Re: Please help

OK, Matt,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

mysql -u root

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

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


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

Shawn Green
Database Administrator
Unimin Corporation - Spruce Pine


Matt Carolan <[email protected]> wrote on 03/16/2006 11:31:04 AM:

> No it's not I can't get it to start. I have it installed on the D 
> Drive and it won't start their. When I reinstall it on the C drive 
> it starts but when I remove it and reinstall it on the D drive it 
> keeps failing. I have totally cleaned up all directories and the 
> registy before I reinstall but I just can't seem to get it to run. I
> need to get this on my drive because that is where I have the space 
> allocated for the database. 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Matthew P. Carolan
> IBM Certified Professional
> Enterprise Systems Management Engineering
> Operations Infrastructure Delivery - IBM (OID)
> wk 602-537-0510
> e-mail: [email protected]
> 
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