I took the opportunity today evening to get myself upgraded (from 4.5.3_GA_733) to the latest (5.0.0_GA_1869) open source version of Zimbra - ZCS 5.0 GA. The database migration took about the longest, mainly due to some schema changes. Lots of starts and stops to the database. Its now running MySQL 5.0.45 Community.

What prompted the upgrade? A few days ago, I got a bunch of new packages, and rebooted the server (new kernel). To my dismay, Zimbra started to have issues - amavisd wouldn’t start. This meant that there was a large amount of mail, sitting in the queue, not being delivered. Things you don’t normally check for, immediately, anyway.

Turns out Compress::Zlib was too old. Well, not the system provided Compress::Zlib, but the Zimbra provided Compress::Zlib. Kind of annoying when there …

It's really funny, though a bit pathetic, to see the media pick up a theme and run with it. In this case, it's the idea that open source has problems with interoperability, and that it's somehow crimping open-source adoption. This is ironic because proprietary enterprise software has had this problem for decades...and still does. In fact, it is the fault of proprietary software that we have an interoperability problem at all.

Open source, thriving on open standards, is a huge step in the right direction.

It's also ironic because if you talk with MySQL, Alfresco, SugarCRM, Loopfuse, MuleSource, etc. you'll find that not a single one of us is seeing this interoperability problem crimping adoption. Want to …

As I already wrote you can well go to Linux distribution vendors if you're looking for recent MySQL version in a hassle free binary form. (On the time of this writing you could only get binaries for MySQL Community 5.0.45 from MySQL Download Pages which was released in July and so about half a year old.

If you prefer to run binaries based on Enterprise codebase - the most up to date version 5.0.54 is now available for CentOS starting with CentOS4:

mysql.x86_64 5.0.54-1.el4.centos centosplus
mysql-bench.x86_64 5.0.54-1.el4.centos centosplus
mysql-devel.x86_64 5.0.54-1.el4.centos …

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Well, it's taken over a year but it has finally arrived. I started writing the book back in Aug 2006. I finished in late Jan 2007 and the technical editor finished his work in March. Now, In Jan 2008, EnterpriseDB: The Definitive Reference is available. I'm glad I didn't wait for the movie. ;-)

It's kind of ironic. Just this morning, I posted that I am working on my second book. My wife called me at work and told me two boxes of books had arrived. 2008 is turning out to be a good year. I wonder if I should start planning my MySQL book?

Anyway, the book looks good. I've already found a few typos and grammar errors just skimming around. I like the font and the pages look really crisp. All in all, I have to say I am very happy that the book is out.

Check out …

Back in 2000 I began writing for swynk.com in hopes of learning more about SQL Server and beginning to make a name for myself in the SQL Server community. That was a little over seven years ago. As SQLServerCentral.com came online, I transitioned to it, writing articles and contributing heavily in the forums. Opportunities abounded from this effort, with the chance to write an eBook, the chance to become a regular columnist for SQL Server Standard Magazine, and later a chance to become a co-author of an in-print book, …

I’ve had one session accepted at the 2008 MySQL Conference & Expo (which is a good thing since I only submitted one session for nomination).

This year’s session is titled How to be Normal, a Guide for Developers. I decided to return to my old Normalization talk, but lean more towards the practical than the theoretical this year and work on common scenarios faced by developers rather than walk a person through the normal forms like I have previously done.

Here’s the abstract I’ll be sending in to replace the ugly one I submitted with:

At some point in every software project involving a database it becomes necessary for the developers who created (or inherited) the project to step back and take a look at their database. Many projects have a database schema that has evolved over time, with columns added here and tables added …

I've been getting pinged about query prioritization because of a comment I made elsewhere so I might as well explain the idea :)

If you have a given number of processors, lets say 32, you may want to reserve a set number across a spectrum of performance. For instance let us take a fuzzy definition of:
Slow
Fast
Unknown

You could then map half your processors to Fast queries, and then split your Slow and Unknown queries across your other processors. That way you could always know that you have enough CPU to handle Fast queries (or you could give hints that certain queries matching a pattern should always be fast).

With MySQL you never have costs which are exact before the query is optimized, namely because the optimizer recomputes the execution path for each query. This means you do not have stale data being used for execution, but it means also that the query is always being …

Sometimes it would be handy if you know how to re-package a MySQL rpm. You might wonder how this will benefit your system. Well, for starters, consider if you have custom-built scripts that needs to be in all the database servers. Also, consider if you have a standard way of organizing your database structure such as separating your logs with your data files.

A re-packaged MySQL rpm would come very handy in these situation. I've used this a lot in my companies and if you don't have a Red Hat OS, then consider writing a script to handle your automated MySQL installation.

As my former boss will attest, I have a reputation for being a bit of a data quality zealot. The storage of data that is unfit for use leads to many problems, but I suppose that’s another subject for another day.

It’s tough enough to manage data quality problems introduced by source code errors, system failures, and requirements misunderstandings…But a default installation of MySQL introduces a new and exciting way to give us data quality evangelists fits: It allows unfit data to be inserted in the database. That’s the bad news. The good news is that by making a simple configuration change you can prevent this, and override the setting when you don’t care.

In a default MySQL installation, the value of the SQL_MODE system variable is set to ‘’. This allows you to force inserts and updates that may violate the intended design of the table. This point is more philosophical than technical, but in a mission …