Chapter 3 Installation Prerequisites

Table of Contents

3.1 Installer Files
3.2 Prerequisites
3.2.1 System Requirements
3.2.2 Supported Platforms
3.2.3 MySQL Enterprise Monitor Repository
3.3 Credentials Required for Installation
3.3.1 Existing Users
3.3.2 Users Created During Installation
3.3.3 Users Created on First Log-in
3.4 Supported Browsers

This chapter describes the process of installing the MySQL Enterprise Monitor on all operating systems.

A working installation requires the following:

The Agent monitors the MySQL server, and transmits health and usage data back to the Service Manager. The Advisors interpret the results, which are displayed in the browser-based MySQL Enterprise Monitor User Interface.

After installing and starting the Service Manager and Agents, configure the settings in the MySQL Enterprise Monitor User Interface, as explained in Section 4.5, “MySQL Enterprise Service Manager Configuration Settings”.

3.1 Installer Files

The MySQL Enterprise Monitor files include:

  • MySQL Enterprise Service Manager, MySQL Enterprise Monitor User Interface, and Advisors for the platform that you intend to execute the MySQL Enterprise Service Manager on. For a new installation, this installer is named mysqlmonitor-version-platform-installer.extension. For an upgrade installation, this installer is named mysqlmonitor-version-platform-update-installer.extension.

  • One or more MySQL Enterprise Monitor Agent, one for each host. In this default scenario, the Agent installed on the same machine as a monitored MySQL instance, make a list of the platforms your MySQL servers run on, then download the Agent installer package for each of those platforms. For a new Agent installation, this installer is named mysqlmonitoragent-version-platform-installer.extension. For an upgrade Agent installation, this installer is named mysqlmonitoragent-version-platform-update-installer.extension.

3.2 Prerequisites

This section describes the prerequisites for a successful MySQL Enterprise Monitor installation.

3.2.1 System Requirements

This section describes the minimum and recommended system requirements for a successful MySQL Enterprise Monitor installation.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

This section describes the minimum hardware requirements for the Enterprise Service Monitor.

  • 2 CPU Cores

  • 2 GB RAM

  • Disk I/O subsystem applicable to a write-intensive database

Recommended Hardware Requirements

This section describes the recommended hardware requirements for the Enterprise Service Manager.

  • 4 CPU Cores or more

  • 8 GB RAM or more

  • RAID10 or RAID 0+1 disk setup

MySQL Enterprise Monitor Disk space Requirements

The following table lists the minimum disk space required to install the Enterprise Service Manager and Monitoring Agent for each platform.

Table 3.1 Disk space Required

PlatformMinimum Disk space Required by Service ManagerMinimum Disk space Required by Monitoring Agent
Linux x86 32-bitN/A600 MB
Linux x86 64-bit1.3 GB800 MB
Mac OS X1.2 GB700 MB
Solaris x86 64-bit1.8 GB800 MB
Solaris Sparc 64-bit1.7 GB600 MB
Free BSDN/A300 MB (the FreeBSD installation does not include a JRE. It is assumed a compatible JRE is present on the system.)
Windows x86 32-bitN/A500 MB
Windows x86 64-bit800 MB500 MB


Important

The minimum disk space values for the Monitoring Agent include the disk space required by the backlog. The backlog is used if the agent loses contact with the Service Manager and cannot transmit the collected data. The collected data is stored on the agent's local file system until communication with the Service Manager resumes. Once normal communication is resumed, the entire backlog is transmitted, then deleted from the agent's local file system.

If you choose to install the bundled MySQL Server with the Enterprise Service Manager, you must also consider the amount of disk space required by the database. This value cannot be predicted as it depends on load, number of monitored instances, and so on.

Important

If you are upgrading from a previous version of MySQL Enterprise Monitor, the upgrade process can create a full backup of all settings, including the local MySQL database used for the repository. This can result in a very large backup directory, several gigabytes in size, depending on the number of monitoring agents, and server load. Before upgrading, check the size of your existing installation and ensure you have enough disk space to run the upgrade. The upgrade also requires enough disk space for temporary files created by the upgrade process.

3.2.2 Supported Platforms

The supported platforms for MySQL Enterprise Service Manager and MySQL Enterprise Monitor Agent are listed at the following locations:

For platform support updates, see MySQL Product Support Announcements.

General Platform Recommendations

The following are recommended:

  • Ensure that your Service Manager and Agent hosts are synchronized to the same time server. It is important that all times are properly synchronized.

  • Ensure that your Service Manager and Agent hosts use different SSH host keys before installing.

  • The MySQL Enterprise Service Manager installation generates a self-signed certificate during the installation process. This certificate generation requires a valid, resolvable hostname. If the host on which you install the MySQL Enterprise Service Manager does not have a valid hostname, the installation will fail.

Note

To install the MySQL Enterprise Monitor Agent on Linux systems, you must have the Linux Standards Base (LSB) initialization functions installed. To check the existence of the LSB components, look for an LSB package within your Linux package management environment. For example, on RedHat and other RPM-based distributions:

shell> rpm -qa | grep -i lsb
redhat-lsb-3.1-19.fc8.x86_64

Under Debian/Ubuntu:

shell> dpkg -l|grep -i lsb
ii  lsb-base                                   3.2-20ubuntu4                     
    Linux Standard Base 3.2 init script function
ii  lsb-release                                3.2-20ubuntu4
    Linux Standard Base version reporting utility
	

Alternatively, you can use the lsb_release command. Existence of this command normally indicates that the current distribution is LSB compliant.

MySQL Requirements

This section describes the MySQL Server requirements for MySQL Enterprise Monitor installation.

  • The Enterprise Server Manager repository requires MySQL Server 5.6.14 or higher. The MySQL Enterprise Service Manager installation includes the latest version of MySQL Server. If you intend to use a MySQL repository other than the one bundled in the MySQL Enterprise Service Manager installation, it is recommended that you use the latest MySQL 5.6.x version.

  • If you have previously configured a default login path on the same machine on which you are installing MySQL Enterprise Service Manager with the bundled repository, you must delete the cnf in which the default login details are defined before installing. If a default login path is defined, the installation fails to complete. It is recommended to install MySQL Enterprise Service Manager on a dedicated server.

  • The Monitoring Agent can monitor any version of MySQL Server from version 5.0 onwards. See Section 5.2, “Creating MySQL User Accounts for the Monitor Agent” for more information on monitoring older versions.

    Important

    It is not possible to monitor pre-GA versions of MySQL 5.7. That is, MySQL versions 5.7.0 to 5.7.5 are not supported. MySQL Enterprise Monitor supports monitoring of MySQL 5.7.6 onwards.

  • The monitoring Agent always uses PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA.GLOBAL_STATUS on MySQL 5.7 versions, and supports both modes of show_compatibility_56 from MySQL 5.7.9 onwards.

    Note

    To monitor versions of MySQL 5.7.8, show_compatibility_56 must be set to OFF.

3.2.3 MySQL Enterprise Monitor Repository

The Enterprise Service Manager requires a repository to store its data. The installer optionally installs a local, clean repository for this purpose. However, you can choose not to install the bundled MySQL Server and use another repository instead. This repository can be on the same machine as the Enterprise Service Manager, or on a remote machine.

Important

It is strongly recommended that you use the bundled MySQL instance as the MySQL Enterprise Monitor repository. Only use an external repository if you have a compelling business reason for doing so.

The bundled MySQL instance has been comprehensively tested and tuned for use with the MySQL Enterprise Service Manager

The MySQL Enterprise Monitor upgrade installer can only upgrade a bundled MySQL, not an external one.

The various scripts delivered with MySQL Enterprise Service Manager only work with the bundled MySQL.

The repository instance must be present before starting the MySQL Enterprise Monitor installation.

Important

It is strongly recommended you use a clean installation of MySQL Server as the Enterprise Service Manager repository and do not use this server for any other purpose.

You must make several configuration changes to enable it for use as the repository.

Ensure the following:

  • The MySQL Server version is 5.6.14 or higher.

    Note

    It is possible to use MySQL 5.5.8, or 5.6.10, or higher, but 5.6.14 is the recommended minimum version for the MySQL Enterprise Monitor repository.

  • The InnoDB storage engine is available.

  • SSL is enabled.

You must ensure the following in the MySQL Server configuration:

  • Query Cache must not be enabled.

  • Set innodb_file_per_table=1.

  • Set innodb_file_format=Barracuda.

  • On Linux/Unix hosts, ensure innodb_flush_method=O_Direct, except on Solaris if ZFS is used. If using ZFS, comment out this parameter.

  • It is recommended to set innodb_log_file_size=2048M.

  • Define a Service Manager user to enable the MySQL Enterprise Service Manager to connect to, and modify, the repository. This user must have the following privileges:

    • All privileges on mem%.* tables

    • CREATE and INSERT on mysql.inventory

    • REPLICATION CLIENT, SUPER, PROCESS, and SELECT on all databases in the repository.

    The Service Manager user's credentials are required by the MySQL Enterprise Service Manager installation process.

3.3 Credentials Required for Installation

Before installing the MySQL Enterprise Monitor components, gather credentials (a root user ID and password) for all the MySQL servers you plan to monitor. The Agent installation requires a dedicated user ID in each monitored MySQL server;, and optional limited and general users that the Installer can create for you.

Note

With MySQL 5.5.16 and higher, you can configure these user IDs to authenticate using the PAM Authentication plugin. Currently, MySQL Enterprise Monitor does not support authentication through the Windows Native Authentication plugin.

Optionally, gather credentials for your My Oracle Support account, which you can specify in the MySQL Enterprise Monitor User Interface Settings tab.

The following sections outline the users associated with the MySQL Enterprise Monitor.

3.3.1 Existing Users

The MySQL user: For Monitor Agents to report the status of a MySQL server, they connect to a MySQL user with privileges to read any data on that server: SHOW DATABASES, REPLICATION CLIENT, SUPER, CREATE, and SELECT. If you already have such a user on a MySQL server, specify its credentials when installing the Agent for that server. For details about this account, see Section 5.2, “Creating MySQL User Accounts for the Monitor Agent”.

The My Oracle Support user: These are the credentials you use to log in to the My Oracle Support web site. The What's New page accesses this account to receive updates and examine relevant service issues.

3.3.2 Users Created During Installation

The Repository user: This user is the only user in the user table in the mysql database in the bundled MySQL server. To avoid confusion with monitored MySQL servers, this server is referred to throughout this document as the repository. The repository user can log in from localhost using the password specified during installation and has all privileges on all databases. These credentials are used to create the repository and its tables and to record data in them. During installation, the default value for the user name for this role is service_manager. No default password is specified. You can use these credentials to manage the repository from the command line or when using a GUI program such as MySQL Workbench.

At the end of MySQL Enterprise Service Manager installation, the file configuration_report.txt is created, and along with other configuration details, contains some of the credentials of the repository manager. Look for this file in the following directories:

  • Windows: C:\Program Files\MySQL\Enterprise\Monitor

  • Unix: /opt/mysql/enterprise/monitor

  • Mac OS X: /Applications/mysql/enterprise/monitor

3.3.3 Users Created on First Log-in

The Manager user: This user is the administrator of the MySQL Enterprise Monitor User Interface. The first time you log in to the Monitor UI, log in as this user. You choose the ID and password for this user.

The Agent user: The Monitor Agent needs to report the status of the MySQL server it is monitoring. For this reason it needs to log in to the Monitor UI. You choose the ID and password for this user.

Note

The Monitor Agent communicates both with the MySQL Enterprise Monitor User Interface, and with the MySQL server it is monitoring. For a description of the agent as a MySQL user, see Section 3.3.1, “Existing Users”.

3.4 Supported Browsers

The following browser versions are recommended for use with MySQL Enterprise Monitor User Interface:

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer: version 11, and higher.

  • Safari: most current major production release and one prior release

  • Firefox: the most current major ESR version and above

  • Google Chrome: the most current major stable channel release