Database Considerations

This page describes the different considerations and pre-requisites for the database back-end used by PlanetPress Connect, whether using the MariaDB instance provided by the installer, or pre-existing (external) instance.

Using the MariaDB Instance from the Installer

The MariaDB Instance provided in the Installation Wizard is already pre-configured with options to provide the most stable back-end setup.

Installing Connect using an existing MySQL instance

If MySQL Server is already present and you wish to use it, the following should be taken into consideration:

  • The minimum supported MySQL version is MySQL 5.6.
  • The MySQL account must have access to all permissions using the GRANT Command, including creating databases.
  • The database configuration must include the following options:
    • max_connections = 200 : PlanetPress Connect uses a lot of database connections. This number ensures that even in high volume environments, enough connections will be available.
    • max_allowed_packet = 500M : In some implementations, especially when using Capture OnTheGo, large packet sizes are required to allow transferring binary files. This substantial packet size maximum setting ensures that the data received by PlanetPress Connect will be able to be stored within the database.
    • character-set-server = utf8 , collation-server = utf8_unicode_ci , default-character-set=utf8 : These indicate database support for UTF-8/Unicode.
  • The database configuration must allow the use of mixed case table names.
    This is particularly an issue on Linux MySQL installations.
  • The SQL instance must be open to access from other computers. This means the bind-address option should not be set to 127.0.0.1 or localhost.

If you chose not to install the supplied MariaDB database, and instead opt for using a pre-existing (External) database then you yourself must ensure that the External database is accessible to Connect.

Upland Objectif Lune will take no responsibility for setting up database connections to any but the supplied MariaDB database.
Options available within the installer:

  • The Configuration page for the local MySQL is displayed.
  • MySQL settings are pre-filled with default values if no existing MySQL database configuration is found.
  • MySQL settings are pre-filled with existing database configuration settings, if they point to a MySQL database type.

Installing Connect using an existing Microsoft SQL Server instance

If Microsoft SQL Server is already present and you wish to use it, the following should be taken into consideration:

If you chose not to install the supplied MariaDB database, and instead opt for using a pre-existing (External) database then you yourself must ensure that the External database is accessible to Connect.

Upland Objectif Lune will take no responsibility for setting up database connections to any but the supplied MariaDB database.

Since PlanetPress Connect version 1.6 the minimum required version of the MS SQL Server is SQL Server 2012.

  • When MS SQL is selected, the default values for root user are sa and 1433 for the port.
  • If database settings from a previous OL Connect installation are found, the pre-exising settings will be displayed for the matching database type. For MS SQL settings, this will only work if they were created with Server Config Tool 1.5.0 or later, or the Installer for OL Connect 1.6.0 or later.
    If the database type is changed in the Installer configuration page, the default values for this database type will be displayed.
    If the pre-existing database settings are set to Hsqldb, the default database type selection will be MySQL.
  • Selected database settings are stored in the preferences, and can be found in this file:
    C:\ProgramData\Objectif Lune\OL Connect\.settings\ConnectHostScope\com.objectiflune.repository.eclipselink.generic.prefs

When modifying Connect

  • If the local MariaDB is removed from an installation, the Database Configuration page will offer additionally the Microsoft SQL Server database type with respective default values.
  • If local MariaDB is added to an installation, the usual MariaDB Configuration page with default values will be displayed.

If the user has installed the Installer Supplied MySQL (2021.2 or earlier) or MariaDB (2022.1 and later) and then switches to an external Microsoft SQL by using the Server Configuration Tool, the supplied local database cannot be switched off. By design the installer adds a service dependency between Connect Server and the supplied MariaDB \ MySQL service.

To remove this dependency the user needs to do the following
  1. Have a foreign Microsoft SQL running, ready for use with Connect Server.
  2. Use the Server Configuration Tool Database Connection preferences to switch the database to Microsoft SQL.
  3. Re-start the Connect Server Service, so that the modifications become active.
  4. Counter check that everything is working properly with Microsoft SQL.
  5. Open a command-line prompt with full administration rights.
  6. Enter the command sc config OLConnect_Server depend= /. This removes the dependency.

    Please be aware: The key word depend must be followed immediately by the equal sign, but between the equal sign and the forward slash there must be a space.

    Additional information can be found here: http://serverfault.com/questions/24821.

  7. After the dependency has been removed, it is possible to stop the supplied MariaDB \ MySQL service (OLConnect_MySQL).