Adding and removing databases on your account is all handled via the Plesk Control Panel interface for each domain. To create a new database, you will need to log onto Plesk:
- First, log onto the Plesk Control Panel (all details can be found in the 'Account Details' e-mail, dispatched to you when your account is activated).
- If you have logged on at the Client Level (this is the default level), please click on the name of the domain you wish to add the database on. This will load the domain's settings page.
- Now click on the Databases icon.
- If you have any databases already assigned to the domain you will see a list of them on the following page (if you have installed an application via the Application Vault, it may have created a database for you here).
- To create a new one, click on Add New Database at the top of the page.
- For Database name enter the name you want to call the database. This name must be unique on the server (not just for the domain), so you may find common ones (such as phpBB, forum and mambo) have already been taken. Also, choose the name with care - a database cannot be renamed, only deleted.
- For type, select either MySQL or PostgreSQL depending on which database server you want to use. If you are unsure, use MySQL as it is the most supported and most widely used.
- Click OK.
This has created the database on the server ready for you to use, but before you can actually access it you need to create at least database user.
As an aside, while you can normally create a user in MySQL (or PostgreSQL) which can access any number of databases, all with different levels of access, in Plesk a database user can only access one database (the database it was created for) and all have full access to the database (i.e. SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, DROP).
- To create a new user, from the database properties page, click on Add New Database User.
- For the field Database user name enter the name you want to call the user. Again, this must be unique on the server, so common names may already be taken. The username can be the same as the name of the database if you wish (they do not have to be different).
- For New password and Confirm password, enter the password you want to give the user. In this case, the password cannot contain the username in any part of it; it must be different. For example, if you have the username mydb you cannot have passwords like mydb, mydbase or mydb955.
- Click OK.
- Repeat for each user you want to add to the database.
You can now access the database as you wish, either by clicking on WebAdmin to launch Plesk's customised version of phpMyAdmin (for MySQL databases) or phpPgAdmin (for PostgreSQL databases), or using a scripting language such as PHP, Perl or Python.
