Database

CS2-SimpleAdmin keeps admins, groups, bans, comm penalties, warnings, player IPs and renames in a database. SQLite is the default and needs no setup; MySQL is for networks.

Which one

Scenario	Use	Why
One server, small or medium community	SQLite	No extra service, a file next to the plugin. WAL mode gives plenty of speed for one server, and css_sqlbackup makes backups in game.
Several servers sharing one ban list	MySQL	SQLite is local to one machine; sharing needs a network database.
More than about 100k bans, mutes and warnings combined	MySQL	SQLite still copes, but replication, point-in-time recovery and dashboards are easier with MySQL.
Hosted box where you cannot run MySQL	SQLite	Nothing to install or maintain.

SQLite

The default config already uses it:

"DatabaseConfig": {
  "DatabaseType": "SQLite",
  "SqliteFilePath": "cs2-simpleadmin.sqlite",
  "SqliteBackupRetainCount": 14
}

The path is relative to addons/counterstrikesharp/plugins/CS2-SimpleAdmin/.

• The database runs in WAL mode, so next to cs2-simpleadmin.sqlite you will see cs2-simpleadmin.sqlite-wal and cs2-simpleadmin.sqlite-shm. Copy or move all three together, or run css_sqlbackup first and copy the backup.
• css_sqlbackup (@css/root) writes a consistent, timestamped copy to plugins/CS2-SimpleAdmin/backups/ with VACUUM INTO, then deletes the oldest backups beyond SqliteBackupRetainCount. It is safe while players are online.
• Times are stored in UTC; Timezone does not apply.

MySQL

Create an empty database and a user with rights on it, then set:

"DatabaseConfig": {
  "DatabaseType": "MySQL",
  "DatabaseHost": "127.0.0.1",
  "DatabasePort": 3306,
  "DatabaseUser": "simpleadmin",
  "DatabasePassword": "change-me",
  "DatabaseName": "simpleadmin",
  "DatabaseSSlMode": "preferred"
}

• DatabaseHost, DatabaseUser and DatabaseName are required: if one is empty the plugin stops with “You need to setup MySQL credentials in config!”.
• The plugin creates its tables on the first start.
• Every server that should share bans and admins points at the same database. Keep MultiServerMode on to apply penalties on all of them; each server registers itself in sa_servers, and admins or groups added without -g only apply on the server they were added on.
• Back up with mysqldump. css_sqlbackup refuses on MySQL.
• Timezone sets the time zone for the times written to MySQL.

Migrations

Table changes ship as numbered migrations for both databases (Database/Migrations/Mysql and Sqlite). They run on every start, before anything else touches the database, and the applied ones are recorded in sa_migrations. Since 1.9.1 the migrations are also embedded in CS2-SimpleAdmin.dll, so updating only the DLL still applies them.

If the connection fails, the plugin logs “Problem with database connection!” with the error and unloads itself.