We’re happy to announce the availability of the next Alpha release of MySQL Workbench 5.2. There have been further improvements to the querying part and we added the foundations for the administration part (which will be onboard in the next alpha).
On startup, MySQL Workbench 5.2 now doesn’t automatically create a new design-document anymore – thats for decreasing resource-usage when you only launch Workbench for running a few queries against your database. Also the fix to make Workbench work on Snow Leopard has been included in 5.2 now as well.

Please download the program, take it for a test-drive and tell us what you think. But keep in mind, that this is still an alpha version – so be advised to not use it for production data! Also please note, MySQL Workbench files saved with version 5.2 cannot be opened with previous versions of our
program.

For Linux we now …

I spent today preparing an RPM for MySQL 5.1 with the InnoDB plugin. There are a lot of great things in MySQL 5.1 including the plugin. However, I must get the RPM done before trying it. There are too many steps that must be done before the plugin can be used. Hopefully the changes described here make it into official MySQL to remove these steps.

Use a command line like configure --with-plugin-innodb_plugin --without-plugin-innobase when building MySQL. This will build the InnoDB plugin and not build the built in version of InnoDB.

Consider making the change in bug 47337 so that innochecksum is built and the InnoDB man pages are installed.

I do not like extra dependencies. When the first step is done, the code for InnoDB is in a shared object and is not linked with mysqld. You can avoid that by making the changes in …

I spent today preparing an RPM for MySQL 5.1 with the InnoDB plugin. There are a lot of great things in MySQL 5.1 including the plugin. However, I must get the RPM done before trying it. There are too many steps that must be done before the plugin can be used. Hopefully the changes described here make it into official MySQL to remove these steps.

Use a command line like configure --with-plugin-innodb_plugin --without-plugin-innobase when building MySQL. This will build the InnoDB plugin and not build the built in version of InnoDB.

Consider making the change in bug 47337 so that innochecksum is built and the InnoDB man pages are installed.

I do not like extra dependencies. When the first step is done, the code for InnoDB is in a shared object and is not linked with mysqld. You can avoid that by making the changes in …

As you may know, InnoDB has 2 limits for unflushed modified blocks in the buffer pool. The one is from physical size of the buffer pool. And the another one is oldness of the block which is from the capacity of transaction log files.

In the case of heavy updating workload, the modified ages of the many blocks are clustered. And to reduce the maximum of the modified ages InnoDB needs to flush many of the blocks in a short time, if these are not flushed at all. Then the flushing storm affect the performance seriously.

We suggested the "adaptive_checkpoint" option of constant flushing to avoid such a flushing storm. And finally, the newest InnoDB Plugin 1.0.4 has the new similar option "adaptive_flushing" as native.

Let's check the adaptive flushing options at this post.

HOW THEY WORK

< adaptive_checkpoint=reflex (older method)>

gromit is my Solaris 10 server, chorlton is my OSX desktop. Explain this:

root@gromit# zfs set sharenfs='anon=shared,sec=none' gromit/store

root@gromit# zfs get sharenfs gromit/store
NAME          PROPERTY  VALUE                 SOURCE
gromit/store  sharenfs  anon=shared,sec=none  local

user@chorlton$ ls /net/gromit/store
ls: cannot open directory /net/gromit/store/: Operation not permitted

root@gromit# zfs set sharenfs='anon=shared' gromit/store

user@chorlton$ ls /net/gromit/store
file1  file2

user@chorlton$ touch /net/gromit/store/file3
touch: /net/gromit/store/file3: Permission denied

root@gromit# zfs set sharenfs='anon=shared,sec=none' gromit/store

user@chorlton$ touch /net/gromit/store/file3
user@chorlton$ echo $?
0

Image via Wikipedia

There will be plenty of detailed coverage on Exadata V2 so I won’t attempt to replicate that.  However I do have a couple of initial thoughts which I would like to share.  For those who missed it, Oracle has just announced Exadata V2 (which is their pre-built “machine”).  Exadata V1 was built using HP equipment, Exadata V2 is using Sun.  The main addition to Exadata V2 seems to be an extra tier in the memory hierarchy, a flash cache.  Oracle is very quick to point out this is not flash disk, but it is flash memory, Sun’s FlashFire technology (flash disk or SSD’s was always going to be a transition technology, flash memory doesn’t have the …

So it turns out that a VPS server, while inexpensive, is a poor choice for a demo server of a product. So the Kontrollbase demo is now hosted on a Sun X4100 quad-opteron with 8G ram and some nice SAS disks. The new demo site is http://demo02.kontrollbase.com , the old one is located here if [...]

I have added a new Launchpad tree for an improved
partitioning feature.

This new tree is based off mysql-trunk which is the base for
the next generation MySQL Server. The tree is now entering QA
and have been extensively tested by development and thus it is
very interesting to get feedback on usability of feature and
feedback on quality issues. This will speed up the delivery of
this new feature.

You can find more description of the feature in a previous blog:
Description of feature

You are an Independent Software Vendor, and you want to develop, port, or test your application on Solaris or OpenSolaris? Sun's online Virtual Lab environment - EZQual - makes it easy for you, and it's free!

The Lab features pre-installed SPARC or x86 processor-based Sun servers with development tools (SunStudio and Netbeans), Java, AMP, memcached, Squid, Httplight, PostgreSQL, Solaris or OpenSolaris, and more.

In addition, thanks to the Sun's Secure Global Desktop, accessing this secure development environment over the Internet is just like running Solaris on your own laptop:

Want to know more? Check out the EZQual web page.

We often need many tabs open in a browser, and horizontal tabs become unmanageable. Tab Kit allows you to have them vertically on the left, with various additional configuration choices.

I opted for the tree structure, so when I open a tab from another one it’ll show up as a child to the original. I can “lock” tabs so they cannot be closed by an accidental click or keypress. They get a “read” marker so if you open a few tabs and leave them till later you can still tell which ones you’ve actually already looked at. And there’s colour coding also.

In short, a great help. Just click the Tools/Add-Ons menu in Firefox and find Tab Kit in the extensions. Install, configure, and enjoy!