Offer several MySQL hosts

[patrik]

I would really love the feature to be able to offer different MySQL hosts for a DA user.
A pseudo mysql.conf:

host_1=mysql50.domain.tld
version_1="MySQL 5.0"
user_1=da_admin
passwd_1=password
host_2=mysql41.domain.tld
version_2="MySQL 4.1"
user_2=da_admin
passwd_2=password

Then when I user wants to add a database he/she is asked which host to use (in fact, which MySQL version to use).

We're currently offering PHP5 together with MySQL5.0 and PHP4 together with MySQL4.1 but with this feature we could have any mixture of PHP/MySQL for every customer without having to setup a machine with that particular combination. When MySQL5.1 becomes stable we could add a third host to offer this MySQL version without having to setup a new machine for it.

What do you think?

 

[patrik]

Kicking some more ideas around...
It would be cool to be able to set a max amount of databases allowed for a host, as soon as the threshold is reached DA will refuse a user to add a database on that host. Of course the administrators should be notified when the amount of used databases is approaching the threshold. Several DA machines should of course be able to use the same MySQL host and still make use of the feature.

I'm not sure but I guess some major changes have to be done although it would be quite cool and useful because we can utilize our resources better.

 

[JTE]

On one hand it seems like a nice idea, on the other hand it seems somewhat useless (especially the limiting for a host) since the number of users on a server combined with the number of databases they are allowed to use/actually use also limits this. As it is currently, if the MySQL daemon is overloaded the entire server probably is. But still the MySQL daemon can take up a lot of system resources, downgrading the performance of the other services.

However it would be nice to see that DA could use one (or multiple) centralized database servers. That would make administration a lot easier, and the load on individual DA boxes would go down (databases tend to use a lot of memory, if moved away from DA more memory would be available for Apache/PHP/whatever).

 

[blacknight]

Being able to put services on separate machines would help a lot with performance

 

[JTE]

I'd love to see the ability to automatically allow certain access hosts on new/existing database users. This would make it easy to have one central phpMyAdmin installation instead of one for each server. That'd be useful as updating and configuring phpMyAdmin can be a pain in the ass and it creates more centralized management of things. Setting PMA up for multiple servers and redirecting other servers there isn't much of a problem, and when managing multiple servers it's a useful extra feature.

 

[patrik]

I'd love to see the ability to automatically allow certain access hosts on new/existing database users. This would make it easy to have one central phpMyAdmin installation instead of one for each server. That'd be useful as updating and configuring phpMyAdmin can be a pain in the ass and it creates more centralized management of things. Setting PMA up for multiple servers and redirecting other servers there isn't much of a problem, and when managing multiple servers it's a useful extra feature.

We have actually already accomplished that!
There are custom scripts to be run when a new database or user is created. See here: http://www.directadmin.com/features.php?id=463
I have written a perl script that adds a specific host (the machine that runs PMA) every time a new user is created. And I have also written a script that updates every already existing database users with this host.
If it would be of any interest I could post the scripts here on the forums.

 

[JTE]

If you want to share it, please do so!

(I actually never noticed the custom script for database users before... but okay ^^)

 

[patrik]

I wrote a thread in the HowTo forum, check it out.