Something that makes me always just go to dev.mysql.com or php.net for documentation is the user comments. sometimes you just find some real jems that are really worth reading.

It would be great if this somehow could get integrated into the (offline) help system in GNOME could somehow have this stuff integrated. maybe some AJAX foo to fetch comments from the Interweb if you’re connected. So then you get the best of three worlds: good graphical documentation interface, good documentation and user comments to the docs!

So, today I have had the following problems on various databases:

1) lack of hosts file causing intermittent connectivity
2) running out of space in innodb tablespace
3) a backup causing undue slowness
4) a data partition running out of space and corrupting the binary log, thus making the slaves not replicate
5) mysql server not starting after I added space (see 2) because I put the same logfile in twice

All in all, not bad. Only problem 4 caused me to furrow my brow to fix it, because I hadn’t seen anything like it on the list, but one of the first google hits led me to the cause. Basically the symptom was a slave server that would not start replication, with the error in mysqld.err only (not in SHOW SLAVE STATUS — that would always show NULL seconds behind). But Google immediately gave me the answer.

What a day. Luckily I slept for 11 hours …

With the advent of stored routines in MySQL 5.0 and the new event feature in 5.1 a lot of database management tasks will be moved from external environments right into the database itself. But to make this really work we need to get convenient access to all the meta information on our database from within pure SQL statements.

I can feel the change already in my everyday work with MySQL: Where I used to hook up Perl (replace this by PHP, VisualBasic, Ruby, Python or whatever you prefer to use) and cron (or Windows Task Scheduler) before, I tend to look for a convenient solution with only SQL statements now.

But stored routines and events are only one part of the story: To really achieve useful management tasks we need to access (and possibly change) meta information such as it is provided by MySQL through the …

Listen to Digitally imported to get the url

ActiveGrid CEO Peter Yared is back with his thoughts on the advantages of lightweight architecture for SOA. Peter began this series with "Google, Amazon, and Yahoo! point enterprise developers towards "lightweight" architecture".

Enterprise SOA Apps Take Off on Lightweight Architecture
At the last InfoWorld SOA Executive Forum, I asked the audience for a show of hands on the following question: "Who thinks it's easier to build an app that communicates to a web service than it is to write an app that communicates to a database?" Of this very sophisticated audience of senior IT architects and managers only two people raised their hands.

After having spent countless amounts of time …

Looks like it is time to polish up my Japanese language skills:

TOKYO, CUPERTINO, Calif. and UPPSALA, Sweden ? February 1, 2006 ? MySQL AB, developer of the world’s most popular open source database, today announced the establishment and introduction of MySQL K.K., a wholly-owned Japanese subsidiary based in Tokyo.

In 2005, there were over one million downloads of the MySQL database server by Japanese users. The new company will focus on leveraging this interest in its cost-effective enterprise database (RDBMS) by offering corporate customers and software vendors commercial licensing, production support and professional service options.

“Japan is one of world’s largest markets for corporate database software, and interest in MySQL in the region has been very high for the past several years,” said Mr. Larry Stefonic, president of MySQL K.K. and MySQL AB’s senior vice president of worldwide OEM …

Well, appearantly MySQL and Oracle DBA's are not as active as the general IT Population. According to my unscientific poll, the majority of you are looking for a new position, just not actively looking.

I just finished reading "Active Liberty: Interpreting our Democratic Constitution" by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Altogether, this is a short but very interesting book and shows how a great legalist should think about important issues.

The central point of the book is that the U.S. Constitution is designed to promote the active participation of its citizens in government. As a result, the role of the U.S. Supreme Court is to interpret that Constitution with the goal of promoting greater participation. In some cases, this means protecting citizens from excessive government regulation (what he calls "modern liberty"), while in other cases, it means creating the necessary conditions for citizen involvement ("ancient liberty.")

Sometimes, the two goals require opposite courses of action, and the role of the Court is to weigh them and decide which would ultimately promote democracy. For example, campaign …

More on foreign keys in MySQL:

After all those FK added I can only recommend to check that columns have the same datatype, if this is not true MySQL will spit strange error messages like "can't create table ..." when trying to add foreign keys.

Foreign keys are not deferrable in MySQL so the circular reference between employee and department tables makes impossible to load employee before dept and impossible to load dept before loading employee.
As those tables are innodb i can't issue an "alter table disable keys" so I'll
have to resolve the circular fk relationship between those tables and use triggers to
enforce referential integrity (keys INTEG_61 and INTEG_52 will be deleted and substituded with triggers).
A simpler workaround useful for massive data loads is to issue a "set foreign_key_checks=0" before loading and then a "set foreign_key_checks=1" after load.

So, the Sydney MySQL UG is being restarted (there used to be one but it kinda vanished). There are thriving groups in Brisbane and Melbourne, so surely Sydney can sustain one.
The first meeting is Thursday February 9th at 7pm, with BabelCom generously providing the venue. Please sign up & RSVP (all free) if you can make it. That page also has the full details about the location.

I'll be there, as I'm teaching a training course in Sydney (MySQL 5.0 for DBAs - this course is pretty heavily booked but there are still a few places available).
Anyway, at the meeting we'll talk about some of the latest news with MySQL, and of course future meetings. Hope to see you too!