In the 5.6.4 release it is now possible to create an InnoDB database with 4k or 8k page sizes in addition to the original 16k page size. Previously, it could be done by recompiling the engine with a different value for UNIV_PAGE_SIZE_SHIFT and UNIV_PAGE_SIZE. With this release, you can set –innodb-page-size=n when starting mysqld, or put innodb_page_size=n in the configuration file in the [mysqld] section where n can be 4k, 8k, 16k, or 4096, 8192, 16384.

The support of smaller page sizes may be useful for certain storage media such as SSDs. Performance results can vary depending on your data schema, record size, and read/write ratio. But this provides you more options to optimize your performance.

When this new setting is used, the page size is set for all tablespaces used by that InnoDB instance. You can query the current value with;

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE ‘innodb_page_size’;
or
SELECT variable_value …

It’s almost the end of the year – that means holiday cards, shopping, cooking, parties, and the inevitable year-end top lists (including gems like this one).

In the spirit of end of year list making, we fed our 60+ blogs this year through Google Analytics to find out what our own top ten blogs were (outside of product announcements). So if you missed an episode of the View (TokuView that is) we’ve got a Tokutek Top Ten for you (spoiler alert – they are mostly technical):

10. Cage Match: OldSQL, NoSQL and NewSQL – References to mud …

Ideal MySQL Database Machine.
I was asked recently to envision an ideal database box - in terms of configuration. Of course the more CPU and memory is better and SSD (Solid State Drives) would not hurt either. But lets focus on the basics of the configuration - OS, raid, CPU type File systems etc...

CPU. Intel hands down, having used nearly every processor out there (Sparc, Power, Alpha ...) I have settled on Intel. Despite all the advanced in the AMD research Intel still rains supreme in the databases. Now to the number of cores - as many as possible.

Raid. Of course hardware raid. I would strongly vote for Raid 10 (mirror with striping) and most importantly have two controllers - one for the database data files one for the database log files. Be sure to configure LVM (Logical Volume Manager) to enjoy LVM snapshot capability.

Network. Minimum two network cards bonded into a …

I am pleased to announce that the MySQL Database 5.6.4 development milestone release ("DMR") is now available for download (select the Development Release tab). MySQL 5.6.4 includes all 5.5 production-ready features and provides an aggreation of all of the new features that have been released in earlier 5.6 DMRs.  5.6.4 adds many bug fixes and more new "early and often" enhancements that are development and system QA complete and ready for Community evaluation and feedback.  You can get the complete rundown of all the new 5.6.4 specific features here.

For those following the progression of the 5.6 DMRs as the trains leave the station, you should bookmark these MySQL …

I am pleased to announce that the MySQL Database 5.6.4 development milestone release ("DMR") is now available for download (select the Development Release tab). MySQL 5.6.4 includes all 5.5 production-ready features and provides an aggreation of all of the new features that have been released in earlier 5.6 DMRs.  5.6.4 adds many bug fixes and more new "early and often" enhancements that are development and system QA complete and ready for Community evaluation and feedback.  You can get the complete rundown of all the new 5.6.4 specific features here.

For those following the progression of the 5.6 DMRs as the trains leave the station, you should bookmark these MySQL …

Someone will probably tell me that this is an elementary-level topic, but I got some good questions regarding joins from my most recent ZCE class students, so I thought I'd put down the examples that I used to explain this to them. Being able to join with confidence is a key skill, because it means that you can refactor and normalise your data, without worrying about how hard something will be to retrieve.

The database structure I'm using here looks like this (the same example that I used when I wrote the Databases chapter for PHP Master):

If you want to grab the actual data I'm using for my examples, then here's the zipped mysqldump file: …

Someone will probably tell me that this is an elementary-level topic, but I got some good questions regarding joins from my most recent ZCE class students, so I thought I’d put down the examples that I used to explain this to them. Being able to join with confidence is a key skill, because it means that you can refactor and normalise your data, without worrying about how hard something will be to retrieve.

The database structure I’m using here looks like this (the same example that I used when I wrote the Databases chapter for PHP Master):

If you want to grab the actual data I’m using for my examples, then here’s the zipped mysqldump file: …

Percona is glad to announce the release of Percona XtraBackup 1.6.4 on 19 December, 2011 (Downloads are available here and from the Percona Software Repositories). These release notes are (as always) available from the online Percona XtraBackup documentation.

This release is purely composed of bug fixes and is the current stable release of Percona XtraBackup.

In this release we now compile the xtrabackup binary against more recent MySQL and Percona Server versions. We now build against: MySQL 5.1.59, MySQL 5.5.17, Percona Server 5.1.59-13.0 and Percona Server 5.5.16-22.0 and get …

Percona is glad to announce the release of Percona Server 5.5.18-23.0 on December 19th, 2011 (Downloads are available here and from the Percona Software Repositories).

Based on MySQL 5.5.18, including all the bug fixes in it, Percona Server 5.5.18-23.0 is now the current stable release in the 5.5 series. All of Percona ‘s software is open-source and free, all the details of the release can be found in the 5.5.18-23.0 milestone at Launchpad.

New Features

Percona …

If you are using or considering MySQL, and you’re in the Washington DC area, there’s an excellent MySQL conference coming up on January 11th. I know because I am helping organize it. The event is Percona Live. It’s the latest installment in our series of regional events, which have been very well received in New York, London, and San Francisco. Take a look at the schedule of talks – this will be a very solid day of learning and networking.