The latest from the MySQL community

This is a long overdue blog post from London’s 44con Cyber Security conference back in September. A lot of old memories were brought to the front as it were; the one I’m going to cover in this blog post is: file carving.

So what is file carving? despite the terminology it’s not going to be a full roast dinner; unless you have an appetite for data which as you’re here I’m assuming you have.

The TL;DR of “what is file carving” is taking a target blob of data (often a multi GB / TB file) and reducing it in to targeted pieces of data, this could be for instance grabbing all the jpeg images in a packet capture / mysqldump; or pulling that single table/schema out of a huge mysqldump with –all-databases (if you’re not using mydumper you really …

October 9, 2014 By Severalnines

Installing, configuring, deploying databases and performing repetitive administrative tasks are all part of a DBA’s or sysadmin’s job. This can get pretty repetitive and overwhelming if you are part of a centralized IT team, running multiple databases for your organization’s different departments, or a managed hosting provider responsible for setting up and operating databases for external clients. One way to get out of this ‘manual, repetitive task’ business is through a Database as a Service (DBaaS).

DBaaS is a way of delivering database functionality as a service to one or more consumers. A DBaaS platform would provide automated procedures for database deployment, monitoring, backups, recovery/repair, scaling, security/multi-tenancy, etc. This type of automation is especially useful where agility is needed, e.g. for systems that require elasticity by scaling out or scaling back at short …

Somebody asked how to put PostgreSQL on my Fedora image with Oracle Database 11g and MySQL. It’s fairly simple. You can check for the current download at yum.postgresql.org and then download it like this as the root user:

      yum localinstall http://yum.postgresql.org/9.3/fedora/fedora-20-x86_64/pgdg-fedora93-9.3-1.noarch.rpm

You should see the following output when the download is successful, don’t forget to type y to complete the download:

Loaded plugins: langpacks, refresh-packagekit
pgdg-fedora93-9.3-1.noarch.rpm                              | 5.1 kB  00:00     
Examining /var/tmp/yum-root-2EPf_J/pgdg-fedora93-9.3-1.noarch.rpm: pgdg-fedora93-9.3-1.noarch
Marking /var/tmp/yum-root-2EPf_J/pgdg-fedora93-9.3-1.noarch.rpm to be installed
Resolving …

When you're testing out a new version of MySQL in a non-production environment there is a temptation to go wild and turn on all kinds of new features.  Especially if you're reading the changelogs or the manual and scanning through options.  You want to start with the most reasonable set of defaults, right?  Maybe you're even doing benchmarks to optimize performance using all the new bells and whistles.

Resist the temptation!  If your goal is to upgrade your production environment then what you really want is to isolate changes.  You want to preform the upgrade with as little to no impact as possible.  Then you can start turning on features or making changes one-by-one.

Why?  Anytime you're doing a major upgrade to something as fundamental as your core RDBMS, there are many ways things can go wrong.  Performance regressions & incompatible changes, client/server incompatibilities …

The MySQL for Database Administrators training course is one of the most popular courses at Oracle. This is not surprising since it provides a comprehensive range of administration skills to those using the world's most popular open source database.

You can travel to an education center to take this 5-day instructor-led course, and as shown in the table below, events are currently scheduled for delivery in 8 languages (Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, English, French, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Turkish).

If you want to take this training from your own desk, you have two options:

• Training-on-Demand: Start training within 24 hours of registration, following training at your own pace.
• Live-Virtual Event: Follow a live event …

August 25, 2014 By Severalnines

Are you going in production with Galera Cluster for MySQL? Here are 9 tips to consider before going live. These are applicable to all 3 Galera versions (Codership, Percona XtraDB Cluster and MariaDB Galera Cluster). 

1. Galera strengths and weaknesses

There are multiple types of replication and cluster technologies for MySQL, make sure you understand how Galera works so you set the right expectations. Applications that run on single instance MySQL might not work well on Galera, you might need to make some changes to the application or the workload might not be appropriate. We’d suggest you have a look at these resources: 

• Tutorial on …

We've all heard the hype.  MySQL 5.6 is packed with amazing new features that address all our database problems.  5.6 deals with replication and HA and performance and monitoring and security and features.  It just may cure cancer.

In fact it's been out for ages.  It went GA  …

MySQL Replication allows servers to copy changes from one instance to another. Take the MySQL for Database Administrators course to learn about replication, including:

• How to set up a replication environment
• Complex topologies
• Replication types
• Global transaction IDs (GTIDs)
• MySQL Utilities
• Logs and threads

Replication is one of the many topics covered in the MySQL for Database Administrators course. You can take this 5-day instructor-led course as  

• Training-on-Demand: Start …

Get the best from both worlds with bundled packages: a training course and a certification exam voucher. You save 20% when you buy training and certification in discount packages.

Training helps you acquire product expertise. Certification proves this expertise to your future employers.

There are two MySQL Discount Packages: MySQL Database Administration and MySQL Developer.

For more information about the authentic MySQL curriculum, go to …

Keeping user account details secure is always at the forefront of a Database Administrator's mind. However, users want to get up and running as soon as possible without complex login procedures.

You can learn more about this and many other topics in the MySQL for Database Administrator course.

For example, MySQL 5.6.6 introduced a new utility: mysql_config_editor, which makes secure access via MySQL client applications much easier to establish, while still providing a good measure of security.

The mysql_config_editor stores a user's authentication details in an encrypted login file called mylogin.cnf. This login file is readable and writable for the user who invokes the utility, and invisible to everyone else. You can use it to collect all your …