I was recently struck by a problem which is unusual. In order to keep an eye on the database server I use nagios, cacti, merlin (http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/monitor.html" target="_blank) and some local scripts to monitor the database instance and ensure that it is working properly.  That normally works fine.  The different monitor processes do various things, one of which is to monitor the replication status of a slave, and warn me if the replication is not working or if it’s behind. This is done with the command SHOW SLAVE STATUS.

The server I was looking at runs some large local batch jobs aggregating data. Unfortunately, I was experiencing that replication was interfering with these batch jobs so decided to see if things would perform better if

While setting up MySQL Enterprise Monitor (http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/monitor.html" target="_blank) 2.2 (Merlin) on a system which had been running version 2.1 I thought I’d try and see what difference the change from using normal innodb tables to using the compressed table format available in the innodb plugin.

I’ve been using a separate db backend for merlin because for me it’s easier to manage and also the database backend has been put on a dedicated server. I’ve also been trying the innodb_plugin on another busier server as I had performance problems with the normal 5.1.42 built-in innodb engine which the plugin managed to solve.

So given that I was using a separate db server I upgraded it to 5.1.47, configured the server to use

Since the time that I’ve been using MySQL I have filed quite a few bug reports. Some of these have been fixed and many of the bug reports are actually new feature requests. While working with MySQL Enterprise Monitor I’ve probably filed more feature requests than bug reports.

That’s fine of course and my opinion of what is needed in MySQL or Merlin is one thing,  yours or the MySQL developers is something else. We all have our own needs and find things missing which would solve our specific problems.

If I have ten feature requests open and only one could be added to the software I’d also like to be able to say: this feature is the most important one for me.

However, it seems to me that there is no easy way in the mysql bug tracker at the moment to group together different types of new

I’ve heard about the innodb_plugin but not had time to put it to the test.

Recently though due to some problems I’ve been having with the MySQL Enterprise Monitor (http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/monitor.html" target="_blank) (Merlin) I’ve had to try a few changes and had the opportunity to try out the innodb plugin.

I have been using Merlin for some time and like it a lot. It is not perfect but does a good job for me.  However, since upgrading to version 2.1 I have been having some database load problems. I long ago split the merlin server into a front- and back-end server with the backend running a standard MySQL 5.1 Advanced package. That has been working fine.

I have been monitoring more and more mysqld servers and recently the

Merlin is MySQL’s Enterprise Monitor (http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/monitor.html" target="_blank), a system designed to monitor a number of MySQL database servers and provide useful feedback to the DBAs as to how they are running and what things may require attention.

It provides various things:

• graphs of key database and server performance indicators: load average, cpu usage and mysql specific information such as number of database connections, replication delays, buffer usage statistics, etc…
• a set of advisors which are intended to tell you if things are not configured properly and what to do to correct the problem.
• monitoring of servers which are linked together through replication
• the latest version of merlin (v2.0, which has been available since the beginning of the year) additionally adds via mysql proxy

A lot of people are into the whole cloud computing scenario these days. However, no one has talked about offering DBA-like services in the cloud, all automated, so that startups don’t have to get their own DBAs.

Enter FathomDB. They are poised to offer databases as a service (maybe they’ll charge per database - so you can in theory run both WordPress and Mediawiki, if you prefix wp_ and mw_ in your table creation, for example). They are using MySQL. They’ve also taken the worry of running a database out - they will backup, they will setup (so you don’t have to issue GRANT commands :P), and they will also monitor your databases for you.

But what really takes the cake? The fact that they will also offer performance advisors. This totally reminds me of the MySQL