Mock a MySQL database in Python

I use Python 3.4 from the Anaconda distribution. Within this distribution, I found the pymysql library to connect to an existing MySQL database, which is located on another computer.

import pymysql
config = {
      'user': 'my_user',
      'passwd': 'my_passwd',
      'host': 'my_host',
      'port': my_port
    }

    try:
        cnx = pymysql.connect(**config)
    except pymysql.err.OperationalError : 
        sys.exit("Invalid Input: Wrong username/database or password")

I now want to write test code for my application, in which I want to create a very small database at the setUp of every test case, preferably in memory. However, when I try this out of the blue with pymysql, it cannot make a connection.

def setUp(self):
    config = {
      'user': 'test_user',
      'passwd': 'test_passwd',
      'host': 'localhost'
    }
    cnx = pymysql.connect(**config)

pymysql.err.OperationalError: (2003, "Can't connect to MySQL server on 'localhost' ([Errno 61] Connection refused)")

I have been googling around, and found some things about SQLite and MySQLdb. I have the following questions:

1. Is sqlite3 or MySQLdb suitable for creating quickly a database in memory?


2. How do I install MySQLdb within the Anaconda package?


3. Is there an example of a test database, created in the setUp? Is this even a good idea?

I do not have a MySQL server running locally on my computer.