MySQL Connector/Java supports connection attributes since version 5.1.25.  This projects useful metadata about the client environment into the database, where MySQL administrators can query PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA tables to remotely survey application deployment environments.  One useful piece of information exposed is the version and vendor of the JVM in use by the client.  This very short blog demonstrates how to get this information from PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA.

The metadata including the Java runtime environment version and vendor can be found in PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA.SESSION_CONNECT_ATTRS table.  Here’s the full contents of that table for a single connection from Connector/Java:

mysql> SELECT *
    -> FROM PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA.SESSION_CONNECT_ATTRS
    -> WHERE processlist_id = 31\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
  PROCESSLIST_ID: 31
       ATTR_NAME: _runtime_version
      ATTR_VALUE: …

Secure communications is a core component of a robust security policy, and MySQL Server 5.7.10 – the first maintenance release of MySQL Server 5.7 – introduces needed improvements in this area.  Support for TLS has been expanded from TLSv1.0 to include TLSv1.1 and TLSv1.2, default ciphers have been updated, and controls have been implemented allowing both server and client-side configuration of acceptable TLS protocol versions.  This blog post will describe the changes, the context in which these changes were made, note important differences in capabilities between Community and Enterprise versions, and outline future plans.

Context

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)  was superseded by TLS ( …

db4free.net finally runs MySQL 5.7 which was released on October 21.

Rather than upgrading the existing MySQL server I set up a new MySQL 5.7 server. This is cleaner and it helps to get rid of accounts which are no longer used.

For active users, the MySQL 5.6 server will stay online

until January 15, 2016.

You can access it on port 3307 (the new MySQL 5.7 server will again run on MySQL’s default port 3306).

Users who want to keep their data need to migrate it to the new server:

• create a backup of your data on the MySQL 5.6 server
• signup for a new db4free.net account
• restore your backup in the new MySQL 5.7 server

If you use the MySQL default client and …

Recent changes to support better security by increasing strength of Diffie-Hellman cipher suites from 512-bit to 2048-bit were introduced to MySQL Server 5.7. While this change enhances security, it is an aggressive change in that 2048-bit DH ciphers are not universally supported. This has become a problem specifically for Java users, as only Java 8 JRE (currently) supports DH ciphers greater than 1024 bits. Making the problem more acute, this change was back-ported from MySQL Server 5.7 to the recent 5.6.26 and 5.5.45 releases in response to a community bug report. This blog post will identify affected applications, existing workarounds, and our plans to provide a more …

If you run multiple MySQL instances on a Linux machine, chances are good that at one time or another, you’ve ended up connected to an instance other than what you had intended. It’s certainly happened to me, and I submitted Bug#76512 to deal with the cause which affects me most commonly – that the mysql client will silently ignore the –port option and connect using the default Unix socket instead when the host is “localhost” (default).  We’ve recently discussed ways we can make this behavior less surprising to users, and though we’re now past the second RC of MySQL Server 5.7, we’re contemplating making these changes in future 5.7 releases.  Please let us know your thoughts!

Here are the basic principles of what we intend to change:

Explicit –protocol option rules all

If a user provides an explicit …

Finally! The new db4free.net Website has launched and along with it comes a new (slightly stronger) server and some simplifications with the service itself.

So what is new? Of course the new website which now is up to modern standards again, using a responsive design. While the old site was only designed for desktop (no surprise if you consider it was created in 2005 and remained more or less unchanged since), the new site adopts to small screen devices like mobile phones and tablets as well. Also the look is totally different:

db4free.net old

db4free.net new

The service now has a few simplifications. It is no longer allowed, or necessary, to …

db4free.net‘s server has reached its limits, and it was time for a new one. Now here it is, a shiny new server, with 8 times as much memory than the previous one, and also more disk space. Time for a reboot.

Only recently, MySQL 5.6 has become GA with much better performance than 5.5 and earlier, so the combination of a faster MySQL server and a faster machine should result in a very significant performance boost for db4free.net.

I have not migrated any user databases, but they are still available on the previous/old server. The old server is available at db4free.org, the new server at db4free.net. I will leave the old server running until end of March to allow users to transfer …

In my role as Web Developer for mysql.com I have always tried to advocate open web standards, and to adopt good new web technologies as early as possible. And I believe that an open source product like MySQL owes the World Wide Web open web technologies, rather than content which requires proprietary plugins. Which is why it’s a pleasure for me to tell you that demo videos which used to require Flash have been replaced by new demo videos which work with HTML5 video (and using Flash only as fallback for old browsers).

Take a look:

… or even better, take a look at the real thing at …

db4free.net is joining the protest against SOPA & PIPA and will stay down for 24 hours, starting January 18, 2012 at 02:00 UTC.

Learn more on what this is all about at americancensorship.org …

… and why the WEB GOES ON STRIKE …

… or watch some of the many videos related to SOPA on YouTube.

db4free.net has been updated again.

The server now runs MySQL 5.6.4 m7, the very latest, and lets hope, the very greatest.

Enjoy!