Support nightmare: a customer reports a random PHP MySQL error. As a support expert you have the strong feeling that it is down to some suspicious SQL sequence. How to proof? 25 lines of PECL/mysqlnd_uh swiss-army knife magic…

prepend.php

class __mysqlnd_logger extends MysqlndUhConnection {
 private $protocol;
        
 public function query($conn, $query) {
  $ret = parent::query($conn, $query);
  if ($errno = $this->getErrorNumber($conn)) {
   $this->protocol[] = array(
    "query" => $query,
    "error" => sprintf("[%d] %s",
     $errno, $this->getErrorString($conn)),
    "bt" => debug_backtrace()
   );
  } else {
   $this->protocol[] = $query;
  }
  return $ret;
 }
        
 public function getProtocol() {
  return $this->protocol;
 }
        
}
$__logger = new __mysqlnd_logger();
mysqlnd_uh_set_connection_proxy($__logger);

The …

Uh, uh… about a year ago Mayflower OpenSource Labs released the mysqlnd user handler plugin (PECL/mysqlnd_uh). The extension lets you extend and replace mysqlnd internal function calls with PHP. Uh, uh… mysqlnd internals exported to user space? Who cares as long as it does the trick?! Let me show you seven lines of PHP code to monitor all queries issued by any PHP MySQL application using any PHP MySQL extension (mysql, mysqli, PDO_MySQL) compiled to use the mysqlnd library.

query_monitor.php

class conn_proxy extends MysqlndUhConnection {
 public function query($res, $query) {
  debug_print_backtrace();
  return parent::query($res, $query);
 }
}
mysqlnd_uh_set_connection_proxy(new conn_proxy());

That’s it. Install PECL/mysqlnd_uh and load the above query_monitor.php before your …

Uh, uh… about a year ago Mayflower OpenSource Labs released the mysqlnd user handler plugin (PECL/mysqlnd_uh). The extension lets you extend and replace mysqlnd internal function calls with PHP. Uh, uh… mysqlnd internals exported to user space? Who cares as long as it does the trick?! Let me show you seven lines of PHP code to monitor all queries issued by any PHP MySQL application using any PHP MySQL extension (mysql, mysqli, PDO_MySQL) compiled to use the mysqlnd library.

query_monitor.php

class conn_proxy extends MysqlndUhConnection {
 public function query($res, $query) {
  debug_print_backtrace();
  return parent::query($res, $query);
 }
}
mysqlnd_uh_set_connection_proxy(new conn_proxy());

That’s it. Install PECL/mysqlnd_uh and load the above query_monitor.php before your …

PECL/mysqlnd_ms 1.1.0 (download) has been released (documentation)! It is a drop-in solution to add MySQL replication support to any PHP 5.3+ application using any of the PHP MySQL APIs (mysql, mysqli, PDO_MySQL) when compiled to use the mysqlnd library. It extends the mysqlnd library by replication and load balancing funtionality. The mysqlnd library is an optional replacement for the MySQL Client Library (AKA libmysql). The mysqlnd library ships together with PHP as of version 5.3. As of PHP 5.4 the mysqlnd library is a compile time default choice for all three PHP MySQL extensions.

The plugin provides automatic read-write splitting, …

PECL/mysqlnd_ms 1.1.0 (download) has been released (documentation)! It is a drop-in solution to add MySQL replication support to any PHP 5.3+ application using any of the PHP MySQL APIs (mysql, mysqli, PDO_MySQL) when compiled to use the mysqlnd library. It extends the mysqlnd library by replication and load balancing funtionality. The mysqlnd library is an optional replacement for the MySQL Client Library (AKA libmysql). The mysqlnd library ships together with PHP as of version 5.3. As of PHP 5.4 the mysqlnd library is a compile time default choice for all three PHP MySQL extensions.

The plugin provides automatic read-write splitting, …

The soon to be announced version 1.1.0-beta of the mysqlnd replication and load balancing plugin (PECL/mysqlnd_ms) for PHP introduces a new concept of filters to the plugin. Filters take a list of servers to pick one or more of it. Filters can be chained, similar command line tools. Imagine a future with a filter chain like: user_multi | roundrobin, table_partitioning | random_once, table_partitioning | adaptive_loadbalancer, … For example, user_multi | roundrobin will first invoke a callback and then apply static round robin load balancing to the servers returned by the callback set with user_multi . Or, table_partitioning | adaptive_loadbalancer would first apply …

The soon to be announced version 1.1.0-beta of the mysqlnd replication and load balancing plugin (PECL/mysqlnd_ms) for PHP introduces a new concept of filters to the plugin. Filters take a list of servers to pick one or more of it. Filters can be chained, similar command line tools. Imagine a future with a filter chain like: user_multi | roundrobin, table_partitioning | random_once, table_partitioning | adaptive_loadbalancer, … For example, user_multi | roundrobin will first invoke a callback and then apply static round robin load balancing to the servers returned by the callback set with user_multi . Or, table_partitioning | adaptive_loadbalancer would first apply …

Recently I was asked if PECL/mysqlnd_ms should be used to add MySQL replication support to a yet to be developed PHP application. The mysqlnd plugin, which supports all PHP MySQL extensions (PDO, mysqli, mysql), stood up against a classical, simple, proven and fast approach: one connection for reads, one connection for writes. Let’s compare. This is a bit of an unfair challenge, because PECL/mysqlnd_ms was designed as a drop-in for existing applications, not optimized for those starting from scratch, *yell*… The plugin stands up quite well, anyway!

The classical pattern

If starting from scratch you can manually direct all reads to the slaves and all writes to the masters. Use a factory/singleton to create database objects. For database read requests, ask the factory for connection object to a slave. …

Recently I was asked if PECL/mysqlnd_ms should be used to add MySQL replication support to a yet to be developed PHP application. The mysqlnd plugin, which supports all PHP MySQL extensions (PDO, mysqli, mysql), stood up against a classical, simple, proven and fast approach: one connection for reads, one connection for writes. Let’s compare. This is a bit of an unfair challenge, because PECL/mysqlnd_ms was designed as a drop-in for existing applications, not optimized for those starting from scratch, *yell*… The plugin stands up quite well, anyway!

The classical pattern

If starting from scratch you can manually direct all reads to the slaves and all writes to the masters. Use a factory/singleton to create database objects. For database read requests, ask the factory for connection object to a slave. …

After a short sprint for PHP 5.4 beta, which is on its way with mysqlnd as a configuration default for all three PHP MySQL extensions, we continued working on the mysqlnd replication plugin (PECL/mysqlnd_ms). Please, find a high level overview presentation further below in this blog post. Because replication support is added at the mysqlnd library level, it is almost transparent from an applications point of view. If you are new to mysqlnd plugins, think of it as a proxy. A proxy that you can drop-in to any existing PHP MySQL application.

Significant progress has been made since the initial alpha release: new powerful configuration syntax, many limitations on lazy connections lifted, countless issues identified and fixed through …