Database setup

NOW Learning Management System requires access to a database engine to store and consult data, like users, courses, programs, etc, etc.

We support by default SQLite, MySQL and PostgreSQL.

SQLite

SQLite works out of the box and if the default option for development, if you want to use the sytem to serve a small amount of users SQLite will work fine, but many hosting options that do not provide access to persisten storage in the file system so many tines you will need a separate database host to save your data.

If not other database service if defined in the configuration NOW - LMS will default to a local SQLite database:

python -m now_lms

PostgreSQL

For many user PostreSQL is the best open source database engine, NOW - LMS supports PostgreSQL as a primary database host, and there many cloud providers ofering PostgreSQL as a service like:

• ElephantSQL
• Google Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL
• Amazon RDS para PostgreSQL

Also you can setup a PostgreSQL service in a Linux server following the next steps:

# On Fedora, Rocky Linux, Alma or RHEL:
sudo dnf install postgresql-server postgresql-contrib
sudo postgresql-setup --initdb --unit postgresql
sudo systemctl start postgresql
sudo -u postgres psql
# We use "postgresdb"  as the demo user, password and database name, you must
# use another database name or secure user credentials and update the
# conection string before running the NOW - LMS service.
postgres=# CREATE USER postgresdb WITH PASSWORD 'postgresdb';
postgres=# CREATE DATABASE postgresdb OWNER postgresdb;
postgres=# \q

Allow connect with user and password:

sudo gedit /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf

And edit the line host all all 127.0.0.1/32 ident and set it to host all all 127.0.0.1/32 md5

In this example the database server and the application server runs in the same host, if you want to use a different server for the database service please read the PostgreSQL docs.

Refer to the configuration guide about how to configure the connection to the database server.

MySQL

In the begining of the modern web there were 4 main tecnologies powering the dot-com boom: Linux, MySQL, Apache Web Server and {PHP, Python, Perl}, as today MySQL is still a massive option for database service and is the default option for shared host services, NOW - LMS support MySQL by default.

There are many cloud providers oferring MySQL as a service like:

• Oracle MySQL HeatWave Database Service
• Google Cloud SQL for MySQL

# On Fedora, Rocky Linux, Alma and RHEL
sudo dnf install community-mysql-server -y
sudo systemctl start mysqld
sudo mysql_secure_installation
sudo mysql -u root -p
# We use "mysqldatabase"  as the default user, password and database name, you
# must use another database and secure name or user credentials and update the
# conection string before running the service.
CREATE USER 'mysqldatabase'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'mysqldatabase';
CREATE DATABASE mysqldatabase;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON mysqldatabase.* TO 'mysqldatabase'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

For the most the users, this script will work fine but if it asks you for the password, you can retrieve a temporary password from mysqld.log at /var/log/ by the given command:

sudo grep 'temporary password' /var/log/mysqld.log

In this example the database server and the aplication server runs in the same host, if you want to user a diferent server for the database service please read the MySQL docs.

Refer to the configuration guide about how to configure the connection to the database server.