Database Configuration

Opencast ships with embedded JDBC drivers for the H2, MySQL and MariaDB databases. The built-in H2 database is used by default and needs no configuration, but it is strongly recommended to use MariaDB for production. performance gain.

Notice: H2 is neither supported for updates, nor for distributed systems. Use it for testing only!

Other databases

Running Opencast with PostgreSQL should be possible and there is some community support for this. While it should work, the support for this is unofficial and we cannot guarantee that every new feature is well tested on that platform.

The EclipseLink JPA implementation which is used in Opencast supports other databases as well and it should be possible to attach other database engines.

Setting up MariaDB/MySQL

Requirements

Before following this guide, you should have:

• Installed the Opencast Core System
• Followed the Basic Configuration instructions

Step 0: Set-up MariaDB/MySQL

This step is not Opencast-specific and may be different depending on your scenario (e.g. if you want to have a dedicated database server). It shall only be a guide for people with no experience setting up MariaDB/MySQL to help them get started. MariaDB is used for this guide but if your distribution includes MySQL instead, the installation should be very much the same.

First, install the MariaDB server. On RedHat-based systems, use:

yum install mariadb mariadb-server

Afterward, start the server and set it up to start automatically after each reboot:

systemctl start mariadb.service
systemctl enable mariadb.service

Now you have MariaDB running, but without a properly configured root account (no password, etc.) which might pose a security risk. MariaDB includes a useful tool to secure your database server. You can launch it by executing (yes, it is still called mysql…):

mysql_secure_installation

It will guide you through the steps of setting up a root account with password, etc.

Step 1: Create an Opencast Database

The first step, if you have not already done this, is to create a database for Opencast. You can use the following SQL code to to that. For executing the SQL, use the MariaDB/MySQL client (run mysql from your shell) or use a graphical tool like phpMyAdmin. For now, we will use the MySQL shell client and the default administrative (root) user. Launch the client with:

mysql -u root -p

You will be asked for the password of the user root. When logged in, you will end up in the MariaDB/MySQL shell. Next, create a database called opencast by executing:

CREATE DATABASE opencast CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

Then create a user opencast with a password and grant it all necessary rights:

GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,DROP,INDEX,TRIGGER,CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES,REFERENCES ON opencast.*
  TO 'opencast'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'opencast_password';

You can choose another name for the user and database and should use a different password.

In a distributed system, apart from 'username'@'localhost' (which would allow access from the local machine only), you should grant a external user access to the database by running the same command for a user like 'username'@'10.0.1.%', where the 10.0.1.% specifies the IP range allowed to access the server with % being a wildcard for "anything". For more details on MariaDB/MySQL user creation have a look at any of the following links:

• MariaDB Reference Manual :: GRANT statement
• MySQL Reference Manual :: Adding User Accounts.

Finally, leave the client and restart the database server to enable the new user(s):

systemctl restart mariadb.service

Step 2: Set up the Database Structure

To set up the database structure you can (and should!) use the Opencast ddl scripts. You can find them in …/docs/scripts/ddl/mysql5.sql or download them from GitHub.

To import the database structure using the MariaDB client, switch to the directory that contains the mysql5.sql file, run the client with the user you created in the previous step (-u opencast) and switch to the database you want to use (e.g. opencast):

mysql -u opencast -p opencast

Run the ddl script:

mysql> source mysql5.sql;

Alternatively, you can import the script directly from the command line:

mysql -u opencast -p opencast < …/docs/scripts/ddl/mysql5.sql

Step 3: Configure Opencast

The following changes must be made in …/etc/custom.properties (/etc/opencast/custom.properties in a package installation).

1. Change the following configuration key (uncomment if necessary):

   org.opencastproject.db.ddl.generation=false
   

   If set to true, the database structure will be generated automatically. It works, but without all the database optimizations implemented in the DDL scripts used in the step 2. While convenient for development, you should never set this to true in a production environment.

2. Configure Opencast to use MariaDB/MySQL:

   org.opencastproject.db.vendor=MySQL
   

3. Configure Opencast to use the JDBC driver for MariaDB/MySQL:

   org.opencastproject.db.jdbc.driver=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
   

4. Configure the host where Opencast should find the database (localhost) and the database name (opencast). Adjust the names in this example to match your configuration:

   org.opencastproject.db.jdbc.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost/opencast
   

5. Configure the username and password which Opencast should use to access the database:

   org.opencastproject.db.jdbc.user=opencast
   org.opencastproject.db.jdbc.pass=opencast_password