Let’s say we want to track our servers using a database instead of those nasty spreadsheets that many of us use. MySQL is a pretty simple and cheap way to get started. We are going to use a blank root password in these examples to ease typing, however, you should change the root password following our article here.
Let’s create a database!
u-1@srv-1 mysqlart $ mysql -u root Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g. Your MySQL connection id is 5 to server version: 4.0.14-log Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer. mysql> create database sysops; Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec) mysql> quit Bye u-1@srv-1 mysqlart $ |
OK. We have a database. Now, let’s enter a table and some fields. The easiest way to do this is to create a file first:
CREATE TABLE systemsdoc ( manu text NOT NULL, model text NOT NULL, addr text NOT NULL, zip text NOT NULL, phone text NOT NULL, deploy_date text NOT NULL, sernum text NOT NULL, assetnum text NOT NULL, machname text NOT NULL, sysversion text NOT NULL, UID int(11) NOT NULL default '0', PRIMARY KEY (UID) ) TYPE=MyISAM; |
We can create the table and fields:
u-1@srv-1 mysqlart $ mysql sysops --user root < initialtable.sql |
Here are some commands to show our database, table, and fields:
u-1@srv-1 mysqlart $ mysql -u root Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g. Your MySQL connection id is 9 to server version: 4.0.14-log Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer. mysql> show databases; +----------+ | Database | +----------+ | mysql | | sysops | | test | +----------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> mysql> connect sysops; Reading table information for completion of table and column names You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A Connection id: 10 Current database: sysops mysql> show tables; +------------------+ | Tables_in_sysops | +------------------+ | systemsdoc | +------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql> mysql> describe systemsdoc; +-------------+---------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +-------------+---------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | manu | text | | | | | | model | text | | | | | | addr | text | | | | | | zip | text | | | | | | phone | text | | | | | | deploy_date | text | | | | | | sernum | text | | | | | | assetnum | text | | | | | | machname | text | | | | | | sysversion | text | | | | | | UID | int(11) | | PRI | 0 | | +-------------+---------+------+-----+---------+-------+ 11 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> quit Bye u-1@srv-1 mysqlart $ |
