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, 8.3 or 8.4). Oracle 10g is 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 eitherversion 8.3 or 8.4.

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.
- 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.
- 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 please follow the instructions at Darwinports to install PostgreSQL 8.3 or 8.4.

How to install PostgreSQL for general Linux/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 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.