When I first got into woodworking, my mentor shared a piece of advice that has stuck with me ever since: “Use the right tool for the job.” You wouldn’t reach for a belt sander to flatten a board when a planer can accomplish the task faster, cleaner, and with far better results.

The same principle applies in the world of database engineering. When working with MySQL or Percona Server, choosing the correct tool can be the difference between efficient diagnostics and unnecessary downtime.

In this post, I’ll highlight several of the most practical and commonly used utilities from the Percona Toolkit. While the toolkit includes many powerful commands, I’ll focus on the ones that provide the most value in day-to-day operations, troubleshooting, and gathering actionable details for support cases.

PT Summary

A Percona Toolkit utility that provides a concise, high-level overview of a system’s hardware, OS …

I recently got into a bit of a debate about standardizing MySQL 8.4’s internal temporary table configuration. We wanted to cap memory usage efficiently, but relying on “rules of thumb” isn’t enough when production stability is at stake.

The main confusion was about how per-query limits fight with global limits. So, rather than guessing, I decided to break a sandbox environment to see exactly where the bytes go—and confirm the findings against the official documentation.

The Theory: Individual vs. Collective

Before I run the scripts, let’s establish the rules based on the MySQL 8.4 Reference Manual. There is a critical distinction between “individual” and “collective” limits.

1. tmp_table_size (The Cup)

This is the limit for a single table. According to the …

We’re excited to share that the new Percona Operator for MySQL (based on Percona Server for MySQL) is officially in General Availability (GA)!

This release introduces native MySQL Group Replication support for Kubernetes, providing our community with another open-source option for running reliable, consistent MySQL clusters at scale.

This is about more choices for the community. Each MySQL replication technology addresses different real-world needs, and now you can choose the one that best fits your workloads.

What This Means for the Community

With this release, Percona now supports two fully open-source MySQL Operators:

1. Percona Operator for …

The Percona Cloud Native team is happy to announce the general availability of the Percona Operator for MySQL, based on Percona Server for MySQL. This release introduces an additional Kubernetes-native approach to deploying and managing MySQL clusters with synchronous Group Replication, delivering the consistency required for organizations with business continuity needs. With this release, Percona […]

In our earlier post, we unpacked the mechanics of MySQL HeatWave maintenance, the behind-the-scenes process that keeps your MySQL environments secure, stable, and optimized without changing your database version. We also touched on how Auto Minor Version Upgrades occur when a version reaches the end of its lifecycle. With this update, MySQL HeatWave introduces Configurable Maintenance Windows and Auto-Upgrade Controls, giving you […]

If you want to create a new application, test it, and deploy it on the cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure provides an always-free tier for compute instances and MySQL HeatWave instances (and more). If you are a developer, it can also be complicated to start deploying to the cloud, as you need to figure out the […]

Align upgrades with your business schedules, minimize disruption, and plan version transitions with confidence, all while maintaining the reliability and compliance you expect from MySQL HeatWave. We are also extending Innovation release available cycle from 3 months to 5 months, this enables customers to stay on the same innovation release version for longer period of time.

Learn how to safeguard your MySQL database with simple, reliable backup and restore techniques! This final post in the beginner series uses fun library analogies and clear MySQL Shell examples to ensure your data stays safe—no matter what surprises come your way.

In a recent post, The Quirks of Index Maintenance in Open Source Databases, I compared the IO load generated by open source databases while inserting rows in a table with many secondary indexes. Because of its change buffer, InnoDB was the most efficient solution. However, that’s not the end of the story. Evolution of the […]

“ Of course, in practice, no query optimizer is perfect and there will be edge cases where the way a query is written will impact its performance.”

Q1. What are your current responsibilities as Principal Member of Technical staff?

Kaan Kara : I am contributing as the tech lead for query execution in HeatWave. My main responsibility is implementing new features in HeatWave, maintaining its stability, and supporting our customers with their HeatWave-related use cases.

Q2. Let´s talk about improving database query execution time. The way a query is written has a massive impact on its performance, and developers often face hurdles in structuring them optimally. What is your take on this?

Kaan Kara : SQL is a declarative language. That means, in ideal terms, the database optimizer should produce the best …