mysql package details

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Subscription:

Who can use the service?

Anyone with a 6 digit account number and signing authority on it (or who can get a signer).

What is the pricing plan for using mysql?

$50.00 per year

How much tablespace will be allotted for each user's database

1 gigabyte initially, with additional space available at a rate of $1.00/50 megabytes/month.

Can I create new databases, or grant privileges or create new users?

No. We prefer to reduce the security risks associated with allowing our users this level of access. If you need additional user profiles associated with your account, ask us - we'll freely accomodate your request.

Can one purchase additional databases?

Usually one can accomplish separation of data within an existing database by creating more tables, and relying upon table-based user permissions.

If you have the need for an additional database, this can be added for $50 per year with the same tablespace restrictions as above. Additional databases aren't intended to serve as overflow tablespace but to act as an independent database with separate privileges.

How do I get started?

You may sign up for mysql service here. If you are interested in only database service without virtual or application hosting service, you can specify that in the comment section.

Usage:

Once I've been given a database, how can I use it?

You'll need to be able to ssh to our development host. From there, you can use mysql's command line client interface.

If you're having trouble working directly with the mySQL client, we have installed phpMyAdmin on our development server for your use.

Can I connect to mysql remotely from the login machines?

yes, from login.itd.umich.edu machines.

How do you manage backups, and how can I roll back?

We currently do a mysqldump every 4 hours. This is written to local disk. Every day, these files are copied off that machine by our enterprise Tivoli system. On some of our servers, we use Innodb's hot backup to take a snapshot. All of our production database servers are being replicated to at least one machine which can be instantly used as a failover.

To access old data, contact us and ask for a restore. Please specify the last time you had known good data. We can also provide you with the raw SQL which you can re-import on your own.

Do you have documentation of how to use mysql, or other databases?

Certainly, mysql uses SQL (Structured Query Language), as do many other RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) tools. Although, MySql does some operational things uniquely.

We've put together a sampling of commonly-used SQL commands to be used as a tutorial, or a reference.