how to find if 2 databases are installed on the system?

Nikhil_Lagwankar · 12-09-2013, 10:04 AM

hi,

I'm using CentOS 6.4(final).

I simply want to write a code which will run and tell me number of databases or web servers installed on my system.

IS there any kind of file which will give me this kind of output.

thanks in advance ...

sag47 · 12-09-2013, 10:44 AM

You question is not specific enough. What kind of databases? What kind of web servers? There are my flavors and variants of each. What are you actually asking? Give the "forest" of the problem and not the "trees".

Nikhil_Lagwankar · 12-10-2013, 02:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sag47

You question is not specific enough. What kind of databases? What kind of web servers? There are my flavors and variants of each. What are you actually asking? Give the "forest" of the problem and not the "trees".

okay ... suppose that i have MySQL and oracle/IBM DB2 etc installed... Now i just want to find out how many such databases are installed...

eg : - if only MySQL --> output 1... if MySQL + oracle --? output 2

similarly if i just have apache output 1... if i have apache and say nginx then output 2...

That's what i want to find out...

Ser Olmy · 12-10-2013, 02:49 AM

Database servers and web servers are no different from other applications installed on your system; they are simply a bunch of files (executables, libraries, configuration files, data files) that reside in various directories.

To figure out if application "X" in installed on a system, you can:

search for files with names associated with the application in question (which may return a false positive if an unrelated file with a similar name exists somewhere)
try and execute an application-related file with a parameter known to return a certain value, like "mysql --version", and check the result (which may fail in interesting ways if an unrelated script or executable by that name exists, or if the parameter has been deprecated in a later version of the application)
search through the list of installed applications provided by the package manager of your distribution, which would be rpm on CentOS (which is safe, but will miss any applications installed directly from source code)

Bottom line, you'll have to know exactly what you're looking for, and select a method appropriate for the systems you'll be examining. For CentOS, rpm -a | grep <some_filter> or rpm -q <package> may be what you're looking for.

Nikhil_Lagwankar · 12-10-2013, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ser Olmy

you'll have to know exactly what you're looking for

yeah that can be done... isn't there any way by which without know the names of these applications i could get this result...

maybe there's some file which might be holding that data like how many database servers are there and their names
...

sag47 · 12-10-2013, 03:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nikhil_Lagwankar

okay ... suppose that i have MySQL and oracle/IBM DB2 etc installed... Now i just want to find out how many such databases are installed...

eg : - if only MySQL --> output 1... if MySQL + oracle --? output 2

similarly if i just have apache output 1... if i have apache and say nginx then output 2...

That's what i want to find out...

Your question is still ambiguous. Both MySQL and Oracle are capable of having multiple databases within the same instances. If you're attempting software detection then this will depend on the target OS you're querying. Sometimes it can be found via package management or you can simply query their utilities.

My question to you is... what is your actual question? What is your end goal? Are you attempting to inventory? Are you attempting to audit? Need more info.

druuna · 12-10-2013, 03:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nikhil_Lagwankar

isn't there any way by which without know the names of these applications i could get this result...

maybe there's some file which might be holding that data like how many database servers are there and their names ...

Nope.

You need to specifically look for the application(s). You also cannot rely on the package manager (rpm/yum for RHEL based systems) information: What if the package manager wasn't used (application was build and installed from source)....

Ser Olmy's reply put you on the correct path to tackle this problem.

Nikhil_Lagwankar · 12-10-2013, 04:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sag47

What is your end goal? Need more info.

My main aim is to detect number of database servers installed on the system... then i intend to scan the config files of these servers to check if they are securely configured...

druuna · 12-10-2013, 04:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nikhil_Lagwankar

My main aim is to detect number of database servers installed on the system... then i intend to scan the config files of these servers to check if they are securely configured...

That's an ambitious goal......

There are many DB servers out there, most common are Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, DB2, Sybase and Ingres (I might have overlook one or two as I'm not a DB admin).

The same is true for web servers. Common are: Apache, Nginx, Lighttpd and Sun ONE Web Server (don't know if oracle renamed it).
But you probably need to look at application servers too. Common are: Tomcat, JBoss, WebSphere and BEA Weblogic.

Depending on the platform/distro used the essential files may be in different locations.