Keeping a MySQL installation up and running can be quite tricky at times, especially when having many servers to manage and monitor. In the replication tutorials at the annual MySQL Users' Conference, we demonstrate how to set up replication appropriately and also how to handle various issues that can arise.

Many of these procedures are routine: bring down the server, edit the configuration file, bring the server up again, start a mysql client and add a user, etc.

It has always annoyed me that these procedures are perfect candidates for automation, but that we do not have the necessary interfaces to manipulate an entire installation of MySQL servers.

If there were an interface with a relatively small set of primitives—re-directing servers, bringing servers down, add a line to the configuration file, etc.—it would be possible to create pre-canned procedures that can just be executed.

To that end, …

Today we're releasing MySQL Connector/Python 0.1.0-devel. This is the first in a serie of development snapshots aimed to get more people trying it out and reporting problems. This is not a production-ready release, but it should work on all Unices and Windows which has Python 2.4 or later installed. (No, no Py3K, yet!)

You can download it from Launchpad: there is a .tar.gz and .zip

There will be documentation and tutorial, but installation is as easy as pie (pun intended):

 shell> tar xzf mysql-connector-python-0.1.0-devel.tar.gz
 shell> cd mysql-connector-python-0.1.0-devel
 shell> python ./setup.py install

If you …

Hi all!

I’ve been reading through the requested features for the new client on the wiki here:

• Proposed Client Features
• BOOTS Console API Design

I think all the stuff on that link is excellent so far. I’d also like to request a feature that I think will be a really cool timesaver for DBAs and developers using Drizzle.

Macro Support

Remember, “way back when” you used Microsoft Excel and were able to start recording your actions, then when you stopped recording, Excel would store a “macro” of your actions that you could subsequently replay?

I think this would be incredibly useful for folks who do repetitive work in the console.

Sure, I know, I …

I'm currently planning a first 'alpha' release of MySQL Connector/Python, but I'm now doubting whether the naming and installation of the module is actually good.

Currently, the module lives, in site-packages/mysql/connector/, or import mysql.connector. Since this is an official MySQL, sorry, Sun Microsystems, project, I thought that the 'parent' module mysql would be good enough.

But is it? Would it break your modules with the same name?

The idea was to make more tools for Python and have them all under the mysql module, but maybe we need a smarter name for this? Maybe sunmysql/connector?

Comments are welcome! You can also email me directly (if you can figure out the cryptic anti-spam): geert_dot_vanderkelen_APETAIL_sun_dot_com.

With IntelliJ now being available under an Open Source license, developers have another option to choose from when it comes to Java-based IDEs/Frameworks (Eclipse and NetBeans being the other two prominent ones). Choice is always good, and being an Open Source enthusiast, I of course welcome JetBrain's move!

However, as I'm not really a heavy GUI-based IDE user myself, I can't really comment on which one is the best. These kind of discussions tend to turn into a Holy War anyway... In the end it's likely that each of them gets the job done and you have to come to your own conclusions, based on your personal preference and requirements.

I personally would be interested in …

1. Brown Cloud Marketing -- advertorial "interviewing" GM of a company offering "DNS in the cloud". This might be a worthwhile service, but the way he markets it (by saying open source is "freeware" and the market leader is "legacy") reveals a rich vein of bozo. Freeware legacy DNS is the internet's dirty little secret (actually, it's the reason we have a functioning DNS), Nominum software was written 100 percent from the ground up, and by having software with source code that is not open for everybody to look at, it is inherently more secure. (security through obscurity is equating clothing with being naked yet blind). The Internet kindly did the poor man's homework: screenshot of a cross-site scripting …

In the age of jetsetting and space travel and ORMs and such, MySQL DBAs are the least sophisticated ones nowadays, usually fighting terabytes or petabytes of data with army of shell scripts – as there’re no nice frameworks to explain what you want to do in MySQL administration. The nice thing about proper object frameworks is that they allow to concentrate on the work and logic done, allowing to think on the process done, rather on languages/APIs/etc.

For example, moving a slave to another master down a replication topology could be expressed this way (this is a working code, actually):

slave = mysql(options.slave)
oldmaster = mysql(slave.get_master())
newmaster = mysql(options.newmaster)

oldmaster.lock()
oldpos = oldmaster.pos()
newmaster.wait(oldpos)
newmaster.lock()
oldmaster.unlock()
slave.wait(oldpos)
slave.change_master(newmaster)
newmaster.unlock()

I’m sure transaction group/global IDs would simplify the process …

Sun's LAMP support is assembled from two pieces: the L is from our Linux/GNU Support (see SunSolve entry), while the AMP comes from the GlassFish WebStack, which, in its latest incarnation includes Apache HTTP Server, lighttpd, memcached, MySQL, PHP, Python, Ruby, Squid, Tomcat, GlassFish (v2.1) and Hudson (features).

The inclusion of Hudson is a bit of an opportunistic move (more on that in a bit), the rest comprises a well tested, integrated, …

I started my company about a year ago, but I’ve been doing consulting for a long time. In fact, my first job in the IT industry was working for a consulting firm. Before that, starting as far back as grade school, I was involved in a lot of volunteer civic and community service activities. I admire companies who get involved in their communities, or even outside of their communities, wherever help is needed.

As part of my business plan, I’ve put in place a policy of accepting one pro-bono consulting project per year. So far, I haven’t gotten any requests for free consulting work, so here’s my public shout out to let you know what types of services are available:

1. Speaking or Training. My specialties are things like advanced Linux administration and SQL, but I’m perfectly capable of delivering content for people who just need to know how the internet works, or want to …

I started my company about a year ago, but I’ve been doing consulting for a long time. In fact, my first job in the IT industry was working for a consulting firm. Before that, starting as far back as grade school, I was involved in a lot of volunteer civic and community service activities. I admire companies who get involved in their communities, or even outside of their communities, wherever help is needed.

As part of my business plan, I’ve put in place a policy of accepting one pro-bono consulting project per year. So far, I haven’t gotten any requests for free consulting work, so here’s my public shout out to let you know what types of services are available:

1. Speaking or Training. My specialties are things like advanced Linux administration and SQL, but I’m perfectly capable of delivering content for people who just need to know how the internet works, or want to …