One of the significant benefits of MySQL is it’s ease of use. Generally already installed on most Linux systems, MySQL can be installed by a single command if not yet present. On Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.4 you can use the following commands to check for MySQL, configure your yum repository and install MySQL.

# Check if already installed
$ rpm -qa | grep -i mysql

# Configure yum repository on new server
$ su -
$ cd /tmp
$ wget http://public-yum.oracle.com/public-yum-el5.repo
$ sed -e "s/enabled=0/enabled=1/" public-yum-el5.repo > /etc/yum.repos.d/public-yum-el5.repo

# Install MySQL
$ yum install -y mysql-server mysql

# Start and test MySQL Instance
$ /etc/init.d/mysqld start
$ mysql -uroot -e "SELECT VERSION"

+-----------+
| VERSION() |
+-----------+
| 5.0.77    |
+-----------+

You can find more …

I will be one of 18 MySQL speakers at Oracle Open World 2010 at the first ever MySQL Sunday. With a great diversity of technical, community and product talks this will be a great opportunity to get a cross section of MySQL content. Combined with Java One, this year’s Oracle Open World will include a lot more opportunity of technical and developer content then the more regular marketing material.

As the program chair for the first dedicated MySQL track at last month’s ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010 our MySQL community now includes a larger number of target people. From the Oracle community come many highly technical and skilled resources, some with an understanding or appreciation of MySQL and many that are new to MySQL.

This is a great opportunity to share our knowledge and experience with MySQL.

References

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The most efficient performance optimization of a SQL statement is to eliminate it. Cary Millsap’s recent Kaleidoscope presentation again highlighted that improving performance is function of code path. Removing code will improve performance.

You may think that it could be hard to eliminate SQL, however when you know every SQL statement that is executed in your code path obvious improvements may be possible. In the sequence SQL was implemented sometimes easy observations can lead to great gains. Let me provide some actual client examples that were discovered by using the MySQL General Log.

Example 1

5 Query   SELECT *  FROM `artist`
5 Query   SELECT *  FROM `artist`
5 Query …

One role of a MySQL consultant is to review an existing production system. Sometimes you have sufficient time and access, and other times you don’t. If I am given a limited time here is a general list of things I look at.

1. Review Server architecture, OS, Memory, Disks (including raid and partition type), Network etc
2. Review server load and identify physical bottleneck
3. Look at all running processes
4. Look specifically at MySQL processes
5. Review MySQL Error Log
6. Determine MySQL version
7. Look at MySQL configuration (e.g. /etc/my.cnf)
8. Look at running MySQL Variables
9. Look at running MySQL status (x n times)
10. Look at running MySQL INNODB status (x n times) if used
11. Get Database and Schema Sizes
12. Get Database Schema
13. Review Slow Query Log
14. Capture query sample via SHOW FULL PROCESSLIST (locked …

When working interactively with the MySQL client, you receive feedback of the time the query took to complete to a granularity of 10 ms.

Enabling profiling is a simple way to get more a more accurate timing of running queries. In the following example you can see the time the kernel took to run an explain, the query, and alter, and repeat explain and query.

mysql> set profiling=1;
mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT ...
mysql> SELECT ...
mysql> ALTER ...
mysql> show profiles;
+----------+------------+-------------------------
| Query_ID | Duration   | Query
+----------+------------+-------------------------
|        1 | 0.00036500 | EXPLAIN SELECT sbvi.id a
|        2 | 0.00432700 | SELECT sbvi.id as sbvi_i
|        3 | 2.83206100 | alter table sbvi drop in
|        4 | 0.00047500 | explain SELECT sbvi.id a
|        5 | 0.00367100 | SELECT sbvi.id as sbvi_i
+----------+------------+-------------------------

More information at …

We recently held a dedicated MySQL Track at ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010 conference for 4 days. This is the first of many Oracle events that will begin to include dedicated MySQL content.

If your attending OSCON 2010 in the next few weeks you will see a number of MySQL presentations.

MySQL will be represented at Open World 2010 in September with MySQL Sunday. Giuseppe has created a great one page summary of speakers. This event is described as technical sessions, an un-conference and an fireside chat with Edward Screven. I’ve seen tickets listed at $50 or $75 for the day.

Open SQL Camp will be held in …

My closing presentation at the dedicated MySQL track at ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010 discussed various techniques and best practices for improving the ROI of developer resources using MySQL. Included in the sections on Design, Security, Development, Testing, Implementation, Instrumentation and Support were also a number of horror stories of not what to do, combined with practical examples of improving productivity.

Increasing MySQL Productivity View more presentations from Ronald Bradford.

The following are my slides that I presented at ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010. This presentation talks about the MySQL defaults including a non-transactional state, silent data truncations, date management, and transaction isolation options. These are all critical for data integrity and consistency. I also cover in-depth topics including SQL_MODE, character sets and collations.

MySQL Idiosyncrasies That Bite View more presentations from Ronald Bradford.

Today I received notice that next week’s Velocity conference is at maximum capacity. With just under 2 weeks before the start of ODTUG Kaleidoscope in Washington DC we still have room for late registrations. There is 4 days of MySQL content, free events and also a Sunday Symposium that includes talks on performance and high availability.

Contact any of the MySQL speakers directly and you can receive a special 50% discount code. This is only for MySQL attendees.

If you live in the DC area and only want the FREE option then come along and join use on Monday night for a free session and reception.

ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010
July 27 – July 1
Marriott Wardman Part Hotel
2660 Woodley Road NW
Washington, District Of Columbia 20008
www.odtugkaleidoscope.com …

While I have spent a lot of time recently helping the MySQL community interact with and integrate with various Oracle User Groups including ODTUG, IOUG, NoCOUG, NYOUG, DAOG I thought I’d share some resources for the MySQL Community that wanted to know more about Oracle.

The Oracle family of products is huge. You only have to look at the acquisitions via Wikipedia to get an idea. The first thing is to narrow your search, e.g. Database, APEX, Middleware, BI, Hyperion, Financials, development via Java, PHP or Oracle Forms etc.

While Oracle is a commercial product you can download all software for FREE via Oracle Technology Network. There is also documentation, forums, blogs and events.

Some Oracle bloggers I have already been reading however I’m expanding my list. People you may want to …