Running A VDS for Database Only

[.=QUACK=.Major.Pain]

I was wondering on what you would suggest for running a WAMP server only to run a Dayz database only on a VDS.

Would a single core get by?

[FlyingMongoose]

WAMP seems kind of pointless... considering it's windows, apache (2), mysql, and php and if you're ONLY running a MySQL Database (and no interfaces) there's no point in the others.

Also if you're not using it as a web site it's a waste of time. Also, if you use Apache/MySQL/PHP, you are better of taking advantage of linux based systems, they handle it more efficiently. CentOS is probably the #1 used operating system for web hosting providers out there, followed closely debian based systems, and a close third is usually modified kernels of the previous I've mentioned.

I will point out this is all mere preference from my own experiences.

And depending on how popular your server gets... single core would run fine, though expect to scale it quickly if it picks up in popularity fast.

[.=QUACK=.Major.Pain]

Need Apache so it will allow phpmyadmin to open so to edit the database.
More comfortable right now with Windows. Haven't used others before.

I actually wanted to use the database on the same dedicated server as the gameservers, but it just doesn't want to work. Game starts up but gets stuck with loading character message on the screen and never goes away.

Using an external database seems to have solved this.

I even tried using my webhosting database, but the gameserver wouldn't connect to the database at all. Setup ip for remotesql and edited the database files on the gameserver, bt no connection.

[Elochai]

Need Apache so it will allow phpmyadmin to open so to edit the database.
More comfortable right now with Windows. Haven't used others before.

I actually wanted to use the database on the same dedicated server as the gameservers, but it just doesn't want to work. Game starts up but gets stuck with loading character message on the screen and never goes away.

Using an external database seems to have solved this.

I even tried using my webhosting database, but the gameserver wouldn't connect to the database at all. Setup ip for remotesql and edited the database files on the gameserver, bt no connection.

Hmm, sounds funny. It should work on the same system. Did you call it with localhost or did you use an ip ?

It been a long time since I setup hosting on windows or Linux. For MySQL is IIS needed ? And one last thing. Are ports opened for it, have you tried hosting the database on your home computer with the right ports opened to ensure that making a move such as a new VDS just for a database would fix the issue ?

I can't really offer much help on this topic other then an attemp to troubleshoot and hope you see something you may have missed.

Oh and don't databases use other protocols/library for getting information over others sometimes ? Could it be as simple as the protocol being used is the wrong one ? I had a VB program like that, wouldn't get info from the database because I used the wrong library so the commands didn't know how to handle it.

[FlyingMongoose]

A lot of web hosts will block connections from outside IP addresses on their databases or even connections to that port from outside IP addresses. But you can try to open them up in the control panels by allowing connections from specific IP addresses or domains, some will allow this some will not, dreamhost does, hostgator didn't (I think they do now), hostdime doesn't, 1and1 doesn't, godaddy doesn't (unless these have changed recently too), some hosts let you control this via their main control panel (cPanel or whatever they have), some hosts have it unlocked from within phpmyadmin. I can't think of anything more that can be done when doing a remote database.

However, to answer the initial question, a single core would be fine, but you could end up using a lot of bandwidth and a lot of memory if it is popular, these may need to get upgraded after a time, MySQL databse file sizes aren't typically gargantuan, but you may need to upgrade space after a time as well.

MySQL on Windows does not require IIS, MS SQL Server does if you're going to be using it for web apps though.

[Vanderburg]

I'm pretty sure that installing MySQL on Debian-based Linux is as simple as "sudo apt-get install mysql5-server" (And would be similar for CentOS, since the package names are the same and I'm 99% sure that's the package name, mysql5-server). It is less work than for Windows, once you get the hang of how it works.

[Patriot]

This does work on a Windows OS VDS here at NFO, I just recently did it with very good results. And it does not require paying for another VDS.

For sometime I wanted to run the game stats and wordpress MySQL dbs from the local machine to improve performance, in particular for the NFO hosted website that always seemed to be slow loading, especially when compared to the load speed when it was temporarily hosted at another provider.

Not wanting to have a wamp and MySQLdbs running of of the same drive as the game server instances and wanting maximum I/O performance, I added an SSD drive and installed the wamp server there. Then it was simply a matter of properly securing MySQL DB (more on this later), creating a new DB through phpMyAdmin, and then uploading a .sql dump from the old MySQL db. Now that you have a new MySQL DB on the SSD you simply create a new user account and give it appropriate permissions for the new DB.

In your game server configs, setup the DB connection as "localhost" using the new user account and password, default port 3306, unless you change it, and driver "mysql".

exapmle from SourceMod database.cfg file:

Code: Select all

		"driver"			"mysql"
		"host"          	"localhost"
		"database"      	"newdatabasename"
		"user"          	"newusername"
		"pass"          	"newpassword"
		//"timeout"     	"0"
		"port"        		"3306"
	}

Now, to access the MySQL DB from an outside connection requires more configuration in MySQL, where you "allow all" for connections to the db, but again for security reasons, this should be limited to a defined user account with specific privileges and a strong username.

Security
wamp servers typically come with the disclaimer that they are not intended for production use due to potential security issues. This has always been a concern to me, so I did quit a bit of research into securing a wamp server. The bottom line is you have to secure the MySQL DB user accounts (immediately give root account a strong password), and close off potential exploits in php and apache. The later two not being the easiest thing to do for a windows guy.

Fortunately, there are at least two wamp versions that are designed as production versions with proper security:

The Uniform Server - I used this one successfully
ZPanel - very promising except for one major flaw, it only installs on the C: drive

Have fun.

Patriot

[.=QUACK=.Major.Pain]

I tried localhost, 127.0.0.1, and even the actual server ip.
Using the actual server ip did work, but leave you stuck with creating character screen that won't go away.

Ports are all open.

Spent a week on it and went with external db.
Got frustrated and had to take a break.

Might try it again later.

[rustydusty1717]

If you just need a SQL database, why bother with a full WAMP stack and just use SQL Express?

[FlyingMongoose]

He's doing this for a DayZ server, I don't think it supports SQL Server Express.

[rustydusty1717]

If it supports MySQL it should support SQL Express...

[FlyingMongoose]

They are two completely different database engines, writing SQL Queries, while similar, for SQL Server Express, are not the same as writing a query for MySQL, and MySQL is not the same as PostgreSQL, and PostgreSQL is not the same as SQLite, and SQLite is not the same as AccessDB, and AccessDB is not the same as an excel spreadsheet.

These are all different database systems, if something is built to use MySQL, it typically will not work with anything but MySQL.

[.=QUACK=.Major.Pain]

Tried installing it on the dedicated server and everything is working fine.

Spent 2 weeks trying to get it to work, and now in 15 mins I had it working. lol

[Vanderburg]

Stuff can be confusing the first time you do it, but once you do it the first time, it gets so much easy each subsequent time.

[.=QUACK=.Major.Pain]

All I did was move the database over and change the host ip to 127.0.0.1.

I am sure I tried that combination before and didn't work.

Keeping fingers crossed.