MySQL configuration

Database is a crucial element of any LMS. In this way, Moodle is no different than all the other platforms. The recommended database for Moodle is MySQL. Most of the development is done using that RDBMS which makes it therefore less error prone and better tested than the other options. This, of course, does not imply that we can just sit back and enjoy the benefits of the default installation that comes with CentOS. Here is the checklist we should go over that improves our setup of MySQL:

1. 1. Don't use MyISAM engine: CentOS 5.4 comes with MySQL 5.0.77. By default, this version uses the MyISAM engine for storing data. MyISAM is good as a storage engine for most of the read-oriented websites, but as soon as we get a lot of writing it tends to break. Apart from security, we also need reliability. Therefore we should switch the default DB engine to the much better InnoDB. To do that, open the MySQL configuration file located in /etc/my.cnf and add these lines in the [mysqld...