We will use MariaDB as the relational database for this course. MariaDB is an open-source fork of MySQL and we will use the mysql client to connect to this database from a CS vlab computer.

The knowledge base for MariaDB has a lot of excellent resources. This includes several training and tutorials, including:

• Introduction to Relational Databases
• MariaDB Primer

And several useful references, including:

• SQL Statements
• Builtin Functions

Database Accounts

Everyone has been assigned a database account on our lab MySQL/MariaDB database server.

The database accounts are in the form user### where ### is a number between 001 and 100. The database for that account is the same as the username.

See which database account you have been assigned on the Database Accounts Canvas page. Your initial password will be your USF username. Make sure to change your password after logging in for the first time.

Connecting to Database

First, log into one of the CS vlab computers. See the Using CS Virtual Lab Computers guide for details.

Then, you will need to run the mysql command to connect to the database. The command looks like:

mysql -h sql.cs.usfca.edu -u user### -D user### -p

Here is what each part means:

• The mysql part runs the MySQL client command-line tool.
• The h sql.cs.usfca.edu specifies the hostname of our database server. You can actually type h sql and the cs.usfca.edu part will be assumed when you are on the CS lab network.
• The u user### part will specify the database account username. This is different from your CS or USF usernames. See the Database Accounts page for your assigned database account and replace user### with your database username.
• The D user### part specifies the specific database to use. You only have one database for this class, and it has the same name as your database account username.