Database Configuration

ownCloud requires a database in which administrative data is stored. The following databases are currently supported:

The MySQL or MariaDB databases are the recommended database engines.

Requirements

Choosing to use MySQL / MariaDB, PostgreSQL, or Oracle (ownCloud Enterprise edition only) as your database requires that you install and set up the server software first. (Oracle users, see Oracle Database Setup.)

Note

The steps for configuring a third party database are beyond the scope of this document. Please refer to the documentation for your specific database choice for instructions.

MySQL / MariaDB with Binary Logging Enabled

ownCloud is currently using a TRANSACTION_READ_COMMITTED transaction isolation to avoid data loss under high load scenarios (e.g., by using the sync client with many clients/users and many parallel operations). This requires a disabled or correctly configured binary logging when using MySQL or MariaDB. Your system is affected if you see the following in your log file during the installation or update of ownCloud:

An unhandled exception has been thrown: exception ‘PDOException’ with message ‘SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1665 Cannot execute statement: impossible to write to binary log since BINLOG_FORMAT = STATEMENT and at least one table uses a storage engine limited to row-based logging. InnoDB is limited to row-logging when transaction isolation level is READ COMMITTED or READ UNCOMMITTED.’

There are two solutions. One is to disable binary logging. Binary logging records all changes to your database, and how long each change took. The purpose of binary logging is to enable replication and to support backup operations.

The other is to change the BINLOG_FORMAT = STATEMENT in your database configuration file, or possibly in your database startup script, to BINLOG_FORMAT = MIXED or BINLOG_FORMAT = ROW. See Overview of the Binary Log and The Binary Log for detailed information.

MySQL / MariaDB “READ COMMITED” transaction isolation level

As discussed above ownCloud is using the TRANSACTION_READ_COMMITTED transaction isolation level. Some database configurations are enforcing other transaction isolation levels. To avoid data loss under high load scenarios (e.g., by using the sync client with many clients/users and many parallel operations) you need to configure the transaction isolation level accordingly. Please refer to the MySQL manual for detailed information.

MySQL / MariaDB storage engine

Since ownCloud 7 only InnoDB is supported as a storage engine. There are some shared hosts who do not support InnoDB and only MyISAM. Running ownCloud on such an environment is not supported.

Parameters

For setting up ownCloud to use any database, use the instructions in The Installation Wizard. You should not have to edit the respective values in the config/config.php. However, in special cases (for example, if you want to connect your ownCloud instance to a database created by a previous installation of ownCloud), some modification might be required.

Configuring a MySQL or MariaDB Database

If you decide to use a MySQL or MariaDB database, ensure the following:

  • That you have installed and enabled the pdo_mysql extension in PHP
  • That the mysql.default_socket points to the correct socket (if the database runs on the same server as ownCloud).

Note

MariaDB is backwards compatible with MySQL. All instructions work for both, so you will not need to replace or revise any, existing, MySQL client commands.

The PHP configuration in /etc/php5/conf.d/mysql.ini could look like this:

# configuration for PHP MySQL module
extension=pdo_mysql.so

[mysql]
mysql.allow_local_infile=On
mysql.allow_persistent=On
mysql.cache_size=2000
mysql.max_persistent=-1
mysql.max_links=-1
mysql.default_port=
mysql.default_socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock  # Debian squeeze: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
mysql.default_host=
mysql.default_user=
mysql.default_password=
mysql.connect_timeout=60
mysql.trace_mode=Off

Now you need to create a database user and the database itself by using the MySQL command line interface. The database tables will be created by ownCloud when you login for the first time.

To start the MySQL command line mode use:

mysql -uroot -p

Then a mysql> or MariaDB [root]> prompt will appear. Now enter the following lines and confirm them with the enter key:

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS owncloud;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON owncloud.* TO 'username'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

You can quit the prompt by entering:

quit

An ownCloud instance configured with MySQL would contain the hostname on which the database is running, a valid username and password to access it, and the name of the database. The config/config.php as created by the The Installation Wizard would therefore contain entries like this:

<?php

  "dbtype"        => "mysql",
  "dbname"        => "owncloud",
  "dbuser"        => "username",
  "dbpassword"    => "password",
  "dbhost"        => "localhost",
  "dbtableprefix" => "oc_",

Configure MySQL for 4-byte Unicode Support

For supporting such features as emoji, you have to enable 4-byte Unicode support in MySQL (instead of the default 3) and in ownCloud. If you have a new installation, you don’t need to do anything, as mb4 support is checked during setup, and used if available. If it’s available, ownCloud is configured to use it.

However, if you have an existing installation that you need to convert to use 4-byte Unicode support, then you need to do two things:

  1. In your MySQL configuration, add the configuration settings below. If you already have them configured, update them to reflect the values specified:
[mysqld]
innodb_large_prefix=ON
innodb_file_format=Barracuda
innodb_file_per_table=ON

Then, run the following command:

./occ db:convert-mysql-charset

When this is done, tables will be created with a:

  • utf8mb4 character set.
  • utf8mb4_bin collation.
  • row_format of compressed.

For more information, please either refer to lines 1126 to 1156 in config/config.sample.php, or have a read through the following links:

Note

This is not required for new installations, only existing ones, as mb4 support is checked during setup, and used if available.

PostgreSQL Database

If you decide to use a PostgreSQL database make sure that you have installed and enabled the PostgreSQL extension in PHP. The PHP configuration in /etc/php5/conf.d/pgsql.ini could look like this:

# configuration for PHP PostgreSQL module
extension=pdo_pgsql.so
extension=pgsql.so

[PostgresSQL]
pgsql.allow_persistent = On
pgsql.auto_reset_persistent = Off
pgsql.max_persistent = -1
pgsql.max_links = -1
pgsql.ignore_notice = 0
pgsql.log_notice = 0

The default configuration for PostgreSQL (at least in Ubuntu 14.04) is to use the peer authentication method. Check /etc/postgresql/9.3/main/pg_hba.conf to find out which authentication method is used in your setup. To start the postgres command line mode use:

sudo -u postgres psql -d template1

Then a template1=# prompt will appear. Now enter the following lines and confirm them with the enter key:

CREATE USER username CREATEDB;
CREATE DATABASE owncloud OWNER username;

You can quit the prompt by entering:

\q

An ownCloud instance configured with PostgreSQL would contain the path to the socket on which the database is running as the hostname, the system username the php process is using, and an empty password to access it, and the name of the database. The config/config.php as created by the The Installation Wizard would therefore contain entries like this:

<?php

  "dbtype"        => "pgsql",
  "dbname"        => "owncloud",
  "dbuser"        => "username",
  "dbpassword"    => "",
  "dbhost"        => "/var/run/postgresql",
  "dbtableprefix" => "oc_",

Note

The host actually points to the socket that is used to connect to the database. Using localhost here will not work if PostgreSQL is configured to use peer authentication. Also note, that no password is specified, because this authentication method doesn’t use a password.

If you use another authentication method (not peer), you’ll need to use the following steps to get the database setup: Now you need to create a database user and the database itself by using the PostgreSQL command line interface. The database tables will be created by ownCloud when you login for the first time.

To start the PostgreSQL command line mode use:

psql -hlocalhost -Upostgres

Then a postgres=# prompt will appear. Now enter the following lines and confirm them with the enter key:

CREATE USER username WITH PASSWORD 'password';
CREATE DATABASE owncloud TEMPLATE template0 ENCODING 'UNICODE';
ALTER DATABASE owncloud OWNER TO username;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE owncloud TO username;

You can quit the prompt by entering:

\q

An ownCloud instance configured with PostgreSQL would contain the hostname on which the database is running, a valid username and password to access it, and the name of the database. The config/config.php as created by the The Installation Wizard would therefore contain entries like this:

<?php

  "dbtype"        => "pgsql",
  "dbname"        => "owncloud",
  "dbuser"        => "username",
  "dbpassword"    => "password",
  "dbhost"        => "localhost",
  "dbtableprefix" => "oc_",

Troubleshooting

How to workaround General error: 2006 MySQL server has gone away

The database request takes too long and therefore the MySQL server times out. Its also possible that the server is dropping a packet that is too large. Please refer to the manual of your database for how to raise the configuration options wait_timeout and/or max_allowed_packet.

Some shared hosts are not allowing the access to these config options. For such systems ownCloud is providing a dbdriveroptions configuration option within your config/config.php where you can pass such options to the database driver. Please refer to Config.php Parameters for an example.

How can I find out if my MySQL/PostgreSQL server is reachable?

To check the server’s network availability, use the ping command on the server’s host name (db.server.com in this example):

ping db.server.dom

PING db.server.dom (ip-address) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from your-server.local.lan (192.168.1.10): icmp_req=1 ttl=64 time=3.64 ms
64 bytes from your-server.local.lan (192.168.1.10): icmp_req=2 ttl=64 time=0.055 ms
64 bytes from your-server.local.lan (192.168.1.10): icmp_req=3 ttl=64 time=0.062 ms

For a more detailed check whether the access to the database server software itself works correctly, see the next question.

How can I find out if a created user can access a database?

The easiest way to test if a database can be accessed is by starting the command line interface:

MySQL:

Assuming the database server is installed on the same system you’re running the command from, use:

mysql -uUSERNAME -p

To acess a MySQL installation on a different machine, add the -h option with the respective host name:

mysql -uUSERNAME -p -h HOSTNAME

mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE "version";
+---------------+--------+
| Variable_name | Value  |
+---------------+--------+
| version       | 5.1.67 |
+---------------+--------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> quit

PostgreSQL:

Assuming the database server is installed on the same system you’re running the command from, use:

psql -Uusername -downcloud

To acess a MySQL installation on a different machine, add the -h option with the respective host name:

psql -Uusername -downcloud -h HOSTNAME

postgres=# SELECT version();
PostgreSQL 8.4.12 on i686-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC gcc (GCC) 4.1.3 20080704 (prerelease), 32-bit
(1 row)
postgres=# \q

Useful SQL commands

Show Database Users:

MySQL     : SELECT User,Host FROM mysql.user;
PostgreSQL: SELECT * FROM pg_user;

Show available Databases:

MySQL     : SHOW DATABASES;
PostgreSQL: \l

Show ownCloud Tables in Database:

MySQL     : USE owncloud; SHOW TABLES;
PostgreSQL: \c owncloud; \d

Quit Database:

MySQL     : quit
PostgreSQL: \q