With all the trouble keeping MySQLs built-in replication running, some folks are looking for alternatives.  DRBD provides a distributed block level device, which can provide the sort of database mirroring we need, below the filesystem.  That makes it transparent to MySQL, but nevertheless a great complimentary solution.  In this article we’ll discuss the pros and cons, and then part two will take you step by step through a basic setup.

Read the article on Database Journal – DRBD and MySQL – Excellent Low-cost HA Solution

Sometimes terms like scaling are – as the brits like to say – bandied about, without everyone agreeing on what they mean.  That’s because scaling is an insiders term, a technical term thought to carry great weight, but nevertheless often misunderstood.So I wanted to write an article about this interesting and important topic, while sticking to terms that everyone *can* agree on.  This is the first in a two part series where I discuss various ways to make your database scale.  But I talk in terms of faster, stronger, bigger and better because I think we can all agree that’s what we’re really trying to achieve! Database Journal:  Faster & Stronger MySQL 

With a tongue in cheek, humorous tone, we turn the tables upside down on database best practices, illustrating all of the things you shouldn’t do, and what might happen if you ignore those important tasks.

 7 Ways To Crash A Database

In this month’s article over at Database Journal  we discuss more areas to tune your initial MySQL database setup including InnoDB & MyISAM buffers, hit ratios, index usage and full table scans, security, and logs.  With this second article in a two part series we complete our coverage of basic tuning of a MySQL database.

MySQL: Five More Dials To Turn

This month in Database Journal we start a two part article on tuning the dials of your new MySQL database.  After you install and setup your first database, you’ll need to set various parameters in your my.cnf file.  These control memory, logfiles, temp table usage, sorting, joins, and a whole lot more.  We’ll review some of the more important wants and start you on your way to more nuanced tuning of your MySQL instance.

Read the article: Ten Dials To Set at DatabaseJournal.com

If you haven’t worked with MySQL’s NDB Cluster storage engine yet, now is the time to take a peek.  There is a sandbox available from serveral nines, which can be installed fairly quickly.  This new article over at DatabaseJournal, MySQL Clustering In A Sandbox will have you up and running in no time.

A new article is up on Database Journal where I discuss some query optimizations that work well with MySQL applications.Five Query Optimizations in MySQL 

The MySQL Query Cache is a powerful piece of engineering that users of the popular open source database can take advantage of to speed up throughput of their applications.  MySQL’s cache operates a little bit differently from other database engines.  It does not just cache query plans, but the query data as well.  What this means is that the size and number of queries that your database manages will be variables when tuning the query cache.  We discuss all of these items in our new article at DatabaseJournal.

Database Journal – Optimizing the MySQL Query Cache

The MySQL Query Cache is a powerful piece of engineering that users of the popular open source database can take advantage of to speed up throughput of their applications.  MySQL’s cache operates a little bit differently from other database engines.  It does not just cache query plans, but the query data as well.  What this means is that the size and number of queries that your database manages will be variables when tuning the query cache.  We discuss all of these items in our new article at DatabaseJournal.

Database Journal - Optimizing the MySQL Query Cache

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 Our latest article over at Database Journal is hot off the presses.  Advanced MySQL Replication – Improving Performance discusses some of the best ways to improve the performance of your MySQL slave setup.  If the slave is constantly getting further and further behind the master database, we discuss a number of techniques which may help you bring it under control.