We had a very successful weekend of Planet.mysql users submitting their database statistics so I’ve pushed some code into a new release today so that everyone can benefit from some new features. The biggest change is to the threading logic. Previously the benchmarking script was serializing MySQL operations and only making use of a secondary thread (not the invoking thread) to query the database. Now you have the option of running with “–threads=x” to make use of your multi-core server. A good example of this improvement was on my Macbook Pro; before the threading change it was inserting ~700/sec, after the code change I tried –threads=4 and saw an improvement to ~900/sec. Rather significant.

Download the new script now and see how your server compares to the ones in the …

Just a quick note to let everyone know that our new benchmarking script now supports OSX 10.6 on Intel hardware. That means you can run one simple command and get all of the sequential and random INSERT and SELECT performance statistics about your database performance. As usual the script is open source and released under the new BSD license. Give is a try by downloading now! See the download page for more details.

You can download the first release of the benchmarking script here: http://code.google.com/p/dbbenchmark/

Please read the README file or consult the Support page before running the benchmarks.

With OpenSQL Camp and FrOSCon being over for almost a week now, it's time to come up with a short summary. I traveled home on Monday morning and then took Tuesday off, so I had some catching up to do...

As for the past years, FrOSCon rocked again! According to the closing keynote, they had around 1.500 (unique) visitors and I had a great time there. I really enjoyed meeting all the old and new faces of the various Open Source communities. The lineup of speakers was excellent, Jon "maddog" Hall's keynote about "Free and Open Source Software in the Developing World" was quite insightful and inspiring.

Most of the time I was busy with speaking at and …

The future of open source licensing. OpenSolaris governing board quits. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and Identi.ca
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have to.”

# Glyn Moody asked which open source software licensing is best for the future?

# The OpenSolaris Governing Board has collectively and expectedly resigned.

# OpenBravo has updated its rapid implementation ERP offering for small and mid-sized businesses, Openbravo QuickStart. …

The Problem

Developers often need to have a development database copy of the live production system you are using in able to allow them to test their code and to test new functionality and make schema changes to the database for this new functionality to work.

That’s normal and happens everywhere. A typical DBA task is to make a copy of the live system, sometimes to remove any confidential or sensitive information which perhaps the development database users should not be able to see, and then give them access to this development instance. The developers then “hack away”, changing their code and perhaps things in the database until they are ready to put these new changes into production when they then come along and discuss how to apply these changes into the live systems.

Once the development database has been created it soon becomes stale so often the developers want a new up to date copy …

Greetings from Sankt Augustin, Germany! I've arrived by train today and just returned from the FrOSCon venue, which will start tomorrow. The organizers are still busy with the preparations, but things already seem to be in good shape.

It was a mild and sunny evening today. Hopefully it will be the same tomorrow again, so we can enjoy a relaxed BBQ outside! The social event at FrOSCon is always a nice opportunity to meet and talk with fellow open source enthusiasts, users and developers.

And finally some good news for those of you who can't make it to FrOSCon this year: there will be live video streams from selected lecture rooms! So you will be able to attend the OpenSQL Camp sessions virtually - just head over to http://live.froscon.org/ and select room "HS6". It'll be …

It seems safe to say that Oracle is currently ahead of Microsoft when it comes to the company with the most contentious relationship with open source. To some extent that is due Oracle’s questionable approach to community, but it must also be noted that Microsoft has managed not to put its foot in it for a while.

In Microsoft 2009 published its first companywide perspective on open source, made its first contributions to the Linux kernel, and created the CodePlex Foundation, an independent entity designed to encourage its developers and other companies to contribute more to open source software projects.

Doubts have remained about Microsoft’s ongoing commitment, however, with the company being labeled opportunistic in its approach to open source, and skepticism persists – particularly in relation to software patents. We have recently published a new …

MySQLdb is a Python wrapper around _mysql written by Andy Dustman. This wrapper makes it possible to interact with a MySQL Server performing all sorts of DDL and DML statements. I began my Python journey recently and stumbled at the installation of the MySQLdb module install. I was keen not to jump at an apt/yum installation as we have servers that have no outbound connections I decided I wanted to build the module from source.

You can download the MySQLdb files from SourceForge (70kb)

When downloaded you need to prep before your system is ready to build the file. Here are some prerequisites that will make life easier for you. I performed this particular install using an Ubuntu 10.04 64bit OS.

Before you start ensure you have the following installed (MySQL isn't actually required but for local Python development …

If you need to work with LVM in your scripts but haven’t found a good method to access details about Logical Volume Groups, here’s a simple Python script that will print the details about any volumes on your system. This could be useful for writing a partition check script for your MySQL data directory (if you’re not using a standard monitoring system like Nagios).

import sys
import os
import commands
import subprocess
import select

def lvm():
    print ""
    LVM_PATH = "/sbin"
    LVM_BIN = os.path.join(LVM_PATH, 'lvm')
    argv = list()
    argv.append(LVM_BIN)
    argv.append("lvs")
    argv.append("--nosuffix")
    argv.append("--noheadings")
    argv.append("--units")
    argv.append("b")
    argv.append("--separator")
    argv.append(";")
    argv.append("-o")
    argv.append("lv_name,vg_name,lv_size")

    process = subprocess.Popen(argv, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
    output = ""
    out = process.stdout.readline()
    output += out
    lines = …