In preparation for the MySQL UC and my session about binlogs I started to implement a first few ideas. In a short coding rush I moved some of the C-code from mysql-binlog-dump.c to the right places in the libraries and wrapped it nicely for Lua.

My overall goal is to make a clean cut between

• a library to work with binlogs
• wrapping with for Lua's use
• a front-end that's making use of all of it

With code in hands I can now toss in a liitle lua script to dump a simple statement-based binlog:

local binlog = assert(require("mysql.binlog"))
local basedir = "/usr/local/mysql/data/"
local file    = "jan-kneschkes-macbook-pro-bin.001005"

while file do
    local f = assert(binlog.open(basedir .. file))

    file = nil

    for event in f:next() do
            if event.type == "QUERY_EVENT" then
                    print(("/* threadid: %d */ %s"):format( …

Good news, mysql-server package doesn’t suck miserably on Debian 5.0 or Ubuntu 8.10, unlike previous versions did (there were quite a few rants about CHECK TABLES being ran on huge healthy InnoDB tables, mysqld_safe would suddenly use 100% CPU, binlogs would be placed on /var/run/ and cleaned up on restart, etc).

Now, Ubuntu provides you with AppArmor (my new favorite security thing :) profile that doesn’t suck either, and Debian is a bit rude:
There is ‘tasksel’ tool, which allows you to install groups of packages. Debian has a task ‘Database server’ which will install PostgreSQL. Ubuntu is more politically correct and has renamed that task to “PostgreSQL server”.

MySQL has to do quite some work to repair its image in OS-engineer-geek mindsets, these people tend to love PG more, and once project is community-led, most active participants win the decisive power.

Quite important to look at versions …

I was asked today about what is the cost of adding an index on a frequently updated column ( like a timestamp, count, or weight )… typically my answer is it depends. But for this question it was narrowed down to a specific case. An update on a secondary index based on a PK lookup. I decided to try and give an exact answer. I hacked the Juice DB Benchmark to attack my medium sized table ( which magically already had a count column in it ). I then cranked up the test. A few more details Query 23 updated a column without an index, queries 21,23,24 updated the d_count column. query 21 adds 5 to the count, query 22 adds 150, query 24 subtracts 1…. here are the results:

With a solo index on d_count:

Run Number:  86  threads:  8 Length :  340 LoadType: upd
Total Test Runtime = 375.245010137558 seconds, limiting results to 300 seconds however
QNum:     21 ... QCount:  78448 ... QTime:   0.003985 ... Max:   0.095937 ... FlatTime:   0.003673 …

We are in the last stages of preparing the next release, which will be the first beta. I expect that Ulf will blog thoroughly on it.

The MySQL DBA 5.1 Certification Exam is a big change from previous exams.

1. 
   
2. No multiple choice, true/false questions
   
3. Must be able to use MySQL
   
4. You are given the answers (in most cases) and must change the database to meet expectations
   
5. No study guide
   

The exam is divided into two sections -- mandatory and optional tasks. The mandatory tasks are core knowledge that every DBA should be able to perform even under heavy pressure, early in the morning, while suffering from sleep deprivation, or with a Dilbert style PHB looking over your shoulder. The optional tasks cover many different facets of MySQL.

Exam candidates will get their own MySQL instance with which to do their assignments. When they have completed all they can or time runs out, the instance is checked to see how well the DBA certification …

We had this plan.

We were going to show off the latest Innodb plugin.

We imported into the tree... got a benchmark and then...

We found a race condition in our code that showed up once we added the new plugin to our code.

Is the plugin faster?

Sure seems to be... but make up your own mind.

You can play with it here: https://edge.launchpad.net/drizzle/trunk/2009.03.962 (which includes Solaris/Sparc support now)

Curious about the numbers? Below is a current run of sysbench from one of our 16core systems. Very soon now Jay will have the public regression system available.

What will it do? Anyone who wants to follow our efforts on performance will be able too.

Want to …

How do you get better with MySQL if you are in a small shop (or you are the shop)? Reading the code of other folks only goes so far if you can not ask them about the details. The more advanced books on MySQL are great but sometimes your environment does not allow you to follow their examples. Time and experience will help eventually but what if you need or want to get better in a hurry?

The MySQL Developer Techniques class is a new offering from MySQL Training is designed to 'want to utilize advanced SQL features to create queries that will result in better results and improved performance of their database queries'. I can guarantee that the curriculum crew have put a lot of effort into developing this class to make sure you really get the best value for your money.

This is a three day class lead by an instructor and …

Cloud computing is the big thing now days, weather you are an app developer using EC2 or the Google APP engine, or a new company trying to build your own cloud product. If you are hosting, or using a platform it costs money. I hate to spend money, especially money that is for my company. If I find an idle server, I use it to 100% utilization (prior to the saturation point).

I needed to build a new application that periodically crawls a website to update various lists. Building a crawler is expensive, especially from scratch. First, you have to define the amount of lag that is allowed from the crawl copy and the real copy. Of course the Project Manager does not want any lag, all events must be caught and near real-time without overloading the source of the data-but I am not hating, it is a challenge. Next, what technology to use, what language to write the app in-what considerations are left to be defined? How does one crawl Gigs, …

MySQL is participating in Google Summer of Code 2009 (GSoC for short), and so is the MySQL documentation team. We've just put our ideas on this page; you might want to have a look if you're interested in applying for a GSoc project.

One of the projects is purely technical and doesn't involve writing any documentation, but rather improving the technique that goes on behind the scenery.

The other project does involve writing documentation, but it's mostly (if not exclusively) about creating examples for the Connectors & APIs chapter of the MySQL Reference Manual, so you don't have to be a Pulitzer award winner to contribute, but you should rather …