I am in the process of setting up my first VPS to host a website that I have been working on. By profession, I am a programmer, so I know nothing of Linux or web hosting!!
Thanks to lots of help on here this weekend, I finally learned how to access my VPS using SSH. (That only took a day or two to learn!) And my first command-line task was learning how to copy a file to another folder while maintaining the original modified date. (That only took another half-day!)
Whew!
So the next thing that I need to do is set up MySQL on my VPS...
My VPS runs on CentOS 6, and it also comes with cPanel, but since astrogeek and Miati were persistent in explaining why it is better to do things via the command-line versus using a GUI, I figured I would check things out...
My cPanel comes with some "wizard" that supposedly sets up a MySQL database for you, but whenever I see "wizard" I tend to run!
Advanced Support for my web host said that I should definitely use cPanel to create my database and create the users, because if I did it using phpMyAdmin it would supposedly mess things up as cPanel wouldn't recognize things?
(BTW, I requested MySQL Root access this morning, but I do
not have Root access to my VPS - by choice for now!)
Questions:
1.) Should I listen to my web host and use the cPanel wizard to create a new MySQL database?
2.) If I decide to bypass cPanel, how exactly would I use my MacBook to talk to my VPS and do MySQL stuff over command-line?
FWIW, I developed my entire database using phpMyAdmin in MAMP on my MacBook. When I created my original database in development, I used phpMyAdmin's GUI. And then for everything else (e.g. create table, indexes, queries, etc.), I hand-wrote the SQL in TextEdit and then ran it in phpMyAdmin.
But I have no clue how to do any of this on my VPS!!
3.) How would I use the command-line to create a new database and set up groups and users for MySQL?
4.) If I did things by command-line, is it true that I would break cPanel?
I have been working on my website for the last 3 years, and it is ready to "go live", but I am discovering that setting up my VPS properly - and with lots of security - and getting things like PHP and MySQL set up is a very daunting task!!!
Sincerely,
Rob