Telling MySQL what its IP address is

[oboeguy]

I've got this MySQL DB which now others on the LAN need to see. MySQL, though, believes its IP address is the loopback address b/c it thinks the computer host name is "localhost". I tricked MySQL by changing the hosts file (local host now points to 192.blahblahblah), which seemed easiest for now. So how do I fix this for real? There must be a simple way that I've missed. I'm using the admin package that MySQL suggests, MySQL Administrator. Please pardon my noobishness...

 

[CalvinHobbes]

Is this Windows or Linux?

It should be in a file called my.cnf

 

[oboeguy]

Sorry, forgot to mention, Windows. I searched for "localhost" in my.ini and had no luck.

 

[znaps]

I think you're confused about something. If your computer really is named "Localhost" then change it to something more sensible.

 

[oboeguy]

Nah, the computer isn't named localhost, I just suck at explaining this situation. The computer name is a pretty weird string, as you might expect in an office LAN. MySQL was serving as "localhost" with IP address "127.0.0.1" until I changed the hosts file definition of "localhost".

There's apparently something called "bind-address" as an option but I don't understand how to use it in my.ini and still be able to connect to MySQL from the admin tool.

 

[WannaFly]

Do you have more then one NIC in the machine? If not, then it uses whatever IP address the NIC has, if you ha ve more then 1, well, i dont know.

 

[oboeguy]

Just one NIC. I think perhaps I am not explaining myself. How do I get MySQL to think it is running as anything other than "localhost"? and then how do I get the admin tool to be aware of the update? Thanks again.

 

[znaps]

Forget about localhost then. If others on the LAN need to connect to MySQL on that machine then they just go by the machine name, or IP address. Simple as that. You shouldn't need to configure MySQL in any way.

 

[oboeguy]

OK, but then why did it not work until I did my little trick with the hosts file? I swear the way it went down is that on the client on the LAN I set up a DSN with my machine's LAN IP address as the server IP and it couldn't establish the connection until I made "localhost' on my machine point to my LAN IP address.

(<-- confused no0b)

 

[znaps]

If you post the conifguration (screenshots, cfg files whatever) from your clients and server it might be more clear.

 

[oboeguy]

Ah, good idea. I'll do that when I'm back at work next week.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Add --bind-address=IP_ADDRESS to the start up script.

 

[oboeguy]

OK, where do I put that? I imagine in the [mysqld] section, right? Do I put anything in the client section? BTW, I have some screen shots I guess I could post to finally clear things up.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: oboeguy
OK, where do I put that? I imagine in the [mysqld] section, right? Do I put anything in the client section? BTW, I have some screen shots I guess I could post to finally clear things up.

If you're talking about my post, it's part of the startup command. mysqld --bind-address blah bah blah.

I'm sure there is an option in the configuration file, but I'm too lazy to look it up for you.

 

[oboeguy]

Here's the deal, I can't start MySQL (installed as an Service in XP Pro, should have mentioned that) when I use the --bind-address switch in my.ini. Ideas?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: oboeguy
Here's the deal, I can't start MySQL (installed as an Service in XP Pro, should have mentioned that) when I use the --bind-address switch in my.ini. Ideas?

In the service properties, you might be able to include the bind-address flag under "Start parameters."

Or you could LOOK AT THE DOCUMENTATION.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Since I'm such a nice guy and the documentation sucks:

That's what the following option to mysqld is
for:
--bind-address=IP Ip address to bind to
which can be entered into my.cnf as
follows:
[mysqld]
bind-address=192.168.1.1
or similar.

If you're going to use F/OSS software, get used to reading the documentation.

 

[oboeguy]

Dude, I *always* RTFM. However, I was unable to find that little snippet you quoted. I'll give it a whirl, thanks!

 

[oboeguy]

Hey thanks for the help monkey. I passed the command-line argument to the service and it works beautifully now.

FYI, I'm one of those people who has written documentation for an OSS project, so I know how good or lousy it can be.

 

[n0cmonkey]

I found the second snippet (the my.cnf one) by googling for: my.cnf +"ip address"

Two minutes later, I found the solution.

The first suggestion I gave you came from their documentation, but it probably took me longer to find since it's horribly laid out. :beer: