3.6.2. MySQL

The minimum required version is MySQL 5.6.12.

It’s possible to test which version of MySQL you have installed with:

mysql -V

3.6.2.1. Installing

Windows

Download the MySQL Installer for Windows from the [MySQL website](https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/windows/installer/) (sizes vary based on the installer version).

MySQL provides a standard Windows installer. It is recommended to select the default installation options unless you have specific requirements. This documentation assumes that you have installed MySQL in C:mysql. Adjust paths appropriately if your installation directory differs.

Linux/Mac OS X

The package install instructions given previously should have installed MySQL on your machine, if it didn’t come with it already. Run:

mysql_secure_installation

and follow its advice.

If you did install MySQL manually rather than from a package, make sure the server is started when the machine boots.

3.6.2.2. Create the Database

You need to create a database for Bugzilla to use. Run the mysql command-line client and enter:

::: CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS bugs CHARACTER SET = ‘utf8’;

The above command makes sure a database like that doesn’t exist already.

3.6.2.3. Add a User

You need to add a new MySQL user for Bugzilla to use. Run the mysql command-line client and enter:

GRANT SELECT, INSERT,
UPDATE, DELETE, INDEX, ALTER, CREATE, LOCK TABLES,
CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES, DROP, REFERENCES ON bugs.*
TO bugs@localhost IDENTIFIED BY '$DB_PASS';

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

You need to replace $DB_PASS with a strong password you have chosen. Write that password down somewhere.

The above command permits an account called bugs to connect from the local machine, localhost. Modify the command to reflect your setup if you will be connecting from another machine or as a different user.

3.6.2.4. Change Configuration

To change MySQL’s configuration, you need to edit your MySQL configuration file, which is:

Red Hat/Fedora: /etc/my.cnf
Debian/Ubuntu: /etc/mysql/my.cnf
Windows: C:\mysql\bin\my.ini
Mac OS X: /etc/my.cnf

Allow Large Attachments and Many Comments

By default on some systems, MySQL will only allow you to insert things into the database that are smaller than 1MB.

Bugzilla attachments may be larger than this. Also, Bugzilla combines all comments on a single bug into one field for full-text searching, and the combination of all comments on a single bug could in some cases be larger than 1MB.

We recommend that you allow at least 16MB packets by adding or altering the max_allowed_packet parameter in your MySQL configuration in the [mysqld] section, so that the number is at least 16M, like this (note that it’s M, not MB):

[mysqld]
# Allow packets up to 16M
max_allowed_packet=16M

Allow Small Words in Full-Text Indexes

By default, words must be at least four characters in length in order to be indexed by MySQL’s full-text indexes. This causes a lot of Bugzilla-specific words to be missed, including “cc”, “ftp” and “uri”.

MySQL can be configured to index those words by setting the ft_min_word_len param to the minimum size of the words to index.

[mysqld]
# Allow small words in full-text indexes
ft_min_word_len=2

3.6.2.5. Permit Attachments Table to Grow Beyond 4GB

This is optional configuration for Bugzillas which are expected to become very large, and needs to be done after Bugzilla is fully installed.

By default, MySQL will limit the size of a table to 4GB. This limit is present even if the underlying filesystem has no such limit. To set a higher limit, run the mysql command-line client and enter the following, replacing $bugs_db with your Bugzilla database name (which is bugs by default):

 USE $bugs_db;

 ALTER TABLE attachments AVG_ROW_LENGTH=1000000, MAX_ROWS=20000;

The above command will change the limit to 20GB. MySQL will have to make a temporary copy of your entire table to do this, so ideally you should do this when your attachments table is still small.

Note

If you have set the setting in Bugzilla which allows large attachments to be stored on disk, the above change does not affect that.

This documentation undoubtedly has bugs; if you find some, please file them here.