MySQL_Windows.pdf

Introduction to MySQL on

Windows

Published by the Open Source Software at Microsoft, March 2007

Special thanks to Chris Travers, Contributing Author to the Open Source Software Lab

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Background

MySQL is an open source relational database management system which is quite popular for

light-weight web applications. Over the last few years, the product has also added some features

which allow it to be used for larger business tools. This paper will provide an overview of this

software on Windows. MySQL does not have as many features as PostgreSQL, and while many

of the more advanced features are not as mature. However one would expect it to perform

substantially better than PostgreSQL on Windows because of its thread-based architecture

(PostgreSQL uses a process-based architecture instead).

Note for Vista Users

The MySQL installation requires that User Account Control (UAC) is disabled. If you do not do

this, the installation will fail when the system tries to start the service, even if the user allows the

change. To disable UAC, go to the Control Panel:

Select User Accounts and Family Safety . This brings up the next screen:

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From here, click User Accounts . This will bring up the following screen:

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Select Turn User Account Control on or off . If User Account Control is enabled, it will pop

up with a dialog asking for permission to continue. Click Continue and the User Account

Control screen will appear:

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Uncheck the box and click OK. You will need to restart your computer for the change to take

effect.

Once you have finished the installation, you can re-enable UAC and the software will continue to

run without issue.

Planning

 The typical install of MySQL 5.0 on Windows takes about 90MB plus space for data

o Approximately 60MB for the software

o Approximately 30MB for the database skeleton

 The software is installed to C:\Program Files\MySQL by default

 The data files are installed at C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\data by

default. This can be changed using the Server Configuration Wizard (see below).

 The amount of space required to store a given amount of data depends on the table type

used and other factors. InnoDB uses the most storage while archive uses the least.

General guidelines for storage capacity planning are difficult to arrive at because they are

dependant on the storage engine used and, in some cases, on the level of concurrency expected in

the application.

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