# OFA Naming guidelines

As OFA should be a "flexible" architecture we provide only guidelines and best practices concerning the naming convention of the several database components.

### MariaDB\_HOME directories

The MariaDB\_HOME directory contains the installation of the MariaDB binaries. In "MariaDB" terminology it corresponds to the "basedir" (defined in the MariaDB configuration file - my.cnf).

dbi services proposes the following standards to name the directories containing the MariaDB binaries:

```
/u01/app/mysql/product/MariaDB-10. 4. 8 - linux-systemd-x86_
```

In order to avoid usage of long names (like presented above) a soft link should be created with a short one:

{% code overflow="wrap" %}
```
ln –s /u01/app/mysql/product/mariadb-10. 4 .8-linux-systemd-x86_ /u01/app/mysql/product/mariadb-10.1.28 - > /u01/app/mysql/product/mariadb-10.1.28-linux-systemd-x86_
```
{% endcode %}

### Mount points

It is important to consider that each mount point represents a separate filesystem. In some cases, it should even be a filesystem stored on different disks (i.e. filesystems for binary logs different than the one for MyISAM tables). Below is a list of components which should be separated over different physical disks :

**Strongly advised :**

* MariaDB software / MariaDB databases
* Database admin files (socket, lock) / MariaDB databases
* Binary log files / MariaDB database files (storage engine files)
* MariaDB database files / MariaDB backup files

**Advised:**

MyISAM tables and Indexes (depending on your disk layout and architecture)

The usual naming convention for OFA mount points is /u\[0-1]\[0-1] on UNIX.

On Windows each mount point is a drive identified by a letter as D: E: dbi services advices using named mount points according to this pattern /u9\[0-1] for storing components like backup files. Using /u9\[0-1] directories allows having a clear database files separation usually stored under the following mount points (/u01, /u02, /u03, ...). If the database currently uses /u01 and /u02, the next filesystem available will be /u03. /u03 has not been reserved by the backup components (because it is stored under /u9\[0-1]).
