“Through transparent roadmaps, community-driven collaboration, contributor programs, and the MySQL Governance model, we aim to create an environment where innovation can accelerate while preserving the reliability, compatibility, security, and operational excellence that organizations around the world depend on.”

Q1. Oracle has announced a “new era” of MySQL community engagement at MySQL’s 30th anniversary. Can you walk us through what specifically prompted this strategic shift, and what concrete changes can the community expect to see in how Oracle approaches MySQL development and governance?

HVC: Throughout 2025 we celebrated 30 years of MySQL and reflected on the past and present, but more importantly, the future. The MySQL Community team sought feedback from around the globe on how to lead the next generation of MySQL innovation and open source collaboration. We came to Jason …

Introduction

Many MySQL configurations inherit redo log sizing from defaults, aging blog posts, or configuration folklore.

innodb_redo_log_capacity gets set once… and then quietly fades into the background.

But redo log capacity directly shapes how efficiently MySQL absorbs writes, manages checkpoint pressure, and handles burst-heavy workloads.

Set it too low, and aggressive flushing can throttle throughput.
Set it too high, and crash recovery can become painfully long.

Redo logs are more than crash insurance.

They are part of your write-performance architecture.

Redo logs are the shock absorbers of write-heavy MySQL. Too small, and performance jolts. Too large, and recovery drags.

Why Redo Logs Matter

InnoDB redo logs are often described as crash recovery journals, but that description undersells their real operational value.

Redo …

Introduction Replication performance depends on every stage in the pipeline, from the source database to transport and ultimately to commit on the replica. On the replica side, much of that performance comes down to how efficiently changes are read, scheduled, and applied under real operational pressure. In practice, that directly affects steady-state lag, backlog recovery […]

Introduction

Many MySQL setups begin life with a familiar incantation:

Copy Copied!

innodb_buffer_pool_size = 70% of RAM

…and then nothing changes.

That’s not tuning. That’s a starting guess.

Real tuning starts when the workload pushes back.

Visual Overview

The InnoDB buffer pool is where database performance is quietly decided. It determines whether your workload hums along in memory or drags itself across disk. If you’re not actively observing and tuning it, you’re leaving performance on the table.

This guide walks through how to monitor, understand, and tune the buffer pool using real signals instead of guesswork.

What the Buffer Pool Really Is

The buffer pool isn’t just “memory for MySQL.” It’s a living system under constant pressure:

• A cache of data and indexes
• A write staging area …

MySQL Security Best Practices: A Practical Guide for Locking Down Your Database Introduction

MySQL runs just about everywhere. I’ve seen it behind small personal projects, internal tools, SaaS platforms, and large enterprise systems handling serious transaction volume. When your database sits at the center of everything, it becomes part of your security perimeter whether you planned it that way or not. And that makes it a target.

Securing MySQL isn’t about flipping one magical setting and calling it done. It’s about layers. Tight access control. Encrypted connections. Clear visibility into what’s happening on the server. And operational discipline that doesn’t drift over time.

In this guide, I’m going to walk through practical MySQL security best practices that you can apply right away. These are the kinds of checks and hardening steps that reduce real risk in real environments, and help build a database …

There is a special kind of boredom that only database people know. The kind where you stare at a server humming along and think, surely there is something here I can tune. Good news: there is.

This post walks through the most important MySQL variables to tune for performance, why they matter, and when touching them helps versus when it quietly makes things worse. This is written with InnoDB-first workloads in mind, because let’s be honest, that’s almost everyone.

1. innodb_buffer_pool_size Real metrics to watch

Before touching this variable, look at these:

sql Copy Copied!

SHOW GLOBAL STATUS LIKE 'Innodb_buffer_pool_read%';

Key fields:

• Innodb_buffer_pool_reads – physical reads from disk
• Innodb_buffer_pool_read_requests – logical reads

…

Configuring the Component Keyring in Percona Server and PXC 8.4

(Or: how to make MySQL encryption boring, which is the goal)

Encryption is one of those things everyone agrees is important, right up until MySQL refuses to start and you’re staring at a JSON file wondering which brace ruined your evening.

With MySQL 8.4, encryption has firmly moved into the component world, and if you’re running Percona Server 8.4 or Percona XtraDB Cluster (PXC) 8.4, the supported path forward is the component_keyring_file component.

The good news: the setup is mostly identical for Percona Server and PXC.
The bad news: PXC 8.4.4 and 8.4.5 shipped with a bug that makes this less fun than it should be.

Let’s walk through a setup that works, keeps your keys locked down, and avoids the usual landmines.

Step 1: Tell …

Percona Toolkit 3.7.1 has been released on Dec 17, 2025. The most important updates in this version are:

• Finalized SSL/TLS support for MySQL
• Added support for Debian 13 and Amazon Linux 2023
• Fixed MariaDB support broken in version 3.7.0
• Added options to skip certain collections in pt-k8s-debug-collector and pt-stalk
• Documentation improvements
• Other performance improvements

In this blog, I will outline the most significant changes. A full list of improvements and bug fixes can be found in the release notes.

SSL/TLS support for MySQL

Percona Toolkit historically did not have consistent SSL support. This was reported at …

MySQL replication has been around forever, and yet… people still manage to set it up in ways that break at the worst possible moment. Even in 2025, you can get burned by tiny schema differences, missing primary keys, or one forgotten config flag. I’ve seen replicas drift so far out of sync they might as well live in a different universe.

This guide covers the practical best practices—the stuff real DBAs use every day to keep replication stable, predictable, and boring. (Boring is a compliment in database land.)

Always Use GTIDs. Yes, Always.

GTID-based replication is one of those features that people resist turning on, and then once they do, they never want to go back.

Why GTIDs?

• Failover become sane
• Reparenting replicas stops being a headache
• Missing transactions are easy to detect

Your my.cnf should absolutely include:

Copy Copied!

When I first got into woodworking, my mentor shared a piece of advice that has stuck with me ever since: “Use the right tool for the job.” You wouldn’t reach for a belt sander to flatten a board when a planer can accomplish the task faster, cleaner, and with far better results.

The same principle applies in the world of database engineering. When working with MySQL or Percona Server, choosing the correct tool can be the difference between efficient diagnostics and unnecessary downtime.

In this post, I’ll highlight several of the most practical and commonly used utilities from the Percona Toolkit. While the toolkit includes many powerful commands, I’ll focus on the ones that provide the most value in day-to-day operations, troubleshooting, and gathering actionable details for support cases.

PT Summary

A Percona Toolkit utility that provides a concise, high-level overview of a system’s hardware, OS …