Since oer+MySQL 1.0-39 it is possible to have a shared oer+MySQL setup
(sharing of admins and/or users between two or more oer+MySQL
instances) mainly in two different ways.

Connecting to a remote database (the old way)
---------------------------------------------

In this setup the admins and/or users are always read from the MySQL
database which is indicated in oer+MySQL.conf with

	mysql::irc1.equnet.org::oer::oer::mysecret

The format of this line is

	mysql::<hostname>::<database>::<user>::<password>

This allows you to use a remote (or local) database to read admins
and/or users. Since sometimes it makes sense to have different
settings for each of the oer+MySQL instances you can extend this setup
by specifying a alternate ident. That way admins and/or users are read
from the database with the specified ident. You would do this by
starting oer+MySQL with the command line parameters -a and/or -u

	-a <oer+MySQL ident for getting admins>
	-u <oer+MySQL ident for getting users>

A oer+MySQL ident uniquely identifies one oer+MySQL instance.

EXAMPLE
	MySQL running on irc1.equnet.org, database oer & user oer
	1 oer+MySQL running on irc1.equnet.org with ident oerequnet1
	1 oer+MySQL running on irc2.equnet.org with ident oerequnet2

- on irc1.equnet.org oer+MySQL.conf would point to irc1.equnet.org
        mysql::irc1.equnet.org::oer::oer::mysecret
  and oer+MySQL would be started without any commandline parameters

- on irc2.equnet.org oer+MySQL.conf would point to irc2.equnet.org
        mysql::irc2.equnet.org::oer::oer::mysecret
  and oer+MySQL would be started with -a oerequnet1 and/or -u oerequnet1

Remember that you will have to GRANT ACCESS to all the hosts used to
connect to MySQL (local or remote). In this example on irc1.equnet.org
you would have to grant at least read permission on the oer database
to oer@irc2.equnet.org.

PROS AND CONS
	+ easy to maintain (you just setup one MySQL database and
	  point all of the oer+MySQL instances there)
	- the admin and/or user database gets polled each 10 seconds
	  so that oer+MySQL will notice the changed admin and/or user
	  data and re-read the data from the database
	- the same database (local or remote) is used for everything
	  (you can only specify the admins and/or users which should
	  be read by giving a alternative ident with -a and/or -u)
	- requires a reliable network connection in remote case
	- high bandwidth requirements in the remote case

Getting admins and/or users from a remote database (the new way)
----------------------------------------------------------------

In this setup the database which is used to read admins and/or users
doesn't have to be the same as the one used for the oer+MySQL instance
in question.  The admins and/or users database can either be remote or
local. The admin database is indicated in oer+MySQL.conf with

	mysqladmins::irc1.equnet.org::oer::oer::mysecret

and the user database with

	mysqlusers::irc1.equnet.org::oer::oer::mysecret

Since sometimes it makes sense to have different settings for each of
the oer+MySQL instances you can extend this setup by specifying a
alternate ident. That way admins and/or users are read from the
database with the specified ident. You would do this by starting
oer+MySQL with the command line parameters -a and/or -u

	-a <oer+MySQL ident for getting admins>
	-u <oer+MySQL ident for getting users>

A oer+MySQL ident uniquely identifies one oer+MySQL instance.

EXAMPLE
	MySQL running on irc1.equnet.org, database oer & user oer
	MySQL running on irc2.equnet.org, database oer & user oer
	1 oer+MySQL running on irc1.equnet.org with ident oerequnet1
	1 oer+MySQL running on irc2.equnet.org with ident oerequnet2

- on irc1.equnet.org oer+MySQL.conf would point to irc1.equnet.org
        mysql::irc1.equnet.org::oer::oer::mysecret
  and oer+MySQL would be started without any commandline parameters

- on irc2.equnet.org oer+MySQL.conf would point to irc2.equnet.org
        mysql::irc2.equnet.org::oer::oer::mysecret
  and oer+MySQL would be started with -a oerequnet1 and/or -u oerequnet1

- additionally on irc2.equnet.org oer+MySQL.conf would have the
  following entries:
	mysqladmins::irc1.equnet.org::oer::oer::mysecret
	mysqlusers::irc1.equnet.org::oer::oer::mysecret
  This tells oer+MySQL to fetch it's admins and users from irc1

Remember that you will have to GRANT ACCESS to all the hosts used to
connect to MySQL (local or remote). In this example on irc1.equnet.org
you would have to grant at least read permission on the oer database
to oer@irc2.equnet.org.

Other setups with same/different idents, local but different
databases, etc. are all possible but I won't list them all here.

PROS AND CONS
	+ the admin and/or user database gets only polled each
	  300 seconds because there is additional functionality
	  since 1.0-39 so that oer+My notices the changed admin
	  and/or user data
	+ lower bandwidth requirement in the remote case (admins
	  and/or users are read only on initial startup or when
	  the data changes, everything else is, or should be, local)
	- hard to maintain (you will have to setup a oer+MySQL
	  database or at least a oer+MySQL ident for each of the
	  oer+MySQL instances)

Some general notices
--------------------

In both setups beginning with 1.0-34 you should add your oer+MySQL
instances as channel users with "os" user flags (the "s" is of crucial
importance here).

EXAMPLE
	#oer user "oer", flags "os", hostmask "oer@*.equnet.org"

Also, beginning with 1.0-39 you should also set the global flag "S" to
indicate a shared oer+MySQL setup (controls the polling of admin
and/or user timestamps).
