---
title: "Prepare your MySQL database | Grafana Labs"
description: "Configure Performance Schema and query capture settings, create a monitoring user, and grant the privileges Database Observability needs."
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

# Prepare your MySQL database

In this milestone, you’ll prepare your MySQL database for monitoring. This involves configuring Performance Schema and query capture settings, creating a dedicated monitoring user, and granting the privileges Alloy needs to collect complete query telemetry.

To prepare your MySQL database instance for Database Observability, complete the following steps:

1. Add the Performance Schema and query capture settings to your MySQL configuration file, for example `my.cnf`:
   
   ini ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```ini
   [mysqld]
   performance-schema=ON
   max-digest-length=4096
   performance-schema-max-digest-length=4096
   performance-schema-max-sql-text-length=4096
   ```
   
   These are startup variables. If you change any of them, restart MySQL before continuing.
2. Verify that the settings are applied:
   
   SQL ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```sql
   SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'performance_schema';
   SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'max_digest_length';
   SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'performance_schema_max_digest_length';
   SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'performance_schema_max_sql_text_length';
   ```
   
   Expected result: `performance_schema` is `ON` and the three length settings are `4096`.
3. Create the `db-o11y` monitoring user and grant its base privileges. Replace `YOUR_DB_O11Y_PASSWORD` with a strong password:
   
   SQL ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```sql
   CREATE USER 'db-o11y'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'YOUR_DB_O11Y_PASSWORD';
   GRANT PROCESS, REPLICATION CLIENT ON *.* TO 'db-o11y'@'%';
   GRANT SELECT ON performance_schema.* TO 'db-o11y'@'%';
   ```
   
   Alloy connects as this user. If you choose a different user name, use it in every later step.
4. Grant read access to the schemas you want to monitor, so Alloy can collect table and index details and run `EXPLAIN` on sampled queries:
   
   SQL ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```sql
   GRANT SELECT, SHOW VIEW ON YOUR_SCHEMA_NAME.* TO 'db-o11y'@'%';
   ```
   
   Repeat for each schema, or grant read access to all schemas if you’re unsure which ones you need:
   
   SQL ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```sql
   GRANT SELECT, SHOW VIEW ON *.* TO 'db-o11y'@'%';
   ```
5. Allow Alloy to manage Performance Schema consumers and actor tracking. Database Observability needs the `events_statements_cpu`, `events_waits_current`, and `events_waits_history` consumers enabled, and it needs the monitoring user’s own queries excluded from tracking. Both settings reset when MySQL restarts, so the recommended approach is to let Alloy maintain them:
   
   SQL ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```sql
   GRANT UPDATE ON performance_schema.setup_consumers TO 'db-o11y'@'%';
   GRANT INSERT, UPDATE ON performance_schema.setup_actors TO 'db-o11y'@'%';
   ```
   
   You’ll turn on the matching Alloy settings in the next milestone. If you’d rather not let Alloy modify Performance Schema, enable the consumers and disable tracking manually instead and re-apply them after each restart — refer to [Set up Database Observability for MySQL](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-applications/database-observability/set-up/mysql/mysql/).
6. Verify the monitoring user’s privileges:
   
   SQL ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```sql
   SHOW GRANTS FOR 'db-o11y'@'%';
   ```
   
   Confirm the output includes grants equivalent to:
   
   - `PROCESS, REPLICATION CLIENT ON *.*`
   - `SELECT ON performance_schema.*`
   - `SELECT, SHOW VIEW` on the schemas you granted
   - `UPDATE ON performance_schema.setup_consumers`
   - `INSERT, UPDATE ON performance_schema.setup_actors`

You’ve prepared your MySQL database for Database Observability monitoring. Performance Schema captures full query text, and the `db-o11y` user can read the data Alloy needs.

In the next milestone, you’ll generate the Grafana Alloy configuration for this database and deploy it.