Hello and welcome to my Log Buffer, the weekly review of database blogs. My name is Keith Murphy and I am the editor of MySQL Magazine, a free digital magazine with information for MySQL administrators and developers, released quarterly.  I am also a MySQL database administrator at Pythian.

I am losing count of how many of these Log Buffers I have done. If I recall correctly, this is number three. But then again, it could be number four. You know what they say though—the more the merrier!

This week’s Buffer features a great allegory about a database, some tips, feature requests, and breaking news. It seems that this week, people shared information that was relevant across database servers, so I recommend that no …

The 132nd edition of Log Buffer, the weekly review of database blogs, has been published by Lisa Dobson on the Oracle Newbies Blog.

Log Buffer is a the-more-the-merrier kind of thing, so please leave a comment on Lisa’s LB with your favourite database blogs from this week. Or, get in touch with me and get started on publishing an edition on your own blog. Fun. Readers. Glory. These can be yours with when you do Log Buffer.

And now, on with Lisa’s Log Buffer #132.

Welcome to the 131st edition of Log Buffer, the weekly review of database blogs.

Fundamentals are always a good place to start, so let’s do that courtesy Craig Mullins of Data Management Today. Craig’s fundamental question is, what does a DBA do? A good one for blank-faced relatives and dinner-party companions.

Perhaps you’re just a little blank-faced too, a least on the subject of DB2 LUW? If so, Susan Visser of Build your Skill on DB2 shows the way forward with a compilation of …

This may come as a complete shock based on the title of my website… but I have come to the conclusion that all DBA’s should be eliminated from all companies hierarchies. WHAT? Yep I do not think any company should employ a “DBA” ever again.

Before the mob comes and beats me up for heresy, Let me explain. The term and more specifically the job title “Database Administrator” is way to broad. More so then most titles in my opinion. In fact I feel it is an ancient description that does a disservice to most modern database professionals. I have seen titled DBA’s responsible for entire infrastructure stacks, and I have seen DBA’s who only know how to run SQL and perform backups. It hardly seems fair that all these folks end up lumped in together. I think we need better definitions and a somewhat common vocabulary to truly tell what sorts of tasks and responsibilities people have.

Welcome to the 130th edition of Log Buffer, the weekly review of database blogs.

Oracle Blogs

Tanel Poder began a new series on Oracle memory troubleshooting with an introduction to his heapdump analyzer script.

Richard Foote asked, is it possible to shrink a newly created index? His answer? Just.

On the Oracle DBA and Apps DBA blog, Sabdar Syed also has a …

Welcome, readers, to the 129th edition of Log Buffer, the weekly review of database blogs. Welcome also to 2009, so fresh it still has that wonderful new year smell. Let’s take ‘er out on the road and see what she can do.

Starting with Oracle (and reaching back here a little into the holidays), Doug Burns had performance on his mind—to be precise, his own at UKOUG; and some performance-related blogs he’s found worthwhile. Doug’s recommendations themselves always perform well.

Tanel Poder was on the same road. In his item, …

Welcome to the 128th edition of Log Buffer, the weekly review of database blogs.

Let’s begin with some PostgreSQL blogs. Jignesh Shah shares his recipe for making a PostgreSQL 8.3 appliance based on OpenSolaris using VirtualBox. While we’re on appliances, Dave Page shows off PostgreSQL management on the iPhone with an application he himself wrote. Stealth DBA for the bus-rise home.

On Database Soup, Josh …

The 127th edition of of Log Buffer, the weekly review of database blogs, has been published by Robert Treat on zillablog.

As the web’s only technology-neutral compendium of database blogs, Log Buffer thrives on reader contributions, such as story suggestions, comments, and foremost, volunteer editors like Robert (who, by the way, today joins LB’s multiple-edition group). He knows that publishing an edition of Log Buffer on his blog is an excellent way (and a fun way) to present his perspective on database blogs in an established venue. I invite you to do the same— send me an email and I’ll get you started.

Here is Robert’s …

How would one concatenate strings from a column (multiple rows) into a single row using MySQL? I see its possible with MS SQL Server 2005 and above. Any incite into how to achieve this in MySQL would be much appreciated.

MS SQL Server 2005 - Example

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SELECT Web_Account_ID,
GroupNameConcat = REPLACE(
        (
        SELECT
                Web_Account_Group_Name_ID AS [DATA()]
        FROM
                tblWebAccountGroup WAG
        WHERE
                WAG.Web_Account_ID = WA.Web_Account_ID
        ORDER BY
                Web_Account_Group_Name_ID
            FOR XML PATH ('')
        ), ' ', ',')
FROM tblWebAccounts WA
ORDER BY Web_Account_ID

Query Results Example

Source: …

Welcome to the 126th edition of Log Buffer, the weekly review of database blogs. Just to be different, let’s start with PostgreSQL this time.

The Postgres OnLine Journal offers their PostgreSQL 8.3 PLPGSQL Cheatsheet.

The ever-reliable Hubert Lubaczewski of select * from depesz; has a couple posts this week. He has a howto for recovering from a lost PostgreSQL password. Thanks, Hubert. We’ve all been there. He also introduces …