The Connection-Control Plugins To be usable by the server, the plugin library file must be located in the MySQL plugin directory (the directory named by the  plugin_dir  system variable). If necessary, configure the plugin directory location by setting the value of  plugin_dir  at server startup. The plugin library file base name is  connection_control . The file name suffix differs per platform (for example,  .so  for Unix and Unix-like systems,  .dll  for Windows). To load the plugins at server startup, use the  --plugin-load-add  option to name the library file that contains them. With this plugin-loading method, the option must be given each time the server starts. For example, put these lines in the server  my.cnf  file, adjusting the  .so  suffix for your platform as necessary: After modifying  my.cnf , restart the server to cause the new settings to take effect. Alternatively, to load the plugins at runtime, use these statements, adjusting the  .so  suffix for your platform as necessary: INSTALL PLUGIN  loads the plugin immediately, and also registers it in the  mysql.plugins  system table to cause the server to load it for each subsequent normal startup without the need for  --plugin-load- add . To verify plugin installation, examine the  INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PLUGINS  table or use the  SHOW PLUGINS  statement (see Section 5.6.2, “Obtaining Server Plugin Information” ). For example: If a plugin fails to initialize, check the server error log for diagnostic messages. If the plugins have been previously registered with  INSTALL PLUGIN  or are loaded with  --plugin- load-add , you can use the  --connection-control  and  --connection-control-failed-login- attempts  options at server startup to control plugin activation. For example, to load the plugins at startup and prevent them from being removed at runtime, use these options: If it is desired to prevent the server from running without a given connection-control plugin, use an option value of  FORCE  or  FORCE_PLUS_PERMANENT  to force server startup to fail if the plugin does not initialize successfully. It is possible to install one plugin without the other, but both must be installed for full connection-control capability. In particular, installing only the CONNECTION_CONTROL_FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS  plugin is of little use Note [mysqld] plugin-load-add=connection_control.so connection-control=FORCE_PLUS_PERMANENT connection-control-failed-login-attempts=FORCE_PLUS_PERMANENT mysql>  SELECT PLUGIN_NAME, PLUGIN_STATUS FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PLUGINS WHERE PLUGIN_NAME LIKE ’connection%’; +------------------------------------------+---------------+ | PLUGIN_NAME | PLUGIN_STATUS | +------------------------------------------+---------------+ | CONNECTION_CONTROL | ACTIVE | | CONNECTION_CONTROL_FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS | ACTIVE | +------------------------------------------+---------------+ INSTALL PLUGIN CONNECTION_CONTROL SONAME ’connection_control.so’; INSTALL PLUGIN CONNECTION_CONTROL_FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS SONAME ’connection_control.so’; [mysqld] plugin-load-add=connection_control.so 1379