This document provides instructions for creating an openSUSE MySQL server in VMware. It describes downloading openSUSE, creating a VM, and installing openSUSE. It then explains how to create two RAID volumes for data and binary logs. The document outlines installing MySQL and configuring it to use the RAID volumes by editing the my.cnf file. It concludes by starting the MySQL service and using MySQL Workbench to connect.

1. Creating an openSUSE
MySQL Server in VMware
Ken Wunderle

2. Linux Advantages Over Windows
• Stability – Linux platforms are inherently
more stable than Windows platforms, and
usually have less downtime. Additionally,
Linux’s open-source architecture allows
the community of developers/users to
quickly address and patch any known
issues quickly
• Simplicity – Linux systems use fewer
resources and therefore can run on
comparatively simpler hardware than a
Windows machine. This simplicity also
makes Linux servers a bit faster than
Windows ones
• Affordability – Most Linux distributions
are free (or very cheap for enterprise-
level)

3. Things You Will Need
• For this tutorial we will be using:
• VMware Workstation 10
• openSUSE 13.2 (download .iso from http://software.opensuse.org/132/en)

4. Creating a Linux Virtual Machine
• In VM Workstation, create a new
virtual machine using the custom
configuration and default hardware
compatibility settings
• For your OS installation, select the
directory where your .iso file is
located
• On the next screen, identify the
operating system as “Linux” and
select “SUSE Linux 64-bit” from the
menu

5. Creating a Linux Virtual Machine (cont.)
• At this point, you can name your machine whatever
you’d like, and then click Next to proceed.
• For the following settings, create:
• 1 processor with 1 core
• 1024 MB of memory
• Network address translation (NAT)
• LSI Logic controller
• SCSI virtual disks
• Create new virtual disk > 20 GB > Split into
multiple files
• Your settings should match the screenshot. Click
“Finish” to create the VM

6. Creating a Linux Virtual Machine (cont.)
• Before you boot up the machine, you will want
to add five new hard disks to be configured later
as RAID arrays.
• To do this, click “Edit virtual machine settings”
and then hit the “Add…” button (you may be
prompted for your host system’s administrator
password. Enter it to continue with the setup.)
• From Hardware Type, select “Hard Disk” > Next
> select “SCSI” > Next > Create new > Next
• Make the disk size 2GB, and split it into multiple
files > Next > Finish
• Repeat this process until you have 5 new 2GB
hard disks in your machine

7. Installing openSUSE
• Once your VM is configured, click “Power
on this virtual machine”
• When the machine boots, arrow down to
and select “Installation” from the menu
• When prompted, select your language
and keyboard layout and accept the
licensing terms
• Do not bother installing Online
Repositories or Add-on Products
• Accept default partitioning for the file
system and set your time zone
• Select your GUI. This tutorial will continue
with KDE, so perhaps select that if you are
a new Linux user and want to follow along
with the screenshots

8. Installing openSUSE (cont.)
• The installation wizard will prompt
you to create a root username and
password. For simplicity, I have
used “admin” for the username
and “pass” for the password
• Accept default installation settings
and click “Install”
• After the installation is complete,
close the open windows and you’re
ready to get started!

9. Creating RAID Volumes
• We will now create two RAID
volumes, a RAID 5 (data striping
with parity) and RAID 1 (data
mirroring.) The RAID 5, with it’s
faster performance, will serve as
our data repository. The RAID 1,
which has data redundancy, will
store our binary logs.
• These operations are easily done in
the terminal (similar to the
Windows command prompt) but
we will use the GUI in this tutorial

10. Creating RAID Volumes (cont.)
• Click the Kickoff Application
Launcher in the bottom left of
the screen, mouse over to
“Computer” and click “YaST”
• Inside the YaST window, scroll
down in the menu and select
“Partitioner”

11. Creating RAID Volumes (cont.)
• You will see the five hard disks you
created in the setup as
unpartitioned volumes
• Right-click one of these volumes
and select “Add partition” >
Primary Partition > Maximum Size
> Data > Format as XFS > Finish
• Repeat this for each of the five
volumes
• You should have five new
partitioned, unallocated volumes
when you’re finished

12. Creating RAID Volumes (cont.)
• Select “RAID” from the menu on the left and
click the “Add RAID” button
• Select RAID 5, name the array “MySQLdata”
and add three of the available volumes to it
• Click “Next” through the menus using default
selections. In “Mounting Options” mount the
partition to “/MySQLdata” and “Finish” to
finalize the array
• Repeat the process, this time selecting RAID
1, “MySQLbinlog” for the name, adding the
remaining two volumes, and mounting to
“/MySQLbinlog”
• With the two RAID arrays created, click
“Next” and “Finish” to finalize the disk
partitioning setup

13. Installing MySQL
• Once the Partitioner has finished
applying all changes, you will be back
at the main YaST window. From here,
we will install MySQL
• Select “Software” on the left and
“Software Management” in the right-
side menu
• A great feature of Linux is that the
operating systems come
preconfigured with a lot of utilities
and software packages ready to
install, and MySQL is one of them.
• Type “mysql” in the input box and
click Search to bring up a list of
MySQL software and utilities available
for installation

14. Installing MySQL (cont.)
• Frm the available packages,
select the following:
• mysql-community-server
• mysql-community-server-tools
• mysql-workbench
• If any installation conflicts arise,
choose to deinstall mariadb
components
• Accept any suggested changes
and continue through the
installation

15. Setting Up MySQL
• Before we begin using
MySQL, we need to do a
couple of things:
• Move data directory to
/MySQLdata (RAID 5)
• Enable binary logs and
store them in
/MySQLbinlog (RAID 1)
• Start the MySQL service

16. Setting Up MySQL (cont.)
• In order to relocate the data directory and binary logs,
we need to modify the configuration file. Before we
can do that, we need to grant permission to do so.
• Open Terminal from Application Launcher > Favorites
• Enter the following commands:
• “su” [switch user command]
• You will be prompted for a password, enter the
admin password
• “chmod –v 777 /etc/my.cnf” [sets permission for
all users to read, write and execute the my.cnf
file
• Minimize Terminal and go to Application Launcher >
Favorites > File Manager
• Double click “Root” in the left menu, then navigate to
‘etc’ and scroll down to “my.cnf” and open with
KWrite

17. Setting Up MySQL (cont.)
• Modify the binary log entry by
deleting the ‘#’ and changing the
location to “/MySQLbinlog/bin-
log”
• Modify the data directory entry
by deleting the ‘#’ and changing
the location to “/MySQLdata”
• Save your changes to the my.cnf
file and close KWrite and the file
manager window

18. Setting Up MySQL (cont.)
• Bring Terminal back up so you can finalize the
installation and start using MySQL
• Begin the MySQL service by entering in Terminal
the command “rcmysql start”
• Follow this with “rcmysql status” to show the
status of the service, and be sure that it is running
• To start the MySQL service every time your Linux
machine boots, we’ll modify the boot file. First,
grant privileges to the boot.local file in Terminal
• You are finished with Terminal, and can close it
now
• Use the File Manager to get to Root/etc/init.d
where you will find the boot.local file. Open it and
add the line “/usr/lib/mysql/rcmysql start” after
the last # and save the file

19. Starting MySQL and Setting Directories
• Open Application Launcher >
Applications tab > Development
> mysql-workbench
• When MySQL opens, create a
new connection by clicking the +
button. Name it whatever you’d
like, leave all other settings as
default and click OK
• Open your new connection to
access MySQL

20. Starting MySQL and Setting Directories (cont.)
• If all is well, you will see the
familiar MySQL Workbench
window

21. Starting MySQL and Setting Directories (cont.)
• To move the data directory, click on
“Options File” in the left-side menu.
When the Options File editor opens, scroll
down in the “General” tab until you get to
“datadir.” Check the box and type the
location of your RAID 5 array
(/MySQLdata)
• To enable binary logging, click the
“Logging” tab and scroll down to “log-
bin.” Enable this by checking the box and
typing “ON.” Check the “log-bin-index”
box and type the location of the bin-log
file on the RAID 1 array
(/MySQLbinlog/bin-log)
• Apply the settings and you’re good to go!

22. That’s All For Now
• So, now you’ve got a server set
up and ready to be populated
with data. It’s very insecure at
the moment, but applying
security features to everything
will have to wait for the next
tutorial.