Usually I try to avoid the cookbook type of computer books
because usually the 'recipies', often messy scripts or pages of
obfuscated code, seem only to work for the authors and not for
me. So I had a little trepidation when I was asked to review the
MySQL Admin Cookbook. Daniel Schneller and Udo
Schwedt manage to pack a lot of very solid information into 360
pages of text that would work for novice to intermediate MySQL
DBAs and provide some food for thought for seasoned DBAs.
What I liked: The material was presented with the reasons behind
the recipe and pointers to useful tools. Yes, all the material is
in the manuals but sometimes there are too many trees in the way
for a novice so see the trees. In very calm ,concise language,
the authors tackle successfully a wide range of DBA chores in a
way that is easy to follow.
I would not …
I’ve recently been migrating my wiki/documentation for Kontrollbase to Trac. For those that are not aware, Trac is a web-based documentation/wiki/Subversion tool that is used by countless number of software projects. Subversion, of course, is a software collaboration and code management repository that manages branches/tags/trunk files with revision control. It’s one of the most heavily used open-source code repositories available. Given that I use SVN (subversion) for all of my software applications and am now using Trac, the book “Managing Software Development with Trac and Subversion” by David J Murphy comes as a useful and great resource for integrating these two useful tools. …
[Read more]On the front cover of MySQL Administrator’s Bible is a sentence that reads:
“The book you need to succeed!”
I must say, I do agree. Authored by two very experienced DBAs,
Sheeri Cabral and
Keith Murphy,
they’ve combined their talents to cover what you really need to
know to
succeed. This book is very versatile. If you’re new to MySQL,
or
experienced in another database and have to start administrating
MySQL,
you need this book. I can honestly say, even if you have years of
MySQL
experience, you will learn something new. I did. Divided into
four
parts, …
On the front cover of MySQL Administrator’s Bible is a sentence that reads:
“The book you need to succeed!”
I must say, I do agree. Authored by two very experienced DBAs,
Sheeri Cabral and
Keith Murphy,
they’ve combined their talents to cover what you really need to
know to
succeed. This book is very versatile. If you’re new to MySQL,
or
experienced in another database and have to start administrating
MySQL,
you need this book. I can honestly say, even if you have years of
MySQL
experience, you will learn something new. I did. Divided into
four
parts, …
Optimizing Oracle Performance by Cary Millsap and Jeff Holt uses Oracle to make its points, but these points apply also to MySQL. The primary lesson I took away from this book is: all else aside, optimize/fix the user-action that provides the most economic benefit to the company; do this by profiling just that action and optimizing/fixing the most time-consuming events even if they are “idle” or “wait” events.
The authors call the aforementioned approach to performance optimization “Method R”. It’s meant to be deterministic and teachable unlike “Method C”–the conventional method–whereby one uses their best judgment and experience to find the cause(s) of problems and fix them. I agree, and Method R is fundamentally, imho, just the scientific method in practice. Therefore, I like Method R because it puts “science” back into “computer science.” …
[Read more]I haven't received my copy of the book yet, but being unable to control my temptation I have started reading it over Safari while waiting for my own very personal copy. :)
Already a fan of the first edition, you can feel the same charisma being carried over in this book also. The best part of the book is the simplicity by which you are set sailing over MySQL.
Without doubt, it is one of the best books MySQL can ask for. Certainly, I would recommend this book to anyone who is associated with the word MySQL. Or otherwise if you answer yes to any of these questions below, then go and grab a copy.
- Are you a developer working/struggling with MySQL?
- Are you a DBA working/struggling with MySQL?
- Do you intend to learn MySQL?
- Are you fascinated by databases and open-source?
- Do you work with some …