the Release Notes and
build information
Include- Include (header) files
(Continued)

Lib- Libraries
Man- Unix manual pages
MySQL-test- MySQL test suite (‘MySQL Test’ is disabled by
default during the installation process when
using the installer package (DMG))
share- Miscellaneous support files, including error
messages, dictionary.txt, and rewriter SQL
support-files- Support scripts, such as mysqld_multi.server,
MySQL.server, and MySQL-log-rotate.
/tmp/MySQL.sock- location of the MySQL Unix socket
CREATING AND MANAGING CONNECTIONS
This section describes how to create and administer

MySQL connections.
For starters, in order to create a new connection, you
have to follow these steps:
First, launch MySQL Workbench to open the home
screen. Existing connections will be displayed when you
click the MySQL Connections view from the sidebar. No
connections will exist for first-time users. Following the
MySQL Workbench home screen shown in the previous
figure, click the [+] icon near the MySQL Connections

label to view the Setup New Connection wizard.
Next, you need to define the Connection Name value,
such as MyFirstConnection. The default connection values
are for a typical local setup, so you must review them and
then enter the appropriate values. If you are unsure, you
can always click the Test Connection button to check the
connection parameters.
After that, you may optionally click Configure Server
Management, which calls up the Configure Local
Management wizard. Here you are required to read the
Configure Local Management introduction and press
Next to begin defining the new connection standards. The
connection will now be tested. You should be able to see
whether that connection was successful and if not, click
Back and check that you have entered the information
correctly.
You should then be able to view additional details about
the tested connection, and click Next. Alternatively, you
can modify a method for remote management if a Remote
Host was specified. Setting these options lets MySQL
Workbench set the location of configuration files, and the
correct start and stop commands to use for the connection.
The Secure Shell (SSH) login-based management and
Native Windows remote management types are both avail-
able within the database framework. The Operating System
and MySQL Installation Type can therefore be configured
for the SSH login type. This step results in a local MySQL
connection, so you can skip the Management and OS and
SSH Configuration options, which are used for setting a
remote MySQL connection.
To start with, on Microsoft Windows, pick the appropriate

MySQL service for the MySQL connection. The wizard will
then check its ability to access the start and stop commands
and then check access to the MySQL Server configuration file.
You now have a chance to review the configuration set-
tings. The information presented differs slightly depending
on the platform, connection, and installation type. At the
Review Settings menu, select the one that says “I’d like to
review the settings again.” Here you can check the Change
Parameters if you want to check or edit information about
the MySQL configuration file. As an alternative, you can
insert your own commands for starting, stopping, and
checking the MySQL connection. To apply the default val-
ues, keep these optional values blank, click Finish to close
the Configure Server Management dialog, and return to
the original Setup New Connection step.
After reviewing the Setup New Connection informa-
tion just click Test Connection again to make sure it still
functions and then click OK to create the new MySQL con-
nection. Your new MyFirstConnection MySQL connection
will now be listed on the home screen.
From the home screen, click the new MySQL connection
to open the SQL editor for this connection. The SQL editor
is the default page. Click Server Status from the Navigator
area of the sidebar to display the current status of the con-
nected MySQL server instance. Test the other Navigator
area options that relate to your new MySQL connection.
See its status, MySQL logs, and measure its performance
statistics from the dashboard.
In the Navigator area, you can see the Administration
and Schemas tabs. The Schemas view shows all the schemas
that are incorporated into your new MySQL connection.

Alternatively, you can unite the content of the tabs by either
clicking merge or by enabling the Show Management Tools
and Schema Tree in a single tab SQL editor preference.
The Manage Server Connections dialog is another great
way to keep your MySQL tidy. This dialog is called upon
by either clicking the manage connections icon on the
home screen or by selecting Database and then Manage
Connections from the main menu. It can also be activated
from any of the wizards requiring access to a live database.
After the MySQL connection manager is launched,
you shall have the Connection tab of the Manage Server
Connections dialog. The most important elements of the
MySQL Connection Manager include the following:4
• Connection Name: The name used to refer to this

connection. This connection can then be selected
from a list in other wizards requiring a connection.
• Connection Method: Method used to connect to the
RDBMS.
• New button: Opens a separate Manage Server
Connections dialog to make a new connection. This
dialog has two tabs in addition to the Connection tab:
Remote Management and System Profile
• Delete, Duplicate, Move Up, and Move Down
buttons: Operations used to administer the existing
connections.
4 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/wb-manage-server-connections.
html, MySQL
• Test Connection button: Tests the selected MySQL

connection and reports the connection status. It also
reports whether or not SSL is enabled. For testing
remote connections, you might also need to check
the hostname, or check the port. If these fail, then
also check the firewall settings on each host, and
also that MySQL server is running on the remote
host.
• Simultaneous client connections: Opening a MySQL
connection from the MySQL Workbench home screen
opens a new connection tab in MySQL Workbench
for that connection. Each of these tabs has to have two
MySQL connections to complete basic tasks, such as
schema discovery and SQL execution. Moreover, per-
forming management-related tasks, such as Server
Status, requires two additional MySQL connections.
Basically, this means that each MySQL connection
tab in MySQL Workbench needs to have four avail-
able connections to MySQL.
Mainly, this connection requirement doubles with each

connection tab opened in MySQL Workbench, even if the
two connection tabs are related to the same MySQL server.
SQL editor tabs share their connections, so having multiple
SQL editor and SQL results tabs does not really impact the
number of necessary connections.
Standard TCP/IP Connection Method

This connection method makes it possible for MySQL
Workbench to connect to MySQL Server using TCP/IP.
At the same time, the skip_networking MySQL system

variable impacts the TCP/IP connection method. If dis-
abled, use named pipes or shared memory (on Windows)
or Unix socket files (on Unix).
The parameters for standard TCP/IP connections are5:
• Hostname: The hostname or IP address of the

MySQL server.
• The hostname “localhost” might resolve to
“127.0.0.1” or “::1” on your host, so note this when
checking permissions. To demonstrate, if a web
application’s user only has access to “127.0.0.1”
on a host, and a defined connection uses “local-
host” that resolves to “::1,” this connection might
not have the proper permissions to the web appli-
cation. Add “localhost” variable to each host to
determine where it resolves to.
• Port: The TCP/IP port on which the MySQL server is

sitting (the default is 3306).
• Username: User name to use for the connection.
• Password: Optional password for the account used.

If you enter no password here, you will be prompted
to enter the password when MySQL Workbench
attempts to establish the connection. In addition,
MySQL Workbench can store the password in a
vault.
html, MySQL
• Default Schema: When the connection to the server

is made, this is the schema that will be used by default.
It becomes the default schema for use in other parts
of MySQL Workbench.
Also, you might be expected to establish a Secure Sockets

Layer Tab (SSL). SSL parameters are6
• Use SSL: This dropdown provides options related to

enabling SSL encryption. Choose No to disable SSL,
If available if the client library supports it, or Require
to require SSL support for the MySQL connection to
succeed.
• SSL Key File: Path to the Key file for SSL.
• SSL CERT File: Path the Certificate file for SSL.
• SSL CA File: Path to the Certification Authority file

for SSL.
• SSL Cipher: Optional list of permissible ciphers to
use for SSL encryption.
• SSL Wizard button: Generate SSL certificates for
both the MySQL server and MySQL client. Requires
access to OpenSSL binaries in the system’s PATH.
Files button: Opens a file browser that points to the
generated SSL files by the SSL Wizard.
html, MySQL
The Advanced tab includes these checkboxes:7
• Use compression protocol: If checked, the commu-

nication between the application and the MySQL
server will be compressed, which may increase trans-
fer rates. This corresponds to starting a MySQL com-
mand-line client with the --compress option. This
option is unchecked by default.
• Use ANSI quotes to quote identifiers: Treat “"” as an
identifier quote character (like the “`” quote character)
and not as a string quote character. You can still use
“`” to quote identifiers with this mode enabled. With
this option enabled, you cannot use double quotation
marks to quote literal strings, because it is interpreted
as an identifier. However, if this option is checked, it
overrides the server setting. This option is unchecked
by default.
• Enable Cleartext Authentication Plugin: Send the
user password as text that is not encrypted. Required
for some authentication methods. This option is
unchecked by default.
• Timeout: Maximum time to wait before the connec-
tion is aborted. The connection times out in 60 sec-
onds by default.
• SQL_MODE: Override the default SQL_MODE
used by the server.
html, MySQL
• Others: Other options for Connector/C++ as

option=value pairs, one per line.
• Standard TCP/IP over SSH Connection Method:
This connection method enables MySQL Workbench
to connect to MySQL Server using TCP/IP over an
SSH connection.
In addition to a number of parameters that are in com-

mon with Standard TCP/IP connections, this connection
method has a number of specialized parameters. These
items are:
• SSH Hostname: The name of the SSH server. An

optional port number can also be provided. For
example, localhost:22.
• SSH Username: The name of the SSH user to use to
make a connection.
• SSH Password: The SSH password. It is recom-
mended that an SSH key file is also used.
• SSH Key File: A path to the SSH key file.
At the same time, MySQL Workbench does not accept

default PuTTY keys directly. Yet, you can convert an exist-
ing PuTTY Private Key (PPK) file to OpenSSH format
using the PuTTY Key Generator (PuTTYGen) utility.
In another case, if a remote host is missing from the sys-
tem’s list of familiar hosts, a prompt shall ask you to confirm
the host’s fingerprint before storing it. If your stored host
fingerprint does not match the host’s current fingerprint,
then an error is produced, and you will be required to man-

age the discrepancy from outside of MySQL Workbench
before establishing the connection. On Linux and macOS,
SSH host fingerprints are stored in ~/.ssh/known_hosts.
On Microsoft Windows, they are stored in a file created
by MySQL Workbench under the user’s folder, such as C:\
Users\username\.ssh\known_hosts.
Configuring Server Management Wizard

Clicking the [+] item from the home screen activates the
Setup New Connection wizard. The wizard provides a
MySQL connection form to make a new MySQL connec-
tion and includes a Configure Server Management option
as a step-by-step method for establishing a new MySQL
server connection.
This option can also be implemented later from the home
screen by clicking the top right corner of a MySQL remote
connection. Executing this wizard is necessary to complete
tasks requiring shell access to the host. For instance, start-
ing/stopping the MySQL instance and modifying the con-
figuration file.
The steps presented in the wizard are
• Test DB Connection: On this page, MySQL

Workbench checks your database connection and
offers the results. If an error pops out, just click Show
Logs to see the related logs.
• Management and OS: Applied to specify a remote
management type and pick out the operating system,
which is available when the Host Machine is treated
as a remote host.
Furthermore, the SSH login-based management option

includes configuration entries for the Operating System
and MySQL Installation Type.
SSH Configuration
If you defined a Remote Host on the Specify Host Machine
page, you will be forwarded to the Host SSH Connection
page, which lets you use SSH for the connection to the
server instance. This facility enables you to establish a
secure connection to remotely manage and configure the
server instance. You must fill in the hostname and user
name of the account that will be utilized to log in to the
server for administration and configuration activities. If
you do not enter the optional SSH Key for use with the
server, then you will be demanded the password when the
connection is created by MySQL Workbench.
This connection is made to authorize remote adminis-
tration and configuration of the MySQL Server itself. It is
not similar to the connection used to connect to a server
for general database manipulation. You must need an SSH
connection type when administering a remote server if
you want to start or stop the server configuration process.
Apart from that, other administrative functions do not
require an SSH connection.
Windows Management
If a Windows server is utilized, then setting the Windows
configuration parameters is obligatory. Windows manage-
ment searches for a user account with the required privi-
leges to query the system status, and to control services.
And read/write access to the configuration file is manda-

tory to permit editing of the file.
With that, the wizard shall attempt a connection to
your server and immediately report the results. If an error
occurs, click Show Logs to view the related logs.
Besides, MySQL Workbench should know where the
MySQL Server configuration file is placed to be able to pre-
pare some configuration information. The wizard is able to
define the most likely placement of the configuration file,
based on the selection made on the Operating System page
of the wizard. Nevertheless, it is possible to test that this data
is correct by clicking the Check path and Check section but-
tons. The wizard then reports whether the configuration file
and server configuration section can in fact be reviewed. It
is also possible to manually select the location of the con-
figuration file, and the section specified to MySQL Server
data; these manually inserted values should be tested using
the buttons provided. Here just click the Next button to
continue.
Review Settings
The modified settings may be evaluated, which also
includes the default values. Choose the Change Parameters
check box if the MySQL Config File section will be edited
and then click Next to continue.
MySQL Config File

Enables configuration of the MySQL server version. It also
permits the editing and validation of the configuration file
path and validation of the server instance section. Here
just click Next to continue.
Specify Commands
Optionally prop the commands required to start, stop, and
examine the status of the running MySQL server instance.
Commands can be edited if needed, but the defaults are
satisfactory in most cases. The defaults depend on the cho-
sen options on the Operating System page of the wizard.
Click Next to continue.
Complete Setup
In this final step, you are required to name the MySQL
server instance. This name will be used throughout
MySQL Workbench as a reference to this MySQL connec-
tion. After setting an appropriate name, click Finish to save
the instance.
The Password Storage Vault

The vault stands for useful secure storage for passwords
applied to access MySQL servers. By using the vault, you
need not insert the same credentials every time MySQL
Workbench tries to connect to a server. The hostname is
used for storing password data. For instance, a local con-
nection might use “localhost,” “127.0.0.1,” or “::1,” but these
are stored separately in the password storage vault, even if
they all generated in the same place.
The vault is executed differently on each platform:
• Windows: The vault is an encrypted file in the

MySQL Workbench data directory. This is where
connections.xml and related files are placed. The file
is encrypted using a Windows API which operates
the encryption based on the current user, so only the
current user can decrypt it. As a result, it is not pos-

sible to decrypt the file on any other computer. It is
possible to remove the file, in which case all stored
passwords are gone, but MySQL Workbench will
otherwise operate as usual. You then should re-enter
passwords as expected.
• macOS: The vault is executed using the Secure
Keychain. The keychain data is also available from
the native Keychain Access.app utility.
• Linux: The vault operates by storing passwords
using the libsecret library, which interacts with
Secret Service. For systems with the GNOME desk-
top environment, such as Ubuntu, the Secret Service
is gnome-keyring-daemon. Systems with the KDE
desktop environment, for instance, Kubuntu, apply
their own secret service implementation.
Updating Old Authentication Protocol Passwords

MySQL 4.1 extended password average between 16 and
41 bytes. However, upgrading MySQL does not auto-
matically update the old password passwords, so previ-
ous passwords are still located in the deprecated format.
This is because MySQL does not store passwords as
plain text, so regenerating password requires direct user
involvement.
Upgrading a password does have certain limitations.
Here are two options to choose from:
If the secure_auth MySQL Server option is unavailable,
then you can log in using the user with the old password
format and update the user’s own MySQL password. But
this is not an option for MySQL Workbench 6.3.5 because

compatibility with the old password format was deleted.
Because of that, a user’s capacity to upgrade their own
password format must be done using the MySQL com-
mand line.
In case using the MySQL command line is not an option,
then you can use an older version of MySQL Workbench
(from version 6.3.4 and earlier), which lets you enable a Use
the old authentication protocol option under the Advanced
connections tab. You can see older versions of MySQL
Workbench are available at https://downloads.mysql.com/
archives/workbench/.
As mentioned earlier, secure_auth is enabled by default
as of MySQL 5.6 and MySQL 5.7. If secure_auth is enabled,
you cannot log in to your user’s password that is stored
in the old format. Attempts will not work and result in
an error similar to “ERROR 2049 (HY000): Connection
using old (pre-4.1.1) authentication protocol refused (cli-
ent option ‘secure_auth’ enabled).” In order to upgrade the
password, you can either disable secure_auth then update
it, or log in as a different user, such as root, to change the
password for a different user.
Using MySQL Workbench to Upgrade Your Password

In regards to everything stated above, there are two methods
to update passwords using MySQL Workbench. To start,
open the Users and Privileges tab from the Management
navigator. Select the user account you want to update from
the User Accounts section. If inserting the old password
format, you will see text beginning with “This account is
using the pre-MySQL-4.1.1 password hashing type.” in the
lower right corner of the screen, and also a large Upgrade

button on the right. From here, you can
• Option for all MySQL versions: Manually insert a

new password, or the current password, and click
Upgrade. This upgrades the password to the newer
password format, and the MySQL user can now log
in using the new password.
• Option for MySQL 5.6 and later: Instead of editing
the password field, leave it as it is and immediately
click Upgrade. From here, you can create a random
password and tag it as expired by clicking Reset To
Expired. Use this temporary random password to log
in the user, and MySQL will ask you for a new pass-
word when the user first logs in.
ACCESSING THE MySQL VIA THE COMMAND
This section narrates options supported by most MySQL

client systems that control how client programs create con-
nections to the server, whether connections are encrypted,
or whether connections are compressed. These options can

be divided by three different command lines:
• Command Options for Connection Establishment

• Command Options for Encrypted Connections
• Command Options for Connection Compression
Command Options for Connection Establishment8
Option Name Description

default-auth - Authentication plugin to use
host - Host on which MySQL server is located
password - Password to use when connecting to server
pipe - Connect to server using named pipe (Windows only)
plugin-dir - Directory where plugins are installed
port - TCP/IP port number for connection
protocol - Transport protocol to use
shared-memory- Shared-memory name for shared-memory
base-name - connections
socket - Unix socket file or Windows named pipe to use
user - MySQL user name to use when connecting to server
• default-auth=plugin: A regulation about which cli-

ent-side authentication plugin to use.
• host=host_name, -h host_name: The host on which
the MySQL server is running. The value can be
treated like a hostname with an IPv4 address or IPv6
address. The default value is localhost.
8 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/connection-options.html, MySQL
• password[=pass_val], -p[pass_val]: The password

of the MySQL account selected for connecting to the
server. The password value is optional. If not chosen,
the program demands one by default. If inserted,
there must be no space between --password= or -p
and the password following it. If no password option
is specified, the default is to send no password.
Identifying a password on the command line
might be considered insecure. To avoid having to give
the password on the command line, use an option
file. To explicitly state that there is no password and
that the client program should not ask for one, use
the --skip-password option.
• pipe: On Windows, link to the server using a named
pipe. This option applies only if the server was acti-
vated with the named_pipe system variable enabled
to support named-pipe connections. Moreover, the
user making the connection should be a member of
the Windows group specified by the named_pipe_
full_access_group system variable.
• plugin-dir=dir_name: Stands for a directory in
which to search for plugins. Specify this option if the
--default-auth option is used to mark an authentica-
tion plugin.
• port=port_num, -P port_num: For TCP/IP connec-
tions, the port number to use. The default port num-
ber is 3306.
• protocol={TCP|SOCK ET|PIPE|M E MORY}:
This option specifically states which transport
protocol to apply for connecting to the server. It is

convenient when other connection parameters nor-
mally end up using a protocol other than the one you
want. For instance, connections on Unix to localhost
are made using a Unix socket file by default:
• MySQL --host=localhost: To force TCP/IP
transport to be used instead, specify a --protocol
option:
• MySQL --host=localhost --protocol=TCP: The
following list illustrates the permissible --protocol
option values and presents the applicable plat-
forms for each value. To note, the values are not
case-sensitive.9
Protocol Applicable
Value Transport Protocol Used Platforms
TCP TCP/IP transport to local or remote All
server
SOCKET Unix socket-file transport to local Unix
server
PIPE Named-pipe transport to local Windows
server
MEMORY Shared-memory transport to local Windows
server
• shared-memory-base-name=name: On Windows,
the shared-memory name is applied when you
need to move shared memory to a local server. The
default value is MYSQL. The shared-memory name
is case-sensitive. This option would work only if the
server was started with the shared_memory system

variable that is made to support shared-memory
connections.
• socket=path, -S path: On Unix, the name of this
Unix socket file is used for connections shared a
named pipe to a local server. On Windows, this
option applies only if the server was started with
the named_pipe system variable enabled to support
named-pipe connections. Besides, the user making
the connection should be a member of the Windows
group identified by the named_pipe_full_access_
group system variable.
• user=user_name, -u user_name: Stands for a user
name of the MySQL account to use for connecting
to the server. The default user name is ODBC on
Windows or your Unix login name on Unix.
Command Options for Encrypted Connections

These commands could be treated as options for client
programs that specify whether to utilize encrypted con-
nections to the server, the names of certificate and key
files, and other items related to encrypted connection
support. These options have an impact only for connec-
tions that use a transport protocol subject to encryption
such as:10

--get-server-public-key Request RSA public key from server
--server-public-key-path Path name to file containing RSA public key
--ssl-ca File that contains list of trusted SSL
Certificate Authorities
--ssl-capath Directory that contains trusted SSL
Certificate Authority certificate files
--ssl-cert File that contains X.509 certificate
--ssl-cipher Permissible ciphers for connection encryption
--ssl-crl File that contains certificate revocation lists
--ssl-crlpath Directory that contains certificate
revocation-list files
--ssl-fips-mode Whether to enable FIPS mode on client side
--ssl-key File that contains X.509 key
--ssl-mode Desired security state of connection to server
--tls-ciphersuites Permissible TLSv1.3 ciphersuites for
encrypted connections
--tls-version Permissible TLS protocols for encrypted
connections
• get-server-public-key: Stands for a request from the

server the public key required for pair-based pass-
word exchange. This option is well suited for clients
that authenticate with the caching_sha2_password
authentication plugin. For that plugin, the server
does not provide the public key unless requested. This
option is omitted in accounts that do not authenti-
cate with that plugin. It is also canceled if password
exchange is not activated, as is the case when the cli-
ent accesses the server using a secure connection.
• server-public-key-path=file_name: This is a path-
name to a file in Privacy Enhanced Mail format
holding a client-side copy of the public key needed

by the server for pair-based password exchange.
This option is great for clients that authenticate with
the sha256_password or caching_sha2_password
authentication plugin. This option is removed from
accounts that do not authenticate with one of those
plugins. It is also removed if password exchange is
not applied, as is the case when the client accesses the
server using a secure connection.
In addition, if --server-public-key-path=file_name
is given and determines a valid public key file, it takes
precedence over --get-server-public-key. This option is
available only if MySQL was activated using OpenSSL.
• ssl-ca=file_name: This is a pathname of the
Certificate Authority (CA) certificate file in Privacy
Enhanced Mail format. The file has a list of verified
SSL Certificate Authorities. To make the client not
authenticate the server certificate when setting up an
encrypted connection to the server, specify neither
--SSL-ca nor --SSL-capath. The server still verifies the
client according to any applicable requirements ini-
tiated for the client account, and it still includes any
ssl_ca or ssl_capath system variables included to the
server-side. To specify the CA file for the server, just
insert the ssl_ca system variable.
• ssl-capath=dir_name: Stands for a pathname of the
directory that holds all trusted SSL CA certificate
files in Privacy Enhanced Mail format. To indicated
to the client not to authenticate the server certificate
when linking an encrypted connection to the server,
specify neither --SSL-ca nor --SSL-capath. The server

still validates the client according to any applicable
requirements set for the client account, and it still
includes any ssl_ca or ssl_capath system variable val-
ues set on the server-side.
• ssl-cert=file_name: The pathname of the client SSL
public key certificate file in Privacy Enhanced Mail
format. To determine the server SSL public key cer-
tificate file, set the ssl_cert system variable.
• ssl-cipher=cipher_list: This command stands for the
list of permissible encryption ciphers for connections
that apply TLS protocols up through TLSv1.2. If no
cipher in the list is affirmed, encrypted connections
that apply these TLS protocols do not operate. For
better interoperability, cipher_list should be a list of
one or more cipher names, divided by colons.
• ssl-crl=file_name: The pathname of the file hold-
ing up certificate revocation lists (CRL) in Privacy
Enhanced Mail format. If neither --ssl-crl nor --SSL-
crlpath is supported, no CRL checks are performed,
even if the CA path supports certificate revocation lists.
To define the revocation-list file for the server, prompt
the ssl_crl system variable.
• ssl-crlpath=dir_name: The pathname of the direc-
tory that contains certificate revocation-list files in
Privacy Enhanced Mail format. If neither --ssl-crl
nor --SSL-crlpath is supported, no CRL checks are
performed, even if the CA path holds certificate
revocation lists. To determine the revocation-list

directory for the server, insert the ssl_crlpath system
variable.
• ssl-fips-mode={OFF|ON|STRICT}: Monitors whether
to enable FIPS mode on the client-side. The --ssl-fips-
mode option differs from other --SSL-xxx options in
that it is not applied to create encrypted connections,
but rather to affect which cryptographic operations
to allow. To illustrate, these --SSL-fips-mode values
are permissible:
• OFF: Disable FIPS mode.
• ON: Enable FIPS mode.
• STRICT: Enable “strict” FIPS mode.
At the same time, if the OpenSSL FIPS Object
Module is not available, the only permissible
value for --SSL-fips-mode is OFF. In this case, set-
ting --ssl-fips-mode to ON or STRICT pushes the
client to come up with a warning at startup and to
administer in non-FIPS mode.
• ssl-key=file_name: The pathname of the client SSL
private key file in Privacy Enhanced Mail format. For
better security, you can use a certificate with a key
size of at least 2048 bits. If the key file is secured by
a passphrase, the client program demands the pass-
phrase. The password should be given interactively
as it cannot be stored in a file. If the passphrase is
not correct, the program keeps going as if it could not
read the key. To designate the server SSL private key
file, set the ssl_key system variable.
• ssl-mode=mode: This option is used to match the

desired security state of the connection to the server.
These mode values are acceptable, in order to increase
security:
• DISABLED: Set an unencrypted connection.
• PREFERRED: Set an encrypted connection if the
server has encrypted connections, falling back to
an unencrypted connection if an encrypted con-
nection cannot be produced. This is the default
if --SSL-mode is not specified.
Connections over Unix socket files are not
encrypted with a mode of PREFERRED. To enable
encryption for Unix socket-file connections, use
a mode of REQUIRED or stricter.11
• REQUIRED: Set an encrypted connection if
the server supports encrypted connections. The
connection attempt will not be completed if an
encrypted connection is not set properly.
• VERIFY_CA: Like REQUIRED, but addition-
ally validate the server CA certificate against
the configured CA certificates. The connection
attempt fails if no valid matching CA certificates
are selected.
• VERIFY_IDENTITY: Like VERIFY_CA, but
additionally operate hostname identity verifica-
tion by checking the hostname the client applies
for connecting to the server against the identity

in the certificate that the server forwards to the
client.
As for MySQL 8.0.12, if the client uses OpenSSL 1.0.2 or

higher, the client has to see whether the hostname that it
uses for connecting matches either the Subject Alternative
Name value or the Common Name value in the server cer-
tificate. Hostname identity verification also comes with
certificates that identify the Common Name using wild-
cards. In another case, the client checks whether the host-
name that it utilizes for connecting matches the Common
Name value in the server certificate. The connection fails
if there is those two do not match. For encrypted connec-
tions, this option helps avoid any hacker attacks.
It is also important to keep in mind that the hostname
identity verification with VERIFY_IDENTITY does not
apply to self-signed certificates that are generated auto-
matically by the server or manually using mysql_ssl_rsa_
setup. Such self-signed certificates do not hold any server
names as the Common Name value.
The --SSL-mode option interrelate with CA certificate
options in the following manner:12
• If --SSL-mode is not explicitly set other-

wise, use of --SSL-ca or --SSL-capath implies
--SSL-mode=VERIFY_CA.
• For --SSL-mode values of VERIFY_CA or VERIFY_
IDENTITY, --SSL-ca or --SSL-capath is also required,
to offer a CA certificate that matches the one used by

the server.
• An explicit --SSL-mode option with a value other
than VERIFY_CA or VERIFY_IDENTITY comes
together with an explicit --SSL-ca or --SSL-capath
option, producing a warning that no verification of
the server certificate is completed, despite a CA cer-
tificate option being identified.
To acquire such encrypted connections by a MySQL

account, insert CREATE USER to produce the account
with a REQUIRE SSL variable, or use ALTER USER for
an existing account to include a REQUIRE SSL clause.
This causes interrelation attempts by clients that utilize the
account to be rejected unless MySQL supports encrypted
connections and an encrypted connection can be set.
• --tls-ciphersuites=ciphersuite_list: This option

determines which cipher suites the client allows for
encrypted connections that use TLSv1.3. The value
is a list of zero or more colon-separated ciphersuite
names. To demonstrate:
MySQL --tls-ciphersuites="suite1:suite2:
suite3"
The ciphersuites that can be named for this option

depend on the SSL library used to come up with
MySQL. If this option is not available, the client has
to allow the default set of cipher suites. If the option
is set to the empty string, no ciphersuites are enabled

and encrypted connections cannot be authorized.
• --tls-version=protocol_list: This option optimizes
the TLS protocols list that the client selects for
encrypted connections. The value, therefore, is a list
of one or more comma-separated protocol items. To
demonstrate:
mysql --tls-version="TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2"
The protocols that can be named for this option depend on the
SSL library applied to compile MySQL. Permitted protocols
should be selected such as not to leave free spaces in the list.
To illustrate, these values do not have any space in between:
• --tls-version=“TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2,TLSv1.3”
• --tls-version=“TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2,TLSv1.3”
• --tls-version=“TLSv1.2,TLSv1.3”
• --tls-version=“TLSv1.3”
These values do have variables skipped in between, there-

fore should not be used:
• --tls-version=“TLSv1,TLSv1.2”
• --tls-version=“TLSv1.1,TLSv1.3”
Command Options for Connection Compression

This section describes options that let client programs
monitor the use of compression for connections to the
server. The Connection-Compression Option Summary

goes the following way13:

--compress Compact all information sent between
client and server
--compression-algorithms Supported compression algorithms for
connections to server
--zstd-compression-level Compression level for connections to
server that use zstd compression
• --compress, -C: Compress all information exchanged

between the client and the server.
• --compression-algorithms=value: Stand for all the
permitted compression algorithms for connections to
the server. The available algorithms operate in a simi-
lar manner as the protocol_compression_algorithms
system variable. The default value is uncompressed.
• --zstd-compression-level=level: Identifies the com-
pression level to apply for connections to the server
that uses the zstd compression algorithm. The aver-
age level is from 1 to 22, with larger values indicat-
ing increasing levels of compression. The default zstd
compression level is 3. The compression level setting
has no recognized impact on connections that do not
use zstd compression.
On the foundation of what we have learned about starting

up with MySQL, in the next chapter, we shall look deeper
into Data Modeling and Storing Routines of the database.
Chapter 3
Data Modeling
IN THIS CHAPTER
➢➢ Understanding the main concepts about MySQL data

modeling
➢➢ Learning how to apply stored routines
➢➢ Managing MySQL reverse engineering processes
Data modeling is the process of operating and analyzing data

models for resources located in a database. The data model is
an abstract system that standardizes the data specification,
data semantic, and consistency limitations of data. Its main
aim is to administer the types of data within a structure,
the relationships between objects, and their characteris-
tics. The data model helps to recognize what data is neces-
sary and how data should be arranged properly. It is like a
guideline for an analyst to better group and catalog what is
being created.
DOI: 10.1201/9781003229629-3 97
The bigger the scope of data circulates in an organiza-

tion, the more advanced data modeling tool is required.
The functionality potential of these tools can be very broad
and impressive. Nevertheless, the main features of these
tools are the following:
• Compatibility with various models and their levels

• Capacity to produce new models from existing ones
• Management of different data elements
• Support for common modeling activities
• Management of relationships and dependencies
between models and their items
• Business glossary
Creating and overseeing a data model requires collabora-

tion among different management areas (data architect,
business stakeholders, product-users). The use of data
modeling software connects and clears the information
flow as well as verifies the correct representation of all data
items necessary by the database. Moreover, the tool is great
for systemizing the model at three levels: physical, logical,
and conceptual. Additionally, it helps when searching for
missing and redundant data. The end result of the above
advantages is a reduction of very time-consuming data
modeling activities and consequently saving resources for
the organization.
MySQL is very plentiful when it comes to data types.
There are a wide variety of options available to sufficiently
Data Modeling ◾ 99
store and recapture data. To look back on Chapter 1, these

are the data types most commonly used in MySQL:
• INT—For storing integer values

• CHAR—For storing fixed-length character values
• VARCHAR—For storing character values with vari-
able lengths
• DATETIME—For storing date and time information
• TIMESTAMPS—For storing timestamps of various
actions
• TEXT—For storing large amounts of text data
• ENUM—For storing one of the preset values
• BOOLEAN—For storing a single Boolean value
• BLOB—For storing binary files and objects
MySQL has its own certain methods when it comes to stor-

ing data. MySQL is based on the concepts of tables, col-
umns, and rows. For starters, we need to understand that
MySQL data is normally located in isolated environments
called databases that are separated from other databases.
A database here stands for the topmost entity in MySQL.
It contains tables that communicate with each other. But
at the same time, a table from one database cannot com-
municate with a table from another database.
Tables should be viewed as containers for related data.
They can also be considered as collections of data that
can be grouped and arranged accordingly together. For
instance, a table named student could hold data such as

name, date of birth, and others. However, it may not be
suitable to include data such as an address, house, and
other things. For such data, it would make a lot more
sense to create a new table. Each data item will then be
counted as a column, and a group of such columns would
set up a table. Nevertheless, there cannot be two tables
with the same name in a database. At the same time, rows
contain the veritable data in your database. Each row acts
like an entry into a table that pretty much looks like an
excel sheet.
Modeling disentangles database design and operability
by enabling you, the data manager, to visualize require-
ments and settle design issues. Model-based database
design is a well-structured methodology for producing
valid and efficient databases while securing the flexibility
to respond to expanding data requirements. Models are
applied to build Enhanced entity-relationship (EER) dia-
grams and physical MySQL databases via visual database
design tool MySQL Workbench.
MySQL Workbench provides an extensive set of
upgraded features for creating and manipulating database
models, including specific tasks such as:
• Creating and exploiting a model graphically

• Reversing engineer, live databases to a model
• Forwarding engineer model to a script or live database
• Creating and modifying tables, inserting multidi-
mensional, multidisciplinary data
CREATING AND MANAGING TABLES

AND RELATIONS
As previously mentioned, tables are the foundation of the

organizational structure in SQL databases. They consist
of a number of columns that reflect individual patterns of
each row, or record, in the table. Being such a primarily
important aspect of data organization, it is crucial for any-
one who works with relational databases to learn how to
create, modify, and delete tables as requested. In this sec-
tion, we shall cover how to create tables in MySQL, as well
as how to edit and delete existing tables.
In order to follow this part, you will need a computer
running some type of relational database management
system (RDBMS) that uses SQL. The instructions and
examples in this guide were certified using the follow-
ing environment: A server running Ubuntu 20.04, with a
non-root user with administrative privileges. And MySQL
installed and secured on the server If your SQL database
system runs on a remote server, SSH into your server from

your local machine:
ssh example@your_server_ip
Then open up the MySQL server prompt, replacing exam-

ple with the name of your MySQL user account:
MySQL -u example -p
Create a database named tablesDB - CREATE DATABASE

tablesDB;
And if the database was created successfully, you should
be able to receive output like this:
Output - Query OK, 1 row affected

(0.01 second)
To select the tablesDB database, run the following USE

statement - USE tablesDB;
Output - Database changed
With that, you are now ready to go with the rest of this
chapter and begin learning about how to create and man-
age tables in MySQL.
Start by double-clicking the Add table icon in the
Physical Schemas section of the Model Overview tab adds
a table with the default name of table1. If a table with this
name already exists, the new table is named table2.
Creating a new table automatically opens the table
editor that is located at the bottom of the application.
Right-clicking a table opens a context menu with the fol-

lowing items:1
Cut 'table_name': Cut a table to optionally

paste it into another schema.
Copy 'table_name': Copy a table to
optionally paste it into another schema.
Paste 'table_name': Paste a cut or copied
table. The Paste option is also accessible
from the main Edit menu.
Edit 'table_name': Changes the docked table
editor to the selected table.
Edit 'table_name' in New Tab: Opens the
table in a new table editor tab.
Copy SQL to Clipboard: Copies a CREATE
TABLE statement for the table.
Copy Column Names to Clipboard: Copies a
comma-separated list of column names.
Copy Insert to Clipboard: Copies INSERT
statements based on the model's inserts.
Nothing is copied to the clipboard if the
table has no inserts defined.
Copy Insert Template to Clipboard: Copies
a generic INSERT statement that is based
on the model.
Delete 'table_name': Remove a table from
the database.
The last item immediately deletes the table without a

confirmation dialog box. If applicable, you can try Remove
1 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/wb-tables-physical-schemata.
html, MySQL
Figure ‘table_name’: It removes only the figure associated

with the table.
At the same time, if the table editor is not open, the Edit
‘table_name’ item opens it. If it is already activated, the
selected table replaces the previous one. Edit ‘table_name’
in New Tab opens an additional table editor tab. Any tables
added to the Physical Schemas section also show up in the
Catalog Tree palette within the EER Diagram tab. They
may be included in an EER Diagram by dragging and
dropping them from this palette.
Tables can also be inserted into an EER Diagram using
the table tool on the vertical toolbar. For that, make sure that
the EER Diagram tab is selected, then right-click the table
icon on the vertical toolbar. Clicking the mouse on this
icon changes the mouse pointer to a table pointer. You can
also change the mouse pointer to a table pointer by pressing
the T key.
Selecting the table tool changes the contents of the
toolbar that displays immediately below the menu bar.
When the Tables pointer is active, this toolbar presents a
schemas list, an engines list, a collations list, and a color
chart list. Make use of these lists to select the appropri-
ate schema, engine, collation, and color accent for the
new table. You need to associate the new table with a
database so that engine and collation of a table can be
modified using the table editor. The color of your table
can be changed using the Properties palette. The Default
Engine and Default Collation values refer to the database
defaults.
On the other hand, creating a table by clicking any-
where on the EER Diagram canvas creates a new table with
the default name table1. And if you want to revert to the

default mouse pointer, click the arrow icon at the top of the
vertical toolbar. The Primary Key is indicated by a key icon
and indexed fields are indicated by a different colored dia-
mond icon. Click the arrow to the right of the table name to
call upon the display of the fields. You can get the display of
indexes and triggers in the same way.
Right-clicking a table opens a pop-up menu with the fol-
lowing items:2
Cut 'table_name'
Copy 'table_name'
Paste
Edit 'table_name'
Edit 'table_name' in New Tab…
Copy SQL to Clipboard
Copy Column Names to Clipboard
Copy Inserts to Clipboard
Copy Insert Template to Clipboard
Delete 'table_name'
Remove Figure 'table_name'
When creating the schema for a database, one of the SQL

sub-languages, Data Definition Language (DDL) is engaged
to do this. However, there are other parts of a database’s
schema that are controlled and administered by another of
SQL’s sub-language, Data Control Language (DCL).
DCL is mainly concerned with checking who is per-
mitted to perform certain actions within a database, or, to
2 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/wb-using-table-tool.html, MySQL
put it simply, with the “security of a database.” Although

we will not look at DCL in detail in this book, it is worth
understanding that the “security settings” defined by DCL
are also part of the database’s operational system. We can
see an indication of this if we look closely at the informa-
tion returned by the \dt meta-command. When we apply
\dt, we see a table of information, schema, name, type,
and owner. And all of these items of the database’s schema
could be used by DCL to allow or limit access to certain
parts of the database or specific tables. The value in the
owner column, in particular, is very much a DCL task; for
instance, you could add a restriction to a table so that other
users can add, read, update, and delete data from the table
but only the owner can modify the structure of the table or
cut out the table entirely. You can perceive this in terms of
different users having different levels of permission to the
database.
To recap the ground we have covered so far:
• Tables are created using the CREATE TABLE SQL

command.
• Table column definitions go between the parentheses
of the table creation statement.
• Table column definitions consist of a column name, a
data type, and optional constraints.
• There are many different data types.
• Although database schema is largely a DDL concern,
parts of it, such as access and permissions, are defined
by DCL.
The majority of databases you will have to work with

as a developer will have more than one table, and those
tables will be interrelated with each other in various ways
to form table relationships. It is therefore important to
explore the reasons for having multiple tables in a data-
base, look at how to define relationships between different
tables, and profile the different types of table relationships
that can exist.
It is easier to think of a diagram as a simple Entity
Relationship Diagram (ERD). An ERD is a graphical
depiction of entities and their relationships to each other
and is a commonly applied tool within database modeling.
There are different types of ERD starting from concep-
tual to extremely detailed, and often using specific descrip-
tions such as foot notation to model relationships. We shall
not go into the details of these different types, for now, it
is simply useful to think of an ERD as any diagram which
frames relationships between entities.
Once we have outlined that there are certain relation-
ships existing between tables in ERD, we can actually start
to implement those relationships in terms of table schema
using keys. Here keys stand for are a special type of con-
straint utilized to establish relationships and highlight their
uniqueness. They can be used to point to a specific row in
the current table or to refer to a specific row in another
table. Let us look at two types of keys that bring about these
particular roles: Primary Keys and Foreign Keys.
Primary Keys
A requisite part of establishing relationships between two
entities or two parts of data is being able to certify the data
correctly. Particularly in MySQL, uniquely recognizing

data is crucial. A Primary Key is a unique identifier for a
row of data.
In order to function as a unique identifier, a column
should hold some data, and that data should be unique to
each row. In fact, making a column a PRIMARY KEY is
essentially similar to attaching NOT NULL and UNIQUE
constraints to that column. However, even if any column
in a table can have UNIQUE and NOT NULL constraints
applied to them, each table can have only one Primary Key.
It is common practice for that Primary Key to be a column
named id. And while a column of any name can act as the
Primary Key, using a column named id is advantageous for
collective reasons and so is a popular option.
Being able to clearly identify a row of data in a table via
that table’s Primary Key column is only half the procedure
needed to create relationships between tables. The other
half would be to learn how to activate the Primary Key’s
partner, the Foreign Key.
Foreign Keys
A Foreign Key enables us to link and associate a row in one
table to a row in another table. This is achieved by setting
a column in one table as a Foreign Key and having that
column reference another table’s Primary Key column.
Creating this relationship is possible through using the
REFERENCES keyword in this form: FOREIGN KEY (fk_
col_name) REFERENCES target_table_name (pk_col_
name); In general terms, you can think of this reference as
establishing a connection between rows in different tables.
It is best to try and look through an example.
For instance, you have two tables; one is designated for

colors and the other one for shapes. The color_id column of
the shapes table is a Foreign Key which references the id col-
umn of the colors table. Let us imagine that the “Red” row
of our colors table is associated with the “Square” and “Star”
rows of the shapes table. Similarly, “Blue” is connected to
“Triangle” and “Green” with “Circle.” “Orange” would not
be associated with any row in the shapes table, but might
be potentially available to creating such an association if we
add another row into shapes with a color_id of 3.
By setting up this reference, you are securing the ref-
erential balance of a relationship. Referential balance is
the guarantee that a column value within a record gets a
reference of the same existing value; if it does not match,
then an error occurs. Namely, MySQL will not let you add
a value to the Foreign Key column of a table if the Primary
Key column of the table it is referencing does not actually
hold that value.
Another way in which a Foreign Key is applied as part
of a table’s schema depends on the type of relationship you
want to set between tables. In order to execute that schema
correctly, it is practical to formally describe the relation-
ships you need to model between those entities. As in, you
want to define your constraints in the following manner
first, before actually acting upon any keys operation:
• A User can have ONE house. A house can have only

ONE user OR.
• A User can have MANY houses that he/she may have
checked in or lived in. A house can be/ have been
checked in by MANY users.
The entity relationships described above can be classi-

fied into three relationship types:
• one-to-one: A one-to-one relationship between two

entities exists when a particular entity item is placed in
one table, and it can have only one associated entity in
another table. To illustrate: A user can have only one
house, and a house belongs to only one user. This exam-
ple is contrived: in the real world, users can have mul-
tiple houses, and multiple people can live in the same
house. Yet in the database frame, this type of arrange-
ment is implemented in the following manner: the id
that is the PRIMARY KEY of the user’s table is used as
both the FOREIGN KEY and PRIMARY KEY of the
houses table.
• one-to-many: A one-to-many relationship exists
between two entities if an entity item in one of the
tables can be connected to multiple records (entity
occurrences) in the other table. The opposite rela-
tionship does not exist; that is, each entity occur-
rence in the second table can only be connected to
one entity instance in the first table. For instance, a
review is associated with only one book. A book can
have many reviews.
• many-to-many: A many-to-many relationship is pos-
sible between two entities if for one entity occurrence
there may be multiple records in the other table and
vice versa. For example, a user can check into many
houses. A house can be checked in by many users
(over an extended period of time). However, in order
to execute this type of relationship we need to intro-

duce a third, cross-reference table. This table would
hold the relationship between the two entities, by hav-
ing two FOREIGN KEYs, each of which references
the PRIMARY KEY of one of the tables for which you
need to create this relationship.
Adding Foreign Key relationships using an EER Diagram is

quite straightforward. You can choose from six Foreign Key
tools at the vertical toolbar on the left side of an EER Diagram:
• one-to-one non-identifying relationship

• one-to-many non-identifying relationship
• one-to-one identifying relationship
• one-to-many identifying relationship
• many-to-many identifying relationship
• Place a relationship using existing columns
Significant dissimilarities include the following:
• An identifying relationship: identified by a solid

line between tables: An identifying relationship
is one where the child table cannot be uniquely
described without its parent. This usually occurs
where an intermediary table is brought to resolve a
many-to-many relationship. In such instances, the
Primary Key is usually a collective key made up of
the Primary Keys from the two original tables.
• A non-identifying relationship: identified by a bro-

ken (or dashed) line between tables: You can create
or drag and drop the tables that you want connected
to ensure that there is a Primary Key in the table that
stays as “one” side of the relationship. Next, you have
to click on the appropriate tool for the type of relation-
ship you wish to establish. If you are creating a one-
to-many relationship, first click the table that is on the
“many” side of the relationship, then on the table hold-
ing the referenced key. This creates a column in the
table on the many sides of the relationship. The default
name of this column is table_name_key_name where
the table name and the key name both address to the
table carrying the referenced key.
When the many-to-many tool is action, double-clicking

a table makes an associative table with a many-to-many
relationship. However, for this tool to work, there must
be a Primary Key placed in the initial table. To edit the
characteristics of a Foreign Key, double-click anywhere on
the connection line that associates the two tables. This will
open the relationship editor.
Pausing your mouse pointer over a relationship connec-
tor will highlight the connector, its caption, and the related
keys. If the placement of a connection’s caption is not suit-
able, you can change its position by dragging it to a dif-
ferent location. In case you have set a secondary caption,
its position can also be changed. You can select multiple
connections by holding down the Control key as you click
a connection. This can be particularly handy for highlight-
ing specific relationships on an EER diagram.
The Relationship Editor

Double-clicking a relationship on the EER diagram plat-
form activates the relationship editor that primarily has
two tabs: Relationship and Foreign Key.
In the Relationship tab, you can set the caption of a rela-
tionship using the Caption field that is displayed on the
canvas. The default value for this name is fk_source_table_
destination_table. You can use the Model menu, Menu
Options menu item to out a project-specific default name
for Foreign Keys.
The Visibility Settings section is used to define how the
relationship is displayed on the EER Diagram canvas. Fully
Visible is the default but you can also select to hide rela-
tionship lines or to use split lines. Here, a broken line con-
nector indicates a non-identifying relationship. The split
line style can be used with an identifying relationship or
a non-identifying relationship. It is used for presentation
purposes only and does not specify anything about the
nature of a relationship.
Foreign Key Tab

The Foreign Key tab has several sections: Referencing
Table, Cardinality, and Referenced Table. The obligatory
checkboxes are used to choose whether the referencing
table and the referenced table are mandatory. By default,
both of these constraints applied (indicated by the check-
boxes being checked).
The Cardinality section has a set of radio buttons that let
you choose whether the relationship is one-to-one or one-to-
many. There is also a check box that enables you to indicate
whether the relationship is an identifying relationship or not.
You should right-click a connection to select its proper-

ties. Thus, when a connection is selected, it is highlighted,
and its properties are presented in the properties canvas.
Connection properties are different from the properties of
other objects. The following list describes them:3
• caption: The name of the connection. By default, the

name is the name of the Foreign Key and the prop-
erty is centered above the connection line.
• captionXOffs: The X offset of the caption.
• captionYOffs: The Y offset of the caption.
• comment: The comment associated with the relationship.
• drawSplit: Whether to show the relationship as a
continuous line.
• endCaptionXOffs: The X termination point of the
caption offset.
• endCaptionYOffs: The Y termination point of the
caption offset.
• extraCaption: A secondary caption. By default, this
extra caption is centered beneath the connection line.
• extraCaptionXOffs: The X offset of the secondary
caption.
• extraCaptionYOffs: The Y offset of the secondary
caption.
3 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/wb-connection-properties.html,
MySQL
• mandatory: Whether the entities are mandatory.

• many: False if the relationship is a one-to-one
relationship.
• middleSegmentOffset: The offset of the middle sec-
tion of the connector.
• modelOnly: Set when the connection will not be
propagated to the DDL. It is just a logical connection
drawn on a diagram. This is used, for example, when
drawing tables with a visual relationship, but with no
Foreign Keys.
• name: The name used to identify the connection on
the EER Diagram canvas. Note that this is not the
name of the Foreign Key.
• referredMandatory: Whether the referred entity is
mandatory.
• startCaptionXOffs: The start of the X offset of the
caption.
• startCaptionYOffs: The start of the Y offset of the
caption.
In most cases, you can change the properties of a relationship

using the relationship editor and not the Properties canvas.
If you make a relationship invisible by storing it away
using the relationship editor’s Visibility Settings, and then
close the relationship editor, you will not be able to select
the relationship to call up its relationship editor. In order to
make the relationship visible again, you should expand the
table object relating to the relationship in the Layers canvas
and choose the relationship object. To edit the selected

object, right-click it, then select Edit Object. You can then
change the Visibility Settings to Fully Visible so it could
appear in the EER Diagram window.
At this point, it is also important to discuss a topic that
is essential when dealing with table relationships: refer-
ential integrity. This is a concept used when discussing
relational data which states that table relationships must
always be consistent. Different databases might be able to
apply referential integrity rules differently, but the concept
has to stay the same.
The constraints we have defined for the user and houses
example above enforces the one-to-one relationship,
whereby a user can only have one address and an address
must have one, and only one, the user. This is a typical exam-
ple of referential integrity. To demonstrate how it works:
What happens if we try to add another house to a user
who already has one?
INSERT INTO houses (user_id, street, city,

state)
VALUES (1, '2 Park Avenue', 'NY', 'USA');
Copy Code
ERROR: duplicate key value violates unique
constraint "houses_pkey"
DETAIL: Key (user_id)=(1) already exists.
The error above occurs because we are trying to insert a

value 1 into the user_id column when such a value already
exists in that column. The UNIQUE constraint on the col-
umn does not let us do so.
How about if we try to add a house for a user who does

not exist?
INSERT INTO houses (user_id, street, city,

state) VALUES
(7, '11 Station Avenue', 'Portland', 'USA');
Copy Code
ERROR: insert or update on table
"addresses" violates Foreign Key constraint
"houses_user_id_fkey"
DETAIL: Key (user_id)=(7) is not present
in table "users".
Here, we get a different error. The FOREIGN KEY con-

straint on the user_id column prevents us from adding the
value 7 to that column because that value is not present in
the id column of the user’s table.
In this case, if you are wondering why you can add a
user without an address but cannot add an address with-
out a user, this is due to the modality of the relationship
between the two entities. There is no need to know exactly
what this means for now, but it is important to be aware of
this aspect of entity relationships.
The ON DELETE Clause

Once you get to it, you might also be able to notice in
the table creation statement for the houses table, the
FOREIGN KEY definition included a clause that read
ON DELETE CASCADE. Including this clause, and set-
ting it to CASCADE basically means that if the row being
referenced is removed, the row referencing it also disap-

pears. There are alternatives to CASCADE such as SET
NULL or SET DEFAULT, which, instead of removing the
referencing row will set a new value in the suitable column
for that row.
Deciding what to do in cases where you delete a row that
is referenced by another row is a significant design deci-
sion and is part of the concept of monitoring referential
integrity. If you do not put such clauses, you basically leave
the decision of what to do up to the database. In the case of
MySQL, if you remove a row that is being referenced by a
row in another table and you have no ON DELETE clause
for that reference, then an error will occur.
STORING ROUTINES
A stored routine is a named package of SQL statements

that are located on the server. There is no need for users to
keep re-issuing the individual statements when they can
refer to the stored routine instead.
Stored routine types:
• Stored procedures: Invoke procedures with a CALL

statement. They can pass back values using output
variables or result sets.
• Stored functions: Call functions inside a statement
that return scalar values.
While both types of routines hold SQL statements, MySQL

has several key limitations on stored functions that are not
suitable for stored procedures, as follows:4
• Stored functions cannot use SQL statements that

return result sets.
• Stored functions cannot use SQL statements that per-
form transactional commits or rollbacks.
• Stored functions cannot call themselves recursively.
• Stored functions must produce a return value.
Setting MySQL statements into server-side routines has

four important advantages:
1. A stored routine is located on the database server,

rather than in the application. For applications
based on a client-server structure, calling a stored
routine is more convenient and requires less network
interaction than transmitting an entire complex of
4 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/wb-routines.html, MySQL
SQL statements and making decisions on the result

menu. Stored routines also reduce code repetition
by letting developers take out commonly used SQL
operations into a single occurrence. The final result
is smaller, more systematic, and easier to read appli-
cation code.
2. A stored routine is made once but used many times,
usually from more than one program. If the rou-
tine changes, the changes are completed in one spot
(the routine definition) while the routine references
remain unchanged. This fact can make code main-
tenance and upgrade much simpler. In addition, as
errors can be traced and fixed with minimal impact
to the application code, debugging and testing an
application also becomes easier.
3. Implementing database operations as stored routines
can also affect application security because applica-
tion modules can be refused access to certain tables
and only granted access to the routines that operate
those tables. This not only guarantees that an appli-
cation only uses the data it needs but also ensures
reliable implementation of specific tasks or subtasks
across the application.
4. Managing stored routines requires abstract thinking
because packaging SQL operations into a stored rou-
tine are similar to understanding how a specific task
may be compressed into a generic component. With
that, using stored routines encourages the creation of
a more efficient and versatile application structure.
You can add Routine Groups to a database either from

the Physical Schemata section of the MySQL Model page
or from an EER Diagram. While routines may be added
only from the Physical Schemata section of the MySQL
Model page.
If you want to view an existing schema together with
its Routines and Routine Groups, choose Database and
Reverse Engineer from the main menu. After the schema
has been included in the current model, you can see the
schema items on the Physical Schemata platform on the
MySQL Model page. The Routines and Routine Groups
will all be listed there.
MySQL Workbench unites both stored procedures and
stored functions into one logical item called a Routine.
Routine Groups are used to assemble related routines.
You can define Routine with the Routine Group Editor to
assign specific routines to a group, using a drag and drop
function. When designing an EER Diagram, you can place
the Routine Groups on the main platform by dragging
them straight from the Catalog Palette. However, placing
single routines on the diagram is not possible, as it would
clutter the space.
Adding Routines to the Physical Schemata

In order to add a routine, double-click the Add Routine
icon in the Physical Schemata section of the MySQL Model
page. The default name of the routine is routine1. In case
a routine with this name already exists, the new routine
will automatically be named routine2. Adding a new rou-
tine opens the routine editor located at the bottom of the
application. Right-clicking a routine opens a pop-up menu

with the following items:
• Rename
• Cut ‘routine_name’
• Copy ‘routine_name’
• Paste
• Edit Routine
• Edit in New Window
• Copy SQL to Clipboard
• Delete ‘routine_name’
To be precise, the Edit Routine item opens the routine edi-

tor. While the cut and paste items are of great use when
copying routines between different schemata.
It is also important to keep in mind that deleting the code
for a routine from the Routines tab of the Routine Group
Editor results in the removal of the whole routine item from
the model. To remove a routine from a routine group, you
need to use the controls on the Routine Group tab of the
Routine Group Editor. The action of the delete option differs
depending upon how you have modified MySQL Workbench.
To call upon the routine editor, double-click a routine
in the Physical Schemata section on the MySQL Model
page. This opens the routine editor placed at the bottom of
the application. Any number of routines may be operating
at the same time with each additional routine appearing
as a tab at the top of the routine editor. Yet Routine and
Privileges tabs appear at the bottom of the routine editor.

You can navigate between different tabs using the mouse or
from the keyboard by pressing Control+Alt+Tab.
The Routine Tab

You can use the Routine tab of the routine editor to accom-
plish the following tasks:
• Renaming the routine using the Name field

• Entering the SQL to create a routine using the SQL field
The Privileges Tab

The Privileges tab of the routine editor lets you assign spe-
cific roles and privileges. You can also assign privileges to a
role using the role editor. When this tab is first activated,
all roles that have been made are listed on the right. Move the
roles you wish to connect with this table to the Roles list on
the left. You can do this by picking a role and then clicking
the < button. Use the Shift key to select multiple contiguous
roles and the Control key to choosing noncontiguous roles.
To assign privileges to a role, click the role in the Roles
list. This presents all available privileges in the Assigned
Privileges list. The list of privileges listed typically includes
the following:
• ALL
• CREATE
• DROP
• GRANT OPTION
• REFERENCES
• ALTER
• DELETE
• INDEX
• INSERT
• SELECT
• UPDATE
• TRIGGER
You can assign all privileges to a particular role or any other

privilege as listed above. Privileges unrelated to a table, such as
the FILE privilege, will not be displayed. If a role has already
been assigned privileges on a specific table, those privileges
show as already checked in the Assigned Privileges list.
Adding Routine Groups to the Physical Schemata

Double-clicking the Add Routine Group icon in the
Physical Schemata section of the MySQL Model page
includes a routine group with the default name of rou-
tines1. If a routine group with this name already exists, the
new routine group will be named routines2.
Adding a new routine group automatically opens the
routine group’s editor located at the bottom of the appli-
cation. Right-clicking a routine group activates a pop-up
menu with the following items:
• Rename
• Cut ‘routine_group_name’
• Copy ‘routine_group_name’
• Edit Routine
• Edit in New Window
• Copy SQL to Clipboard
• Delete ‘routine_group_name’
Here, the cut and paste items are useful for copying rou-
tine groups between different schemata. Deleting a routine
group from the MySQL Model page removes the group but
does not remove any routines holding in that group.
Any routine groups included in the Physical Schemata
also pop up in the Catalog platform on the right side of the
application. They may be attached to an EER diagram by
dragging and dropping them from this platform.
Adding Routine Groups to an EER Diagram

In order to add routine groups to an EER Diagram, you
can use the Routine Groups tool that is on the vertical
toolbar. Make sure that the EER Diagram tab is selected,
then right-click the routine group’s icon on the vertical
toolbar that is situated right above the lowest toolbar sepa-
rator. Clicking the mouse on this icon will transform the
mouse pointer into a routine group pointer. You can also
change the mouse pointer to a routine pointer by pressing
the G key.
Choosing the Routine Group tool changes the contents of
the toolbar that appears immediately below the menu bar.
When the Routine Groups pointer is operating, this tool-
bar holds a schemata list and a color chart list. It is possible
to use these lists to select the appropriate schema and color

palette for the new routine group. The color of your routine
group can later be changed through the Properties palette.
At the same time, you need to make sure that you associate
the new routine group with a database.
Additionally, you can also create a routine group by
clicking anywhere on the EER Diagram canvas. This cre-
ates a new routine group with the default name routines1.
To return back to the default mouse pointer, just click the
arrow icon at the top of the vertical toolbar. Right-clicking
a routine group opens a pop-up menu, and even though
there is no rename option, the behavior of the delete option
can be determined by your MySQL Workbench Options
Settings.
Modifying a Routine Group Using the Properties

Palette
To call upon the routine group editor, double-click a rou-
tine group object on the EER Diagram platform or double-
click a routine group in the Physical Schemata part on
the MySQL Model page. This activates the routine group
editor placed at the bottom of the application. Double-
clicking the title bar displays the editor fully but doing the
same can also hide it. As already mentioned, you can have
any number of routine groups open at the same time, with
every additional routine group appearing as a tab at the top
of the routine editor.
Similar to other groups, Routine group, and Privileges
tabs appear at the bottom of the routine editor, and you
can navigate between them using the mouse or from the
keyboard by pressing Control+Alt+Tab.
The Routine Groups Tab

The Routine Groups tab of the routine group’s editor is
perfect to get the following tasks done:5
• Renaming the routine group using the Name field

• Adding routines to the group by dragging and drop-
ping them
• Adding comments to the routine group
Stored routines can be particularly beneficial in certain

situations such as:
If multiple client applications are written in different
languages or operate on different platforms, but require the
same database operations to perform. Or when security is
of the utmost importance, you can use stored procedures
and functions for all regular operations. This provides
some sense of stability and security, knowing that all rou-
tines can each operation are properly logged. In such an
environment, applications and users would have no access
to the database tables directly but can only administer spe-
cific stored routines.
Thus, stored routines can provide better quality perfor-
mance because less information needs to be transferred
between the server and the client. At the same time, this
does increase the load on the database server due to the fact
that most of the work is done on the server-side and less is
done on the client-side.
5 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/wb-routines.html#wb-routine-
editor, MySQL
Stored routines also let you have libraries of functions

located in the database server. This is a feature shared by
modern applications that ensure that such design is avail-
able internally. So that using these client application lan-
guage features is beneficial even for the developer outside
the scope of database use.
Stored Routine Syntax

A stored routine is either a procedure or a function that
is created with the CREATE PROCEDURE or CREATE
FUNCTION statements. But if a procedure is invoked
using a CALL statement, and can only deliver values using
output variables, a function can be called from inside
a statement similar to any other function, and can also
return a scalar value. The body of a stored routine can
use compound statements and might be dropped with the
DROP PROCEDURE and DROP FUNCTION statements.
In case if you need some alteration you can apply ALTER
PROCEDURE and ALTER FUNCTION statements.
A stored procedure or function is typically connected
with a particular database. This has several implications:
When the routine is called up, an implicit USE db_name
is activated. USE statements within stored routines are not
allowed, but you can qualify routine names with the data-
base name. This can be applied when referring to a routine
that is not in the current database. For instance, to invoke a
stored procedure p or function f that is associated with the
test database, you can add CALL test.p or test.f. In addi-
tion, when a database is dropped, all stored routines asso-
ciated with it will be dropped as well as stored functions
cannot be recursive.
To be precise, recursion in stored procedures is techni-

cally permitted but disabled by default. If you need recur-
sion enables, set the max_sp_recursion_depth server
system variable to a value greater than zero. Stored proce-
dure recursion increases the demand for thread stack space.
If you increase the value of max_sp_recursion_depth, you
might need to increase thread stack size by increasing the
value of thread_stack at server startup.
MySQL holds up a very useful extension that enables the
use of regular SELECT statements inside a stored proce-
dure. The result set of such a query is normally sent directly
to the client. Multiple SELECT statements make up mul-
tiple result sets, so the client is expected to use a MySQL
client library that can bear multiple result sets. This also
means that the user should have a client library from a ver-
sion of MySQL at least as recent as 4.0. and should be able
to specify the CLIENT_MULTI_RESULTS option when it
connects.
In MySQL 8.0., a user variable referenced by a statement
in a stored procedure has its typeset on the first time the
procedure is invoked and keeps this type each time the
procedure is invoked thereafter.
Stored Routines and MySQL Privileges

The MySQL grant system takes stored routines into con-
sideration in the following manner:
• The CREATE ROUTINE privilege is typically applied

to create stored routines.
• The ALTER ROUTINE privilege is used to advance
or drop stored routines. This privilege is granted
automatically to the creator of a routine if required and

dropped from the creator when the routine is dropped.
• The EXECUTE privilege is necessary to operate
stored routines. In addition, you can also adminis-
ter the default SQL SECURITY characteristic which
enables users who have access to the database with
which the routine is associated to run it.
However, in case the automatic_sp_privileges system vari-

able is set at 0, the EXECUTE and ALTER ROUTINE priv-
ileges are not automatically permitted but rather dropped
from the routine creator altogether.
The creator of a routine here stands for the account
used to execute the CREATE statement for it. This might
not be the same as the account named as the DEFINER in
the routine definition that can see all routine properties,
including its definition. The creator of a routine account
has full access to the routine output as generated by:6
• The contents of the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.

ROUTINES table
• The SHOW CREATE FUNCTION and SHOW
CREATE PROCEDURE statements
• The SHOW FUNCTION CODE and SHOW
PROCEDURE CODE statements
• The SHOW FUNCTION STATUS and SHOW
PROCEDURE STATUS statements
editor-privileges, MySQL
For an account other than the account named as the

routine DEFINER, access to routine items depends on the
privileges possessed by the account:
• With the SHOW_ROUTINE privilege or the global

SELECT privilege, the account can view all routine
properties, including its definition.
• With the CREATE ROUTINE, ALTER ROUTINE or
EXECUTE privilege granted at a scope that includes
the routine, the account can view all routine proper-
ties except its definition.
Stored Routine Metadata

In order to acquire metadata about stored routines, you
can follow this regulation:7
• Query the ROUTINES table of the INFORMATION_

SCHEMA database
• Use the SHOW CREATE PROCEDURE and SHOW
CREATE FUNCTION statements to view routine
definitions
• Use the SHOW PROCEDURE STATUS and SHOW
FUNCTION STATUS statements to review routine
characteristics
• Use the SHOW PROCEDURE CODE and SHOW
FUNCTION CODE statements to see a representa-
tion of the internal operation of the routine
editor-privileges, My SQL
Stored Procedures, Functions, Triggers,

and LAST_INSERT_ID
Within the body of a stored routine (procedure or func-
tion) or a trigger, the value of LAST_INSERT_ID changes
the same way as for statements implemented outside the
body of these items. The effect of a stored routine or trigger
upon the value of LAST_INSERT_ID that is seen by the
following statements depends on the type of routine:
If a stored procedure applies statements that transform
the value of LAST_INSERT_ID, the modified value is seen
by statements that follow the procedure call. Yet for stored
functions and triggers that change the value, the value is
restored when the function or trigger ends, so the follow-
ing statements do not see a changed value.
REVERSE ENGINEERING A DATABASE

There are at times cases where you can have a relational data-
base schema implemented, but it certainly lacks the original
Relational or Entity-Relationship (ER) models that were used
to design the database. Nevertheless, you may be able to re-
create the ER model by reverse-engineering the model from
the database system. The process of building a physical data-
base from the ER diagram is called forward engineering. Yet
sometimes when you need to do the opposite—namely, create
a diagram from existing database schema you would be look-
ing at the task that is called reverse engineering. To achieve
such a task, you would need to take the following steps:
• Firstly, to connect the database schema and identify

all of the existing tables, their columns as well as
Primary and Foreign Key constraints
• Next, to structure the Relational Model that is con-

nected to the existing set of tables and constraints
• And at last, to recollect the ER model from the rela-
tional model
As a prerequisite, you supposed to have downloaded and

installed MySQL Workbench. You will also need the
credentials (hostname, port, service name, username,
and password) to insert into the sample MySQL data-
base schema. With MySQL Workbench, you can reverse-
engineer a database using a MySQL create script, or you
can connect to a live MySQL server and import a single
database or a number of databases.
“To Reverse-Engineer a Database Using a Create Script,”
follow this guideline:
On the home screen, select the model view from the
sidebar, click (>) next to Models, and then click Reverse
Engineer MySQL Create Script. With a model selected and
its model tab open, click File, Import, and then Reverse
Engineer MySQL Create Script from the menu.
With that, tables, views, routines, routine groups,
indexes, keys, and constraints would be imported from an
SQL script file. Objects imported using an SQL script can
be modified within MySQL Workbench in the same way as
other items.
However, importing a large number (more than 1000)
objects could fail to create an ER diagram and instead
launch a resource warning with the text “Too many objects
are selected for auto-placement. Select fewer elements to
create the ER diagram.” In this case, you should activate
the reverse engineering wizard by manually creating the
ER diagram, and then importing your numerous objects

using the ER diagram catalog viewer.
If your script creates a database, MySQL Workbench
generates a new Physical Schemas section within the open
MySQL Model tab. Click Execute to reverse-engineer the
SQL script, review its results, and optionally place the
objects in a new ER diagram. After that, click Next to
view a summary of the results and then Finish to close
the wizard. Do not forget to save the schema before exit-
ing MySQL Workbench. Click File and then Save from the
menu to save the reverse-engineered database as a MySQL
Workbench file with the .mwb extension.
Creating a DDL Script

You can create a data definition (DDL) script by inserting
the mysqldump db_name --no-data > script_file.sql com-
mand. Using the -no-data option secures that the script
holds only DDL statements. However, if you are working
with a script that also contains other than DDL statements,
there is no need to remove them beforehand, the script will
ignore them automatically.
If you plan to redesign a database within MySQL
Workbench and then export the changes, make sure to
keep a copy of the original DDL script as you will need it to
create an ALTER script.
You can also use the -databases option with mysqldump
if you want to create the database as well as all its items.
If there is no CREATE DATABASE db_name statement
in your script file, you should import the database items
into the existing schema or, if there is no schema, a new
unnamed schema is created automatically.
“To reverse-engineer a live database,” click Database

and then select Reverse Engineer from the menu. The first
step of the wizard lets you set up a connection to the live
database you are going to reverse-engineer. You can set
up a new connection or select a previously created stored
connection. Usual information needed for the connection
includes hostname, user name, and password.
After this information has been inserted, or you have
selected a stored connection, click the Next option to go to
the next step. Review the displayed information to make
sure that the connection did not lead to any errors, then
click Next.
The next step presents the schemas available on the
server. Select the check box of each schema you wish to pro-
cess. After you have selected the desired schemas, click the
Next button to continue. The wizard then showcases the
tasks it took and summarizes the results of the operation.
Check the results carefully before clicking Next to continue.
The next step opens the Select Objects to Reverse
Engineer page. It has a section for each object type avail-
able in the schema that you can import (tables, views, rou-
tines, and others). All object types are there by default. The
Place imported items on a diagram option is also selected
by default.
At the same time, keep in mind that importing 250 or
more objects could fail to generate an ER diagram and
instead display a resource warning with the text “Too
many objects are selected for auto-placement. Select fewer
elements to create the ER diagram.” In this case, execute
the reverse engineering wizard manually, and then import
all the objects using the ER diagram catalog viewer.
On the other hand, if you do not wish to import all the

objects from the existing database, you have the option of
filtering which objects should be imported. Thus, each sec-
tion has a Show Filter button. Click this button if you do
not want to import all the objects of a particular type. After
that, you can select which data to import and then hide the
filter by clicking Hide Filter. Next, click Execute to con-
tinue to the next step.
The wizard then imports objects, displaying the tasks
that have been completed and whether the operation was
accomplished fully or not. If errors occurred, you can click
Show Logs to see the matter of the errors. The next section
will show an example of the operational progress, which
was completed successfully. Click Next to continue to the
final step.
The final step of the wizard displays a summary of the
reverse-engineered objects. Click Finish to close the wiz-
ard. Before closing MySQL Workbench, make sure to save
the schema. Then, click File and Save from the menu to save
the reverse-engineered database as a MySQL Workbench
file with the .mwb extension.
As a final remark, it is worth noting that during reverse
engineering, the application checks for tables and views
that duplicate existing names and does not allow that. So in
case you try to import an item that duplicates the name of
an existing object, you will get an error message. You can
see all the errors that have occurred during reverse engi-
neering, through the Show Logs option. Clicking on it will
create a panel containing a list of messages, including error
messages that may have occurred.
As an alternative, if you plan to import an item with the

same name as an existing object, make sure to rename the
existing object before reverse engineering. If you transfer
objects from more than one schema, there will be a tab in
the Physical Schemas area of the MySQL Model page for
each schema imported. You cannot reverse-engineer a live
database that has the same name as an existing schema.
Therefore, in order to reuse a schema name, you must
rename the existing schema first. In the next chapter, we
shall look into management instances as such that include
SQL Scripts and Files in more detail.
C HAPTER 4
SQL Development
IN THIS CHAPTER
➢➢ Analysing solutions of SQL development

➢➢ Learning how to run SQL files
➢➢ Editing SQL different data types more efficiently
DOI: 10.1201/9781003229629-4 139

More and more businesses today demand great real-time

analytics about their enterprise. In response, some compa-
nies started to add embedded analytics to their SaaS appli-
cations as a way to increase the overall value proposition.
Others see it as an opportunity to create additional revenue
lines by using their vast stores of data to serve up big data
analytics. Naturally, SQL development tools and capacities
play a big role in data application development. Yet, at the
same time, developers should be selecting the tools in their
toolbox carefully to ensure they can create and implement
the most effective data applications possible for their inter-
nal and external procedures.
New data apps tend to be built almost entirely on
public cloud infrastructure and apply the Application
Programming Interface to assemble together all the core
features. However, not all cloud-based solutions are created
equally. Many software developers start their app journey
by opting for low-cost tools that allow quick development
without upfront investment. For instance, open-source
tools such as PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, and NoSQL data-
bases were popular at the time due to the fact that they
propose an easy starting point to get up and start running.
This shortcut enables a new analytics app to be sent to
market without the upfront cost of procuring a database,
which reduces a potential discord between development
and finance teams. Nevertheless, such open-source tools,
including MySQL are now facing particular development
challenges that occur when you do not consider thoroughly
what is needed from a data stack to deliver powerful ser-
vice and analytics:
SQL Development ◾ 141
1. There is a need to increase data storage and compute

strains on the system. This request typically comes
from larger customers. Now open source solutions
still require manual and disruptive scaling that
impacts the customer experience and requires more
time and effort for engineering.
2. Users observe a lack of native support for semi-struc-
tured data as using data types such as JSON, XML,
and Avro is a huge challenge, especially when the
open-source solution does not natively support semi-
structured data. This forces experts to build and
maintain complex data pipelines.
3. Maintenance: While development teams should spend
their time coding and developing analytics applica-
tions, open-source solutions also require frequent
upgrades and maintenance. As a result, developers
end up spending most of their time and resources
dealing with system maintenance instead of what
they are supposed to do in the first place—coding.
4. Know-how: The use of open-source tools mostly
requires specific skills that may not exist within an
organization. As a consequence, companies need to
hire more experts, which is typically problematic to
find and expensive to attain.
With these very current challenges in mind, the SQL Server

development tools have to rush and streamline the appli-
cation development process. On the other hand, the SQL
Server development applications have a rich integrated
development environment (IDE), able to provide an oppor-

tunity for object re-use, integrate with source control appli-
cations like Visual Source Safe, and much more.
MANAGING SQL SCRIPTS
One of the main developers’ activities is to manage SQL

scripts and environments for the database. While manag-
ing multiple copies, sometimes it requires refreshing from
a production environment to the lower environment. For
that you need to copy all database objects such as database
schema, tables, as well as use multiple approaches such as
database backup restore, depending upon the requirement.
In this section, we will look closely at how to manage SQL
scripts in different ways.
We can use Generate Scripts wizard to script all database
objects or specific objects. It provides various configuration
options to select from. Start by right-clicking on the source

SQL database for which you want to generate script and
launch Generate scripts wizard that comes with a brief
introduction and activity options to choose from:
• Select database objects

• Specify scripting options
• Review your selections
• Generate scripts and save them
• Generate Scripts Wizard for database objects
Once you click Next, you get options to script an entire

database or select specific objects from the following list:
• Tables
• Views
• Stored procedure
• User-defined functions
• User-defined data types
• DDL triggers
• XML schema collections
• Schemas
• Full-text catalogs
• Select objects
Let’s imagine you need to script the entire database.

Here, you get different options to save the script:
• Script to file
• Script to a new query window
• Script to clipboard
• Advanced configurations
From here, click on Advanced to see what Advanced

Scripting Options are available.
Advanced Scripting Options

In this window, you can accomplish the required changes
for generating a script for the selected objects. We shall not
cover all configurations here, just a few configurations that
are set by default:
• Script drop and create: Default configuration used

to generate script with a Create statement.
• Script for server version: Useful configuration
in case you need to script for a different version of
SQL Server. You can use SQL Server versions start-
ing from SQL Server 2005, but you should generate
a script for an appropriate version as few commands
and syntaxes do not operate in a different version of
SQL Server.
• Script for the database engine edition: You can
select the required database engine edition, and its
script features in tune with that edition.
• Script logins, object-level permissions, owner, statis-

tics: By default, you cannot script any of the logins,
object-level permissions, database owner, and statis-
tics. You can change the corresponding value to true
so that it generates those scripts as well.
• Type of data to the script: Is used to script for the
selected objects. You can edit this configuration and
choose from Data only, Schema and Data and Schema
only value.
• Table/view options: Provides various configurations
for script tables and views such as script constraints,
indexes, primary and foreign keys.
Once you have configured the required options, click Next

for a review of the selections. You can go back and change
any settings. If no changes needed, click Next, and you
can see the status for each object script. Once you are done
with it, you can see the script per the configured option.
MySQL Server is a single multithreaded program that
completes most of the processes in a MySQL installation.
It manages access to the MySQL data directory that con-
tains databases and tables. The data directory is also the
default location for other information such as log files and
status files. And when MySQL server starts, it monitors
network connections from client programs and manages
access to databases on behalf of those clients. The MySQL
program has many options that you can see if you run this
command:
mysqld -verbose -help

MySQL Server also has a set of system variables that

impact its operation as it runs. System variables can be
arranged at server startup, and many of them can be
modified at runtime to effect dynamic server reconfigura-
tion. MySQL Server also has a set of status variables that
hold information about its operation. You can observe
these status variables to access runtime performance
characteristics.
mysqld_safe — MySQL Server Startup Script
mysqld_safe is the recommended way to start a mysqld

server on Unix. mysqld_safe has important safety features
such as restarting the server when an error occurs and log-
ging runtime information to an error log. For some Linux
platforms, MySQL installation from Debian packages
includes systemd support for managing MySQL server
startup and shutdown. On these platforms, mysqld_safe is
not installed because it is not necessary.
mysqld_safe is also a great way to start an executable
named mysqld. To override the default behavior and define
explicitly the name of the server you need to run, insert a
--mysqld or --mysqld-version option to mysqld_safe. You
can also use -ledir to state the directory where mysqld_safe
should search for the server.
Options unfamiliar to mysqld_safe are passed to mysqld
if they are specified on the command line but omitted
if they are identified in the [mysqld_safe] group of an
option file.
mysqld_safe reads all options from the [mysqld], [server],
and [mysqld_safe] sections in option files. To illustrate, if you
specify a [mysqld] section like this, mysqld_safe finds and

uses the --log-error option:
[mysqld]
log-error=error.log
For backward consistency, mysqld_safe also reads [safe_

mysqld] sections, but to be current you should rename
such sections to [mysqld_safe].
mysqld_safe accepts scripts on the command line and
in option files, as described:1

basedir Path to MySQL installation directory
core-file-size Size of core file that mysqld should be able to
create
datadir Path to data directory
defaults-extra-file Read named option file in addition to usual
option files
defaults-file Read-only named option file
help Display help message and exit
ledir Path to directory where server is located
log-error Write error log to named file
malloc-lib Alternative malloc library to use for mysqld
mysqld Name of server program to start (in ledir
directory)
mysqld-safe-log- Timestamp format for logging
timestamps
mysqld-version Suffix for server program name
nice Use nice program to set server scheduling
priority
no-defaults Read no option files
(Continued)
1 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/mysqld-safe.html, MySQL

open-files-limit Number of files that mysqld should be able
to open
PID-file Pathname of server process ID file
plugin-dir Directory where plugins are installed
port Port number on which to listen for TCP/IP
connections
skip-kill-mysqld Do not try to kill stray mysqld processes
skip-Syslog Do not write error messages to Syslog; use
error log file
socket Socket file on which to listen for Unix socket
connections
syslog Write error messages to Syslog
syslog-tag Tag suffix for messages written to Syslog
timezone Set TZ time zone environment variable to
named value
user Run mysqld as user_name or numeric user ID
help Display a help message and exit.
• basedir=dir_name: Evokes the path to the MySQL

installation directory.
• core-file-size=size: Stands for the size of the core file
that mysqld should be able to produce.
• datadir=dir_name: The path to the data directory.
• defaults-extra-file=file_name: Applied to check
available file options. If the file does not exist or is oth-
erwise unavailable, the server exits with an error. If
file_name is not an absolute pathname, it is interpreted
relative to the current directory. This is typically used as
the first option on the command line.
• defaults-file=file_name: Similar to the previous

directory, if the file does not exist or is otherwise inac-
cessible, the server exits with an error. If file_name is
not an absolute pathname, it is interpreted relative to
the current directory.
• ledir=dir_name: If mysqld_safe cannot find the
server, you can use this option to indicate the path-
name to the directory where the server is located. This
option is supported only on the command line, not in
option files. On platforms that use systemd, the value
can be specified in the value of MYSQLD_OPTS.
• log-error=file_name: Used to write the error log to
the given file.
• mysqld-safe-log-timestamps: This option admin-
isters the format for timestamps in log output pro-
duced by mysqld_safe. The following list describes
the allowed values. For any other value, mysqld_safe
issues a warning and uses UTC format.2
UTC, UTC
ISO 8601 UTC format (same as --log_
timestamps=UTC for the server). This is the
default.
SYSTEM, system
ISO 8601 local time format (same as --log_
timestamps=SYSTEM for the server).
2 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/mysqld-safe.html, MySQL
HYPHEN, hyphen
YY-MM-DD h:mm:ss format, as in mysqld_safe
for MySQL 5.6.
LEGACY, legacy
YYMMDD hh:mm:ss format, as in mysqld_safe
prior to MySQL 5.6.
• malloc-lib=[lib_name]: The name of the library that
is used for memory allocation instead of the system
malloc() library. The option value must be one of the
directories/usr/lib, /usr/lib64, /usr/lib/i386-linux-
gnu, or/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu.
The --malloc-lib option works by modifying the
LD_PRELOAD environment value to impact link-
ing and enable the memory-allocation library. If the
option is given as --malloc-lib=/path/to/some/library,
that full path should be added to the beginning of the
LD_PRELOAD value. If the full path points to a non-
existent or unavailable file, mysqld_safe strikes with
an error. For cases where mysqld_safe includes a path-
name to LD_PRELOAD, it adds the path to the begin-
ning of any existing value the variable already has.
• mysqld=prog_name: It stands for the name of the
server program that you need to start. This option is
applied if you use the MySQL binary distribution but
hold the data directory outside of the binary distribu-
tion. If mysqld_safe cannot find the server, use the
-ledir option to look for the pathname to the direc-
tory where the server is placed. However, this option
can be accepted only on the command line, not in
option files. In systems that use systemd, the value

• mysqld-version=suffix: This option is similar to the
--mysqld option, but you have to define only the suf-
fix for the server program name. The basename is
automatically assigned to be mysqld. For instance, if
you use --mysqld-version=debug, mysqld_safe starts
the mysqld-debug program in the ledir directory. If
the argument to --mysqld-version is empty, mysqld_
safe uses mysqld in the ledir directory. However, this
option can be accepted only on the command line, not
in option files. In systems that use systemd, the value
• nice=priority: Use the nice program to prop the
server’s scheduling priority to a particular value.
• no-defaults: Used to enable reading of any option
files. If program startup fails because it was reading
unknown options from an option file, --no-defaults
can be used to prevent them from being read. This
must be the first option on the command line if it is
applied.
• open-files-limit=count: Stands for the number of
files that mysqld should be able to open.
• pid-file=file_name: The pathname that mysqld
should use to process the ID file.
• plugin-dir=dir_name: The standard path name of
the plugin directory.
• port=port_num: The port number that the server

should use when monitoring Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) connections.
The port number must be 1024 or higher unless the
server is started by the root operating system user.
• skip-kill-mysqld: Do not try to kill stray mysqld pro-
cesses at startup. This option operates only for Linux.
• socket=path: The Unix socket file that the server
should utilize when administering local connections.
• syslog/-skip-Syslog: --syslog causes error messages
to be sent to Syslog on systems that support the log-
ger program. --skip-Syslog cancels the use of Syslog;
messages are written to an error log file. So that when
Syslog is used for error logging, the daemon.err facil-
ity is used for all log messages.
• syslog-tag=tag: For connecting to Syslog, messages
from mysqld_safe and mysqld are written with iden-
tifiers of mysqld_safe and mysqld. To specify a suf-
fix for the identifiers, use --Syslog-tag=tag, which
modifies the identifiers to be mysqld_safe-tag and
mysqld-tag.
• timezone=timezone: Used to set particular time
zone environment variable to the given option value.
You should consult your operating system documen-
tation for available time zone specification formats.
• user={user_name|user_id}: Used to run the mysqld
server as the user having the name user_name or the
numeric user ID user_id.
If you implement mysqld_safe with the --defaults-file or

--defaults-extra-file option to name an option file, the
option must be the first one placed on the command line. For
instance, this command does not use the named option file:
mysql> mysqld_safe --port=port_num

--defaults-file=file_name
Instead, use the following command:
mysql> mysqld_safe --defaults-file=file_name

--port=port_num
The mysqld_safe script is written so that it typically can

start a server that was installed from the binary distribu-
tion of MySQL, even though these types of distributions
usually install the server in different places. mysqld_safe
counts on one of the following conditions to be true:
The server and databases can supposedly be found rela-
tive to the working directory. For binary distributions,
mysqld_safe looks under its working directory for bin
and data directories. For source distributions, it searches
for libexec and var directories. This condition should be
met if you run mysqld_safe from your MySQL installa-
tion directory (for instance, /usr/local/MySQL for a binary
distribution).
If the server and databases cannot be found relative to
the working directory, mysqld_safe tries to locate them
through path names. Typical locations are /usr/local/
libexec and /usr/local/var. The actual locations are
defined by the values configured into the distribution
at the time it was structured. They should be correct if
MySQL is installed in the location identified at the con-

figuration instance.
Because mysqld_safe tries to look for the server and data-
bases relative to its own working directory, you can install a
binary distribution of MySQL anywhere, as long as you exe-
cute mysqld_safe from the MySQL installation directory:
cd mysql_installation_directory
bin/mysqld_safe &
If mysqld_safe fails, even when called upon from the MySQL

installation directory, include the --ledir and --datadir
options to indicate the directories in which the server and
databases are placed on your system.
mysqld_safe tries to apply the sleep and date system
utilities to decide how many times per second it has tried to
start. If these utilities are present and the attempted starts
per second are more than five, mysqld_safe waits 1 full sec-
ond before starting again. This is made to prevent excessive
central processing unit usage in the sequence of repeated
failures.
If you use mysqld_safe to start mysqld, mysqld_safe
arranges for error messages to occur from itself and from
mysqld to go to the same destination. There are a few
mysqld_safe options for directing the destination of these
messages:
• log-error=file_name: Used to generate error mes-

sages to the named error file.
• syslog: Used to write error messages to Syslog on sys-
tems that support the logger program.
• skip-Syslog: Used to write a message to the default

error log file or to a named file if the --log-error
option is given. In case none of these options is given,
the default is --skip-Syslog.
MySQL.server—MySQL Server Startup Script

MySQL distributions on Unix and Unix-like systems
include a script named MySQL.server, which starts the
MySQL server using mysqld_safe. It is suitable for systems
like Linux and Solaris that use System V-style run directo-
ries to start and stop system services. It is also used by the
macOS Startup Item for MySQL.
MySQL.server is the script name as used within the
MySQL source tree. The installed name might be different,
but you can adjust the name MySQL.server as appropriate
for your system. Also worth noting that for some Linux
platforms, MySQL installation from Debian package
includes support for managing MySQL server startup and
shutdown. On these platforms, MySQL.server and mysqld_
safe are not installed because they are not necessary.
To start or stop the server manually using the MySQL.
server script, you need to invoke it from the command line
with the following start or stop arguments:
• MySQL.server start
• MySQL.server stop
MySQL.server changes location to the MySQL installation

directory then invokes mysqld_safe. To run the server as
some specific user, add an appropriate user option to the
[mysqld] group of the global /etc/my.cnf option file. It is

also possible to edit MySQL.server if you have installed a
binary distribution of MySQL in a nonstandard location.
Modify it to change location into the proper directory
before it runs mysqld_safe. Once you do this, your modi-
fied version of MySQL.server may be overwritten if you
upgrade MySQL, so be sure to make a copy of your edited
version that you can reinstall.
To start and stop MySQL automatically on your server,
you should add start and stop commands to the appro-
priate places in your /etc/RC* files. In addition, if you use
the Linux server package the MySQL.server script may be
installed in the /etc/init.d directory with the name mysqld
or MySQL.
If you install MySQL from a source distribution or using
a binary distribution format that does not install MySQL.
server automatically, you can install the script manually.
It can be found in the support-files directory under the
MySQL installation directory or in a MySQL source tree.
Copy the script to the /etc/init.d directory with the name
MySQL and make it executable:
cp MySQL.server /etc/init.d/mysql
chmod +x /etc/init.d/mysql
After installing the script, the commands needed to acti-

vate it to run at system startup depend on your operating
system. On Linux, you can use chkconfig:
chkconfig --add MySQL

On some Linux systems, the following command also

seems to be necessary to fully run the MySQL script:
chkconfig --level 345 MySQL on
On FreeBSD, startup scripts generally go in /usr/local/etc/

rc.d/. Install the mysql.server script as /usr/local/etc/rc.d/
mysql.server.sh to enable automatic startup.
As an alternative, some operating systems also use /etc/
rc.local or /etc/init.d/boot.local to start additional services
on startup. To start up MySQL using this method, apply
the following command:
/bin/sh -c 'cd /usr/local/mysql;. /bin/

mysqld_safe --user=mysql &'
MySQL.server reads options from the [mysql.server] and

[mysqld] sections of option files. For backward compat-
ibility, it also reads [mysql_server] sections, but to keep
it updated, you should rename such sections to [mysql.
server].
You can also add options for mysql.server in a global
/etc/my.cnf file. A typical my.cnf file should look like this:
[mysqld]
datadir=/usr/local/mysql/var
socket=/var/tmp/mysql.sock
port=3306
user=mysql
The MySQL.server script supports the options shown below.

Once specified, they should be placed in an option file, not
on the command line. MySQL.server supports only start

and stop as command-line arguments.3

basedir Path to MySQL installation directory
datadir Path to MySQL data directory
PID-file File in which server should write its
process ID
service-startup-timeout How long to wait for server startup
• basedir=dir_name: Stands for the path to the MySQL

installation directory.
• datadir=dir_name: Stands for the path to the MySQL
data directory.
• pid-file=file_name: The pathname of the file in
which the server should insert its process ID. The
server creates the file in the data directory until an
absolute pathname is assigned to specify a different
directory.
In case this option is not given, MySQL.server
uses a default value of host_name.pid. The file value
passed to mysqld_safe overrides any value specified
in the [mysqld_safe] option filegroup. And because
MySQL.server reads the [mysqld] option file group
but not the [mysqld_safe] group, you can ensure
that mysqld_safe has the same value when called
from MySQL.server manually by putting the same
file setting in both the [mysqld_safe] and [mysqld]
groups.
3 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/mysql-server.html, MySQL
• service-startup-timeout=seconds: It is used to indi-

cate how long in seconds you need to wait for confir-
mation of server startup. If the server does not start
within this time, MySQL.server exits with an error.
The default value is 900. A value of 0 means you
should not wait for startup at all.
mysqld_multi—Manage Multiple MySQL Servers

mysqld_multi is designed to run several mysqld processes
that monitor connections on different Unix socket files
and TCP/IP ports. It can also start or stop servers, as well
as report their current status. At the same time, for some
Linux platforms, MySQL installation from Debian pack-
age includes systemd support for managing MySQL server
startup and shutdown. On these platforms, mysqld_multi
is not installed because it is not necessary.
mysqld_multi looks for groups named [mysqldN] in
my.cnf. Options listed in these groups are the same that
you would use in the [mysqld] group used for starting
mysqld. Nevertheless, when using multiple servers, it is
necessary that each one use its own value for options such
as the Unix socket file and TCP/IP port number.
To invoke mysqld_multi you should use the following
syntax:
mysqld_multi [options]
{start|stop|reload|report} [GNR[,GNR] …]
start, stop, reload, and report show which exact operation

to perform. You can perform the designated operation for a
single server or multiple servers, depending on the list that
follows the option name. If there is no list, mysqld_multi

completes the operation for all servers in the options file.
Each value represents an option group number or range
of group numbers. The value should be the number at the
end of the group name in the options file. Multiple groups
or group ranges can be specified on the command line, sep-
arated by commas. There must be no whitespace characters
(spaces or tabs) in the list as anything after a whitespace
character is omitted.
This command starts a single server using option group
[mysqld17]: mysqld_multi start 17
This command stops several servers, using option groups
[mysqld8] and [mysqld10] through [mysqld13]: mysqld_multi
stop 8,10-13
For an example of how you might set up an option file,
use this command:
mysqld_multi -example
mysqld_multi searches for option files as follows:
• With -no-defaults, no option files are read.

• With -defaults-file=file_name, only the named file is
read.
Otherwise, option files in the standard list of locations

are read, including any file named by the --defaults-extra-
file=file_name option. In case the option is given multiple
times, the last value is used.
Option files read are searched for [mysqld_multi] and
[mysqldN] option groups. The [mysqld_multi] group can be
used for options to mysqld_multi itself. [mysqldN] groups

can be used for options passed to specific mysqld instances.
The [mysqld] or [mysqld_safe] groups can be used
for common options read by all instances of mysqld or
mysqld_safe. You can specify a -defaults-file=file_name
option to use a different configuration file for that instance,
in which case the [mysqld] or [mysqld_safe] groups from
that file are used for that instance.
Subsequently, mysqld_multi supports the following
options:
• help: Used to display a help message and exit.
• example: Used to display a sample option file.
• log=file_name: Used to specify the name of the log
file. If the file exists, log output is attached to it.
• mysqladmin=prog_name: Stands for the mysqlad-
min binary used to stop servers.
• mysqld=prog_name: Applied to specify the mysqld
binary to be used. Additionally, you can specify
mysqld_safe as the value for this option. If you use
mysqld_safe to start the server, you can include the
mysqld or ledir options in the connected [mysqldN]
option group. These options indicate the name of the
server that mysqld_safe should start and the path-
name of the directory where the server is located. To
illustrate with an example:
[mysqld38]
mysqld = mysqld-debug
ledir = /opt/local/mysql/libexec
• no-log: Used to print log information that by default

goes to the log file.
• password=password: Stands for the password of the
MySQL account to use when invoking mysqladmin.
Note that the password value is obligatory for this
option, unlike for other MySQL programs.
• silent: Used to activate the silent mode and disable
warnings.
• TCP-ip: Applied to connect to each MySQL server
through the TCP/IP port. By default, connec-
tions are made using the Unix socket file but not
with this script. This option also affects stop and
report operations.
• user=user_name: The user name of the MySQL
account to use when activating mysqladmin.
• verbose: Used to seem more verbose.
• version: Used to display version information and exit.
Important to mention that before using mysqld_multi,

you need to be sure that you understand the meanings of
the options that are passed to the mysqld servers and why
you would want to keep separate mysqld processes. One
has to be aware of the dangers of using multiple mysqld
servers with the same data directory and potentially use
separate data directories, unless aware of the process. As
well, starting multiple servers with the same data direc-
tory does not typically result in advanced performance in
a threaded system.
In addition, make sure that the MySQL account used for

stopping the mysqld servers has the same user name and
password for each server as well as the SHUTDOWN priv-
ilege. If the servers that you want to manage have different
user names or passwords for the administrative accounts,
you might have to create an account on each server that has
the same user name and password. For instance, you might
set up a common multi_admin account by implementing
the following commands for each server:4
shell> MySQL -u root -S/tmp/MySQL.sock -p

Enter password:
mysql> CREATE USER 'multi_admin'@'localhost'
IDENTIFIED BY 'multipass';
mysql> GRANT SHUTDOWN ON *.* TO
'multi_admin'@'localhost';
And just to be clear, you have to do this for each mysqld

server. Change the connection parameters appropriately
when connecting to each one. The hostname part of the
account name must permit you to connect as multi_admin
from the host where you want to run mysqld_multi.
The Unix socket file and the TCP/IP port number must
be different for every mysqld. Alternatively, if the host has
multiple network addresses, you can add the bind_address
system variable to cause different servers to listen to differ-
ent interfaces.
The --PID-file option is very important if you are using
mysqld_safe to start mysqld. Every mysqld should have its own
process ID file. The advantage of using mysqld_safe instead of
4 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/mysqld-multi.html, MySQL
mysqld is that mysqld_safe observes its mysqld process and

restarts it if the process ends due to segmentation fault.
mysql_upgrade—Check and Upgrade MySQL Tables

Every time you upgrade MySQL, you should implement
mysql_upgrade, which looks for incompatibilities with
the upgraded MySQL server in addition to the following
functions:
• It upgrades the system tables in the MySQL schema

so that you can use new privileges or capabilities that
might have been added.
• It upgrades the Performance Schema,
INFORMATION_SCHEMA, and sys schema.
• It examines and tests user schemas.
• If mysql_upgrade finds that a table has a possible incom-
patibility, it activates a table check and, if problems
are found, completes a table repair. mysql_upgrade is
directly connected to the MySQL server, sending it the
SQL statements required to start an upgrade.
Another thing one should keep in mind is to always secure

your current MySQL installation before performing an
upgrade. Some upgrade incompatibilities may take special
handling before upgrading your MySQL installation and
running mysql_upgrade.
Use mysql_upgrade to ensure that the server is run-
ning and only then invoke mysql_upgrade to upgrade the
system tables in the MySQL schema and check and repair
tables in other schemas with the mysql_upgrade [options]
variable. Afterward, you can stop the server and restart it

so that any system table changes take effect.
If you have multiple MySQL server items to upgrade, you
can make use of mysql_upgrade with connection param-
eters suitable for connecting to each of the servers. For
instance, with servers running on the localhost on parts
3401 through 3403, upgrade each of them by connecting to
the appropriate port:5
mysql_upgrade --protocol=tcp -P 3401

[other_options]
[other_options]
[other_options]
For local host connections on Uni
x, the -protocol=tcp option forces a
connection using TCP/IP rather than the
Unix socket file.
By default, mysql_upgrade runs as the MySQL root user.

Once the root password gets expired when you run mysql_
upgrade, it shall send a message that your password is
expired and that mysql_upgrade failed due to that. To fix
this, reset the root password to unexpire it and run mysql_
upgrade again. First, connect to the server as root:
shell> MySQL -u root -p

Enter password: **** <- enter root password
here
5 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/mysqld-multi.html, MySQL
Reset the password using ALTER USER:

mysql> ALTER USER USER() IDENTIFIED BY
'root-password';
Then exit MySQL and run mysql_upgrade again: shell>

mysql_upgrade [options]
Keep in mind that If you run the server with the dis-
abled_storage_engines system variable set to disable cer-
tain storage engines, mysql_upgrade might fail with an
error like this:
mysql_upgrade: [ERROR] 3161: Storage engine

MyISAM is disabled.
To manage this, restart the server with disabled_stor-

age_engines disabled. Then you should be able to activate
mysql_upgrade successfully. Once done, restart the server
with disabled_storage_engines set to its original value.
Unless invoked with the --upgrade-system-tables option,
mysql_upgrade processes all tables in all user schemas as
necessary. Table checking might take a long time to com-
plete as each table is locked and therefore unavailable to
other sessions while it is being processed. Therefore, check
and repair procedures can be time-consuming, particularly
for large tables. Table checking uses the FOR UPGRADE
option of the CHECK TABLE statement.
mysql_upgrade defines all checked and repaired tables
with the current MySQL version number. This ensures that
the next time you run mysql_upgrade with the same ver-
sion of the server, it can be seen whether there is any need
to check or repair a given table again.
mysql_upgrade also saves the MySQL version number

in a file named mysql_upgrade_info in the data directory.
This is used to rapidly check whether all tables have been
checked for this release so that table-checking can be omit-
ted. To ignore this file and complete the check regardless,
you can apply the -force option.
mysql_upgrade checks MySQL.user system table rows
and, for any row that has an empty plugin column, trans-
forms that column into ‘mysql_native_password’ if the
credentials use a hash format consistent with that plugin.
However, rows with a pre-4.1 password hash should be
upgraded manually.
At the same time, mysql_upgrade does not upgrade
the contents of the time zone tables or help tables. So
unless invoked with the --skip-sys-schema option, mysql_
upgrade installs the sys schema if it is not installed, and
then upgrades it to the current version. An error occurs if a
sys schema exists but has no version view, on the assump-
tion that its absence indicates a user-created schema. In
addition, sys schema can manage without sys.version view.
If you have a user-created sys schema, it must be renamed
for the upgrade to succeed. To upgrade in this case, remove
or rename the existing sys schema first.
mysql_upgrade supports the following script options,
that can be inserted on the command line or in the [mysql_
upgrade] and [client] groups of an option file:6
6 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/mysql-command-options.html,
MySQL

bind-address Use specified network interface to
connect to MySQL Server
character-sets-dir Directory where character sets are installed
compress Compress all information sent between
client and server
compression-algorithms Permitted compression algorithms for
connections to server
debug Write debugging log
debug-check Print debugging information when
program exits
debug-info Print debugging information, memory,
and CPU statistics when program exits
default-auth Authentication plugin to use
default-character-set Specify default character set
defaults-extra-file Read named option file in addition to
usual option files
defaults-file Read only named option file
defaults-group-suffix Option group suffix value
force Force execution even if mysql_upgrade
has already been executed for current
MySQL version
get-server-public-key Request RSA public key from server
help Display help message and exit
host Host on which MySQL server is located
login-path Read login path options from .mylogin.cnf
max-allowed-packet Maximum packet length to send to or
receive from server net
buffer-length Buffer size for TCP/IP and socket
communication
no-defaults Read no option files
password Password to use when connecting to
server
pipe Connect to server using named pipe
(Windows only)
(Continued)

plugin-dir Directory where plugins are installed
port TCP/IP port number for connection
print-defaults Print default options
protocol Transport protocol to use
server-public-key-path Path name to file containing RSA public
key
shared-memory-base-name Shared-memory name for shared-
memory connections
skip-sys-schema Do not install or upgrade sys schema
socket Unix socket file or Windows named
pipe to use
ssl-ca File that contains list of trusted SSL
Certificate Authorities
ssl-capath Directory that contains trusted SSL
Certificate Authority certificate files
ssl-cert File that contains X.509 certificate
ssl-cipher Permissible ciphers for connection
encryption
ssl-crl File that contains certificate revocation
lists
ssl-crlpath Directory that contains certificate
revocation-list files
ssl-fips-mode Whether to enable FIPS mode on client
side
ssl-key File that contains X.509 key
ssl-mode Desired security state of connection to
server
tls-ciphersuites Permissible TLSv1.3 ciphersuites for
encrypted connections
tls-version Permissible TLS protocols for encrypted
connections
upgrade-system-tables Update only system tables, not user
schemas
(Continued)

user MySQL user name to use when
connecting to server
verbose Verbose mode
version-check Check for proper server version
write-binlog Write all statements to binary log
zstd-compression-level Compression level for connections to
server that use zstd compression
• help: Used to display a short help message and exit.

• bind-address=ip_address: Mostly applied on a com-
puter that has multiple network interfaces to select
which interface to use for connecting to the MySQL
server.
• character-sets-dir=dir_name: The directory where
character sets are installed.
• compress, -C: Used to compress all information sent
between the client and the server.
• compression-algorithms=value: Stands for the per-
mitted compression algorithms for connections to
the server. The available algorithms are similar to the
protocol_compression_algorithms system variable.
The default value is uncompressed.
• debug[=debug_options], -# [debug_options]: Used
to write a debugging log. A typical debug_options
string is d:t:o,file_name. The default is d:t:O,/tmp/
mysql_upgrade.trace.
• debug-check: Applied when printing some debug-
ging information needed.
• debug-info, -T: Used to print debugging information

and memory usage statistics when the program exits.
• default-auth=plugin: Displays a hint about which
client-side authentication plugin to use.
• default-character-set=charset_name: Applied when
you would need to use charset_name as the default
character set.
• defaults-extra-file=file_name: Read this option file
after the global option file but before the user option
file. If the file is inaccessible, an error occurs; and if
file_name is not an absolute pathname, it is inter-
preted relative to the current directory.
• defaults-file=file_name: Similar to the previous
directory, if the file does not exist or is otherwise
inaccessible, the server exits with an error. If file_
name is not an absolute pathname, it is interpreted
relative to the current directory.
• defaults-group-suffix=str: Applied when it is neces-
sary to read not only the usual option groups but also
groups with the usual names and a suffix of str. For
instance, mysql_upgrade normally reads the [client]
and [mysql_upgrade] groups. If this option is given as
--defaults-group-suffix=_other, mysql_upgrade also
reads the [client_other] and [mysql_upgrade_other]
groups.
• force: Ignores the mysql_upgrade_info file and forces
execution even if mysql_upgrade has already been
implemented for the current version of MySQL.
• get-server-public-key: Used to request the server

for the public key required for key pair-based pass-
word exchange. This option applies to clients that
authenticate with the caching_sha2_password
authentication plugin. For that plugin, the server
does not provide the public key unless requested.
Nevertheless, this option is ignored for accounts
that do not authenticate with that plugin. It is also
deactivated if key pair-based password exchange is
not used, for example, when the client links to the
server using a secure connection only.
Note that in case --server-public-key-path=file_
name is defined as a valid public key file it would have
to take precedence over --get-server-public-key.
• host=host_name, -h host_name: Connects to the
MySQL server on any given host.
• login-path=name: Used to read options from the
named login path in the. mylogin.cnf login path file.
A “login path” here stands for an option group hold-
ing options that dictate which MySQL server to con-
nect to and which account to verify. To create or edit
a login path file, use the mysql_config_editor instead.
• max-allowed-packet=value: Stands for the maxi-
mum size of the buffer for client/server commu-
nication. The default value is normally 24 MB. The
minimum and maximum values are 4 KB and 2 GB.
• net-buffer-length=value: Stands for the initial size
of the buffer for client/server communication. The
default value is average between 1 MB to 1 KB. The

minimum and maximum values are 4 KB and 16 MB.
• no-defaults: Do not read any option files. If program
startup fails due to reading unknown options from an
option file, --no-defaults can be applied to prevent them
from being read. The exception is that the .mylogin.cnf
file is read in all cases if it exists. This permits pass-
words to be specified in a safer way than on the com-
mand line even when --no-defaults is used. To create
.mylogin.cnf, use the mysql_config_editor utility.
• password[=password], -p[password]: Stands for the
password of the MySQL account used for connect-
ing to the server. The password value is optional, but
if not given, mysql_upgrade comes up with one any-
way. If given, there must be no space between --pass-
word= or -p and the password following it.
Consider specifying a password on the command
line insecure. To avoid giving the password on the
command line, use an option file. To explicitly state
that there is no password and that mysql_upgrade
should not prompt for one, use the --skip-password
option.
• pipe, -W: Used to establish a connection to the server
using a named pipe on Windows. This option applies
only if the server was activated with the named_pipe
system variable enabled to support named-pipe con-
nections. Moreover, the user creating the connection
should be a member of the Windows group specified by
the named_pipe_full_access_group system variable.
• plugin-dir=dir_name: The directory applied to

search for plugins. You can make use of this option if
the --default-auth option was specified by an authen-
tication plugin but mysql_upgrade did not find it.
• port=port_num, -P port_num: For TCP/IP connec-
tions, the port number to use.
• print-defaults: Applied to print the program name
and all options that it gets from option files.
• protocol={TCP|SOCKET|PIPE|MEMORY}: The
transport protocol to use for connecting to the server.
It is particularly practical when the other connection
parameters resulted in the use of a protocol other
than the one you wanted.
• server-public-key-path=file_name: The pathname
to a file in Privacy Enhanced Mail format containing
a client-side copy of the public key required by the
server for RSA key pair-based password exchange.
This option applies to users that authenticate with
the sha256_password or caching_sha2_password
authentication plugin. But it is typically ignored for
accounts that do not authenticate with one of those
plugins. It is also ignored if key pair-based password
exchange is not applied, as is the case when the user
connects to the server directly through a secure
connection.
• shared-memory-base-name=name: Used for the
shared-memory name to make connections made
through shared memory of a local server. The default

value is MYSQL with the shared-memory name
being case-sensitive. However, this option applies
only on Windows with a server started through the
shared_memory system variable.
• skip-sys-schema: By default, mysql_upgrade installs
the sys schema if it is not installed, and upgrades it
to the current version otherwise. This --skip-sys-
schema option suppresses this pattern.
• socket=path, -S path: Used to connect to localhost, or
to determine which named pipe to use. On Windows,
this option applies only if the server was activated with
the named_pipe system variable enabled to support
named-pipe connections. Moreover, the user establish-
ing the connection should be a member of the Windows
group defined by the named_pipe_full_access_group
system variable.
• SSL: Scripts that begin with --SSL specifies whether
to connect to the server using encryption and show
where to find SSL keys and certificates.
• ssl-fips-mode={OFF|ON|STRICT}: States whether
to enable Federal Information Processing Standards
(FIPS) mode on the client-side or not. The --ssl-fips-
mode option is not the same as other --SSL-xxx
options in that it is not used to create encrypted con-
nections, but rather to affect which operations to pro-
ceed with.
These --SSL-fips-mode values are permitted:

• OFF: Disable Federal Information Processing Standards
mode.
• ON: Enable Federal Information Processing Standards
mode.
• STRICT: Enable “strict” Federal Information Processing
Standards mode.
If you see the OpenSSL FIPS Object Module is not
available, the only permitted value for --SSL-fips-mode
is OFF. In this case, setting --ssl-fips-mode to ON or
STRICT causes the client to come up with a warning
at startup and to work in non-FIPS mode.
• tls-ciphersuites=ciphersuite_list: The script pro-
vides the list of permissible ciphersuites for encrypted
connections that use Transport Layer Security 1.3.
The value results in one or more colon-separated
ciphersuite names. The ciphersuites that can be
named for this option depend on the SSL library used
to compile MySQL.
• tls-version=protocol_list: Provide variants of per-
missible Transport Layer Security protocols for
encrypted connections. The value is a list of one or
more comma-separated protocol names. The proto-
cols that can be named for this option depend on the
SSL library used to set MySQL.
• upgrade-system-tables, -s: Used to upgrade only the
system tables in the MySQL schema and not the user
schemas.
• user=user_name, -u user_name: Stand for the user

name of the MySQL account to apply for connecting
to the server. The default user name is root.
• verbose: Used to activate the verbose mode.
• version-check, -k: Great to complete a checkup of the
server version to which mysql_upgrade is connecting
to verify that it is the same as the version for which
mysql_upgrade was built. If not, mysql_upgrade
exits by default. If you want to disable the check, use
--skip-version-check.
• write-binlog: Since binary logging by mysql_upgrade
is disabled by default, you should activate the pro-
gram with --write-binlog if you need its actions to
be written to the binary log. However, if you see the
server running with global transaction identifiers
(GTIDs) enabled (gtid_mode=ON), do not enable
binary logging by mysql_upgrade.
• zstd-compression-level=level: Stands for the com-
pression level to use for connections to the server
that employ the zstd compression algorithm. The
permitted levels are from 1 to 22, with larger val-
ues defining increasing levels of compression. The
default zstd compression level is 3. At the same
time, the compression level setting has no impact
on connections that do not apply zstd compression
whatsoever.
RUNNING A SQL FILE
MySQL is a quite simple SQL shell with extensive input

line editing capacities. It supports both interactive and
noninteractive use. if used interactively, query results are
displayed in an ASCII-table format. And when used nonin-
teractively, the result is presented in tab-separated format.
In case you face problems due to inefficient memory for
large result combinations you can apply the --quick option.
This makes MySQL to retrieve output from the server a row
at a time rather than retrieving the entire result combina-
tions and buffering it in memory before delivering it. This
is completed by returning the result combination using
the mysql_use_result function in the client/server library
rather than mysql_store_result.
Using MySQL is very pretty straightforward as it is. Call
it from the prompt of your command interpreter as follows:
MySQL db_name
Or:
MySQL --user=user_name --password db_name
In the second case, you will have to enter your password in

response to the prompt that MySQL displays:
Enter password: your_password

Then type an SQL statement, end it with;, \g, or \G
and press Enter. Typing Control+C disturbs the cur-
rent statement if there is one, or breaks in any partial
input line otherwise.
In addition, it is also possible to execute SQL statements in

a script file similar to:
MySQL db_name < script.sql > output.tab
The MySQL client typically is used interactively in the

following format: MySQL db_name. But you can also insert
your SQL statements in a file and then dictate MySQL read
its input from that file. To do so, create a text file text_file
that holds the statements you wish to implement. Then
activate MySQL with MySQL db_name < text_file. And if
you put a USE db_name statement as the first statement in
the file, it would then be unnecessary to specify the data-
base name on the command line: MySQL < text_file.
If you are already running MySQL, you can implement
an SQL script file with the following source command:
mysql> source file_name

mysql> \. file_name
Sometimes you might need your script to show progress

information to the user. For this you can add statements
like this:
SELECT '<info_to_display>' AS ' ';
The statement shown outputs <info_to_display>.

You can also include MySQL with the --verbose option,

which causes each statement to be displayed before the
result that it comes up with.
Worth noting that MySQL ignores Unicode byte order
mark characters at the beginning of input files. Previously,
it read them and forward them to the server, resulting in
a syntax error. Inclusion of a byte order mark characters
does not make MySQL to change its default character com-
bination. To do that, invoke MySQL with a script option
such as --default-character-set=utf8.
EDITING DATA
The MySQL Table Editor is used to generate and edit tables.

You can add or modify the columns or indexes of a table,
change the engine, add foreign keys, or revise the table
name. I order to access the MySQL Table Editor, right-
click a table name in the Navigator area of the sidebar with
the Schemas secondary tab selected and click Alter Table.
This action opens a new secondary tab within the main
SQL Editor window. You can also activate the MySQL
Table Editor from an Enhanced entity-relationship (EER)
Diagram by double-clicking on a table object.
Any number of tables may be edited in the MySQL Table

Editor at any given time. Adding another table results in a
new secondary tab at the top of the editor. By default, the
MySQL Table Editor is placed at the top of the table editor
tab, within the SQL editor. It typically provides a workspace
that has subtabs used to complete the following actions:7
• Columns: Add or adjust columns

• Indexes: Add or alter indexes
• Foreign Keys: Add or modify foreign keys
• Triggers: Add or edit triggers
• Partitioning: Manage partitioning of a table
• Options: Add or change other options, divided into
categories named general, row, storage, and merge
Columns Tab
You can use the Columns subtab to present and edit all the
column data for a table. With this subtab, you can add, can-
cel, or change columns. You can also apply the Columns
subtab to alter column properties such as name, data type,
and default value. Just right-click a row under the Column
Name to review a pop-up menu with the following list:8
• Move Up: Move the selected column up.

• Move Down: Move the selected column down.
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• Copy: Copies the column for a model.

• Cut: Copies and then deletes the column for a model.
• Paste: Pastes the column. If a column with the same
name already exists, then _copy1 is appended to the
column name.
• Delete Selected Columns: Select multiple contiguous
columns by right-clicking and pressing the Shift key.
Use the Control key to select separated columns.
• Refresh: Update all information in the Columns subtab.
• Clear Default: Clear the assigned default value.
• Default NULL: Set the column default value to NULL.
• Default 0: Set the column default value to 0.
• Default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP: Available for
TIMESTAMP data types.
• Default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP: Available for TIMESTAMP
data types.
If you need to add a column, click the Column Name

option in an empty row and enter an appropriate value.
Then choose a data type from the Datatype list and the col-
umn property checkboxes as required according to the list
of column properties that follow:9
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• PK: PRIMARY KEY

• NN: NOT NULL
• UQ: UNIQUE INDEX
• BIN: BINARY
• UN: UNSIGNED
• ZF: ZEROFILL
• AI: AUTO_INCREMENT
• G: Generated Column
In order to change properties like the name, data type,

default value, or comment of a column, you just have to
double-click at its value and edit it. You can also add col-
umn comments to the Column Comment field. In addi-
tion, you can also set the column collation, using the list in
the Column Details panel.
To the left of the column name, you should be able to
see an icon that shows whether the column is a member
of the primary key. If the icon is a small key, that column
belongs to the primary key, otherwise, the icon is a blue
diamond or a white diamond. A blue diamond defines that
the column has NN set. To add or delete a column from the
primary key, just double-click the icon. It is also possible to
add a primary key by checking the PRIMARY KEY check
box in the Column Details section of the table editor.
If you need to create a composite primary key, you
should go ahead and select multiple columns and click
the PK check box. However, there is an additional step in
which you should click the Indexes tab, then in the Index
Columns panel, you have to set the proper order of the pri-
mary keys.
Indexes Tab
The Indexes subtab holds all of the index data for your table.
You can use this subtab to add, drop, and edit indexes. All
indexes for a table are displayed by index name. Simply
click an index name to see all the Index Columns section
with information about the selected index. In addition, in
the same section, you should be able to modify the stor-
age type, key block size, parser, and visibility of the index.
Index comments, when included, apply to the selected
index only. To add an index, click the last row in the index
list and insert a name for the index as well as the index
type from the list. You should also choose the column or
multiple columns that you need to index by checking the
column name in the Index Columns list. You can delete a
column from the index just by removing the checkmark
from the applicable column.
In order to specify the order of a column within an
index, pick ASC or DESC from the Order column. Next,
create an index prefix by defining a numeric value under
the Length column. You will not be able to enter a prefix
value for fields that have a data type that does not support
prefixing.
If you want to render a secondary index that is invis-
ible to the optimizer, just deselect the Visible option. By
default, all indexes are made visible, so this feature has to
be supported by the active server; otherwise, the Visible
check box will be omitted. In addition, to drop an index,

simply right-click the index name and then click the Delete
Selected menu option.
Foreign Keys Tab

The Foreign Keys subtab is structure is pretty much the
same way as the Indexes subtab, meaning that adding or
editing a foreign key is similar to adding or editing an
index.
To add a foreign key, click the last row in the Foreign Key
Name list. Here, enter a name for the foreign key and select
the column or multiple columns that you want to index by
checking the column name in the Column list. You can
delete a column from the index simply by removing the
checkmark from the column. Under Foreign Key Options,
you can choose an action for the update and delete events.
The options are10
• RESTRICT
• CASCADE
• SET NULL
• NO ACTION
If you wish to drop a foreign key, right-click the row you

wish to remove and then click on the Delete Selected FKs
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menu item. To edit the properties of a foreign key, you

should just select it and make the desired changes.
Triggers Tab
The Triggers subtab creates a work platform that enables
you to generate new triggers or edit existing triggers. All
triggers are placed within a tree structure by section, such
as BEFORE INSERT and AFTER INSERT.
To add a new trigger, click the [+] icon next to the trig-
ger section. To delete a trigger, simply click the assigned [-]
icon. These icons become visible by layering over a trigger
or trigger section. When finished click Apply to set your
changes.
Partitioning Tab
To activate partitioning for your table, check the Enable
Partitioning check box. The Partition By pop-up menu
presents the types of partitions you can choose from:11
• HASH
• LINEAR HASH
• KEY
• LINEAR KEY
• RANGE
• LIST
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You can use the Parameters section to review all the

parameters to be supplied to the partitioning function,
similar to an integer column value. You can also choose
the number of partitions from the Partition Count list. To
manually modify your partitions, check the Manual check
box to enter values into the partition configuration table.
The available entries in this table are12
• Partition
• Values
• Data Directory
• Index Directory
• Min Rows
• Max Rows
• Comment
• Options Tab
Next, follow the Options subtab to set several types of

options. Table options are categorized into the following
sections:13
• General Options
• Row Options
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• Storage Options
• Merge Table Options
In the General Options section, start by selecting a pack

keys option. The options are Default, Pack None, and Pack
All. You can also encrypt the definition of a table. However,
the AUTO_INCREMENT and delayed key update pat-
terns apply only to MyISAM tables.
Choose the Row Options Section to set the desired row
format from the list. These options are: Default Dynamic
Fixed Compressed Redundant Compact. When you need
your table to be particularly large or small, make use of the
Avg. Row, Min. Rows, and Max functions.
The Storage Options section is available only for
MyISAM tables. You can use it to modify a custom path
to the table storage and data files. This can ensure better
server performance by transferring different tables to dif-
ferent hard drives.
You typically apply the Merge Table Options to config-
ure MERGE tables. To establish a MERGE table, choose
MERGE to be your main storage engine and then specify
the MyISAM tables you need to merge in the Union Tables
dialog. You may indicate the action the server should take
when users try to perform INSERT statements on the
merge table.
With this basic editing discourse, it is now safe to dive
into specific MySQL creating and operating various users/
roles section, as well as touch upon the part that explains
how to import and export the database.
Chapter 5
Server
Administration
IN THIS CHAPTER
➢➢ Reviewing Server Instances

➢➢ Learning how to create and administer Users and Roles
➢➢ Discovering how to import and export a database
DOI: 10.1201/9781003229629-5 189

A server is a computer or system that supplies and delivers

resources, data, services, or programs to other computers,
also known as clients, over a network. In theory, whenever
computers distribute resources to client machines, they are
considered servers. However, as technology has evolved,
such a definition of a server has evolved with it. Currently,
a server might be nothing more than software running on
one or more physical computing devices. Servers as such
are often referred to as virtual servers. Originally, virtual
servers were used to increase the number of server func-
tions a single hardware server could complete. Today, vir-
tual servers are often operated by a third party on hardware
across the Internet in a formation named cloud computing.
A server could be designed to complete a single task,
such as a mail server, which accepts and stores email and
then provides it to a requesting client. Or it can also per-
form several tasks, such as a file and print server, which
both can store files and accept print jobs from clients and
then forward them on to a network-attached printer.
Typically, to operate as a server, a device should be
configured to listen to requests from clients on a network
connection. This characteristic can exist as part of the oper-
ating system as an installed application, role, or a combina-
tion of the two. For instance, Microsoft’s Windows Server
operating system provides the functionality to listen to and
respond to client requests. In addition, installed roles or
services expand the types of client requests the server can
respond to. To illustrate with an example, an Apache web
server responds to Internet browser requests via an addi-
tional application, Apache, installed on top of an operating
system.
Server Administration ◾ 191
When a client needs data or functionality from a server,

it forwards a request over the network. The server receives
this request and responds with the appropriate informa-
tion. This is the request and response model of client-
server networking, also known as the call and response
model. Additionally, a server will often perform numer-
ous extra tasks as part of a single request and response,
including certifying the identity of the requestor, making
sure that the client has permission to access the data or
resources requested, and properly modifying or returning
the required response in an expected way. There are many
types of servers that all complete different functions. Many
networks hold one or more of the common server types:
• File servers: used to store and distribute files. Multiple

clients or users may share files stored on a server.
Moreover, centrally storing files has better backup or
fault tolerance solutions than attempting to provide
security and integrity for files on every device in an
organization.
• Print servers: ensure effective management and
distribution of printing functionality. Rather than
attaching a printer to every workstation, it offers a
single print server service to numerous requests from
numerous clients. Normally, larger and higher-end
printers come with their own built-in print server,
which removes the need for an additional computer-
based print server.
• Application servers: run applications in lieu of cli-
ent computers administering applications locally.
Application servers often execute resource-inten-

sive applications that are shared by a large number
of users. Doing so eliminates the necessity for each
client to have sufficient resources to run the applica-
tions. It also removes the need to install and maintain
software on many devices as opposed to only one.
• Domain Name System (DNS) servers: provide
name resolution to client computers by converting
names that are user-friendly into machine-readable
IP addresses. The DNS system is a widely distributed
database of names and other DNS servers, each of
which can be used to request an unknown computer
name. When a client needs the address of a system,
it sends a DNS request with the name of the desired
resource to a DNS server. The DNS server responds
with the necessary IP address from its table of names.
• Mail servers: used to receive emails sent to a user
and store them until requested by a client. Having an
email server lets a single machine be properly con-
figured and attached to the network at all times. It is
then ready to send and receive messages rather than
requiring every client machine to have its own email
subsystem constantly running.
• Web servers: is a special kind of application server that
hosts programs and data requested by users across the
Internet. Web servers usually respond to requests from
browsers running on client computers for web pages,
or other web-based services. Common web serv-
ers include Apache web servers, Microsoft Internet
Information Services (IIS) servers, and Nginx servers.
• Database servers: run database applications and

respond to numerous requests from clients. Mostly used
by companies, databases need to be accessible to mul-
tiple clients at any given time and can require extraor-
dinary amounts of disk space. This particular type of
server would be the main topic of the next section.
Every day, we create an enormous amount of data bytes,

and this number is only going to accelerate at an exponen-
tial rate in the near future. To illustrate, it is believed that
we have collected more data for the past two years than in
entire human history. And one of the basic locations where
all this data is forwarded is a database. Without the data-
base and capacity to query the database, it would be nearly
impossible to collect and review any of that data in a com-
prehensive way. It is a truly groundbreaking time in the
data world with a new system for data collection, manipu-
lation, and types of databases. With this, you have different
groups of gatekeepers and maintainers for all the datasets
of information. You typically call these professionals data-
base administrators (DBA) and server administrators.
DBA includes all the activities required to manage a
database and maintain it available at all times. The DBA
is the expert who operates, backs up, and guarantees the
availability of the data produced and consumed by a given
organization through their IT systems. The DBA is a cru-
cial role in today’s IT-driven enterprises and by extension,
the modern world overall.
To illustrate, consider a standard commercial bank: the
DBA is the profession that would have to make sure that the
bank worker has fast access to any customer’s information,
and can quickly navigate the whole transaction history. In

this example, the DBA stands for a system of the application-
DBA responsible for most aspects of the organization’s data-
bases. However, this role has to be backed up and advanced
in cooperation with proactive server management as well.
Server administrators typically take the case of the
company’s servers, network, and workstations, and are in
charge of keeping the company’s systems running con-
stantly and error-free. For that, they have to install pro-
grams, update the operating system according to the latest
trends and supervise the users’ activities.
Server administrators also have to be the ones to keep
an eye on data floating in and out of the network and be
in charge of keeping the network secure, therefore they
might at times respond to security concerns by tightening
the firewall settings. In addition, the server administrator’s
responsibilities may also include the following:
• Installing and upgrading the database server and/or

application products.
• Scheduling for and allocating the database system’s
physical requirements, such as memory, disk space,
and network requirements.
• Adjusting the database structure using the informa-
tion provided by application developers.
• Filing users’ profiles and ensuring system security.
• Assuring compliance with database vendor license
agreement, including a number of installations and
licensing renewals.
• Creating a backup and recovery plan for the data-

base, and regularly testing the backups to maintain
usability.
• Monitoring technical support for both database sys-
tems and related products.
• Establishing reports by querying from the database.
These reports can be in the form of pre-formatted
statements using the application frontend, or custom-
made ad hoc reports by the DBA.
• Auditing and optimizing the database’s performance
using both manual or automated tools.
• Migrating database instances to new hardware and
new versions of software from on-premise to cloud-
based databases and vice versa.
Moreover, there is a wide range of sub-specializations for

the server administrator role. There are those who special-
ize in creating and designing databases in the first place.
They typically work as part of a team, often in a more spe-
cialized software development company. And that data-
base is likely to be a fragment of a larger application for
some specific need. Server specialists as such more likely
to work in collaboration with analysts and others who are
intimately familiar with various operations to design the
most suited application’s functions and modules.
Another type of server administrator is the Performance
Administrator that specializes in optimizing and upgrad-
ing the performance of various server databases. Database’s
internal structure holds information stored within tables
that then can be optimized by use of indexes, which look

like a book’s table of contents. Professional’s goal here is
to ensure that the database is optimized to take advantage
of the physical or virtual hardware on which it is located.
This means it is necessary to be able to divide data across
different disks, set up the database to sustainable use of
memory, and optimize the network traffic of remote data-
bases. There are also some databases that are split among
multiple servers, while others can get so complex that they
need a DBA who focuses only on that particular segment’s
performance improvement.
The third type of server administrator is the Application
expert that focuses mainly on integrating databases into
the applications that apply them. Navigating most data-
bases usually requires knowledge of a specific type of query
language. It is the responsibility of the application expert
to make sure that the database and the application using it
interconnect properly, and that accurate results are trans-
mitted between the two.
Databases that we have mentioned so far are primarily
one of three different types: flat-file databases, hierarchical
databases, and relational databases. Flat-file databases have a
minimalist, two-dimensional structure. Excel spreadsheets
and comma-separated value files are a great depiction of flat-
file databases. Hierarchical databases, on the other hand,
have a parent-child relationship built into their structure.
An example of a hierarchical database is a folder structure
on a hard drive. Relational databases are the closest to what
we now think of when we say database. It’s like taking sev-
eral of those flat-file databases and associating them together
through references that they both share in common.
And since SQL Server is relational database software, it

is necessary to start by exploring some of the basic rela-
tional database concepts.
A relational database includes one or more tables, with
each table made up of one or more domains, and columns
that briefly define the data being recorded. Each entry in
the table is referred is an entity.
• Normalization and information consolidation: As
previously stated, normalization is the result of the
process of getting rid of redundancies in the data. It is
an important concept and could be better described
with the following example.
Imagine you have a table that holds information
about people, a simple thing to imagine is using a
domain for the city. Let’s assume that you have 10
people on your list, with five living in London and
five living in Manchester.
In order to normalize that data, you should create
an additional table called cityname. Inside that table,
“London” would be the first city with an ID of “1,”
and “Manchester” would be entered with an ID of
“2.” You would then update your people table to refer-
ence the city table instead of having the cities entered
for each field. Even our simple example of ten people
would benefit by having “London” at six characters
and “Manchester” at ten characters replaced with an
ID number that is only one character long.
• Indexes preload: An index can be arranged to pro-
vide faster access to certain key columns of data in
a table, such as a title or a name field so that queries
can be operated more quickly. And while each index

that you define has an inherent cost associated with
it, it is still worth identifying those fields that will be
searched and structured so that they can be indexed.
• Pages are the building blocks of SQL Server data
storage: The databases are located in files on disk.
The same files are made up of 8 KB bits of data called
pages. Every single row of data from a table has to fit
inside a page. So that afterward pages could be loaded
into memory to make a change to an entity.
• Transaction logs: Transaction logs are used to identify
which changes have been made to a page since it was last
saved to disk and hold a record of all the history, including
even the smallest editions. This is to protect the data while
it is in volatile Random-access memory instead of on the
hard drive. In case of a power failure, SQL Server begins
reviewing all of the unsaved changes back into memory.
• Database data types: Data can be stored in several
different types. For instance, date/time, Numbers,
True/False (Boolean), and Images are examples of
different data types. Each data type originally has its
own impact on the size of the database. Large num-
bers generally take more space than a simple true/
false when stored on disk, so using the smallest data
type possible might play well in the longer run.
• Binary Large Objects (BLOBs): BLOBs stands for
items such as images, sound files, and attachments
that are located on disk as separate files, where a
pointer to the file is stored inside the table.
Another thing to refresh is the fact that the SQL lan-

guage itself is broken into three different parts: Data
Manipulation Language (DML), Data Definition Language
(DDL), and Control Language.
• DML: DML is reserved for queries and updates of

data in the tables. SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and
DELETE are all commands from DML.
• DDL: DDL ensures control over the database itself
instead of the rows of data in the database. USE,
CREATE, and DROP are examples of DDL.
• Control Language: Control language includes logical
structures for controlling flow, repetition, and if/then
logic.
After going through existing SQL Server infrastructure

and refreshing some basic knowledge of database admin-
istration, you are now ready for a thorough MySQL Server
overview: fundamentals of multiple instances, training,
and initial work with databases, data importing, and
exporting.
INSTANCES
The MySQL server, mysqld, has many command options
and system variables that can should be applied at startup
to modify its operation. To define the default command
option and system variable values used by the server, insert
shell> mysqld --verbose --help

This command puts together a list of all mysqld options

and configurable system variables. Its output includes the
default option and variable values. And in case you want to
see the current system variable values actually applied by
the server as it runs, link to it and execute this statement:
mysql> SHOW VARIABLES;
In order to review some statistical and status indicators for

a running server, implement this statement:
mysql> SHOW STATUS;
In addition, various system variables and status informa-

tion are also available using the mysqladmin command:
shell> mysqladmin variables

shell> mysqladmin extended-status
An instance could be defined as any server program access-

ing MySQL program on the server-side at a given time.
It is possible to use a different MySQL server binary per
instance, or use the same binary for multiple instances, or
any set of the two approaches. An instance of the Database
Engine is a duplication of the sqlservr.exe executable that
administers as an operating system service. Each instance
runs several system databases and one or more user data-
bases. As well as that, each computer can run multiple
instances of the Database Engine independently of other
instances.
It is easy to install and edit multiple instances of SQL
Server on the same machine. You can make multiple
named instances and store the system database, and log

files in separate directories. Once SQL Server instances
are set, you can connect them by identifying the
HOSTNAME/INSTANCE name in the connection string
of the application server or the SQL Server Management
Studio (SSMS).
In some cases, you might need to run multiple instances
of MySQL on a single machine, or you might need to test a
new MySQL release while keeping an existing production
setup undisturbed. Or it could also be true that you might
want to give different users access to different mysqld
servers that they run themselves (e.g., you could act as an
Internet Service Provider that wants to provide indepen-
dent MySQL installations for users).
It is, nevertheless, manageable to use a different MySQL
server binary per instance or apply the same binary for
multiple instances, or any combination of the two. For
example, you might administer a server from MySQL 5.7
and one from MySQL 8.0, to see how different versions
manage a certain workload. Or you might run multiple
instances of the current production version, each manag-
ing a different set of databases.
Depending on whether or not you use distinct server
binaries, each instance that you conduct must be config-
ured with unique values for several operating standards.
This would prevent any potential occurrence of con-
flict between instances. Parameters can be issued on the
command line, in option files, or by setting environment
variables.
The main resource managed by a MySQL instance is
the data directory. Each instance should use a different
data directory, the location of which is identified using the

--datadir=dir_name option. In addition to using different
data directories, several other options should also have dif-
ferent values for each server instance:1
• port=port_num: port regulates the port number

for TCP/IP connections. At the same time, if the
host has multiple network addresses, you can add the
bind_address system variable to let each server listen
to a different address.
• socket={file_name|pipe_name}: socket manages

the Unix socket file path on Unix or the named-pipe
name on Windows. On Windows, it is mandatory
to define distinct pipe names only for those servers
made to permit named-pipe links.
• shared-memory-base-name=name: This option is

available only for Windows. It determines the shared-
memory name used by a Windows server to allow cli-
ents to connect using shared memory. It is mandatory
to specify distinct shared-memory names only for
those servers configured to enable shared-memory
connections.
• pid-file=file_name: This option suggests the path-

name of the file in which the server writes its process
ID.
1 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/multiple-servers.html, MySQL
If you use the following log file options, their values

must differ for each server:
--general_log_file=file_name
--log-bin[=file_name]
--slow_query_log_file=file_name
--log-error[=file_name]
Additionally, to get better execution, you can specify the

following option differently for each server, to share the
load between several physical disks:
--tmpdir=dir_name
Having different temporary directories also makes it simpler

to decide which MySQL server created any given temporary
file. Thus, if you have multiple MySQL installations in dif-
ferent locations, you can select the base directory for each
installation with the --basedir=dir_name option. This shall
impact each instance and install automatic use of a differ-
ent data directory, log files, and PID file because the default
for each of those items would be relative to the base direc-
tory. In that case, the only other options you need to desig-
nate explicitly are the --socket and --port options. Imagine
that you need to install different versions of MySQL using
tar file binary distributions. These install in different loca-
tions, so you can start the server for each installation using
the command bin/mysqld_safe under its corresponding
base directory. mysqld_safe will select the proper --basedir
option to pass to myself, and you would have to specify only
the --socket and --port options to mysqld_safe.
As mentioned previously, it is possible to start additional

servers by specifying best-suited command options or by
setting environment variables. Nevertheless, if you need
to operate multiple servers on a more persistent basis, it
is more convenient to apply option files to specify for each
server those option values that should be unique to it. The
--defaults-file option is useful for this purpose.
It is by default that each MySQL Instance on a machine
should have its own data directory. The location is typi-
cally identified using the --datadir=dir_name option.
Correspondingly, there are different methods of setting up
a data directory for a new instance: by creating a new data
directory or by copying an already existing data directory.
Creating a New Data Directory

With this approach, the data directory would be in the same
state as when you first installed MySQL and would stay accord-
ing to the default set of MySQL accounts and no user data.
To activate it on Unix, you just need to initialize the
data directory. On Windows, the data directory is already
included in the MySQL distribution. Thus, MySQL Zip
archive distributions for Windows hold an unmodified
data directory. You can unpack such distribution into a
temporary location, then copy it data directory to where
you are planning the new instance to be.
Windows MSI package installers create the data direc-
tory that the installed server uses, but also make a pristine
“template” data directory named data under the installa-
tion directory. After an installation has been completed
using an MSI package, the template data directory can be
used to set up additional MySQL instances.
Copying an Existing Data Directory

According to this approach, any MySQL accounts or user
data present in the data directory can be simply carried
over to the new data directory.
However, to start with, you need to stop the existing
MySQL instance using the data directory. Then, copy the
data directory to the location where the new data directory
should be. And copy the my.cnf or my.ini option file used
by the existing instance that later would serve as a basis for
the new instance.
It is also important to modify the new option file so that
any pathnames addressing the original data directory refer
to the new data directory. Also, modify any other options
that must be unique per instance, such as the TCP/IP port
number and the log files. Only after that, you can start the
new instance, telling it to use the new option file.
It is also possible to run multiple servers on Windows by
starting them manually from the command line, each with
appropriate operating standards, or via the installation of
several servers as Windows services. We shall look through
these options in detail in the following section.
Starting Multiple MySQL Instances

at the Windows Command Line
To start multiple servers using this method, you should
specify the appropriate options on the command line or
in an option file. It is more suitable to place the options in
an option file, but it is also critical to make sure that each
server has its own set of options. To achieve this, create an
option file for each server and tell the server the file name
with a --defaults-file option when you operate it.
Suppose that you want to run one instance of mysqld on

port 4405 with a data directory of C:\mydata1, and another
instance on port 4406 with a data directory of C:\mydata2.
Use this procedure:2
Make sure that each data directory exists, including its
own copy of the MySQL database that contains the grant
tables. Then go into creating two option files. For instance,
one file named C:\my-opts1.cnf that looks like this:
[mysqld]
datadir = C:/mydata1
port = 4405
And a second file named C:\my-opts2.cnf that looks like

this:
[mysqld]
port = 4406
You can also use the --defaults-file option to start each

server with its own option file:3
C:\> C:\mysql\bin\mysqld --defaults-

file=C:\my-opts1.cnf
C:\> C:\mysql\bin\mysqld --defaults-
file=C:\my-opts2.cnf
2 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/multiple-windows-command-
line-servers.html, MySQL
3 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/multiple-windows-command-
line-servers.html, MySQL
Each server would start in the foreground, so there would

be no need to issue those two commands in separate console
windows.
To stop the servers, you just need to connect to each
using the appropriate port number:
C:\> C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin --port=3307
--host=127.0.0.1 --user=root --password
shutdown
C:\> C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin --port=3308
--host=127.0.0.1 --user=root --password
shutdown
In case your version of Windows supports named pipes

and you also want to allow named-pipe connections,
specify options that enable the named pipe and specify its
name. Each server that supports named-pipe connections
should be using a unique pipe name. TO illustrate, the C:\
my-opts1.cnf file could be written like this:
[mysqld]
port = 3307
enable-named-pipe
socket = mypipe1
You can modify C:\my-opts2.cnf in a similar manner to

use by the second server.
A similar procedure applies for servers that you want
to permit shared-memory connections. You can acti-
vate such connections by starting the server with the
shared_memory system variable enabled and designate a
unique shared-memory name for each server by setting the
shared_memory_base_name system variable.
Starting Multiple MySQL Instances

as Windows Services
On Windows, a MySQL server can also operate as a
Windows service. To set up multiple MySQL services, you
need to make sure that each instance applies a different
service name in addition to the other parameters that have
to be kept unique per instance.
Imagine you need to run the mysqld server from two differ-
ent versions of MySQL that are installed at C:\mysql-5.7.9 and
C:\mysql-8.0.25, respectively. To install MySQL as a Windows
service, use the --install or --install-manual option. Based on
the above-mentioned information, you have several ways to
set up multiple services. But before trying any of them, you
need to shut down and remove any existing MySQL services.
• Method 1: Start by specifying the options for all ser-

vices in one of the standard option files. To complete
this, apply a different service name for each server.
Suppose that you want to run the 5.7.9 mysqld using
the service name of mysqld1 and the 8.0.25 mysqld
using the service name mysqld2. In this case, you can
use the [mysqld1] group for 5.7.9 and the [mysqld2]
group for 8.0.25. For example, you can set up C:\
my.cnf in the following manner:4
# options for mysqld1 service

[mysqld1]
basedir = C:/mysql-5.7.9
port = 3307
4 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/multiple-windows-services.html,
MySQL
enable-named-pipe
socket = mypipe1
# options for mysqld2 service
[mysqld2]
port = 3308
enable-named-pipe
socket = mypipe2
In order to install the services as follows, you have
to use the full server path names to ensure that
Windows registers the correct executable program
for each service:5
C:\> C:\mysql-5.7.9\bin\mysqld
--install mysqld1
C:\> C:\mysql-8.0.25\bin\mysqld
--install mysqld2
To start the services, you can use the services manager, or

NET START or SC START with the appropriate service
names:
C:\> SC START mysqld1
C:\> SC START mysqld2
And to stop the services, apply the services manager,

or use NET STOP or SC STOP with the appropriate
service names:
C:\> SC STOP mysqld1
C:\> SC STOP mysqld2
MySQL
• Method 2: Designate options for each server in sepa-

rate files and use --defaults-file when you install the
services to command each server what file to use. In
this case, each file should list options using a [mysqld]
group.
With this approach, to specify options for the 5.7.9 mysqld,

create a file C:\my-opts1.cnf that looks like this:
[mysqld]
port = 3307
enable-named-pipe
socket = mypipe1
For the 8.0.25 mysqld, create a file C:\my-opts2.cnf that

looks like this:
[mysqld]
port = 3308
enable-named-pipe
socket = mypipe2
You can then install the services as follows:
C:\> C:\mysql-5.7.9\bin\mysqld --install

mysqld1
--defaults-file=C:\my-opts1.cnf
C:\> C:\mysql-8.0.25\bin\mysqld --install
mysqld2
--defaults-file=C:\my-opts2.cnf
When you install a MySQL server as a service and apply a

--defaults-file option, the service name must precede the
option. After installing the services, make sure to start and

stop them the same way as in the first method example.
Similarly, in order to remove multiple services, use SC
DELETE mysqld_service_name for each one. Or as an
alternative, use mysqld --remove for each one, identify-
ing a service name following the --remove option. If the
service name is the default, you can ignore it when using
mysqld --remove.
Running Multiple MySQL Instances on Unix

For MySQL installation using an RPM distribution, server
startup and shutdown is regulated by systemd on several
Linux platforms. On these platforms, mysqld_safe is not
installed because it is not considered necessary.
One way to run multiple MySQL instances on Unix is
to combine different servers with different default TCP/
IP ports and Unix socket files so that each one listens to
different network interfaces. Compiling in different base
directories for each installation also happens automatically
in a separate, compiled-in data directory, log file, and PID
file location for each server.
To demonstrate, imagine that an existing 5.7 server is
configured for the default TCP/IP port number (4406) and
Unix socket file (/tmp/mysql.sock). To configure a new
8.0.25 server to have different operating parameters, try
the following CMake command:
shell> cmake . -DMYSQL_TCP_

PORT=port_number \
-DMYSQL_UNIX_ADDR=file_name \
-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/
local/mysql-8.0.25
Here, port_number and file_name should be different

from the default TCP/IP port number and Unix socket file
pathname, and the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX value
should explicitly state an installation directory different
from the one under which the existing MySQL installa-
tion is placed.
In case you have a MySQL server listening on a given
port number, you can include the following command to
see what operating parameters it is using for several impor-
tant configurable variables, including the base directory
and Unix socket file name:
shell> mysqladmin --host=host_name

--port=port_number variables
With the information presented by that command, you can

find out what option values not to use when setting up an
additional server.
In addition, if you specify localhost as the hostname,
mysqladmin defaults to using a Unix socket file rather
than TCP/IP. To explicitly regulate the transport protocol,
attempt the --protocol={TCP|SOCKET|PIPE|MEMORY}
option.
There is no need to combine a whole new MySQL server
just to start with a different Unix socket file and TCP/
IP port number. You can potentially use the same server
binary and start each invocation of it with different param-
eter values at runtime. One way to accomplish it would be
by using command-line options:
shell> mysqld_safe --socket=file_name

--port=port_number
And to start a second server, provide different --socket

and --port option values, and pass a --datadir=dir_name
option to mysqld_safe so that the server applies a different
data directory.
As an alternative, you can put the options for each
server in a different option file, then start each server
using a --defaults-file option that identifies the path to the
suitable option file. To illustrate with an example, if the
option files for two server instances are named /usr/local/
MySQL/my.cnf and /usr/local/MySQL/my.cnf2, start the
servers with this command:6
shell> mysqld_safe --defaults-file=/usr/

local/mysql/my.cnf
shell> mysqld_safe --defaults-file=/usr/
local/mysql/my.cnf2
You can also achieve a similar effect using environment

variables that set the Unix socket file name and TCP/IP
port number:7
shell> MYSQL_UNIX_PORT=/tmp/mysqld-new.sock
shell> MYSQL_TCP_PORT=3307
shell> export MYSQL_UNIX_PORT
MYSQL_TCP_PORT
shell> bin/mysqld --initialize --user=mysql
shell> mysqld_safe --datadir=/path/to/
datadir &
MySQL
MySQL
That would probably be the quickest way of starting a

second server for testing purposes. The good thing about
this approach is that the environment variable settings
apply to any user programs that you activate from the same
shell. Therefore, connections for those users are automati-
cally directed to the second server.
CREATING AND MANAGING USERS AND ROLES
User management and security control are two areas that

can quickly become multiplex as the number of users and
database entities increases. Managing many different priv-
ileges on different database objects, making sure users that
have the same responsibilities have the same level of access,
monitoring, and inspecting access all become more com-
plicated with time.
To help with this, MySQL came up with a concept called
“roles” that permits you to group sets of privileges under
a given name, allowing you to assign and edit overarch-
ing settings. In this section, we shall go through roles that
work within MySQL and learn how to use them to make it

easier to regulate data access for all users. Each row in the
MySQL.user table is identified by a user and host tuple. This
tuple stands for the authorization ID. A client can authen-
ticate with an authorization ID and a password. The ID is
then referred to as a user or user name. Here, before going
any further, let’s go through some of the main definitions:
• Privileges ID: A privilege ID could be viewed as a

token that is granted to an authorization ID. A privi-
lege can either be effective or not effective. An effec-
tive privilege is the one used in a session to assess if a
particular operation is permitted or not.
• Roles: A role is an authorization ID that can be
assigned to another authorization ID by establishing
a directed edge between them in the role graph where
every vertex is a unique authorization ID. When the
effective privilege is estimated, all connected roles are
assessed according to their edge direction and corre-
sponding granted privileges they possess.
• Active roles: A role can either be active or inactive.
Active roles are located in a thread-local list which
exists only for the lifetime of a user session. Granted
roles can be turned into active by (1) a SET ROLE
statement, (2) after authentication if the role is a default
role, and (3) after authentication if the global variable
opt_always_activate_roles_on_login is set to true.
• Default roles: Each authorization ID has a list of
default roles. Default roles belonging to an autho-
rization ID are turned into active roles after
authentication. If the list of default roles is empty,

then no roles are made active after authentication
unless the user sets a SET ROLE statement.
• Mandatory roles: A mandatory role is an authorization
ID that is granted to every other authorization ID which
has authenticated, regardless if this role has been previ-
ously granted or not. Mandatory roles are designated in
a global variable. It is not required that the specified list
maps to any existing authorization ID, but if there is no
previous record of authorization ID, then no manda-
tory role can be granted. Mandatory roles are processed
similarly to any other granted role when the effective
privilege of an authorization ID needs to be assessed.
A user account can be permitted roles, which grants to the

account the privileges connected to each role. This enables
the assignment of privilege sets as a convenient alterna-
tive to granting individual privileges, both for structuring
desired privilege assignments and realizing them.
The following list sums up role-management capacities
provided by MySQL:8
• CREATE ROLE and DROP ROLE to create and delete

roles.
• GRANT and REVOKE assign privileges and revoke
privileges from accounts and roles.
• SHOW GRANTS demonstrates privilege and role
assignments for accounts and roles.
8 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/roles.html, MySQL
• SET DEFAULT ROLE identifies which account roles

are active by default.
• SET ROLE changes the active roles within the current
session.
• The CURRENT_ROLE() function displays the active
roles within the current session.
• The mandatory_roles and activate_all_roles_on_login
system variables enable determining mandatory roles
and automatic activation of granted roles when users
log in to the server.
Creating Roles and Granting Privileges to Them

It potentially could happen so that a database associated
with the application, can have multiple accounts for devel-
opers who create and maintain the application, and sepa-
rate accounts only for users who interact with it. Developers
typically require full access to the database while users
need only read access, or read/write access.
To avoid granting privileges individually to many user
accounts, you can create roles as names for the required
privilege sets. This makes it easy to grant the privileges to
user accounts, by granting the appropriate roles.
To create the roles, insert the CREATE ROLE statement:
CREATE ROLE 'app_developer', 'app_read',

'app_write';
Role names are similar to user account names in the way

how both consist of a user part and host part in ‘user_
name‘@’host_name’ manner. The host part, if skipped,
defaults to ‘%’. The user and host parts can stay unquoted
unless they hold special characters such as - or %. However,
unlike account names, the user part of role names cannot
be left blank.
In order to assign privileges to the roles, you should
execute GRANT statement using the same syntax as for
assigning privileges to user accounts:9
GRANT ALL ON app_db.* TO 'app_developer';

GRANT SELECT ON app_db.* TO 'app_read';
GRANT INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON app_db.*
TO 'app_write';
Now let’s imagine that you initially require one developer

account, two user accounts that need read-only access, and
one user account that needs read/write access. You can
accomplish that by using CREATE USER to create these
accounts:
CREATE USER 'dev1'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED

BY 'dev1pass';
CREATE USER 'read_user1'@'localhost'
IDENTIFIED BY 'read_user1pass';
CREATE USER 'read_user2'@'localhost'
IDENTIFIED BY 'read_user2pass';
CREATE USER 'rw_user1'@'localhost'
IDENTIFIED BY 'rw_user1pass';
To assign each user account its appropriate privileges,

you can use GRANT statements of the same format as
mentioned above, but that requires enumerating individ-

ual privileges for each user. Instead, try using an alterna-
tive GRANT syntax that allows granting roles rather than
privileges:10
GRANT 'app_developer' TO
'dev1'@'localhost';
GRANT 'app_read' TO 'read_
user1'@'localhost',
'read_user2'@''localhost';
GRANT 'app_read', 'app_write' TO
'rw_user1'@'localhost';
The GRANT syntax for granting roles to an account is not

the same as the syntax for granting privileges. There is an
ON clause to assign privileges, whereas there is no ON
clause to assign roles. And because the syntaxes are differ-
ent, you cannot combine assigning privileges and roles in
the same statement.
Typically, a role when created is locked, has no password,
and is designated with the default authentication plugin.
At the same time, these role attributes can be altered later
with the ALTER USER statement, by users who hold the
global CREATE USER privilege.
While locked, a role cannot be applied to authenticate to
the server. Only once unlocked, it can be used to authen-
ticate. This is due to the fact that roles and users are both
authorization identifiers with much in common and little
to distinguish them.
Defining Mandatory Roles

It is possible to define roles as mandatory by naming them
in the value of the mandatory_roles system variable. The
server presumes a mandatory role is granted to all users so
that it need not be granted separately to any account. To
identify mandatory roles at server startup, define manda-
tory_roles in your server my.cnf file:
[mysqld]
mandatory_roles='role1,role2@
localhost,r3@%.example.com'
To establish and maintain mandatory_roles at runtime,

you should use the following statement:11
SET PERSIST mandatory_roles = 'role1,role2@

localhost,r3@%.example.com';
SET PERSIST sets the value for the running MySQL

instance. It also saves the value, causing it to transfer to
subsequent server restarts. To modify the value for the
running MySQL instance without having it carry over to
subsequent restarts, insert the GLOBAL keyword rather
than PERSIST.
Setting mandatory_roles requires the ROLE_ADMIN
privilege, in addition to the SYSTEM_VARIABLES_
ADMIN privilege normally applied to set a global system
variable.
Mandatory roles, similar to granted roles, do not pro-
duce results until activated. At login time, role activation
takes place for all granted roles if the activate_all_roles_

on_login system variable is enabled, or for roles that
are set as default roles. You can apply the SET ROLE
command at runtime to complete activation. However,
roles named in the value of mandatory_roles cannot be
revoked with REVOKE or dropped with DROP ROLE or
DROP USER.
In order to prevent sessions from being made system
sessions by default, a role that has the SYSTEM_USER
privilege cannot be included in the value of the manda-
tory_roles system variable for the following reasons:12
• If mandatory_roles is assigned a role at startup that

has the SYSTEM_USER privilege, the server drops a
message to the error log and exits.
• If mandatory_roles is assigned a role at runtime that
has the SYSTEM_USER privilege, an error occurs
and the mandatory_roles value remains unmodified.
• If a role named in mandatory_roles is not included in
the MySQL.user system table, the role is not granted
to users. If the server attempts role activation for a
user, it does not take the nonexistent role as man-
datory and writes a warning to the error log. If the
role is created later and thus becomes valid, FLUSH
PRIVILEGES may be necessary to cause the server to
take it as mandatory.
12 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/account-categories.html, MySQL
Checking Role Privileges

In order to check and confirm the privileges assigned to an
account, you should use SHOW GRANTS variable in the
following format:
mysql> SHOW GRANTS FOR 'dev1'@'localhost';

Grants for dev1@localhost
GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO 'dev1'@'localhost'
GRANT 'app_developer'@'%' TO
'dev1'@'localhost'
At the same time, the variable will show each granted role
without “expanding” it to the privileges the role represents.
To display role privileges as well, you need to include a
USING clause naming the granted roles for which to dis-
play privileges:
mysql> SHOW GRANTS FOR 'dev1'@'localhost'

USING 'app_developer';
Grants for dev1@localhost
GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO 'dev1'@'localhost'
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON 'app_db'.* TO
'dev1'@'localhost'
GRANT 'app_developer'@'%' TO
'dev1'@'localhost'
Activating Roles
Roles granted to a user account can be treated as active
or inactive within account sessions. If a granted role is
active within a session, its privileges are included as well;
otherwise, they are not. If might want to see for yourself
which roles are active within the current session, use the
CURRENT_ROLE() function for that purpose.
By default, granting a role to an account or naming it in

the mandatory_roles system variable value does not auto-
matically make the role active within account sessions.
For instance, because thus far in the preceding discussion
no rw_user1 roles have been activated, if you connect to
the server as rw_user1 and insert the CURRENT_ROLE()
function, the result will be NONE (meaning no active
roles):
mysql> SELECT CURRENT_ROLE();

CURRENT_ROLE()
NONE
To correctly identify which roles should become active

each time a user links to the server and authenticates, you
should apply SET DEFAULT ROLE. To set the default to
all designated roles for each account created earlier, you
should use the following statement:
SET DEFAULT ROLE ALL TO

'dev1'@'localhost',
'read_user1'@'localhost',
'read_user2'@'localhost',
'rw_user1'@'localhost';
Now if you try and connect as rw_user1, the initial value

of CURRENT_ROLE() will display the new default role
assignments:
mysql> SELECT CURRENT_ROLE();

CURRENT_ROLE()
'app_read'@'%','app_write'@'%'
And in case you want to set all explicitly granted and

mandatory roles to be automatically activated once you
connect to the server, just enable the activate_all_roles_
on_login system variable because, by default, this option
is disabled.
Revoking Roles or Role Privileges

Just as roles can be granted to an account, they can also
be revoked from an account via REVOKE role FROM
user command. Yet keep in mind that roles named in
the mandatory_roles system variable value cannot be
revoked.
REVOKE can be applied to a role to transform the privi-
leges granted to it. This impacts not only the role itself but
any account granted that role. Let’s say you need to tem-
porarily make all application users read-only. For that, use
REVOKE to revoke the modification privileges from the
app_write role: REVOKE INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON
app_db.* FROM ‘app_write’;
As it proceeds, that leaves the role with no privileges at
all, as can be seen using SHOW GRANTS that is used to
demonstrate that this statement can be used with roles, not
just users:
mysql> SHOW GRANTS FOR 'app_write';

Grants for app_write@%
GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO 'app_write'@'%'
Due to the fact that revoking privileges from a role trans-

form the privileges for any user who is assigned the modified
role, rw_user1 now has no table modification privileges

(meaning INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE are no longer
available):
mysql> SHOW GRANTS FOR

'rw_user1'@'localhost'
USING 'app_read', 'app_write';
Grants for rw_user1@localhost
GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO
GRANT SELECT ON 'app_db'.* TO
GRANT 'app_read'@'%','app_write'@'%' TO
As a result, the rw_user1 read/write user has become a

read-only user. This is also true for any other accounts that
are granted the app_write role, demonstrating how the use
of roles makes it unnecessary to modify privileges for indi-
vidual accounts.
And in case you would need to restore modification
privileges to the role, you can achieve that by simply re-
granting them: GRANT INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON
app_db.* TO ‘app_write’; With that, rw_user1 again will
have modification privileges, similar to any other accounts
granted the app_write role.
And to drop the roles, just apply DROP ROLE: DROP
ROLE ‘app_read’, ‘app_write’;
This function revokes a role from every account to which
it was granted. Yet roles named in the mandatory_roles
system variable value cannot be dropped.
User and Role Interchangeability

As has been previously, SHOW GRANTS can be used to
display grants for both user accounts and roles, where
accounts and roles are typically used interchangeably.
A significant difference between roles and users is
that CREATE ROLE creates an authorization identifier
that is locked by default, whereas CREATE USER creates
an authorization identifier that is unlocked by default.
However, the distinction is not immutable because a user
with suitable privileges can lock or unlock roles or users
after they have been created.
Thus, in case a DBA has a preference that a specific
authorization identifier must be a role, a name scheme
can be applied to execute this intention. For instance, you
could use a r_ prefix for all authorization identifiers that
you want to transform into roles and nothing else.
Another difference between roles and users lies in the
privileges that are used for managing them:
The CREATE ROLE and DROP ROLE privileges enable
only use of the CREATE ROLE and DROP ROLE state-
ments, respectively.
The CREATE USER privilege activates the use of the
ALTER USER, CREATE ROLE, CREATE USER, DROP
ROLE, DROP USER, RENAME USER, and REVOKE ALL
PRIVILEGES statements. Therefore, it is safe to say that
the CREATE ROLE and DROP ROLE privileges are not as
dynamic as CREATE USER and may be granted to users
who should only be allowed to create and drop roles, and
not perform more general account handling.
With reference to the interchangeability of users and
roles, you can view a user account like a role and grant
that account to another user or a role. The idea is to grant

the account’s privileges and roles to the other user or role.
Normally, if a developer leaves the project, it becomes nec-
essary to transfer the privileges to another user, or perhaps
multiple users if development activities have increased.
You can complete this task in the following way:
Without using roles: opting for changing the account
password so the original developer cannot use it, and have
a new developer use the account instead:
ALTER USER 'old_app_dev'@'localhost'
IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password';
Using roles: Choosing to simply lock the account to pre-

vent anyone from connecting to the server:
ALTER USER 'old_app_dev'@'localhost'
ACCOUNT LOCK;
As an alternative, you can also treat the account as a role.

Meaning that for each developer you create a new account
and grant to it the original developer account via:
CREATE USER 'new_app_dev1'@'localhost'
IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password';
GRANT 'old_app_dev'@'localhost' TO
'new_app_dev1'@'localhost';
Using roles to diversify privileges in your MySQL data-

bases can help disentangle the management structure and
complexity of your access security system. It is easier to
make sure that users with the same responsibilities have
the same privileges using roles than it is to distribute many
different privileges directly.
Similarly, roles let you be explicit about the overall aim

behind your privilege granting. Rather than granting large
numbers of privileges to accounts without any commen-
tary, carefully selected role names can assist in distin-
guishing between different levels of access. By taking the
time to create and operate roles, your capacity to manage
user access to different sections of your data will look more
elementary in the long run.
IMPORTING AND EXPORTING DATABASE
It is a well-known fact that your network applications

depend upon databases. In fact, much of what you work with
depends upon a database or two. Due to that, it is highly
recommended to not only have backups of those databases
but to also learn how to export and import them from
either machine or database server. Importing and export-
ing databases should not be feared but rather considered as
a regular task in software development. You can use data
dumps to back up and data restoration as well as migration
of data to a new server or development environment.
In this section, we shall see how you can work with

database dumps in MySQL or MariaDB (the most popular
option). Specifically, we will review step by step approach
on how to export a database and then import that same
database from the dump file.
As basic prerequisites to import or export a MySQL or
MariaDB database, you would require:
• A virtual machine with a non-root sudo user

• MySQL or MariaDB installed
• A sample database created in your database server
Exporting a MySQL or MariaDB Database

The mysqldump console is mostly used to export databases
to SQL text files. This utility makes it easier for you to move
or transfer databases. You would also need your database’s
name and credentials for an account whose privileges per-
mit at least full read-only access to the database.
To activate mysqldump to export your database insert
mysqldump -u username -p database_name >

data-dump.sql
• username stands for the standard username you can

log in to the database with.
• database_name is the name of the database you are
going to export.
• data-dump.sql is the file in the current directory that
stores the output/.
This command will not produce any substantial visual

output, but you can examine the contents of data-dump.sql
to check if it is a legitimate SQL dump file. For that, run the
following command:
head -n 5 data-dump.sql
The headline of the file should look similar to this, showing

a MySQL dump for a database named database_name:
-- MySQL dump 10.13 Distrib 5.7.16, for Linux (x86_64)

-- Host: localhost Database: database_name
-- Server version 5.7.16-0ubuntu0.18.04.1
In case any errors occur during the export process, mysql-

dump will display them to you on the screen.
Importing a MySQL or MariaDB Database

To import an existing dump file into MySQL or MariaDB,
you will need to create a new database. This database will
contain the imported data.
First, start by logging into MySQL as root or another
user with enough privileges to create new databases:
MySQL -u root -p
This particular command will bring you into the MySQL

shell prompt. Next, create a new database with the fol-
lowing command. Just to demonstrate, the new database
would be named new_database:
CREATE DATABASE new_database;

You will then be able to see this output confirming the

database creation:
– Output
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
Once you see that, you can exit the MySQL shell by press-
ing CTRL+D. From the normal command line, you can
import the dump file with the following command:
MySQL -u username -p new_database < data-

dump.sql
• username stands for the standard username you can

log in to the database with.
• new database is the name of the freshly created
database.
• data-dump.sql is the data dump file to be imported,
placed in the current directory.
If the command runs successfully, it should not produce

any output. But in case any errors occur during the pro-
cess, MySQL will display them to the terminal instead. To
check if the import was successful, log in to the MySQL
shell and inspect the data. You can select the new database
with USE new_database and then use SHOW TABLES; or
a similar command to look at some of the data.
With that, there is all to start migrating a database from
one MySQL server to another. The only problem could be
if you are still working with a much older MySQL database,
and there are inconsistencies between how that older data-

base handled tables and/or data, versus how the newer
MariaDB server works with tables and/or data. To prevent
that, make sure you are not running an old utility for every
procedure to work just fine in the end.
C HAPTER 6
Backing Up and
Restoring MySQL Data
IN THIS CHAPTER
➢➢ Finding out how to create a backup file in MySQL

➢➢ Restoring MySQL data files
➢➢ Exploring configurations of CSV format data
DOI: 10.1201/9781003229629-6 233

Backup and restoration of MySQL databases play a crucial

role in a production environment. This chapter will focus
on the most common tools for generating backups in sev-
eral formats or restoring MySQL databases.
CREATING A BACKUP FILE

It is essential to back up your databases so that you can
recover your data and be up and running again in case
issues occur, such as hardware crashes, system failures,
or something as simple as users deleting data by mistake.
Backups are also important as a safeguard before upgrad-
ing a MySQL installation, and they can be utilized to trans-
fer a MySQL installation to another system or to organize
replica servers.
For that, MySQL offers a variety of backup schemes
from which you can select the methods that suit particular
requirements for your installation. Let’s see what types and
characteristics are there.
Physical and Logical Backups

Physical backups consist of raw files of the directories and
files that are used to cache database loads. This particular
type of backup is perfect for larger, main databases that
need to be recovered fast in case problems occur.
Logical backups, on the other hand, save data illus-
trated as logical database structure (CREATE DATABASE,
CREATE TABLE statements) and content (INSERT state-
ments or delimited-text files). This type of backup is most
useful for smaller amounts of data where you need to mod-
ify the data values or table structure or recreate the data on
a different machine.
Backing Up and Restoring MySQL Data ◾ 235
Physical backup methods have the following key

characteristics:
• The backup holds exact copies of database directories

and files. Usually, this is a copy of all or specific bits
of the MySQL data directory.
• Physical backup methods are typically faster than
logical due to the fact that they process only file copy-
ing without conversion.
• Output produced is more compact in size and quan-
tity than for logical backup.
Because backup speed and concentration are important

for active and important databases, the MySQL Enterprise
Backup product completes physical backups. Backup and
restoration level ranges from the entire data directory down
to the level of separate files. It also very much depends on
the individual storage engine characteristics. For instance,
InnoDB tables can each be in a separate file or share data
storage with other InnoDB tables; while each MyISAM
table can correspond uniquely only to a set of files.
In addition to databases, the backup can involve any
other related files such as log or configuration files. Backups
are also portable to other machines that have identical or
similar hardware characteristics. Backups can be per-
formed while the MySQL server is not running. And if the
server is running, you have to perform appropriate locking
so that the server does not modify database contents dur-
ing the backup. Luckily, MySQL Enterprise Backup does
this locking automatically for tables that require it.
Physical backup tools include the mysqlbackup of

MySQL Enterprise Backup for InnoDB or any other tables
or file system-level commands (such as cp, SCP, tar, rsync)
for MyISAM tables. Moreover, MySQL Enterprise Backup
applies ndb_restore to restore NDB tables and copies files
at the file system level back to their original locations with
file system commands.
Logical backup methods are distinguished by the fol-
lowing characteristics:1
• The backup is done by requesting the MySQL server

to obtain database structure and content information.
• Backup is slower than physical methods because the
server has to access database information and con-
vert it to logical format. When the output is written
on the client-side, the server should also send it to the
backup program.
• Output is larger than for physical backup, especially
when saved in text format.
• Backup and restore granularity is available at the
server level (all databases), database level (all tables
in a particular database), or table level. This is true
regardless of the storage engine.
• The backup does not include log or configuration
files, or other database-related files that are not part
of databases.
1 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-backup-excerpt/8.0/en/backup-types.
html, MySQL
• Backups stored in logical format are machine-inde-

pendent and highly portable.
• Logical backups are completed with the MySQL
server running. The server is not taken offline.
• Logical backup tools include the mysqldump program
and the SELECT … INTO OUTFILE statement. These
operate for any storage engine, even MEMORY.
• To restore logical backups, SQL-format dump files
can be processed using the MySQL client. To load
delimited-text files, use the LOAD DATA statement
or the mysqlimport client.
Online and Offline Backups

Online backups are processed while the MySQL server is
running so that the database information can be delivered
from the server. Offline backups happen when the server
is stopped. This difference can also be described as “hot”
versus “cold” backups; a “warm” backup is one where the
server keeps running but locked against editing data while
you access database files externally.
Online backup methods have these distinct
characteristics:
• The backup is less forward to other clients, which can

connect to the MySQL server during the backup and
may be able to access data depending on what opera-
tions they want to perform.
• You need to make sure you impose appropriate lock-
ing so that data modifications cannot compromise
backup integrity. The MySQL Enterprise Backup
product does such locking automatically.
Offline backup methods characteristics are the following:
• Clients can be affected adversely because the server

is unavailable during backup. For that reason, such
backups are often taken from a replica server that can
be taken offline without compromising availability.
• The backup procedure is more straightforward because
there is not a chance of interference from the client-side.
A similar distinction between online and offline applies

to recovery operations as well. However, it is more likely
for clients to be affected by online recovery than for
online backup because recovery requires stronger locking.
During backup, clients might be able to read data while it
is being backed up. Recovery modifies data and disables
reading it, so clients must be prevented from accessing
data while it is being restored.
Local and Remote Backups

A local backup is completed on the same host where the
MySQL server runs, whereas a remote backup is per-
formed from a different host. For some types of backups,
the backup can be activated from a remote host even if the
output is written locally on the server host.
mysqldump is a great tool to connect to local or remote
servers. For SQL output (CREATE and INSERT state-
ments), local or remote dumps can be done and produce
output on the client. For delimited-text output (with the
--tab option), data files are created on the server host.
Nevertheless, SELECT … INTO OUTFILE can be acti-
vated from a local or remote client host, but the output file
is created on the server host. Physical backup methods nor-

mally are initiated locally on the MySQL server host so that
the server can be taken offline, although the location for
copied files could be remote.
Snapshot Backups
Some file system executions enable “snapshots” function
to be activated. These provide logical copies of the file
system at any point in time, without having to request a
physical copy of the entire file system. The backup execu-
tion may use the copy-on-write method so that only a sec-
tion of the file system modified after the snapshot time
needs to be copied. However, MySQL itself does not have
the capacity for taking file system snapshots. It is only
available through third-party solutions such as Veritas,
LVM, or ZFS.
Full and Incremental Backups

A full backup includes all data administered by a MySQL
server. An incremental backup consists of the modifica-
tions made to the data during a given time span (from
one point in time to another). MySQL has different meth-
ods to complete full backups as those described earlier in
this chapter. Incremental backups are made available by
enabling the server’s binary log, which the server applies to
document any data changes.
Full and Point-in-Time (Incremental) Recovery

A full recovery can bring back all data from a full backup.
This restores the server instance to the condition that it had
when the backup was made. If that state is not completely
current, a full recovery can be followed by several instances

of incremental backups made since the full backup, to
bring the server to a re-equipped state.
Incremental recovery is the recovery of changes made
during a specific time frame. This is also called point-in-
time recovery because it turns a server’s state current up to a
certain time. Point-in-time recovery is based on the binary
log and typically follows a full recovery from the backup
files that restores the server to its state when the backup
was made. Then the data changes written in the binary log
files are utilized as incremental recovery to recover data
modifications and bring the server up to the designated
point in time.
In addition, you can make use of backup scheduling to
automate any planned backup procedures. Compression of
backup output decreased space requirements, and encryp-
tion of the output provides better security against unde-
sired access of backed-up data. However, MySQL itself does
not have these capacities on its own. The MySQL Enterprise
Backup product can compress InnoDB backups, and com-
pression or encryption of backup output can be achieved
using file system utilities. As an alternative, you can always
seek other third-party solutions.
With that, let’s take a look at some other standard meth-
ods for making backups.
Making a Hot Backup with MySQL Enterprise Backup

Users of MySQL Enterprise Edition can apply the product
to complete physical backups of entire instances, selected
databases, and tables. This product also has features for
incremental and compressed backups. Backing up the
physical database files makes restore much faster than

logical techniques such as the mysqldump command. Yet
tables from other storage engines are copied using a warm
backup mechanism.
Making Backups with mysqldump

The mysqldump program is great for backing up all kinds
of tables. Even for InnoDB tables, it is possible to perform
an online backup that takes no locks on tables using the
--single-transaction option of mysqldump.
Making Backups by Copying Table Files

For storage engines that represent each table using its own
files, tables can be backed up by copying those files. For
instance, MyISAM tables are saved as files, so it is easy to
complete a backup by copying files (*.frm, *.MYD, and
*.MYI files). To achieve a consistent backup, you need to
stop the server or lock and flush the relevant tables: FLUSH
TABLES tbl_list WITH READ LOCK;
This would enable other clients to continue to request
the tables while you are making a copy of the files in the
database directory. The flush is necessary to ensure that all
active index pages are placed to disk before you activate
the backup.
You can also complete a binary backup just by copying
all table files, as long as the server is not updating anything.
But at the same time, that table file copying methods do not
operate if your database has InnoDB tables in it. Also, even
if the server is not actively updating data, InnoDB may still
have edited data located in memory and not transferred
to disk.
Making Delimited-Text File Backups

To create a text file holding a table’s data, you can use
SELECT * INTO OUTFILE ‘file_name’ FROM tbl_name.
The file is produced on the MySQL server host, not the cli-
ent host. For this statement, the output file cannot already
exist because letting files be overwritten is defined as a
major security risk. This method applies to any kind of
data file but saves only table data, not the table structure.
An alternative way to create text data files along with files
containing CREATE TABLE statements for the backed-
up tables is to apply mysqldump with the --tab option. In
order to reload a delimited-text data file, use LOAD DATA
or mysqlimport.
Making Incremental Backups by Enabling

the Binary Log
MySQL supports incremental backups. But in order to
activate the option, you should start the server with the
--log-bin option to enable binary logging. The binary log
files provide you with the system methods you need to rep-
licate changes to the database that are made subsequent to
the point at which you completed a backup. If you want to
make an incremental backup containing all changes that
happened since the last full or incremental backup, you
should rotate the binary log by using FLUSH LOGS. After
that, you need to copy to the backup location all binary
logs which range from one of the moments of the last full
or incremental backup to the last but one. These binary
logs represent the incremental backup, and the next time
you do a full backup, you should also rotate the binary log
using FLUSH LOGS or mysqldump --flush-logs.
Making Backups Using Replicas

If you face performance problems with your source server
while making backups, one way that can help is to set up
replication and complete backups on the replica rather
than on the source.
When you are backing up a replica server, you should
back up its source info and relay log info repositories
when you back up the replica’s databases, regardless of the
backup type you follow. These information files are always
needed to resume replication after you restore the replica’s
data. If your replica is replicating LOAD DATA statements,
you should also back up any SQL_LOAD-* files that are
located in the directory that the replica uses for this pur-
pose. The replica needs these files to complete replication
of any interrupted LOAD DATA operations. The location
of this directory is the value of the slave_load_tmpdir sys-
tem variable. If the server was not started with that vari-
able set, the directory location is the value of the tmpdir
system variable.
In addition, when recovering corrupt tables, it is
most efficient to recover them using REPAIR TABLE or
myisamchk -r options first.
Making Backups Using a File System Snapshot

If you are a Veritas file system user, you can complete a
backup with a system snapshot in the following manner:
• From a client program, go to execute FLUSH TABLES

WITH READ LOCK
• From another shell, select to execute Mount vxfs
Snapshot
• From the first client, click on UNLOCK TABLES

• Copy files from the snapshot
• And at last, unmount the snapshot
Establishing a Backup Habit

To bring maximum benefits, backups must be scheduled
regularly. A full backup (a snapshot of the data at a point
in time) can be done in MySQL with several utilities. For
example, MySQL Enterprise Backup can perform a physi-
cal backup of an entire instance, with optimizations to
minimize failure and avoid disruption when backing up
InnoDB data files; in addition, mysqldump can provide
online logical backup.
Let’s imagine that we need to perform a full backup of
all our InnoDB tables in all databases using the following
command on Friday at 1 p.m., when load is low:
shell> mysqldump --all-databases --master-

data --single-transaction >
backup_friday_1_PM.sql
The produced .sql file by mysqldump holds a set of SQL

INSERT statements that can later be used to reload the
dumped tables.
This backup operation results in a global read lock on
all tables at the beginning of the dump (using FLUSH
TABLES WITH READ LOCK). Thus, once this lock has
been acquired, the binary log coordinates are read, and the
lock is released. If long updating statements are running
when the FLUSH statement is produced, the backup opera-
tion may be paused until those statements finish. After
that, the dump becomes lock-free and does not affect reads
and writes on the tables.
It was mentioned earlier that the tables to back up are
InnoDB tables, so --single-transaction uses a consistent
read and guarantees that data seen by mysqldump does not
change. But if the backup operation includes nontransac-
tional tables, consistency requires that they do not change
during the backup. For instance, for the MyISAM tables
in the MySQL database, there must be no administrative
modifications to MySQL accounts during the backup.
Even though full backups are necessary, it is not always
convenient to process them. They produce large backup
files and take a substantial amount of time to gener-
ate. They are not preferred in the sense that each set of
full backup includes all data, even that part that has not
changed since the previous full backup. It is therefore more
efficient to complete an initial full backup, and then to
make incremental backups. The incremental backups are
much smaller and take fewer resources to produce. But
at the same time, during the recovery period, you cannot
restore your data just by reloading the full backup. You
must also process the incremental backups to recover the
incremental changes.
In order to make incremental backups, we need to save
the incremental changes. In MySQL, these changes are
demonstrated in the binary log, so the MySQL server should
always be started with the --log-bin option to enable that
log. With binary logging enabled, the server copies each
data change into a file while it updates data. And each time
it restarts, the MySQL server creates a new binary log file
using the next number in the sequence. While the server
is running, you can also regulate it to shut the current

binary log file and begin a new one manually by inserting a
FLUSH LOGS SQL statement or with a mysqladmin flush-
logs command. mysqldump also has an option to flush the
logs at the list of all MySQL binary logs in the directory.
The MySQL binary logs are important for recovery
because they shape the set of incremental backups. If
you make sure to flush the logs when you make your full
backup, the binary log files created afterward hold all the
data changes added since the backup. Let’s try to modify
the previous mysqldump command to see that it flushes
the MySQL binary logs at the moment of the full backup,
and so that the dump file contains the name of the new
current binary log:
shell> mysqldump --single-transaction

--flush-logs --master-data=2\
--all-databases >
backup_friday_1_PM.sql
After implementing this command, the data directory con-

tains a new binary log file, gbichot2-bin.000007, because
the --flush-logs option causes the server to flush its logs.
The --master-data option causes mysqldump to write
binary log information to its output, so the resulting .sql
dump file includes these lines:
--Position to start replication or point-in-time recovery

from the current time or state
--CHANGE MASTER TO MASTER_LOG_
FILE=‘gbichot2-bin.000007’,MASTER _LOG_
POS=4;
Because the mysqldump command made a full backup,

those lines mean two things:
The dump file contains all changes made before any

changes written to the gbichot2-bin.000007 binary
log file or higher. And that all data changes logged
after the backup are not included in the dump file,
but are present in the gbichot2-bin.000007 binary
log file or higher.
Now let’s try and create an incremental backup by flushing

the logs to begin a new binary log file on Saturday at 1 p.m.
To illustrate, executing a mysqladmin flush-logs command
creates gbichot2-bin.000008. All changes between the Friday
1 p.m. full backup and Saturday 1 p.m. are in the gbichot2-
bin.000007 files. This incremental backup is crucial, so it is
recommended to copy it to a safe place such as tape or DVD.
On Sunday at 1 p.m., implement another mysqladmin flush-
logs command. All changes between Saturday 1 p.m. and
Sunday 1 p.m. will be located at the gbichot2-bin.000008 file.
It is known that the MySQL binary logs take up most of
the disk space. Therefore, in order to free up some space,
you can extract them from time to time. One way to do this
is by deleting the binary logs that are no longer necessary
during the full backup:
shell> mysqldump --single-transaction

--flush-logs --master-data=2 \
--all-databases --delete-master-
logs > backup_sunday_1_PM.sql
At the same time, removing the MySQL binary logs with

mysqldump --delete-master-logs can be dangerous if your
server is a replication source server because replica serv-

ers might not yet fully have regulated the contents of the
binary log.
Also note that in case of an operating system failure or
power crush, the database itself can fully recover all the
data. But to make sure that it can be done well, observe the
following recommendations:2
• Always run the MySQL server with the --log-bin

option, or even --log-bin=log_name, where the log
file name is located on some safe media different
from the drive on which the data directory is located.
If you have such safe media, this technique can also
be good for disk load balancing (which impacts the
overall performance).
• Do not forget about the periodic full backups, using
the mysqldump command that facilitates an online,
non-blocking backup.
• Make periodic incremental backups by flushing the
logs with FLUSH LOGS or mysqladmin flush-logs.
From now we shall examine how to use mysqldump to pro-

duce dump files, and how to reload them. To start with, a
dump file can be used in several ways:
• As a backup to enable data recovery in case of data loss

• As a source of data for forming replica files
2 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/backup-strategy-summary.html,
MySQL
• As a source of data for experimentation: to create a copy

of a database that you can use without editing the origi-
nal data or to test potential upgrade incompatibilities
Depending on whether the --tab option is included or not,

mysqldump produces two types of output:
• Without --tab: mysqldump issues SQL statements to

the standard output. This output consists of CREATE
statements to issue dumped objects such as databases,
tables, and stored routines, and INSERT statements
to load data into tables. The output can be placed in
a file and reloaded later using MySQL to recreate the
dumped objects. Options are available to modify the
format of the SQL statements and to regulate which
objects are dumped.
• With --tab: mysqldump produces two output files for
each dumped table. The server provides one file as
tab-delimited text, one line per table row. This file is
named tbl_name.txt in the output directory. The
server also sends a CREATE TABLE statement for the
table to mysqldump, which writes it as a file named
tbl_name.sql in the output directory.
By default, mysqldump saves the information as SQL state-

ments to the standard output. You can save the output in a
file similar to:3
shell> mysqldump [arguments] > file_name
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html, MySQL
In order to dump all databases, add mysqldump with the

--all-databases option:
shell> mysqldump --all-databases > dump.sql
In order to dump only specific databases, insert the name

on the command line and use the --databases option:
shell> mysqldump --databases db1 db2 db3 >

dump.sql
The --databases option causes all names on the command

line to be referred to as database names. Without this
option, mysqldump registers the first name as a database
name and those following as table names.
With --all-databases or --databases, mysqldump
adds CREATE DATABASE and USE statements before
any dump output is produced for each database. This
ensures that when the dump file is reloaded, it cre-
ates each database if it does not exist and makes it the
default database so database contents are loaded into
the same database from which they came. If you need
to cause the dump file to force a drop of each database
before recreating it, apply the --add-drop-database
option as well. In this case, mysqldump writes a DROP
DATABASE statement that comes with each CREATE
DATABASE statement.
In order to dump a single database, name it on the com-
mand line:
shell> mysqldump --databases test > dump.

sql
In the single-database case, it is allowed to omit the --data-

bases option:
shell> mysqldump test > dump.sql
The difference between the two preceding commands is

that without --databases, the dump output contains no
CREATE DATABASE or USE statements. This has several
implications:
• If you reload the dump file, you should indicate a

default database name so that the server knows which
database to reload.
• When reloading, you can specify a database name
different from the original name, which enables you
to reload the data into a different database.
• If the database to be reloaded does not exist, you
should create it first.
• Because the output holds no CREATE DATABASE
statement, the --add-drop-database option has
no effect. If you apply it, it produces no DROP
DATABASE statement.
In order to dump only specific tables from a database, name

them on the command line following the database name:
shell> mysqldump test t1 t3 t7 > dump.sql
If you call for mysqldump with the --tab=dir_name option,

it uses dir_name as the output directory and dumps tables
individually in that directory using two files for each table.

The table name is the base name for these files. For a table
named t1, the files are named t1.sql and t1.txt. The .sql
file contains a CREATE TABLE statement for the table.
The .txt file contains the table data, one line per table row.
The following command dumps the contents of the db1
database to files in the/tmp database:4
shell> mysqldump --tab=/tmp db1
The .txt files containing table data are scripted by the server,
so they belong to the system account used for running
the server. The server uses SELECT … INTO OUTFILE
to write the files, so you should have the FILE privilege to
complete this operation, and an error occurs if a given .txt
file already exists.
The server also sends the CREATE definitions for dumped
tables to mysqldump, which writes them to .sql files. These
files, therefore, belong to the user who executes mysqldump.
It is most suitable that --tab is used only for dumping a
local server. If you apply it with a remote server, the --tab
directory should exist on both the local and remote hosts,
and the .txt files are written by the server in the remote
directory (on the server host), while the .sql files are written
by mysqldump in the local directory (on the client host).
For mysqldump --tab, the server by default scripts table
data to .txt files one line per row with tabs between column
values, no quotation marks around column values, and
newline as the line terminator.
4 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-backup-excerpt/8.0/en/mysqldump-
delimited-text.html, MySQL
To enable data files to be written using a different for-

mat, mysqldump supports these options:5
• fields-terminated-by=str: The string applied for sep-

arating column values (default: tab)
• fields-enclosed-by=char: The character within
which to locate column values (default: no character)
• fields-optionally-enclosed-by=char: The character
within which to locate non-numeric column values
(default: no character)
• fields-escaped-by=char: The character for escaping
special characters (default: no escaping)
• lines-terminated-by=str: The line-termination
string (default: newline)
Depending on the value you indicate for any of these

options, it might be necessary on the command line to
quote or escape the value according to your command
interpreter. Alternatively, you can also specify the value
using hex notation. For instance, you might want mysql-
dump to quote column values within double quotation
marks. To do so, you can either specify double quote as
the value for the --fields-enclosed-by option or specify the
value in hex:
--fields-enclosed-by=0x22
It is also normal to use several of the data-formatting

options in combination. For example, to dump tables in
CSV format with lines terminated by carriage-return/new-
line pairs (\r\n), insert this command (enter it on a single
line):6
shell> mysqldump --tab=/tmp

--fields-terminated-by=,
--fields-enclosed-by='"' --lines-
terminated-by=0x000a db1
In case you consider using any of the data-formatting

options to dump table data, you must specify the same
format when you reload data files later, to ensure correct
interpretation of the file contents. In addition, there are
several options that regulate how mysqldump handles
stored programs:
--events: Dump Event Scheduler events

--routines: Dump stored procedures and
functions
--triggers: Dump triggers for tables
The --triggers option is activated by default so that when

tables are dumped, they are accompanied by any triggers
they have. The other options are disabled by default and
should be specified to dump the corresponding objects. To
disable any of these options explicitly, you can use its skip
form: --skip-events, --skip-routines, or --skip-triggers.
RESTORING FROM A BACKUP FILE
No one is 100% safe from experiencing a catastrophic

unexpected exit that would require recovery from back-
ups. In order to recover, you first need to restore the last
full backup you have done (let’s take the one from Friday 1
p.m. example). The full backup file is just a set of SQL state-
ments, so restoring it is quite straightforward:
shell> MySQL < backup_tuesday_1_PM.sql
After that, the data will be restored to its state as of Friday

1 p.m. To restore the changes made since then, you should
use the incremental backups; that is, the gbi-bin.000007
and gbi-bin.000008 binary log files. Transfer the files if
necessary from where they were backed up, and then pro-
cess their contents in the following format:
shell> mysqlbinlog gbi-bin.000007 gbi-
bin.000008 | MySQL
Once that is fully processed, you would get access to the

restored, but a few changes from that date to the date of
the crash would still be missing. In order not to lose them,
you would have to store all the MySQL binary logs into a
safe location different from the place where it locates its
data files, so that these logs were not on the damaged disk.
So that you would be able to start the server with a --log-
bin option that specifies a location on a different physical
device from the one on which the data directory resides.
That way, the logs are safe even if the device containing the
directory is destroyed. If you had done this, you would have
the gbi-bin.000009 file and any subsequent files available,
and you could apply them using mysqlbinlog and MySQL
to restore the most recent data changes with no loss up to
the moment of the crash in the following way:
shell> mysqlbinlog gbi-bin.000009 … | mysql
To reload a dump file scripted by mysqldump that holds

SQL statements, you can use it as input to the MySQL cli-
ent. If the dump file was created by mysqldump with the
--all-databases or --databases option, it has to CREATE
DATABASE and USE statements and it is not necessary to
specify a default database into which to load the data:
shell> MySQL < dump.sql
Alternatively, from within MySQL, you can use a source

command:
mysql> source dump.sql

If the file is a single-database dump not containing

CREATE DATABASE and USE statements, create the
database first:
shell> mysqladmin create db1
And only after that specify the database name when you
load the dump file:
shell> MySQL db1 < dump.sql
Alternatively, from within MySQL, create the database,

select it as the default database, and load the dump file:
mysql> CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS db1;

mysql> USE db1;
mysql> source dump.sql
Reloading Delimited-Text Format Backups

For backups activated with mysqldump --tab, each table is
represented in the output directory by an .sql file contain-
ing the CREATE TABLE statement for the table, and a .txt
file containing the table data. To reload a table, you would
need to change its location into the output directory first.
Then process the .sql file with MySQL to create an empty
table and process the .txt file to load the data into the table:7
shell> mysql db1 < t1.sql

shell> mysqlimport db1 t1.txt
7 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-backup-excerpt/8.0/en/reloading-delim-
ited-text-dumps.html, MySQL
An alternative to using mysqlimport to load the data file

is to insert the LOAD DATA statement from within the
MySQL client:
mysql> USE db1;

mysql> LOAD DATA INFILE 't1.txt' INTO TABLE
t1;
In case you used any data-formatting options with mysql-

dump when you initially dumped the table, you should use
the same options with mysqlimport or LOAD DATA to
ensure proper interpretation of the data file contents:
shell> mysqlimport --fields-terminated-by=,

--fields-enclosed-by='"' --lines-
terminated-by=0x0d0a db1 t1.txt
Or:
mysql> USE db1;
mysql> LOAD DATA INFILE 't1.txt' INTO TABLE
t1
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' FIELDS
ENCLOSED BY '"'
LINES TERMINATED BY '\r\n';
This way, you can ensure the point-in-time recovery of data

changes up to a given point in time. Normally, this type of
recovery is done after restoring a full backup that brings
the server to its state as of the time the backup was pro-
cessed. Point-in-time recovery then regulated the server up
to date incrementally from the time of the full backup to a
more recent moment.
Point-in-Time Recovery Using Binary Log

Many of the examples in this and previous chapters use
the MySQL client to process binary log output created by
mysqlbinlog. But in case your binary log contains\0 (null)
characters, that output cannot be accepted by MySQL
unless you insert it with the --binary-mode option.
The source of information for point-in-time recovery
is the set of binary log files generated subsequent to the
full backup operation. Therefore, to permit a server to be
restored to a point-in-time, binary logging must be regu-
lated for it.
In order to restore data from the binary log, you should
know the name and location of the current binary log files.
By default, the server produces binary log files in the data
directory, but a pathname can be identified with the --log-
bin option to locate the files in a different place. If you want to
see a listing of all binary log files, you can use this statement:
mysql> SHOW BINARY LOGS;
In addition, to determine the name of the current binary

log file, add the following statement:
mysql> SHOW MASTER STATUS;
The mysqlbinlog utility has the capacity to convert the

events in the binary log files from binary format to text so
that they can be further applied. mysqlbinlog has options
for choosing sections of the binary log based on event times
or position of events within the log.
Applying events from the binary log results in data

modifications as well as recovery of data changes for a
given span of time. To apply events from the binary log,
process mysqlbinlog output with the MySQL client:
shell> mysqlbinlog binlog_files | mysql -u

root -p
Viewing log contents can be particularly handy when you

need to decide on event times or positions to select partial
log contents before implementing events. To view events
from the log, add mysqlbinlog output into a paging pro-
gram like this:
shell> mysqlbinlog binlog_files | more
Alternatively, copy the output in a file and view the file

from a text editor:8
shell> mysqlbinlog binlog_files > tmpfile

shell> … edit tmpfile …
Copying the output in a file is useful as a preliminary to

implementing the log contents with certain events deleted,
such as an accidental DROP TABLE. You can remove from
the file any statements not to be used before executing its
contents. After modifying the file, apply the contents in the
following format:
shell> MySQL -u root -p < tmpfile
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In case you have more than one binary log to use on the
MySQL server, the safest option would be to process them
all using a single connection to the server. To illustrate an
example of how the unsafe option looks like:
shell> mysqlbinlog binlog.000001 | MySQL

-u root -p # DANGER!!
shell> mysqlbinlog binlog.000002 | MySQL
-u root -p # DANGER!!
Processing binary logs using different connections to

the server might cause problems if the first log file has
a CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE statement and the
second log holds a statement that uses the temporary
table. When the first MySQL process is completed, the
server drops the temporary table. And if the second
MySQL process tries to use the table, the server reports
“unknown table.”
To prevent difficulties as such from occurring, use a sin-
gle connection to apply the contents of all binary log files
that you want to process. The simplest way to do it:
shell> mysqlbinlog binlog.000001

binlog.000002 | MySQL -u root -p
Another method would include writing the whole log to a

single file and then process the file:
shell> mysqlbinlog binlog.000001 > /tmp/

statements.sql
shell> mysqlbinlog binlog.000002 >> /tmp/
statements.sql
shell> mysql -u root -p -e "source/tmp/

statements.sql"
When writing to a dump file while reading back from a binary

log containing Global Transaction Identifiers (GTID), insert
the --skip-gtids option with mysqlbinlog, in this manner:9
shell> mysqlbinlog --skip-gtids

binlog.000001 > /tmp/dump.sql
shell> mysqlbinlog --skip-gtids
binlog.000002 >> /tmp/dump.sql
shell> mysql -u root -p -e "source/tmp/
dump.sql"
Now let’s review the operation in detail using an example.

As an illustration, imagine that around 13:00:00 on May 25,
2021, an SQL statement was activated that removed a table.
Therefore, you should complete a point-in-time recovery to
restore the server up to its condition right before the table dele-
tion. Fundamental steps to achieve that include the following:
Firstly, restore the last full backup created before the
point-in-time of interest. When done, note the binary log
position up to which you have restored the server for later
use, and restart the server.
At this point, your backup and restore tool should be
able to provide you with the last binary log position for
your recovery. For instance, if you are using mysqlbin-
log for the task, check the stop position of the binary log
replay; or in case you are using MySQL Enterprise Backup,
the last binary log position has been saved in your backup.
MySQL
The next step would be to find the exact binary log event
position referring to the point in time up to which you need
to restore your database. In addition, if you know the rough
time where the table deletion took place, you can find the log
position by checking the log contents around that time using
the mysqlbinlog utility. Make sure to apply the --start-Date-
Time and --stop-datetime options to identify a short time
period around the event, and then look for it in the output.
After that, apply the events in binary log file to the server,
starting with the log position you found in step 1 (assume it
is 1006) and ending at the position you have found in step 2
that is before your point-in-time of interest (which is 1868):10
shell> mysqlbinlog --start-position=1006
--stop-position=1868 /var/lib/mysql/
bin.123456 \
| mysql -u root -p
This command would recover all the transactions from the

starting position until just before the stop position. And since
the output of mysqlbinlog includes SET TIMESTAMP
statements before each SQL statement recorded, the recov-
ered data and related MySQL logs would reflect the original
times at which the transactions were implemented. With
these, your database would by now be restored to the point-
in-time of interest, right before any charges were dropped.
Additionally, in case you also need to execute all the
statements after your point-in-time of interest, use mysql-
binlog again to apply all the events to the server. So, after
the statement we wanted to skip, the log is at position 1985;
MySQL
thus, we can use it for the --start-position option, so that

any statements after the position are included:
shell> mysqlbinlog --start-position=1985 /

var/lib/MySQL/bin.123456 \
| MySQL -u root –p
With that command, your database has been restored the

latest statement recorded in the binary log file, but with the
selected event skipped.
DUMPING DATA IN CSV FORMAT
A comma-separated values (CSV) file is a standard format

that has a number of great benefits:
• It is a widely accepted format.

• CSV files have the great advantage of being readable
by users.
• Being plain-text, they can easily be transferred into
any application.
• Mostly used to organize large databases.
In this section, we shall look through five methods to

export your tables from MySQL to CSV via: using the com-
mand line, through mysqldump, MySQL Workbench, php-
MyAdmin, or by using the CSV engine.
1. Using Command Line: It is extremely simple to add

the command line to export a MySQL table to CSV.
There is no need to download any additional soft-
ware. All you have to do is follow the guideline on
exporting to CSV using the command line under the
following conditions: exporting selected columns of a
table, exporting tables with a timestamp, tables with
Column Headers, and learn how to handle NULL
Values.
Step 1: Navigate to the database which has the table
you need to export by inserting the following com-
mand: USE dbName
Here, dbName must be replaced with the name of
your database. If your MySQL server has been started
with –secure-file-priv option, you should use:
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE "secure_file_priv"
This command will display the directory that has

been configured so that you can later store your out-
put file in this directory.
Step 2: After that, select all the data of the table and
identify the location of the output file in the following
format:11
11 https://hevodata.com/learn/mysql-export-to-csv/, Hevo Data

TABLE tableName
INTO OUTFILE 'path/outputFile.csv'
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
ESCAPED BY "
LINES TERMINATED BY 'n';
Here, make sure to add the .csv extension for your

output file. The ORDER clause can be applied to
organize the data according to a specific attribute.
The LIMIT clause is used to regulate the number of
rows to be placed into the output file.
a. Exporting Selected Columns of a Table: In order
to export selected columns of a table, you can use
the SELECT statement to specify the columns
you want to export. It is also possible to apply the
WHERE clause to use specific conditions and fil-
ter the results:
SELECT columnName, …
FROM tableName
WHERE columnName = 'value';
b. Exporting Tables with a Timestamp: At times

you might need to add a timestamp to the exported
file and to do that you should use a MySQL pre-
pared statement. Insert the following command
to export to a CSV file, and add a timestamp for
the time the file was created:12
12 https://hevodata.com/learn/mysql-export-to-csv/, Hevo Data

SET @TS = DATE_FORMAT(NOW(),'_%Y_%m_

%d_%H_%i_%s');
SET @FOLDER = '/var/lib/sql-files/';
SET @PREFIX = 'employees';
SET @EXT = '.csv';
SET @CMD = CONCAT("SELECT * FROM
tableName INTO OUTFILE '",@FOLDER,@
PREFIX,@TS,@EXT,
"'FIELDS ENCLOSED BY '"
'TERMINATED BY ','
ESCAPED BY '"'",
"LINES TERMINATED BY 'n';");
PREPARE statement FROM @CMD;
EXECUTE statement;
c. Export with Column Headers: It is often easier

just to add column headers to the output file to
better review the data. To complete this, you
should use the UNION statement. Insert the fol-
lowing command to add column headers:
(SELECT 'columnHeading', …)
UNION
(SELECT column, …
FROM tableName
INTO OUTFILE 'path-to-file/
outputFile.csv''
FIELDS ENCLOSED BY '"'
TERMINATED BY ','
ESCAPED BY '"'
LINES TERMINATED BY 'n')
d. Handling NULL Values: If your output has NULL

values, they will be displayed as ‘N’ in the exported
file instead of NULL. This may result in confusion
and to prevent that, you may want to replace this
‘N’ string with a string like NA (not applicable)
that is more comprehensible. Insert the following
command to do it:
SELECT column, column,

IFNULL(column, 'NA')
FROM tableName INTO OUTFILE 'path-
to-file/outputFile.csv'
FIELDS ENCLOSED BY '"'
TERMINATED BY ','
ESCAPED BY '"'
LINES TERMINATED BY 'n');
2. Using mysqldump: mysqldump is a great tool pro-

vided by MySQL server that lets users export tables,
databases and entire servers. Furthermore, it is also
used for backup and recovery. All you have to do
is just use the following command in a command
prompt/terminal:
mysqldump -u [username] -p -t -T/path/

to/directory [database] [tableName]
--fields-terminated-by=,
The added command will produce a copy of the

table specified by tableName at the location you
choose using the -T option. The name of the file will
be similar to that of the table and will have a .txt
extension.
3. Using MySQL Workbench: MySQL Workbench has

an Import/Export Wizard that allows you to export
database/tables to a specified format using a graphi-
cal user interface. The wizard also supports JSON
and CSV formats. You can follow this order to export
your MySQL table using MySQL Workbench:
Step 1: Use the left bar “schemas” tab to choose the

table you want to export.
Step 2: Right-click on the table and select “Table Data
Export Wizard.” Next, choose the columns you want
to export.
Step 3: Click on Next to be able to see the directory
where you want to save the output file. There make
sure to choose the CSV format option.
Step 4: Click on Next, and your data will start export-
ing. You will be able to track the process through the
logs.
4. Using phpMyAdmin: phpMyAdmin has a graphical
user interface to export your MySQL table in differ-
ent formats. Apart from CSV, it supports other for-
mats such as XML, JSON, and YAML. In order to use
phpMyAdmin to export data, follow these steps:
Step 1: Log in to phpMyAdmin using a user that has
required permissions and Navigate to the database
which contains the source table.
Step 2: Choose the table from the database and then
click on Export in the top bar.
Step 3: Select the CSV format from the Format drop-

down menu and click on Go. Make sure to select Save
file option when prompted.
5. Using CSV Engine: The CSV storage engine locates
data in text files using CSV format and at most time
compiles it into the MySQL server. It is important
to remember that this method can only be used
if the table does not have an index or an AUTO_
INCREMENT limitations.
ALTER TABLE tableName ENGINE=CSV
command changes the format of the database to
CSV so that it can then be easily copied to another
system.
With these five methods to export your MySQL
table to CSV, you should by now be comfortable with
writing queries using the command-line or mysql-
dump utility tool. Nevertheless, if you are still not
fully confident with your querying skills, MySQL
Workbench and phpMyAdmin will be the simplest
way to complete the task.
TRANSFERRING DATA FROM ONE

MySQL SERVER TO ANOTHER
Transferring or Migrating a MySQL database between

servers normally takes only a few easy steps but depending
on the volume of data you would like to transfer, it might
take some time. We recommend checking a few points to
ensure a smooth procedure before transferring:
• Make sure to have the same version of MySQL

installed on both servers with the same distribution.
• Make sure to have enough free space on both serv-
ers to accommodate the database dump file and the
imported database.
• It is not advised to move the data directory of the
database to another server. The internal structure of
the database should not be involved in this process.
There might be many instances when you would require

to migrate the MySQL database between two servers, like
cloning a database for testing, a separate database for col-
lecting reports, or completely migrating the database sys-
tem to a new server. Based on a standard approach, you
will need to take a backup of data on the first server, trans-
fer it remotely to the destination server and then restore
the backup on the new MySQL instance. Step by step pro-
cess looks like this:
Step 1: Backup the Data

Step 2: Copying the Database Dump on the Destination
Server
Step 3: Restoring the Dump
1. Backup the Data: The first step to transfer MySQL

database is to take a dump of the data that you want
to move. In order to do that, you will have to use the
mysqldump command. The basic syntax of the com-
mand is: mysqldump -u [username] -p [database] >
dump.sql
In case the database is on a remote server, either log
in to that system using ssh or use -h and -P options to
provide host and port respectively:
mysqldump -P [port] -h [host] -u

[username] -p [database] > dump.sql
In addition, there are also various special options

available for this command:
mysqldump -u [username] -p [database]

> dump.sql - this command dumps
specified database to the file.
You can specify multiple databases for the dump

using the following command:
mysqldump -u [username] -p --databases

[database1] [database2] > dump.sql
Or you can also use –all-databases option to backup

all databases on the MySQL instance:
mysqldump -u [username] -p --all-

databases > dump.sql
Above mentioned commands dump all the tables in

the specified database, but in case you need to take
backup of some specific tables, you can use the fol-

lowing command:

[table1] [table2] > dump.sql
It is also possible to backup data using some custom

query, for that you will need to use the following
WHERE option provided by mysqldump:

[table1] --where="WHERE CLAUSE" > dump.
sql
By default, mysqldump command includes DROP

TABLE and CREATE TABLE statements in the
created dump. Therefore, if you are using incre-
mental backups or you specifically requested to
restore data without deleting previous data, make
sure you use the –no-create-info option while cre-
ating a dump:

--no-create-info > dump.sql
When you need to just copy the schema but not the data,
you can use –no-data option while creating the dump:

--no-data > dump.sql
2. Copying the Database Dump on the Destination

Server: Once you have created the dump as per your
specification, the next step would be to transfer the
data dump file to the destination server. You will have
to use Scp command for that:
Scp -P [port] [dump_file].sql

[username]@[servername]:[path on
destination]
3. Restoring the Dump: The last step is restoring the

data on the destination server. MySQL command
directly provides a way to restore to dump data to the
MySQL:
MySQL -u [username] -p [database] <

[dump_file].sql
To sum up, if you follow the steps mentioned above, you

can quickly transfer your database between two servers,
but it might get slightly tiresome if it turns to be a recur-
ring task. It is common for middle-sized or bigger compa-
nies to hire a separate database manager who would only
take care of such unction and manage all the data pipelines
in a fault-free manner.
Appraisal
Let’s face it—we deal with databases every day. What do

you do when you want to listen to your favorite songs? You
open your playlist from your smartphone, and in this case,
you are accessing the playlist database. When you take a
selfie and upload it to your profile on a social network plat-
form, your photo gallery performs as a database. When you
browse any e-commerce website to buy clothes, you refer
to the shopping cart as a database. Clearly, databases are
everywhere. And merely by definition, a database stands
for a structured collection of data.
A database that regulates the data relating to each
other by nature or an item to a particular product cat-
egory and associates it with multiple tags is called a rela-
tional database. In the relational database, we model data
like products, categories, and tags by using tables. A table
contains columns and rows that look like a spreadsheet.
MySQL in this case, is a unique open-source database
management system that allows you to operate relational
databases.
The basic plan of the client-server structure has the fol-
lowing format: One or more devices (clients) connect to a
server through a specific network. Every client can make
DOI: 10.1201/9781003229629-7 275

276 ◾ Appraisal
a request from the graphical user interface (GUI) on their

screens, and the server will put together the desired output,
as long as both ends understand the instruction. Without
getting too technical, the main processes taking place in a
MySQL environment described in Chapter 3:
• In the beginning, MySQL creates a database for stor-

ing and manipulating data, explicitly determining
the relationship of each table.
• Clients then can make requests by typing specific
SQL statements on MySQL.
• The server application has to respond with the
requested information that appears on the clients’ side.
That is pretty much it. From the clients’ side, they usu-
ally emphasize which MySQL GUI to use. The lighter and
more user-friendly the GUI is, the faster and easier their
data management activities will be. Some of the most
popular MySQL GUIs are MySQL WorkBench, SequelPro,
DBVisualizer, and the Navicat DB Admin Tool. Some are
free, while some are commercial, some run exclusively for
macOS, and some are compatible with major operating
systems. You should be able to choose the GUI depending
on your needs and requirements.
To make it clear, MySQL is not the only relative database
on the market, but it is considered to be one of the most
popular ones scoring great points at critical parameters
like the number of downloads, mentions in search results,
and frequency of technical discussions on Internet forums.
In addition, the fact that many major tech giants rely on
Appraisal ◾ 277
it further verifies the well-deserved reputation. Here are a

few reasons why people trust it:
1. Data Security: It is globally renowned for being one

of the most secure and reliable database manage-
ment systems used in popular web applications like
WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Facebook, and Twitter.
The data security and support for transactional pro-
cessing that comes with the recent version of MySQL
can significantly benefit any enterprise, especially if
it is an eCommerce business that involves frequent
financial transactions.
2. On-Demand Scalability: MySQL can offer almost
unmatched scalability to facilitate the management of
deeply embedded apps using a smaller footprint even
in massive warehouses that store terabytes of data.
On-demand flexibility is another popular feature of
MySQL. This open-source solution can efficiently com-
plete the customization of any eCommerce business
with unique database server requirements.
3. High Performance: MySQL has an impressive stor-
age-engine framework that facilitates system admin-
istrators to adjust the MySQL database server for
better performance. Whether it is an eCommerce
website that processes a million queries every single
day or a high-speed transactional processing system,
MySQL is made to meet even the most demanding
requests while ensuring optimum speed, full-text
indexes, and great memory caches for professional
performance.
278 ◾ Appraisal
4. Round-The-Clock Uptime: MySQL comes with the

benefit of 24/7 uptime and has a wide range of high
availability solutions like specialized cluster servers
and replication modifications.
5. Comprehensive Transactional Support: MySQL

is definitely on the top list of robust transactional
database solutions available on the market. With
attributes like complete atomic, consistent, isolated,
durable transaction support, multi-version transac-
tion support, and unrestricted row-level locking, it
is the ideal solution for complete data integrity. It
can also guarantee instant deadlock identification
through server-enforced referential integrity.
6. Complete Workflow Control: With the typical

download and installation time being less than
30 minutes, MySQL ensures great usability from
day one. Whether your platform is Linux, Microsoft,
Macintosh, or UNIX, MySQL is a suitable solution
with self-management characteristics that automate
most activities from space configuration to data
design and database modeling.
7. Reduced Total Cost of Ownership: By transferring

current database applications to MySQL, enterprises
can enjoy significant cost savings on their projects.
The dependability and ease of management that
come with MySQL save your problem-solving time
which is otherwise wasted in preventing downtime
issues and operational problems.
Appraisal ◾ 279
8. The Flexibility of Open Source: It is often that

users worry about the installation and maintenance
of any open source solutions. However, My SQL’s
round-the-clock support and enterprise indemnifica-
tion can definitely put an end to it. The secure pro-
cessing and trusted software of MySQL altogether
can provide effective transactions for large volume
activities. It ensures error-free maintenance, debug-
ging, and upgrades in order to enhance the end-user
experience.
At the same time, the bigger the scope of data circulates in

an organization, the more advanced data modeling tool is
required. Data modeling was defined as a process of oper-
ating and analyzing data models for resources located in
a database. It could be treated as an abstract system that
regulates the data specification, data semantic, and consis-
tency limitations of data. Its main aim is to manage data
types within a structure, the relationships between objects,
and their characteristics. The data model could help you
to realize what data is necessary and how it should be
arranged properly. It is like a guideline for a professional to
better set and catalog what is being produced.
The functionality potential of MySQL in terms of data
modeling can be broad and quite impressive. The main fea-
tures of the database in relation to data modeling are the
following: compatibility with various models, capacity to
produce new models, support for common modeling activ-
ities, and management of relationships and dependencies
between models and their items.
280 ◾ Appraisal
It is also important to keep in mind that creating and

overseeing a data model would require collaboration
among different management areas (data architect, busi-
ness stakeholders, product-users). The use of data mod-
eling software connects and sets the information flow
as well as verifies the correct representation of all data
items. Additionally, it helps when searching for missing
and redundant data. The end result of the above advan-
tages is a reduction of very time-consuming data model-
ing activities and consequently saving resources for the
organization.
Similarly, with MySQL, there is no need to keep re-issu-
ing the individual statements every time they are requested.
They can simply refer to the stored routine instead. A stored
routine could be defined as a named package of SQL state-
ments located on the server. We have reviewed two main
stored routine types:
• Stored procedures: Ones that invoke procedures

with a CALL statement. They can pass back values
using output variables or result sets.
• Stored functions: Also referred to as call functions
inside a statement that return scalar values.
Apart from that, one of the main activities typically per-

formed by developers is to manage SQL scripts and envi-
ronments for the database. While managing multiple
copies, sometimes it requires refreshing from a produc-
tion environment to a lower environment. For that you
are expected to copy all database objects such as data-
base schema, tables, as well as use multiple approaches
Appraisal ◾ 281
such as database backup restore, depending upon the

requirement.
MySQL uses Generate Scripts wizard to script all data-
base objects or specific objects. It provides various con-
figuration options to select from. You should start by
right-clicking on the source SQL database for which you
want to generate script and launch Generate scripts wizard
that comes with a brief introduction and activity options
to choose from: Select database objects, Specify script-
ing options, Generate scripts and save them, or Generate
Scripts Wizard for database objects.
And as the number of users and database entities
increases, user management and security control are two
areas that quickly become multiplex. Managing many dif-
ferent privileges on different database objects, making sure
users have the same level of responsibilities access, moni-
toring, and inspecting access can become more difficult
with time. To help with this, MySQL came up with a con-
cept called “roles” that allows you to group sets of privileges
under a given name, letting you assign and edit overarch-
ing settings. Like user accounts, you can grant privileges
to roles and revoke privileges from them. If you want to
grant the same set of privileges to multiple users, you need
to create a new role, grant privileges to the role, and then
grant the role to the users. When you need to change the
privileges of the users, you should change the privileges of
the granted role only. The changes will take effect to all
users to which the role is granted.
It is a fact that your network applications almost entirely
depend upon databases. Most of what you work with typi-
cally depends upon a database or two. Because of that, it is
282 ◾ Appraisal
highly recommended to have backups of those databases

and learn how to export and import them from either
machine or database server. Importing and exporting
databases should not be feared but instead considered as
a regular task in software development. You can use data
dumps to back up and migrate data to a new server or
development environment.
In Chapter 6, we learned how to work with database
dumps in MySQL and establish a step-by-step approach
on how to export a database and then import that same
database from the dump file. In addition, we have found
out how to transfer or migrate a MySQL database between
servers.
Backup and restoration of MySQL databases play a key
role in a production environment. It is important to back
up your databases so that you can recover your data and be
up and running again in case issues like hardware crashes,
system failures occur. Backups are also essential as a safe-
guard before upgrading a MySQL installation, and they
can be utilized to transfer a MySQL installation to another
system or to organize replica servers. We have been able to
focus on the most common tools for generating backups in
several formats as well as see what types and characteris-
tics are there. To sum up, we have looked at what raw files
Physical and Logical Backups consist of, research about the
difference between Online and Offline Backups, Local and
Remote Backups, Snapshot Backups, Full and Incremental
Backups.
However, most open-source tools, including MySQL, are
now facing particular development challenges that happen
when you do not consider thoroughly what is needed from
Appraisal ◾ 283
a data stack to maintain consistent service and powerful

analytics. Several points for further MySQL improvement
should include the following:
1. There is a need to increase data storage and compute

strains on the system. This request typically comes
from larger customers. Now open source solutions
still require manual and disruptive scaling that
impacts the customer experience and requires more
time and effort for engineering.
2. Users observe a lack of native support for semi-struc-

tured data as using data types such as JSON, XML,
and Avro is a huge challenge, especially when the
open-source solution does not natively support semi-
structured data. This forces experts to set and main-
tain complex data pipelines.
3. While development teams should spend their time
coding and developing analytics applications, open-
source solutions also require frequent upgrades and
maintenance. As a result, developers end up spend-
ing most of their time and resources dealing with
system maintenance instead of what they are sup-
posed to do in the first place—coding.
4. The use of open-source tools mostly requires spe-

cific skills that may not exist within an organization.
Consequently, companies need to hire more experts,
which is typically problematic to find and expensive
to attain.
284 ◾ Appraisal
With these ongoing discussions in mind, the SQL Server

development tools have to rush and streamline the appli-
cation development process. At the same time, we know
that the SQL Server development applications have a rich
integrated development environment, able to provide an
opportunity for object re-use, integrate with source control
applications like Visual Source Safe, and great potential to
re-establish itself in response to new challenges.
Index
A B
Active roles, 215 Backup, 234
Add Routine Group icon, 124 by copying table files, 241
ADO.NET interfaces, 19 delimited-text file backups,
Advanced Scripting 242
Options, 144 full, 239
MySQL.server, 155–159 incremental, 239
mysqld_multi, 159–164 by enabling binary log,
mysql_upgrade, 164–177 242
Advanced tab, 74 local, 238–239
Advantages of MySQL, 25–30 logical, 234–237
Already Downloaded with mysqldump, 241
option, 60 with MySQL Enterprise
ALTER FUNCTION statement, Edition, 240–241
128 offline, 237–238
ALTER PROCEDURE statement, online, 237–238
128 physical, 234–237
ALTER ROUTINE privilege, regular schedule of,
129–130 244–254
Application development of remote, 238–239
MySQL, 11 restoring from backup file,
Application expert, 196 255
Application servers, 191–192 point-in-time recovery
Availability of MySQL, 11 using binary log,
Axmark, David, 2 259–264
285
286 ◾ Index
reloading delimited- Column Count Limitation, 37

text format backups, Columns tab, 181–184
257–258 Command options
snapshot, 239 for connection compression,
using a file system snapshot, 94–95
243–254 for connection establishment,
using replicas, 243 83–86
Berkeley DB, 4 for encrypted connections,
Binary distribution, 44, 52 86–94
Binary Large Objects (BLOBs), Comma-separated values (CSV)
12, 198 file, 264–270
Binary log Community Edition, 25
making incremental backups Compatibility factor of MySQL,
by enabling, 242 27
point-in-time recovery using, Compound key, 8
259–264 Configure Server Management
Bit string, 12 dialog, 69
BLOBs, see Binary Large Objects Connection compression,
Boolean, 12 command options for,
94–95
Connection-Compression
C
Option Summary, 95
CALL statement, 128 Connection establishment,
Cardinality section, 113 command options for,
Catalog-download option, 57 83–86
Catalog link, 57 Connection Name value, 68
Catalog Palette, 121 Connectivity to MySQL Server,
Catalog Tree palette, 104 18, 26, 67, 145–146
Certificate revocation lists (CRL), Secure Shell (SSH)
89 configuration, 77
Character Large Object (CLOB), TCP/IP connection method,
12 71
Character string, 12 server management
Client library, 18 wizard, configuring,
Client-related tools, 19 76–77
CLOB, see Character Large Windows management, 77
Object commands, specifying, 79
Column, 8 complete setup, 79
Index ◾ 287
password storage vault, Database data types, 198

79–80 Database servers, 193
MySQL config file, 78–79 Data Control Language (DCL),
review settings, 78 10, 105–106
updating old Data Definition Language (DDL),
authentication protocol 10, 105, 134–137,
passwords, 80–81 199
using MySQL Workbench Data Manipulation Language
to upgrade password, (DML), 10, 199
81–82 Data modeling, 97, 279
Connector built-in interface, 18 reverse engineering a
Control Language, 201 database, 132
Cost of MySQL, 11, 25, 278 data definition (DDL)
CREATE FUNCTION statement, script, creating,
128 134–137
CREATE PROCEDURE stored routine, 118
statement, 128 adding Routine Groups
CREATE ROLE statement, 217, to an EER diagram,
226 125–126
CREATE ROUTINE privilege, adding Routine Groups
129 to Physical Schemata,
CREATE VIEW statements, 33 124–125
CRL, see Certificate revocation modifying a Routine
lists Group using Properties
CSV file, see Comma-separated palette, 126
values file physical schemata, adding
CURRENT_ROLE() function, routines to, 121–123
222 Privileges tab, 123–124
Routine Groups tab,
127–128
D
Routine tab, 123
Database, 1, 7–10, 228 stored routine metadata,
exporting MySQL/MariaDB 131–132
database, 229–230 stored routines and
importing MySQL/MariaDB MySQL privileges,
database, 230–232 129–131
Database administrators (DBA), stored routine syntax,
193–194 128–129
288 ◾ Index
tables and relations, 101 DROP ROLE statement, 226

Foreign Keys, 108–113 Drupal, 6
Foreign Key Tab, 113–117
ON DELETE clause,
117–118 E
Primary Keys, 107–108
relationship editor, 113 Ease of management of MySQL,
Data protection of MySQL, 11 10
Data security, 26–27, 277 Editing data, 180
Data transfer from one MySQL Columns tab, 181–184
server to another, Foreign Keys tab, 185–186
270–274 Indexes tab, 184–185
DATE data type, 12 Partitioning tab, 186–188
DBA, see Database Triggers tab, 186
administrators Edit Routine item, 122
DCL, see Data Control Language EER diagrams, see Enhanced
DDL, see Data Definition entity-relationship
Language diagrams
Debug version of MySQL, 47 EER Diagram tab, 104
Default Collation value, 104 Encrypted connections,
Default Engine value, 104 command options for,
Default roles, 215–216 86–94
Delimited-text file backups, Enhanced entity-relationship
making, 242 (EER) diagrams, 100,
Delimited-text format backups, 180
reloading, 257–258 Entity-Relationship (ER) model,
Disadvantages of MySQL, 132
31–39 Entity Relationship Diagram
DML, see Data Manipulation (ERD), 107
Language ERD, see Entity Relationship
DNS servers, see Domain Name Diagram
System servers ER model, see Entity-
Domain Name System (DNS) Relationship model
servers, 192 EU, see European Union
.NET applications, 19 European Commission, 4–5
DROP FUNCTION statement, European Union (EU), 5
128 ExecSecureObjects MSI action,
DROP PROCEDURE statement, 55
128 EXECUTE privilege, 130
Index ◾ 289
F GIS functions, see Geographic

information systems
Features, of MySQL, 10–17
functions
File Allocation Table, 35
Global Transaction Identifiers
File servers, 191
(GTID), 262
File system snapshot, making
GNU tar, 48
backups using, 243
GRANT statement, 218–219
regular schedule of backups,
Grant Table Scope Column
244–254
Properties limitations,
First version of MySQL, 2
34
Flat-file databases, 196
Graphical user interface (GUI),
Flexibility of MySQL, 11
276
FLUSH LOGS, 242
GTID, see Global Transaction
Foreign key constraints, 8, 29
Identifiers
Foreign Keys tab, 108–117,
GUI, see Graphical user interface
185–186
FreeBSD, installing MySQL on,
49–50 H
Free Software opinion
leaders, 5 Hide Filter, 136
Full and incremental backups, Hierarchical databases, 196
239 Homebrew, 63
Full and point-in-time
(incremental) recovery,
239–240 I
Full-text search, 28 IDE, see Integrated development
environment
Identifier Length Limits, 33
G
IIS servers, see Internet
GA release, see General Information Services
Availability release servers
General Availability (GA) Incremental backups, 239
release, 42 by enabling binary log, 242
General Options section, 188 Incremental recovery, 239–240
General Public License, 5 Index, 8, 197–198
Generate Scripts wizard, Indexed Sequential Access
142–143 Method, 3
Geographic information systems Indexes tab, 184–185
(GIS) functions, 30 Innobase OY, 3
290 ◾ Index
InnoDB, 29, 35, 36, 39 L

InnoDB Cluster, 60
LAMP web application software
InnoDB storage engine, 3
stack, 6
Installation of MySQL
Larsson, Allan, 2
on FreeBSD, 49–50
LAST_INSERT_ID, 132
on macOS, 62
License icon for MySQL Installer,
using Native packages,
58
64–67
Limitations of MySQL, 17–30
on Microsoft Windows,
ln command, 48
50
LOAD DATA statements, 243,
additional installation
258
information,
Local and remote backups,
51–52
238–239
on Unix/Linux, 45–49
Logical backups, 234–237
Instances, 199
existing data directory,
copying, 205 M
new data directory, creating,
204 MacOS, installing MySQL on,
running multiple MySQL 62–64
instances on Unix, using Native packages,
211–214 64–67
starting multiple MySQL Mail servers, 192
instances Major features, of MySQL, 13–17
at Windows command Manage Server Connections
line, 205–207 dialog, 70
as Windows services, Mandatory roles, 216, 220
208–211 Many-to-many relationship,
Integrated development 110–112
environment (IDE), MariaDB database, 5
141–142 exporting, 229–230
Internet Information Services importing, 230–232
(IIS) servers, 192 Merge Table Options, 188
INTERVAL data type, 13 Microsoft Windows, installing
MySQL on, 50–52
“Minimal install” version of the
J
MySQL compressed tar
Java client programs, 18 file, 46
Joomla, 6 Mini SQL (mSQL), 2–3
Index ◾ 291
Model-based database design, MySQL Workbench 6.0, 21

100 MySQL Workbench 6.1, 21
MS Access, 18 MySQL Workbench 6.2,
mSQL, see Mini SQL 21–22
Multiple MySQL instances MySQL Workbench 6.3, 22
on Unix, 211–214 MySQL Workbench 8.0,
at Windows command line, 22–23
205–207 Mysql_upgrade, 164–177
as Windows services, 208–211
Multiple SELECT statements,
N
129
MyFirstConnection, 68, 69 Native Packages, installing
MyISAM, 29, 35, 36 MySQL on macOS
Myisamchk, 19 Using, 64–67
MySQL.server, 155–159 Native Windows remote
MySQL AB, 4 management types,
mysqldump, 238 68
making backups with, 241 Nginx servers, 192
Mysqld_multi, 159–164 Numeric, 12
Mysqld_safe, 146, 153–154
MySQL Enterprise Edition,
O
240–241
MySQL Enterprise Server, 13 ODBC interface, 30
MySQL Graphical User Interface Offline backups, 237–238
Tools Bundle, 20 ON DELETE clause, 117–118
MySQL Installer About icon, 57 On-demand scalability, 277
MySQL Table Editor, 180–181 One-to-many relationship,
MySQL Users Conference, 4 110
MySQL Workbench, 19–20, 100, One-to-one relationship,
121, 133, 134 110
editions of, 25 Online and offline backups,
prominent features of, 23–25 237–239
to upgrade a password, 81–82 Open Database Connectivity
versions of, 20 connections, 18
MySQL Workbench 5.0 Open source, flexibility of, 279
and 5.1, 20 Open-source database
MySQL Workbench 5.2, management, 25
20–21 OpenSSH format, 75
292 ◾ Index
OpenVMS, 6 Privileges tab, 123–124

Oracle Corporation, 3, 4 Product catalog, 54
Oracle Lifetime Sustaining Product Features page, 55
Support, 55 Programming languages, 30
Properties palette, routine group
modification using, 126
P
Proprietary “Standard Edition,”
Pages, 198 25
Partitioning tab, 186–188 PuTTY Key Generator
Password (PuTTYGen) utility, 75
updating old authentication PuTTY Private Key (PPK) file,
protocol passwords, 75
80–81
using MySQL Workbench to
upgrade a password, Q
81–82 Quick Action column, 56
Password storage vault, 79–80
Performance Administrator, 195
Performance of MySQL, 11, 277 R
phpBB, 6
Physical and logical backups, RC, see Release Candidate
234–237 RDBMS, see Relational database
Physical Schemas section, 104 management system
Physical Schemata, adding Recovery
routines to, 121–123 full, 239–240
Physical Schemata section, 122, point-in-time, 239–240
124–125 using binary log,
Platform independence, 30 259–264
Point-in-time recovery, 240–241 Redundancy, 8
using binary log, 259–264 Referential Integrity, 2, 8
Portability of MySQL, 26 Relational database management
Post-installation setup process, system (RDBMS), 1–2,
49 101
PPK file, see PuTTY Private Key Relational databases, 196
file Relationship editor, 113
Primary Keys, 8, 107–108 Relationship tab, 113
Print servers, 191 Release Candidate (RC), 43
Privilege ID, 215 Release names, of MySQL,
42–43
Index ◾ 293
Remote backups, 238–239 S

Replicas, making backups using,
Save MySQL, 4
243
Scalability of MySQL, 11,
Replication, 28–29
17–30
RESTART statement, activating,
Scandinavian characters, 19
51
Secure Shell (SSH) configuration,
Restoring from backup file,
68, 77
255
Secure Sockets Layer Tab (SSL),
delimited-text format
73
backups, reloading,
SELECT statements, 129
257–258
Server administration,
point-in-time recovery using
189–232
binary log, 259–264
creating and managing users
Reverse engineering a database,
and roles, 214
132
activating roles, 222–225
data definition Language
creating roles and
(DDL) script, creating,
granting privileges to
134–137
them, 217–220
Reverse Engineer MySQL Create
mandatory roles, defining,
Script, 133
220–221
REVOKE, 224
revoking roles/role
Role, 215
privileges, 224–225
Round-the-clock uptime,
role privileges, checking,
278
222
Routine Group Editor, 122
user and role
Routine group modification
interchangeability,
using Properties
226–228
palette, 126
instances, 199
Routine Groups, adding
existing data directory,
to EER diagram,
copying, 205
125–126
new data directory,
to Physical Schemata,
creating, 204
124–125
running multiple MySQL
Routine Groups tab,
instances on Unix,
127–128
211–214
Routine tab, 122, 123
starting multiple MySQL
Row, 8
instances as Windows
Row Options Section, 188
services, 208–211
294 ◾ Index
starting multiple MySQL Properties palette, routine

instances at the group modification
Windows command using, 126
line, 205–207 Routine Groups, adding
MySQL/MariaDB database to EER diagram, 125–126
exporting, 229–230 to Physical Schemata,
importing, 230–232 124–125
sub-specializations, 195 Routine Groups tab, 127–128
Server upgrades, 60–61 Routine tab, 123–125
Service Control Manager, syntax, 128–129
51 Stored routine metadata, 131
SET PERSIST, 220 LAST_INSERT_ID, 132
SET TIMESTAMP statements, Stored routine syntax, 128–129
263 Structured Query Language
Shared-memory connections, (SQL), 2, 5–6, 9–10, 139
18 Advanced Scripting Options,
Show Filter button, 136 144
Show Logs, 136 MySQL.server, 155–159
Sleepycat Software, 4 mysqld_multi, 159–164
Snapshot backups, 239 mysql_upgrade, 164–177
Source distribution format, 52 editing data, 180
SPs, see Stored procedures (SPs) Columns tab, 181–183
SQL, see Structured Query Foreign Keys tab, 185–186
Language Indexes tab, 184–185
SSH configuration, see Secure Partitioning tab,
Shell configuration 186–188
SSL, see Secure Sockets Triggers tab, 186
Layer Tab running SQL file, 178–180
Storage Options section, 188 Sun Microsystems, 4
Stored functions, 280
Stored procedures (SPs), 27–28,
T
280
Stored routine, 118 Table files, making backups by
and MySQL privileges, copying, 241
129–131 Tables, 7, 99
Physical Schemata, adding Tar files, 44, 45, 48
routines to, 121–123 TCL, see Transaction Control
Privileges tab, 123–124 Language
Index ◾ 295
TCP/IP connections, see creating roles and granting

Transmission Control privileges to them,
Protocol/Internet 217–219
Protocol connections mandatory roles, defining,
Technical limitations of MySQL, 220–221
33 revoking roles/role privileges,
TIME data type, 12 224–225
TIMESTAMP data type, 13 role privileges, checking, 222
Tmpdir parameter, 53 user and role
Transactional support of interchangeability,
MySQL, 11, 278 226–228
Transaction Control Language
(TCL), 10
V
Transaction logs, 198
Transactions, 29 Virtual File Allocation
Transmission Control Protocol/ Table, 35
Internet Protocol Virtual servers, 190
(TCP/IP) connections, Virus checking software, MySQL
71, 152 and, 53–62
server management wizard, Visibility Settings section, 113
configuring, 76–77 Visual Studio, MySQL for, 52
Triggers, 28
Triggers tab, 186
W
24/7 Support of MySQL, 11
Web servers, 192
Widenius, Michael, 2, 4, 5
U
WikiLeaks, 5
Unicode, 28 Windows command line,
Unix, running multiple MySQL starting multiple
instances on, 211–214 MySQL instances at,
Unix/Linux, installing MySQL 205–207
on, 45–49 Windows management, 77
Unix systems, MySQL on, 18 commands, specifying, 79
Upgrades, 60–61 complete setup, 79
User interfaces, 28 MySQL config file, 78–79
User management and security password storage vault,
control, 214 79–80
activating roles, 222–224 review settings, 78
296 ◾ Index
updating old authentication WordPress, 6

protocol passwords, Workflow control, 278
80–81
using MySQL Workbench to
Y
upgrade a password,
81–82 Yacc, 6
Windows services, starting
multiple MySQL
Z
instances as, 208–211
Windows systems, MySQL on, 18 Zip archives, 44

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What are the books covered in the Mastering Computer Science series?

What are the books covered in the Mastering Computer Science series?

What is Zeba Academy and what does it do?

What is Zeba Academy and what does it do?

Mastering MySQL

for the Web

Mastering MySQL for Web: A Beginner’s Guide

Mastering Python for Web: A Beginner’s Guide

Mastering Android Studio: A Beginner’s Guide

Mastering Swift: A Beginner’s Guide

Mastering C++: A Beginner’s Guide

Mastering Git: A Beginner’s Guide

For more information about this series, please visit: https://

The “Mastering Computer Science” series of books are

ISBN: 9781032135137 (hbk)

About the Editor, xi

Chapter 1 ◾ Introduction to MySQL 1

Chapter 2 ◾ Getting Started with MySQL 41

Installing MySQL on macOS 62

Chapter 3 ◾ Data Modeling 97

Chapter 4 ◾ SQL Development 139

Chapter 5 ◾ Server Administration 189

CREATING AND MANAGING USERS AND

Chapter 6 ◾ Backing Up and Restoring

Making Backups by Copying Table Files 241

Sufyan bin Uzayr is a writer, coder, and entrepreneur with

➢ Introducing basics of MySQL database management

A database is a great invention that acts as a separate appli-

volumes of data. An RDBMS is a software that lets you

MySQL is one of the open-source RDBMS. It was created

low-level language Indexed Sequential Access Method,

Latest Minor Latest

If you go back to the very basics, you might wonder—why

allowed MySQL to present such functionality with trans-

Commission to veto the approval of the acquisition. At the

storage system and administer users, allows for network

Before we proceed to explain the insights of MySQL data-

• Database: A database can be described as a collection

• Column: One column (data element) contains data

• First of all, it is released under an open-source license.

• It is a very powerful program in its own right. It man-

As already mentioned, SQL is the core of a relational

databases and perform many other actions. The different

• Data Definition Language (DDL): It allows you to

WHAT IS MySQL AND ITS FEATURES

• Ease of Management: The software can be eas-

• Robust Transactional Support: It is compliant with

• Comprehensive Application Development: MySQL

• High Performance: The database can provide fast

• Low Total Cost of Ownership: Low costs reduce

• Open Source and 24/7 Support: This RDBMS can be

• Secure Data Protection: MySQL supports power-

• High Availability: MySQL can run high-speed mas-

• Scalability and Flexibility: With MySQL you can

Now, that you are more or less familiar with what is

• Numeric: This data type includes integers of various

• Timestamp and Interval: The TIMESTAMP data

MySQL MAJOR FEATURES

MySQL is available in two different editions: the open-

Chapter 6 ◾ Backing Up and Restoring