I have recently posted a script on MySQL Forge to back up MySQL binary logs. One of the ideas that I had when I originally wrote the script was to take into account all of the slaves and what master log file & position that each one has executed. This way, only the relevant binary logs would get archived and then subsequently purged. You can find the script here.

As DBAs that manage large quantities of database servers, we are always looking for the fastest or most efficient way to load data into the database. Some DBAs have quarterly maintenance periods where they reload data into a database to refresh the indexes.

If you primarily use InnoDB tables in your MySQL database server, then these set of tricks will help in trying to make the reload process a bit faster than just a straight dump & reload.

my.cnf configuration
innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commmit = 0
innodb_support_xa = 0
skip-innodb-doublewrite
disable log-bin & log_slow_queries

Since the goal is to reload data quickly, we need to eliminate any potential bottlenecks. Setting innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit = 0 this will reduce the amount of disk I/O by avoiding a flush to disk on each commit. If you are not using XA compliant transactions (multi system two-phase commits) then you …

MySQL AB today announced that The Phone House Telecom, a German provider of communication and entertainment services, has done an extensive consolidation of the infrastructure of its online shop -- replacing systems from Oracle and Informix with the MySQL Enterprise database.

Just found this little handy feature today:

PLAIN TEXT SQL:

1. mysql> INSERT INTO c SELECT rand()*1000, sha1(rand()) FROM c;
2. Query aborted BY Ctrl+C
3. ERROR 1317 (70100): Query execution was interrupted

So now if you press CTRL-C MySQL Command Line Client will not exit but will terminate query being executed. This is great as so many queries assumed CTRL-C would also abort running query in previous MySQL versions and I've seen many monstrous queries left running without noticing just because people would think CTRL-C terminated the query. Now it finally really does.

Great Job! I wish I would see more of such relatively simple but very handy improvements

I filed the following bug today. Basically it looks like in certain conditions Innodb may be started twice in the parallel on the same data files which can hurt database badly. It is true it does not seems to be 100% repeatable but I've seen it multiple times in different environments. I'm not sure if this is some platform which has issues with locking, Some race condition which allows to copies to start or anything else.

In any case you'we been warned - be careful and ensure MySQL is not already started when you're thinking to start one. Now when
MySQL starts to listen to the socket after Innodb Recovery is completed it is very easy to make a mistake and think MySQL is not running at all when recovery is in progress.

Buy the ticket, take the ride --Hunter S. Thompson

The star schema and bitmap indexes are a marriage made in heaven. The bitmap indexes and their use in accelerating star schema joins is currently available in commercial databases only. Corollary: never buy a database for data warehousing that does not support star schema joins using bitmap indexes.

The advantages of bitmap indexes compared to b-tree indexes are:

1. Small
   
2. Extremely fast AND operations on individual indexes created for each low cardinality attribute
   
3. Fast creation, no sorts required
   

The following bitmap indexes are created on the star schema example shown, to optimize the star schema join:

1. With Oracle, one bitmap index is created for each foreign key on the fact table: …

I really like this thread:

“OpenBSD is free as in air,” Theo de Raadt [interview] stated in a recent thread on the OpenBSD -misc mailing list. The discussion began with a note that the Open Sound System [story] had recently been “open sourced” under the GPLv2 and CDDL leading Theo to comment, “noone cares about being Open and Free anymore. They just care about being called Open and Free, and how convenient — a bunch of laywers generated an organization that will label then Open and Free when they are not in fact so.”

This is an interesting statement.

The GPL and BSD licensing camps have always had a core fundamental difference in theory. If GPL is copy-left and Microsoft is copyright then the BSD is copy-center.

What’s nice about the BSD license is that there’s NO complexity. You can turn around and sell the code if you want to and just …

Roland’s giving his talk on MySQL Stored Procedures at the e Dutch PHP conference. Mostly basics, but with a good extended focus on how work with SPs from PHP.

It’s obviously something that interests people: Quite an audience has shown up even though most have never even gotten as far as reading the manual sections on SPs, much less attempted to use them.

Highlights:

• mysqlnd is a native driver for PHP, i.e. it’s written in pure PHP and does not depend on libmysql. Should be …

I’m working with Roland in the Netherlands in the next couple of days, and we timed the visit to coincide with the Dutch PHP conference taking place today.

I just attended the Zend framework presentation by Gaylord Aulke of Zend.
There were some good pointers, among which was that there is currently some 60+ PHP MVC implementations out there all with different strengths and weaknesses. The Zend framework aims not only at implementing MVC, but also ads a “Meta-framework” of defining coding styles, etc. And — perhaps most importantly for many — ensuring that every component in the framework carries the same license terms.

The framework is expected to be released as v. 1.0 Real Soon Now(tm), being in final RC at the moment.

My …

I'm back from the MySQL EMEA Support Team meeting.. and it was just fantastic!

Most know that MySQL is a virtual company and we don't see to much colleagues. Most goes via our internal IRC server, email and phone. However, we in Support for example, try to meet up each year. This year we did it a bit differently by actually gathering and actively doing support together (in Bielefeld, Germany). You know, like in a real office!

The cool thing about the EMEA Support Team, and I can safely say this for the global Support Team, is that we simple play along very well. Each of us comes with baggage of experience when joining MySQL. Most importantly, we think mostly alike. When we disagree we settle or make it better. For people only meeting up once a year or less it is just spectacular!

It's also lots of fun and drinking beers, socializing and sleeping together.. I mean sharing rooms! Fact that I had my …