Momentum for MySQL Utilities continues to build.  I hosted a webinar recently about MySQL Utilities (available on-demand from the link below), which generated a lot of interest and some good questions.

http://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=lobby.jsp&eventid=448952&sessionid=1&key=7E741ED049DFBF49D10C90A2B62E410F&eventuserid=63530507

With so many questions and ideas coming in I decided to create a blog of FAQs. I plan to add these to the MySQL documentation as well.  Keep your ideas and questions coming!

I hope you find these questions enlightening. I have grouped them for easier reading. You can find the MySQL Utilities documentation using the link below. 

…

The mysqldiff and mysqldbcompare utilities were designed to produce a difference report for objects and in the case of mysqldbcompare the data. Thus, you can compare two databases and produce a report of the differences in both object definitions and data rows. 

While that may be very useful, would it not be much more useful to have the ability to produce SQL commands to transform databases? Wait no longer! The latest release of MySQL Utilities has added the ability to generate SQL transformation statements by both the mysqldiff and mysqldbcompare utilities. 

To generate SQL transformations in either utility, simply use the --sql option to tell the utility to produce the statements.

Object Transformations with mysqldiff

If you would like to compare the schema of two databases (the objects and their definitions), mysqldiff can do that for you and produce a difference report …

MySQL Workbench 5.2.36 is now out and brings a lot of improvements across the board, with special focus on the Query Editor. We’ll cover some of that here:

Redesigned Query Editor

• • The log of executed commands and server responses is now always visible while resultset grids and the query editor can be resized according to your needs. Resultsets are also grouped in the same tab as the query editor that generated them.
  • SELECT queries are now analyzed as in the old MySQL Query Browser tool and, if possible, its resultset can be edited in the grid. If the resultset cannot be edited, you can place the mouse over the ReadOnly label and view the reason.

• Improved snippets manager and editor, allows having snippets list always at hand, while editing can be done without disrupting work on the main query area.

Download PDF Presentation

With the recent cyber attacks and breaches with data from large organizations including Sony, is your MySQL data safe? What are the best practices for securing and administering your MySQL environment? In this presentation we will cover the essential steps for better MySQL security. We will also cover the different installation and administration tasks necessary to ensure your data is managed.

Presenter: Ronald Bradford
Schedule: Insight Out DB Showcase. October 2011 …

Last week we concluded our first Oracle Technology Network Sys Admin Day in Sacramento (CA). Well, it was actually the second Sys Admin Day, but the first one that had two parallel tracks of sessions about both Oracle Linux and Oracle Solaris.

I helped preparing for the event by creating the Linux lab handbook as well as the VirtualBox appliance of Oracle Linux 6.1 that was used for the exercises. Unfortunately I could not be there in person, but it would have been pointless for me to go on an intercontinental flight just for one day.

From the feedback we've received so far, the attendees really enjoyed the event and were positively surprised about the depth and quality of the practical hands-on lab sessions.

If you've missed the first one and happen to live …

It happens that sometimes you need to access a remote box which supports ssh key authentication. Recently I was trying to reproduce a bug related to SSH public key authentication, so here I would like to share some of my experience.

There will be no explanation of the public key authentication itself here, rather the actual setup and steps to have a public key auth for Windows(client) -> Linux(server) working. Why Windows you would ask? Because interactions for Linux->Linux and for Mac OS X -> Linux simply work using the Unix way, while for Windows you may need some extra actions to do.

Setup

What I had at endpoints:

• Linux –

Ubuntu 11.04, sshd is set up to deny password auth.
Windows – well, it is an XP SP3 i386 box. MySQL Workbench 5.2.34+ is installed

First of all I created an encrypted pair of RSA keys, …

The folks at OTN have been very busy — among many others (both virtual and in RL), there are two upcoming developer/sysadmin days about MySQL and Solaris. Both will take place in California next month:

• On Tuesday, May 03, 2011, 8:00am to 4:00 pm, there will be the OTN Developer Day for MySQL in the Oracle Santa Clara Agnews Campus Auditorium. It will cover application development with MySQL, performance tuning tips and managing MySQL environments.
• On Tuesday, May 17, 2011, 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, the OTN's first …

One of the many new things that is being introduced this week are some great new external tools for managing MySQL servers. These are available in MySQL Workbench under the name MySQL Workbench Utilities.

It is a package of easy-to-use utilities for maintenance and administration of MySQL servers. These utilities encapsulate a set of primitive commands bundling them so that you can perform macro operations with a single command.

Some of the key features of MySQL Workbench Utilities are:

• Plugin for MySQL Workbench 5.2.31
• Available under the GPLv2 license
• Written in Python
• Easily to extend using the supplied library

How Does It Work?
There are two ways to access the utilities from within the MySQL Workbench.

You can click on the drop down arrow icon to the right of the …

Introducing MySQL Workbench Utilities
One of the many new things that is being introduced during the Collaborate 2011 and 2011 MySQL Users’ Conference are some great new additions to some of the external tools for managing MySQL servers. One of those tools receiving updates is the MySQL Workbench.

One of the jewels in a long list of new features is the addition of new command-line utilities to help you administer your servers. The new feature is called MySQL Workbench Utilities. It is a package of easy-to-use utilities for maintenance and administration of MySQL servers. These utilities incapsulate a set of primitive commands bundling them so that you can perform macro operations with a single command. Some of the key features in MySQL Workbench Utilities include:

• Plugin for MySQL Workbench 5.2.31
• Available under the GPLv2 license
• Written in Python
…

Recently I had to test MySQL Workbench against fresh version of the server. Naturally, the default mysql-server was already installed from repository of my Linux distro. So I installed the latest server version into my /opt/server directory. And then I had several points to resolve, for example, how to start detached server process from Workbench Adminstrator; how to detect if the server is running or not, given that there are many of them running; how to stop the server.

Now I will show several workarounds to perform tasks listed in the previous paragraph. Below are the commands I put into Server Instance Editor, there are corresponding text entries labeled: ‘Start MySQL’, ‘Stop MySQL’, ‘Check MySQL Status’:

- Staring server – (nohup /opt/server/5.5.9/bin/mysql_safe –defaults-file=/opt/server/5.5.9/my.cnf & disown %1)
Note! the command above must be used including parentheses
- …