25.2. MySQL Administrator

The MySQL Administrator client is designed specifically for administrative operations. Unlike the other clients discussed in this chapter, MySQL Administrator provides a graphical interface for interacting with the server. Compared to the other clients, which are character-based, MySQL Administrator is more intuitive to use and it is easier to interpret the information about server status that it displays. The tasks that MySQL Administrator enables you to perform include those in the following list:

• Monitor server performance, load, and memory usage information

• Display and set server configuration information

• Start and stop servers

• Set up user accounts, grant and revoke privileges, and set passwords

• Display information about client connections or kill connections

• Create and drop databases

• Check, repair, and optimize tables

• Perform backups and restore data from backups

• Monitor replication servers

• Display the contents of the general query, slow query, and error log files

Some of these capabilities are available for local or remote servers. Others, such as configuring the server or displaying its logs, are available for local servers only.

MySQL Administrator is not included with MySQL distributions but can be obtained from the MySQL AB Web site. It is available in precompiled form for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, or it can be compiled from source.

MySQL Administrator requires a graphical environment such as Windows or the X Window System. However, if the MySQL server is running on a host with no graphical environment, you can connect to it remotely by running MySQL Administrator on a client host that does have a graphical environment. Some functionality is available only when MySQL Administrator and the server are run on the same host.

MySQL Administrator is covered further in Chapter 26, "MySQL Administrator."