In my two previous blogs I wrote about our implementation of Fractal Tree Indexes on MongoDB, showing a 10x insertion performance increase and a 268x query performance increase. MongoDB’s covered indexes can provide some performance benefits over a regular MongoDB index, as they reduce the amount of IO required to satisfy certain queries.  In essence, when all of the fields you are requesting are present in the index key, then MongoDB does not have to go back to the main storage heap to retrieve anything.  My benchmark results are …

MySQL and NoSQL go together. In the data center, that’s a known. Inside MySQL, that’s lesser known. MySQL 5.6 is both a puristic key value store and a full-fledged relational database. MySQL could also be developed into a schema free document store supporting MapReduce as a search method. With regards to searching those are the extremes. What search methods should a NotOnlyMySQL offer? The extremes first.

Thanks, MySQL. Losing a key is no nightmare!

Memcached is a high performance key value store for volatile data. Memcached is part of a classic scaling story: first, we buy a bigger machine for MySQL, then we try replication, then we cache database results in Memcached.

Creating Advanced MySQL-Based Virtual Hosts On Lighttpd (Ubuntu 12.04)

This guide explains how you can create advanced virtual hosts on a lighttpd web server on Ubuntu 12.04 that are stored in a MySQL database. The method described here does not use the lighttpd mod_mysql_vhost module, and unlike mod_mysql_vhost (which allows you to store only the hostname and document root of a vhost in a database), this method allows to store individual configuration directives for each vhost in the MySQL database.

I don't what makes this so hard for MySQL Developers at Oracle. Look, I know you guys are trying hard, that's not it, and I also know that chasing SQL Server is a priority, and that is fine. But for that to work, the MySQL MSI Installer has to get better! It just has to. Like some basic issues like these:

• You can not use the MSI installer to install two MySQL servers on the same box. If the installer seems an old installation, it insists on upgrading it if you are installing a newer version, and if you are installing an older version, well, that will be refused.
• You cannot, using the MSI installer, install both 32 and 64-bit versions on the same box. If you try that, even if the versions are the same, the second install insists that what you have already installed is newer than the one you are installing, although the have the same version number, but one is 32 bit and one is 64 bit.
• In the …

One useful feature of the Percona mysql builds are the User Statistics.  They let you track detailed information about clients, individual user accounts, threads indexes and tables.

In particular I find the TABLE_STATISTICS worth graphing. It can answer a lot of questions

• Which tables are used (and not used!)
• What's the rate of rows updated and read
• Which tables are read or written the most

When you graph these values over time, you can even see changes in behavior.  For instance, you may be looking at a view of innodb_rows_read that looks like this:
…

The second edition of High Performance MySQL has 27 reviews on Amazon, but the third edition only has 5 so far. By this point I assume many of you have a copy and have read it cover to cover. I’d really appreciate your reviews — when purchasing, people look not only at the star rating but at the number of reviews. You can create a review here. And thanks!

Further Reading:

• Are you sure you’re reading the second edition of High Performance MySQL?
• Update on High Performance MySQL, 2nd Edition …

I previously blogged about work I was doing on automatically finding problems in a MySQL server, with no hardcoded thresholds or predetermined indicators of what is “bad behavior.” I had to pause my studies on that for a while, due to time constraints. I’ve recently been able to resume and I’m happy to report that I’m making good progress. One of the things I’ve done is a survey of existing literature on this subject.

Oracle is the most powerful database system in the world. However, Oracle's expensive and complex replication makes it difficult to build highly available applications or move data in real-time to data warehouses and popular databases like MySQL.

In this webinar you will learn how Continuent Tungsten solves problems with Oracle replication at a fraction of the cost of other solutions and

The MySQL Tech tours are back! The postponed Denver Tech Tour has been rescheduled and we have added another in Austin. See the links before for more information. 
MySQL Tech Tours Improving Your Products with New MySQL Features and Faster Performance.  September 20, 2012 - Denver Area
Learn more and register for the event »

September 25, 2012 - Austin
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Keep Austin Weird —

Keep Austin Weird is a popular saying in the capital of the State of Texas. The coming October those wishing to to help in these efforts can come hear me talk at Kuali Days 2012 about MySQL Database Administration or join the Austin MySQL Users Group to hear about MySQL 5.6 on October 15th! We’ll get some sort of RSVP for 15th set up so we can have enough pizza for all those on hand. Until then, fellow Texas, do not squat with your spurs on.