Configuring a database for use with Mingle
Before you can install Mingle, you must install a database for Mingle to use. Mingle is recommended to be installed with PostgreSQL (versions 8.2 or 8.3). MySQL 5.0 and Oracle 10g are also supported.
Starting with Mingle 3.0 MySQL will no longer be supported. All existing MySQL users will need to migrate their data to Postgres or Oracle before upgrading to Mingle 3.0. See here for help migrating to Postgres or Oracle.
Installing PostgreSQL
You can download PostgreSQL from http://www.postgresql.org. You may install either version 8.2 or 8.3.
How to install PostgreSQL for Windows
When you install PostgreSQL, it creates a new Windows user account (called postgres) as well as a database superuser account. When you complete the Mingle configuration wizard, the database username and password you enter is for the superuser account you create - it is not the details for the PostgreSQL Windows user.
- Double click the multilingual installer file that you downloaded from the PostgreSQL website.
- Follow the onscreen instructions to install PostgreSQL.
- Select the default installation options and location.
- Ensure you select to install PostgreSQL as a service.
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The first username and password you need to create are for the Windows account under which PostgreSQL operates. They are not the username and password you enter in the Mingle configuration wizard.
- Ensure you select the option to initialize the database cluster.
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The superuser name and password you create next are for the database.
These are the details you enter during the Mingle configuration wizard.
- Accept all other installation defaults and click Finish to complete installation.
How to install PostgreSQL for Mac OSX
Before installing PostgreSQL, we recommend downloading and installing Darwinports (or another port application) to help manage the installation process.
If you are using Darwinports, run the following command from Terminal: % sudo port install postgresql81-server
How to install PostgreSQL for general Unix
As there are many different flavors of Unix and Linux, see the PostgreSQL installation guide for specific installation instructions.
Creating the Mingle database
Once you've finished installing PostgreSQL, start the PostgreSQL server. Create a database called mingle before installing Mingle.
Installing MySQL
You can download MySQL from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.0.html for your platform. We recommend version 5.0 to be compatible with Mingle.
The MySQL online reference guide is a useful reference if you require more help installing MySQL.
MySQL configuration considerations
- We strongly suggest you use InnoDB and not MyISAM as the storage engine. Using MyISAM may cause serious instability problems.
- If you intend to work in any language other than English, you must specify UTF-8 encoding when installing MySQL. We highly recommend selecting UTF-8 encoding even if you only work with English.
Please be aware that due to the physical row-size limitation in MySQL we recommend creating no more than 125 card properties per project on a instance using MySQL.
How to install MySQL for Windows
Download the 'Windows Essentials' version.
If you prefer not to use the command line to manage the MySQL server, you can install the MySQL GUI tools.
After installation, MySQL will start as a Windows service.
- Double click the installer file that you downloaded from the MySQL website.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to install the database.
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Create the initial user account.
Note the user ID and password.
How to install MySQL for Mac OSX
There are two Mac OSX versions of MySQL you can download: package format or TAR package. Download the package format. For more details, see the MySQL online reference guide.
To install MySQL, double-click the package installer and follow the onscreen instructions.
- We recommend also installing a System Preferences pane for starting and stopping the MySQL server. To do this, double-click the MySQL.prefPane file.
- If you would like MySQL to start automatically, double-click the MySQLStartupItem.pkg file.
- If you want to manage MySQL from the Terminal, you must add the MySQLbin directory to your PATH. If you used the package installer, the bin directory is /usr/local/mysql/bin. To check whether you have properly configured your PATH, type mysqladmin version at a Terminal prompt.
Open the MySQL Preference pane and check that MySQL has started.
Create a database called mingle in one of the following two ways:
- If you've added the MySQL tools to your PATH, mysqladmin --user=USER_NAME --password=PASSWORD create mingle (where USER_NAME and PASSWORD is your database username and password).
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If you've installed the MySQL GUI tools, open MySQL Administrator.
In the Catalogs tab, create a schema named mingle.
In the Accounts tab, ensure that the database user has full schema privileges.
How to install MySQL for general Unix
As there are many different flavors of Unix and Linux, see the MySQL online reference guide for installation instructions that are specific to your operating system.
After you've installed MySQL, double-check that the server variable lower_case_table_names is set to a value of 1. You can double-check this with the mysqladmin variables command. Mingle will not function if this variable is set to 0.
Creating the Mingle database
Once you've installed MySQL, create a new database called mingle.
You must now start the MySQL service before installing Mingle (if it's not already running).
Installing Oracle
You can download Oracle 10g from http://www.oracle.com/index.html.
How to install Oracle
For specifics on how to install Oracle 10g on different operating systems please refer to Oracle's installation documentation available at http://www.oracle.com/pls/db102/homepage.
If you would like help and advice installing Oracle for use with Mingle please contact the Mingle support team.
Configuring an Oracle database to work with Mingle
- The database for Mingle should be its own instance, and not be a schema on a shared database.
- The database instance for Mingle should have a charset of AL32UTF8. Mingle will not work with any other server encoding.
- The database should be configured for operation in dedicated mode and not in shared mode.
- Please verify that the archive log is turned on for the database.
- We recommend a redo log configuration of about 6 logs of about 100MB each. Ideally this would result in log rotation no more frequently than once every 20 minutes. We recommend that you measure and tune this number towards that end with our initial recommendation as a starting point.
- For improved performance, we recommend that you set the SGA to be between 40-50%% of available RAM, up to a maximum of 60% of available RAM.
- For improved performance, we recommend that you set shared_cursor_mode to 'force'.
- For improved performance, we recommend that you set your shared pool size to be about 400MB.
- For improved performance, we recommend that you set your sort_area_size to be about 2MB.
After configuring the database, you can now install Mingle.