[ineffablee]

Has anyone successfully been able to setup a MySQL database on a hosted solution (i.e. godaddy.com, hostmonster, etc...)? I am curious if this is possible so I don't have to setup a single server specifically to host this (to reduce electricity bill). I have multiple devices on the network that use a shared DB currently but I don't want to have a device that is always on solely for the purpose of a hosting the MySQL db.

None of my devices are always on other than the router and NAS and the NAS is too old/slow to process everything at the speed I want.

I will note that I have a few extra Raspberry Pi boards laying around that may be used for hosting that. Has anyone setup a MySQL db server on one of those successfully?

[Piers]

Both are excellent questions which I would also like an answer to, especially to remote SQL database.

[surfinbox]

OK, so let's tackle in opposite order:

1) Can RaspberryPi run MySQL. Answer appears to be yes, but I didn't get beyond a yes/no question to determine the scale at which RPi might be over-matched. I'd be surprised if XBMC database was too much for RPi, but - again - I'm not making any evaluation of capability. Basic googling found this link
http://raspberrywebserver.com/sql-databa...ry-pi.html

2) Can an external host be the database? My expectation is that if you have a network path to that host then it's a matter of configuration and security. On a basic level, an external host running MySQL Server could leave it's MySQL external IP/PORT open for access to your IP Range or open in general. Then you configure the host IP in the XBMC client for MySQL and you should see results. Network latency might affect performance.

If you were more security minded, you could setup a VPN between the XBMC client and external MySQL server to secure the DB credentials and data. (credentials being more sensitive).

This all assumes its worth it to you in electricity to not run a server at home - which avoids network latency and security matters for the most part.

[t4_ravenbird]

...
I will note that I have a few extra Raspberry Pi boards laying around that may be used for hosting that. Has anyone setup a MySQL db server on one of those successfully?

I do that and it works just fine.
I had set up a squeezebox server using squeezeplug : (http://www.squeezeplug.eu/) and decided to experiment with adding MySQL to that installation and it worked out great so I stuck to it afterwards.

[liquidtoon]

I have successfully migrated my DB to a separate Raspberry Pi running Raspbian and MySQL, and it works beautifully. I have my main Windows pc, x2 Raspbmc's, Macbook and iPad all running on this DB and I've had no issues.

I haven't tried a hosted internet DB though...

[ineffablee]

I stopped being lazy and finally setup my RaspberryPi as a dedicated MySQL server (not just for xbmc) with Apache and VSFTPD. XBMC runs so much smoother now that I have that setup! I'm not sure why I waited so long to do it.

Can an external host be the database? My expectation is that if you have a network path to that host then it's a matter of configuration and security. On a basic level, an external host running MySQL Server could leave it's MySQL external IP/PORT open for access to your IP Range or open in general. Then you configure the host IP in the XBMC client for MySQL and you should see results. Network latency might affect performance.

If you were more security minded, you could setup a VPN between the XBMC client and external MySQL server to secure the DB credentials and data. (credentials being more sensitive).

This all assumes its worth it to you in electricity to not run a server at home - which avoids network latency and security matters for the most part.

I am still just curious if anyone has ever setup through a hosted solution. I agree there might be some performance issues do to lag. I am not exactly worried about the security of the DB because with hosted solutions you can set security by only allowing specific IP's or ranges of IP's (i.e. 67.195.189.0/24) to be able to connect to the DB.