After any system installation it is a good idea to update all the installed system packages as there may have been important security fixes or other bug fixes which can impact the performance and security of your system since the installation media used for your install was produced.

Run the following command as root:

# yum update

After performing this update it is a good idea to reboot your computer to pick up any system changes such as kernel updates.

After installing the MySQL server it is quite common to not have the actual MySQL server running or configured to restart after a reboot. As it is a core component in most environments it is important to check the MySQL server is setup correctly before proceeding.

As root run:

# /sbin/chkconfig --levels 345 mysqld on 
# /etc/init.d/mysqld start

This has ensured that the MySQL server will be running after the machine is rebooted, and starts up the MySQL server for immediate use. If you are new to Linux and are unfamiliar with the concept of runlevels it would be useful to gain a basic understanding of this concept if you intend to maintain a BigWorld server cluster. More information can be found on the Red Hat Documentation website.

Both the BigWorld server and the BigWorld server tools have different requirements of the MySQL server as they are both performing unique tasks. As a result of this, we recommend that a seperate account is created for the BigWorld server tools, and for every user who will be running a BigWorld server.

The default MySQL installation is configured with one user called root. This is not the same as the system root user. In order to create a new MySQL user we log in to MySQL using the MySQL root user account as follows:

$ mysql -u root

This command can be run as any user providing the MySQL root user account has no password set.

$ mysql -u root
 mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'bwtools'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'bwtools_passwd';
 mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'bwtools'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'bwtools_passwd';

$ mysql -u root 
GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, ALTER, CREATE, DROP, INDEX ON game_db_name.* TO 'username'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password'; 

GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, ALTER, CREATE, DROP, INDEX ON game_db_name.* TO 'username'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'password'; 

GRANT RELOAD ON *.* TO 'username'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password'; 

GRANT RELOAD ON *.* TO 'username'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'password'; 

$ mysql -u root
mysql> GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, ALTER, CREATE, DROP, INDEX ON bob_parrot_attack.* TO 'bob'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'bobs secret password1'; 
  Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.08 sec)
  
mysql> GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, ALTER, CREATE, DROP, INDEX ON bob_parrot_attack.* TO 'bob'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'bobs secret password1'; 
  Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
  
mysql> GRANT RELOAD ON *.* TO 'bob'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'bobs secret password1'; 
  Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
  
mysql> GRANT RELOAD ON *.* TO 'bob'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'bobs secret password1';
  Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

StatLogger currently only works with a MySQL database and as such requires a MySQL account to be configured in order to operate. When installing StatLogger from an RPM the preferences file that StatLogger uses will automatically be placed on your filesystem as /etc/bigworld/stat_logger.xml. To set your account details you will need to edit this file as the root user and change the <dbUser> and <dbPass> elements.

To illustrate how these values would be modified we will use the MySQL account details that were created in BigWorld Server Tools. Using this information we would change the stat_logger.xml file entries as follows:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<preferences>
        <!--General options-->
        <options>
                <dbHost>localhost</dbHost>
                <dbUser>bwtools</dbUser>
                <dbPass>bwtools_passwd</dbPass>
                <dbPort>3306</dbPort>

After configuring StatLogger with your local database account information you will need to start StatLogger and restart WebConsole as follows:

# /etc/init.d/bw_stat_logger start
Starting bw_stat_logger:                                   [  OK  ]
# /etc/init.d/bw_web_console restart
Stopping web_console:                                      [  OK  ]
Starting bw_web_console:                                   [  OK  ]

With the server tools installed on your tools machine it is worthwhile ensuring that they have started correctly so that you can be sure nothing has gone awry in the initial part of your installation. To do this we simply run the startup scripts with a status command to ensure they are working as expected.

As root run the following commands:

# /etc/init.d/bw_stat_logger status
Status of stat_logger: running 
# /etc/init.d/bw_message_logger status
Status of message_logger: running
# /etc/init.d/bw_web_console status
Status of web_console: running

With the server tools installed you should now be able to see the WebConsole page by simply connecting a web browser to it. The URL of WebConsole is the hostname of the machine on which it has been installed at port 8080. For example:

http://localhost:8080

When connected you should be presented with a page similar to the following:

Creating a WebConsole account will be discussed in more detail in Server First Run.