As with any new releases, MySQL 8.0.21 introduces many new improvements and updates, many of which deserve their own blog post for a deep dive into the new features.  Among the notable changes are: Account Management Notes, JSON Notes, Authentication Notes and changes related to InnoDB, Optimizer, Group Replication, and more.

Here are the MySQL 8.0.21 top blog posts:

Server:
- The MySQL 8.0.21 Maintenance Release is Generally Available
- MySQL 8.0 – Who stopped mysqld and how long did it take?
- MySQL: who’s filling my error log?

Shell:
- …

MySQL Triggers are changing in 5.7 in a big way. Triggers have been around since 5.0 and have not changed much up to 5.6 but will gain the ability to have multiple triggers on the same event. Previously you had ONE trigger maximum on a BEFORE UPDATE, for example, and now you can have multiple triggers and set their order.

So what is a trigger? Triggers run either BEFORE or AFTER an UPDATE, DELETE, or INSERT is performed. You also get access to the OLD.col_name and NEW.col_name variables for the previous value and the newer value of the column.

So how do you use a trigger? Let say you are updating the price of an inventory item in a product database with a simple UPDATE statement. But you also want to track when the price change and the old price.

The table for products.
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Congratulations on earning your Oracle Certification credential! — I was happily surprised to see this on the first email of the day. My employer sends out a fair share of corporate correspondence and I will admit to being caffeine deprived early this morning when I started reading my emails. I was expecting some rote corporate communication and i had to read the first sentence twice. So it took a moment for it to sink in that I PASSED THE 5.6 MySQL DBA EXAM!!!!!

The exam was tough — much more comprehensive than any previous exam — and there were a handful of questions that left this long time user of MySQL wondering where the heck did they find that material.

So if you took a 5.6 beta exam, your results are probably in your inbox right now. Congrats to those who earned their new certifications!

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I have just finished the MySQL 5.6 DBA Certification Exam Beta and my best advice is to study, study, study. The exam is in beta which means three things. The first is the exam is three hours long and it took me all that time to finish. Normally I am very fast test taker which has helped me earn three college degrees and enough computer related certifications to wallpaper a decent sized house. So if you are a slow reader, suck down a gallon of high octane coffee before your test appointment.

Secondly consider that some of the question will need to be cut out or reworked as the exam becomes production to fit the normal two hour test window Pearson View prefers. But in the beta period you over test and cut out the questions that prove less than satisfactory. So if you see a questions that triggers the ‘where the heck did they find that?’ reflex, you can hope that it gets determined to be a question to be relegated.

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MySQL DBA and Developer Certification Exams are now in beta! Besides covering the new material in MySQL 5.6, you now have to pass one exam to earn the certification where previously you needed to pass two exams. Signup at Pearson Vue and reserve your exam. Testing will start in October.

The exams for older certifications will not be available after October 31st and the Certification Paths for DBA 5.0, Developer 5.0, Cluster DBA 5.1, and Associate will end at the end of the year. Those certifications are still valid once earned forever. For more details.

Effective June 1, 2011, MySQL certification exams will be offered exclusively through a new test delivery partner — Pearson VUE — and will no longer be available through Prometric. This will consolidate all Oracle Certification exams within the operations of a single testing vendor so we can provide better service and global testing coverage for these Oracle certification exams. Pearson VUE currently has over 5,000 test centers worldwide in 165 countries.

To help prepare you for this transition, here are some important dates for you to be aware of:

• If you are currently following a certification path and are planning to take an exam on/after June 1: Registration has began at Pearson VUE on May 16, 2011 for all scheduled exams on or after June 1. Visit pearsonvue.com/oracle to create a new web account and get started.
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Great news was announced today at the Collaborate 11 conference today;  the first development milestone release of MySQL 5.6.2 is now available to the MySQL Community!  This is significant because 5.6.2 builds on the momentum generated by the performance, scalability, InnoDB and Replication improvements that rolled out in version 5.5 just last Dec.  It also marks somewhat of a paradigm shift in how the MySQL Engineering team delivers new, defined sets of stable, development complete features (development "milestones") and cutting edge, currently under development, delivered early and often features via http://labs.mysql.com/.  Both options provide a means for Community users to begin using new versions and, more importantly, new features of MySQL very early on ensuring the final product has undergone the highest degree of testing, validation and hardening before we deem it production ready.

 
Some of …

MySQL developers and DBAs now can choose one of these exclusive MySQL packages to get on the fast track to MySQL certifications while saving 20%.

Included in the package, two Live Virtual Classes (LVCs) can jumpstart your training. With LVCs, you get the same expert instructor and content as classroom training without the need for expensive travel.

Then demonstrate your proficiency using the certification exam vouchers in the package to obtain two certifications.

In addition, you will get the exclusive bonus of a FREE retake with each exam voucher, your one-time insurance, so you can take the exam a second time if needed at no additional cost.

Check out …

I finally received confirmation that I’m attending the MySQL Conference 2009, yay! I didn’t really dive deep into all the conference has to offer just because I didn’t want to get too excited and then not be able to go. Now that I do know I’m going, I’m full on with excitement and thought I [...]

I have an ingrained (possibly even genetic) aversion to stock images. Actually, not all stock: just the vacuous kind. You know what I mean: like the politically-correct, gender-balanced, racially-balanced, age-diverse ones where people are all smiling and pointing at a computer screen you can’t see. Ugh!

(Photo credit: istockphoto.com)

There are many reasons not to use images like this. I guess it’s okay in some situations — for example when you just want a smiling, attractive woman with a customer-service headset to reinforce that you’ve come to the right place for support. However, even these really don’t have to be stock images. One of my former employers used their own employees for such photos, almost exclusively, and it made the site much more real. And there are plenty of examples of companies that use photos of their own employees and get “realness” as a result. If I’m not mistaken, …