Anope doesnt use mysql in a live environment, it will still read/write to it's .db's. Anope can only dump to sql or load from sql on startup. To learn how to enable mysql please refer to docs/MYSQL and data/example.conf.
I'd like to add that this question has been answered many times already, please use the search feature on this forum before starting a new thread. Thanks.
[Edited on 24-10-2007 by katsklaw]