The latest from the MySQL community

A user on a linux user group mailing list asked about this, and I was one of the people replying. Re-posting here as I reckon it’s of wider interest.

> [...] tens of gigs of data in MySQL databases. > Some in memory tables, some MyISAM, a fair bit InnoDB. According to my > understanding, when one doesn’t have several hours to take a DB > offline and do dbbackup, there was/is ibbackup from InnoBase.. but now > that MySQL and InnoBase have both been ‘Oracle Enterprised’, said > product is now restricted to MySQL Enterprise customers.. > > Some quick searching has suggested Percona XtraBackup as a potential > FOSS alternative. > What backup techniques do people employ around these parts for backups > of large mixed MySQL data sets where downtime *must* be minimised? > > Has your backup plan ever been put to the test?

You should put it to the test regularly, not just when it’s needed. …

I got access to our 12-core Intel server, so I was able to do some better benchmarks to test the different group commit thread scheduling methods:

This graph shows queries-per-second as a function of number of parallel connections, for three test runs:

1. Baseline MariaDB, without group commit.
2. MariaDB with group commit, using the simple thread scheduling, where the serial part of the group commit algorithm is done by each thread signalling the next one.
3. MariaDB with group commit and optimised thread scheduling, where the first thread does the serial group commit processing for all transactions at once, in a single thread.

(see the previous post linked above for a more detailed explanation of the two thread scheduling algorithms.)

This test was run on a 12-core server with hyper-threading, memory is …

This is just a friendly reminder that you can nominate your favorite MySQL community member, application and company for the traditional awards. The nominations must be in by the end of this week, after which the panel votes on them:

http://openlife.cc/blogs/2011/march/call-nominations-2011-oreilly-mysql-...

I've seen at least a few people on IRC that were thinking of sending in nominations, now is a good time to do it!

The address is mysql.awards@gmail.com

The best part of the recent MariaDB meeting in Lisbon for me was that I got some good feedback on my group commit work. This has been waiting in the review queue for quite some time now.

One comment I got revolve around an optimisation in the implementation related to how threads are scheduled.

A crucial step in the group commit algorithm is when the transactions being committed have been written into the binary log, and we want to commit them in the storage engine(s) in the same order as they …

Every morning before any of the meetings get started I print out a small one page newsletter which contains (among other things) the program for the day. Rather than keep them private, Colin suggested I post them here. I call the newsletter the “MariaDB Programador de Journal” which (I think) translates to “MariaDB Programmer’s Journal” in Portuguese.

MariaDB Programador de Journal 11 March 2011

MariaDB Programador de Journal 12 March 2011

[Updated, 13 Mar 2011, to add the newsletter for that day.]

At the meeting we’ve also been taking notes and posting them online for what improvements we want to make this year in MariaDB to make …

Here are the slides from my talk at Open Source Days 2011 on Saturday. The talk was about MariaDB and other parts of the MySQL development community outside of MySQL@Oracle.

For me, the most memorable part of the conference was the talk by Noirin Shirley titled Open Source: Saving the World. Noirin described the Open Source Ushahidi project and how it was used during the natural disaster crisis in Indonesia, New Zealand and other places.

Now, there is a long way from implementing group commit in MariaDB to rescuing injured people out of collapsed buildings, and not all use of Free Software is as …

I’m headed to Lisbon, Portugal for the week of March 7-15. Were have a MariaDB Developer Meeting there, hosted by Monty Program. We’re still getting people stating that they are coming (which is good), so if you’re local to the area, and dig MySQL/MariaDB/databases/opensource, drop by and say hi (March 11-13 is when the meeting happens at the Holiday Inn Lisbon).

I’m stoked since I’ve never been to Lisbon, so I’m going a few days earlier to check the place out. If you’ve been before, I’d appreciate tips on what to see, what to do, what I must not miss, etc. I think I’ll actually bring my camera this time around too!

Related posts:

1. Where is MariaDB today?
…

This is the final part in a series of posts about the MepSQL build system known as MepSQL Bakery. MepSQL is a (yet another) fork of the MySQL database server, with the server based on the MySQLatFacebook code and the build system based on the MariaDB build system.

In this final post I wish to draw a high level picture of the complete process of building TAR, DEB and (eventually) RPM packages from the source code. There's not much more technical details to add to the previous posts, instead I'm going to make some, shall we say "archeological", observations which imho are interesting given how the build system has evolved when being passed from one project to another. Perhaps more importantly, I will …

Almost a year ago we launched the AskMonty Knowledgebase, a home for information on MariaDB and MySQL. When we launched, only employees had access to write articles, though anyone could ask a question. This was done for technical reasons. The good news is that that has changed, with the latest version we just pushed live, anyone with an account (or an open ID) can create and edit articles.

There is only so much content we can write so we want your contributions, from completely new articles to editing and improving what we already have. If you have questions on how to get started, you can join the Maria Docs group on launchpad and ask on the mailing list. Or you can jump into the #maria channel on Freenode …

Trying a new format… Are you subscribed to the announce mailing list? The following is straight from the archives.

Highlights:

• Release of MariaDB 5.1.55
• Meeting in Lisbon
• Call for volunteers for booth duty

Events:

• DrupalCon Chicago
• Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco

——————————————————————————-

MariaDB 5.1.55 Released

Dear MariaDB users,

The development team have been busy and are ready to release MariaDB 5.1.55. MariaDB is a branch of the MySQL database which includes all major open source storage engines, myriad bug fixes and …