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Setting up MySQL

Creating a database for Pterodactyl​

MySQL is a core component of Pterodactyl Panel but it can be confusing to setup and use if you've never done so before. This is a very basic tutorial that skims just enough of the surface to set MySQL up and running with the panel. If you're interested in learning more, there are some great tutorials available on the Internet.

Logging In​

The first step in this process is to login to the MySQL command line where we will be executing some statements to get things setup. To do so, simply run the command below and provide the Root MySQL account's password that you setup when installing MySQL. If you do not remember doing this, chances are you can just hit enter as no password is set.

# If using MariaDB (v11.0.0+)
mariadb -u root -p

# If using MySQL
mysql -u root -p

Creating a user​

For security sake, and due to changes in MySQL 5.7, you'll need to create a new user for the panel. To do so, we want to first tell MySQL to use the mysql database, which stores such information.

Next, we will create a user called pterodactyl and allow logins from localhost which prevents any external connections to our database. You can also use % as a wildcard or enter a numeric IP. We will also set the account password to somePassword.

# Remember to change 'somePassword' below to be a unique password specific to this account.
CREATE USER 'pterodactyl'@'127.0.0.1' IDENTIFIED BY 'somePassword';

Create a database​

Next, we need to create a database for the panel. In this tutorial we will be naming the database panel, but you can substitute that for whatever name you wish.

CREATE DATABASE panel;

Assigning permissions​

Finally, we need to tell MySQL that our pterodactyl user should have access to the panel database. To do this, simply run the command below.

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON panel.* TO 'pterodactyl'@'127.0.0.1';

Creating a Database Host for Nodes​

tip

This section covers creating a MySQL user that has permission to create and modify users. This allows the Panel to create per-server databases on the given host.

Creating a user​

If your database is on a different host than the one where your Panel or Daemon is installed make sure to use the IP address of the machine the Panel is running on. If you use 127.0.0.1 and try to connect externally, you will receive a connection refused error.

# You should change the username and password below to something unique.
CREATE USER 'pterodactyluser'@'127.0.0.1' IDENTIFIED BY 'somepassword';

Assigning permissions​

The command below will give your newly created user the ability to create additional users, as well as create and destroy databases. As above, ensure 127.0.0.1 matches the IP address you used in the previous command.

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'pterodactyluser'@'127.0.0.1' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Allowing external database access​

Chances are you'll need to allow external access to this MySQL instance in order to allow servers to connect to it. To do this, open my.cnf, which varies in location depending on your OS and how MySQL was installed. You can type find /etc -iname my.cnf to locate it.

Open my.cnf, add text below to the bottom of the file and save it:

[mysqld]
bind-address=0.0.0.0

Restart MySQL/MariaDB to apply these changes. This will override the default MySQL configuration, which by default will only accept requests from localhost. Updating this will allow connections on all interfaces, and thus, external connections. Make sure to allow the MySQL port (default 3306) in your firewall.

If your Database and Wings are on the same machine and won't need external access, you can also use the docker0 interface IP address rather than 127.0.0.1. This IP address can be found by running ip addr | grep docker0, and it likely looks like 172.x.x.x.