MySQL Newsletter February 2009

Articles in this newsletter:

Industry Spotlight: MySQL in Telco

Events

MySQL Federal Migration Boot Camp: Best Practices for Migrating Applications to MySQL (February 18, Washington DC)
Live Webinar: MySQL 5.1 for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence (February 18)
Live Webinar: Gearman: Distributed Job Queuing for MySQL-backed Applications (February 19)
Live Webinar: High-Performance Reporting and Analytics for MySQL Embedded Server (February 25)

Training, Consulting, & Certification

Highlights

MySQL Conference & Expo 2009 - Reserve Your Space Today

The 2009 MySQL Conference & Expo, April 20-23, 2009 in Santa Clara, CA, brings expert instruction, hands-on tutorials, and experienced MySQL developers all in one place for you to gain the knowledge rapidly and efficiently. MySQL Conference Speakers include both the engineers who build MySQL and leading experts who are implementing MySQL in real-world environments. Come join the following MySQL Experts:

Jeremy Zawodny, craigslist.org
Brian Aker, Sun Microsystems
Sheeri K. Cabral, The Pythian Group
Frank Mashraqi, NetEdge
Roland Bouman, Strukton Rail
Mark Callaghan, Google
Domas Mituzas, Sun Microsystems
Antony Curtis, Google
Phil Hildebrand, thePlatform, a Comcast subsidiary

View the current list of Speakers »

View the Schedule and Sessions »

Qualified Startups Get 15% Off MySQL Conference & Expo Pricing

Are you a Sun Startup Essentials member? If so, get 15% off when you register for MySQL Conference & Expo - email your company name to mysql_sse@sun.com to receive the discount code.

Featuring programs and offerings specifically for startups, the Sun Startup Essentials program is designed to help startups get their business off the ground FAST - at the LOWEST COST possible. Check your qualification and register today to reap these benefits:

Funding assistance (available in the US only)
Up to 70% off servers certified for Linux, Windows, and Solaris
Up to 70% off the new Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage System
Technical advice from Sun engineers

Learn More about Sun Startup Essentials »

MySQL Workbench Wins Developer.com Database Tool of the Year 2009

Nominations to find the best products and technology began in September and the submissions this year were abundant. With finalist announced in November, voting began. The voting made it very clear which products were to win. Not only were more votes received than in the last two years, but there was also a clear margin of victory between first and second place.

Learn More »

Sun Servers and Storage Make MySQL Faster

With Sun Systems for MySQL, you can improve performance by up to 50% regardless of which Operating System you run. Backed by the world-class functionality of Sun's MySQL Enterprise, this unique combination of innovative servers and software expertise can help you get more done with fewer resources.

New to Sun hardware? With the "Try and Buy" program, it's easier than ever to plug in Sun's newest products free for 60 days, with full technical support. And if you decide to buy your trial system, it is 20 - 40% off.

Learn More about "Sun Systems for MySQL" Solutions »

Apply for Try and Buy Now »

Celebrating a Year of MySQL and Sun

About one year ago, Sun Microsystems announced a historic deal to acquire MySQL AB. To celebrate the one-year anniversary, we explored some of the projects around Sun which use MySQL and how the acquisition has helped bring us all closer together.

Read the interview with Allan Packer on "Performance tuning - Scaling MySQL" »

Read the interview with Vince Carbone on "MySQL and Dtrace - Dynamically tracing better performance" »

Read the interview with Detlef Ulherr and Thorsten Früauf on "Open HA Cluster - Making MySQL highly available on Solaris" »

Read the interview with Neelakanth Nadgir on "MySQL and ZFS - A File System Revolution" »

Article: Another Look at MySQL 5.1's SQL Diagnostic Tools

Robin Schumacher

Database 'experts' say that 80-90% of a database's overall performance comes from the SQL code that's running against it. And I just don't buy it. Instead, I think that most of a database's performance comes from optimal design, and after that SQL code comes next. If you properly design your database, then you're way ahead of the game in terms of performance issues.

Read the Article »

White Paper: A Guide for Migrating From Sybase to MySQL

With the rapid growth of MySQL in the database market, many corporations, government agencies, and others have begun to migrate away from their expensive and proprietary databases. In particular, many MySQL customers are migrating or have migrated from Sybase because they have reached the conclusion that the combination of cost-savings, platform freedom, and feature set of MySQL make for a compelling business case to offload some or all their database-driven applications to the MySQL database server.

Read the White Paper » (http://www.mysql.com/why-mysql/white-papers/mysql_wp_sybase_to_mysql_migration.php)

Live Webinar: Performance Tuning Tips for Commercial Application Developers

Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 16:00 CET / 15:00 GMT

Would you like to get the very best MySQL performance for your commercial application? Then this free web presentation by Jay Pipes, Staff Engineer at Sun Microsystems, is for you!

You will gain expert insight and learn best practices to help you identify those areas of database and application design that will give you the greatest performance benefits.

Live Webinar: Using MySQL Query Analyzer to Remove Performance Bottlenecks

Tuesday, March 03, 2009 - 10:00am PST

Having a hard time diagnosing and fixing performance problems related to poorly performing SQL code?

Join this webinar to learn how the MySQL Query Analyzer, a new feature in the MySQL Enterprise subscription, can help DBAs and Developers like you improve application performance by monitoring query performance to accurately pinpoint SQL code that is causing a slow down.

New Product Releases

New Release of MySQL 6.0.9 (Alpha)

MySQL 6.0.9-alpha, a new version of the MySQL database system has been released. A new algorithm that uses both index access to the joined table and a join buffer has been implemented. It's called Batched Key Access (BKA) Join algorithm. The algorithm supports inner join, outer join and semi-join operations, including nested outer joins and nested semi-joins.

View the complete list of changes »

Download Now »

New Release of MySQL Enterprise Monitor 2.0.4 (GA)

MySQL Enterprise Monitor 2.0.4.7141 has been released. This is a maintenance release of Enterprise Monitor 2.0 that fixes a number of bugs. Fixes include:

An invalid path was shown in the error message if the upgrade installer failed to find the previous install location (Bug #42200)
Service Agent configuration files had global read privileges on the filesystem (Bug #41794)
SNMP trap messages were using 127.0.0.1 for the senders address because there was no way to override it (Bug #41361)

Download Now (Login Required) »

Sign-up MySQL Enterprise 30-day Trial to try MySQL Enterprise Monitor » (http://www.mysql.com/trials/)

New Release of MySQL GUI Tools 5.0 Release 16 for Windows (GA)

We are pleased to announce a new maintenance release of the legacy GUI Tools Bundle. This is a Windows-only release and contains a number of bug fixes. MySQL GUI Tools for 5.0 is a bundled package including MySQL GUI tools for the MySQL 4.1/5.0/5.1 server. It consists of the following products:

MySQL Administrator 1.2.16 GA
MySQL Query Browser 1.2.16 GA
MySQL Migration Toolkit 1.1.16 GA

and offers a complete set of graphical tools to configure, manage and work with the MySQL Server.

Download Now »

Read the Documentation »

New Release of MySQL Workbench 5.1.7 for Linux and Mac OS X (Alpha)

Finally it's time to publish new material to show what we were up to in the past weeks. This time we have the first "dual-platform-release" of MySQL Workbench 5.1.7 alpha version - we published binaries for Linux and OS X along with the source package. Please note, that in terms of UI, Linux- and OS X- versions aren't yet on the same level of completeness. While we are nearly done having all features onboard for the Linux-build, we still have some more checkmarks to fill on the OS X checklist - but we are catching up.

Download Now »

Learn More »

Hints & Tips

Article: MySQL Query Analyzer Review

Keith Murphy

I had the chance to review the new Query Analyzer program from Sun over the last few days. I am very interested in how it performs as I have previously not had a chance to see the program in action. So, before getting into what the Query Analyzer can (and cannot) do let's look at what Sun says it does.

Read the Article »

Article: GlassFish and MySQL, Part 3: Creating and Using a Web Service

Ed Ort and Carol McDonald

This is the third article in a series of articles on GlassFish and MySQL. In Part 3, you'll learn how easy it is to convert the controller layer of the web application, that is, the layer of the application that performs the CRUD operations -- into a web service. You'll also learn how to create a client for the web service.

Read the Article »

PlanetMySQL Blog Posts

The following blog posts are from PlanetMySQL. PlanetMySQL is an aggregation of blogs and news from MySQL developers, users and employees. It is an excellent source of all things about MySQL, including technical tips and best practices.

Visit PlanetMySQL »

Submit Your Blog Feed »

PlanetMySQL Blog: Optimizer tricks

Dathan Pattishall

When you write good SQL that use indexes properly, there is one more obstacle that can slow down your app. The MySQL optimizer. From versions 3.23 to 5.1 the optimizer has been a problem for me. In MySQL 6.0 SUN/MySQL has resources improving it.

Read the PlanetMySQL BlogPost »

PlanetMySQL Blog: The Five Minute DBA: Fix your slow database - my.cnf parameters

Matt Yonkovit

I thought I would write a few blog posts on what I am calling the 5 minute DBA. The content of these is interesting or frequently asked questions that I get when out on a gig, you know those ones were a developer or a dba runs up and says: "Hey how do I do this?" I figure, If nothing else maybe it will save me some time in future.

Read the PlanetMySQL BlogPost »

PlantMySQL Blog: Triggers Use Case Compilation, Part II

Shlomi Noach

In Triggers Use Case Compilation, Part I, I've demonstrated some triggers use scenarios.

We continue our examples of triggers usage.

Read the PlanetMySQL BlogPost »

PlanetMySQL Blog: MySQL: Using CONNECT to Quickly Verify Replication Health

Gerry Narvaja

According to the MySQL Reference Manual's section on SHOW SLAVE STATUS Syntax, it shows information corresponding to the slave thread in the slave server. When replication is broken, however, or not working properly due to network issues between master and slave, this information may not be accurate. This has improved over recent releases, but it's still not perfect.

The question, then, is: how to be 100% sure (or as close as you can get to 100%) that replication is running fine? The answer, as offered by Sheeri: use CONNECT.

Read the PlanetMySQL BlogPost »

PlanetMySQL Blog: Putting MySQL 5.x features to good use. Of Events, Information_schema etc.

Anders Karlsson

When I first looked at EVENTs in MySQL 5.1, I was a bit unclear on what the advantages were. Hey, what's wrong with crontab? I can tell you one thing, that I realized after I started using EVENTs that they can do, that a crontab event cannot: You do NOT have to put a password in a script! None really said anything about this obvious advantage, and it was only after I started using EVENTs that I figured out that obvious advantage.

Read the PlanetMySQL BlogPost »

PlanetMySQL Blog: Another MySQL Proxy Tutorial

Chris Calender

Since MySQL Proxy 0.7.0 is soon to be released, I thought another brief tutorial would be helpful. Today we ran across a good use case, and so I wanted to pass this along. If you've not used Proxy yet, this is a great opportunity to get your feet wet with it and some Lua.

Read the PlanetMySQL BlogPost »

PlanetMySQL Blog: Using your Mac as a local web development environment

Vid Luther

My last post was for all users, technical and non. This post is for the techies who know me, and are switching. Some are coming from Windows, some from Linux, some are designers who need to do some local development. So, I'll try to keep this post as simple as possible, and perhaps more like a tutorial, where you can "copy and paste" commands and files.

Read the PlanetMySQL BlogPost »

PlanetMySQL Blog: MySQL Performance Schema

Peter Gulutzan

Today we're taking the wraps off the best MySQL feature of 2009: Performance Schema. It monitors multitudinous low-level server events and provides them in tables inside a new "database" called, surprisingly, PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA.

Read the PlanetMySQL BlogPost »

Industry Spotlight: MySQL in Telco

MySQL Cluster at GSMA Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, February 16-19

MySQL will be exhibiting at this year's GSMA Mobile World Congress to be held in Barcelona between February 16 and 19, 2009. Come and see MySQL Cluster Carrier Grade Edition in action as it provides 99.999% data availability and millisecond response times while supporting a SIP communicator application.

MySQL will be part of the Sun Microsystems stand, located in Hall 2, Booth #2C12.

Fill the inquiry form to book a meeting with a MySQL representative at the Congress » (http://www.mysql.com/about/contact/)

New Best Practice: Getting Started with MySQL Cluster

Be a Hero! Deliver high performance and high availability for a fraction of the cost of other database technologies. Resources in this new best practice guide enable you to:

Simplify the process of evaluating MySQL Cluster
Build realistic prototypes and proofs-of-concept
Understand how the technology can deliver scalable, real-time performance and carrier-grade availability
Explore use cases for MySQL Cluster
Explain how MySQL and Sun Microsystems can assist with evaluation, architectural design, solution testing, deployment and production support

Read the New Best Practice Guide » (http://www.mysql.com/products/database/cluster/get-started.html)

Reducing latency of queries with NBD Cluster realtime extensions

Yves Trudeau

I was recently involved in a project where the main requirement was the smallest possible latency for queries. The queries were simple insert and update statements, the update being by primary key.

Read the Article »

Technical Whitepaper: High Performance Database Solutions for Multiplay Service Architectures

What are multiplay services and what do they mean from an architectural perspective? Service oriented architectures for multiplay entail challenging database requirements. How can they deliver the necessary performance while maintaining the flexibility to support new features? This article answers these questions and explains how intelligent database design and tuning can improve performance many times over, using the high performance MySQL Cluster relational database as an example.

Read the White Paper Now » (http://www.mysql.com/why-mysql/white-papers/mysql_wp_ipl_multiplay.php)

On-Demand Webinar: Deploying a Carrier Grade Service Execution Environment

In this webinar we explore how the Sun GlassFish Communications Server, developed under the SailFin project, and MySQL Cluster Carrier Grade Edition enables Communication Service Providers to cost-effectively address the core requirements of Service Delivery Platform deployments in the delivery of new services over converged networks.

On-Demand Webinar: Converged Communications Services

The convergence of communication & entertainment services is creating multiple challenges for Communications Services Providers (CSPs) as well as Network Equipment Providers (NEPs). Some of these challenges are technical in nature, but others may be more cultural, requiring new organizational behaviors in order to remain relevant and competitive in the new online world.

In this webinar we compare the approaches and attitudes of the Web 2.0 industry and the Communications industry, as well as outlining the changes that CSPs and NEPs should embrace if they want to win in the new converged marketplace.

Events

MySQL Federal Migration Boot Camp: Best Practices for Migrating Applications to MySQL

Wednesday, February 18, 2009, Ronald Reagan Building, Washington, D.C.

Join MySQL and our partner, Carahsoft Technology Corp., for the 2nd Annual Federal Boot Camp designed to provide an intense half-day immersion program for government IT Managers, Application Developers, and Data Architects, DBAs responsible for planning or driving an application migration from a proprietary database such as Oracle or SQL Server, to MySQL.

Learn More and Register Now »

Live Webinar: MySQL 5.1 for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 10:00am PST

Join us for this informative technical webinar presented by Christopher Lavigne, Founder - Breadboard BI, and finalist in the MySQL Community's "5.1 Use Case Competition". Chris will be discussing how his company put together a business intelligence solution for the Boats.com and YachtWorld.com web properties. The project was developed using a 100% open source stack that leveraged Linux, Pentaho and MySQL, specifically 5.1's new table partitioning feature.

Live Webinar: Gearman: Distributed Job Queuing for MySQL-backed Applications

Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 10:00am PST

Join us for this informative technical webinar presented by Eric Day, Senior Software Engineer at Concentric, where we will learn the fundamentals of how to leverage Gearman, the open-source, distributed job queuing system to help build scalable MySQL-backed applications. Gearman was originally designed to help balance load at LiveJournal.com, but is also now used by other organizations such as Yahoo! and Digg.

Live Webinar: High-Performance Reporting and Analytics for MySQL Embedded Server

Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - 10:00am PST

With increasing numbers of users expecting web-speed response times on larger and larger data volumes, the demand for high-performance analytics continues to grow. Join MySQL and Kickfire for this webinar in which we will discuss:

How MySQL/Kickfire broke TPC-H data warehousing world records in price/performance
How you can now get high performance analytics on data volumes into the terabytes
Case studies of how embedded MySQL customers are using this new technology - achieving up to 600X improvement in some cases
How MySQL/Kickfire is enabling customers to increase revenues, differentiate from competition, and save costs

Training, Consulting, and Certification

Training: MySQL 5.1 Performance Tuning (4 Days)

Portland, Beijing, Montreal, Milano

The MySQL Performance Tuning course is designed for Database Administrators and others who wish to monitor and tune MySQL. This course will prepare you with the skills needed to utilize tools for monitoring, evaluating and tuning. You will evaluate the architecture, learn to use the tools, configure the database for performance, tune application and SQL code, tune the server, examine the storage engines, assess the application architecture, and learn general tuning concepts.

Consulting: MySQL Migration Jumpstart (4+ Days)

Sun's MySQL consultants use proven methodologies to help cutomers migrate from Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, DB2, and Informix to MySQL. A dedicated Sun's MySQL certified consultant will work closely with your team to:

Analyze your current infrastructure
Identify potential migration issues
Identify database and SQL incompatibilities
Migrate sample data to MySQL
Benchmark and load test against sample queries

Learn More » (http://www.mysql.com/consulting/packaged/migration.html)

Partners

We Want to Hear from YOU - Complete a Short MySQL Survey to Win a $100 American Express Gift Card

In an effort to better focus our strategic partnering resources on the features, services and solutions that are most needed by MySQL users, Sun's WW Alliances and Channel Sales Team is conducting a brief survey that should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. At the end of the survey, participants will have the opportunity to enter to win a $100 American Express Gift Card. And your feedback will help us shaping future partner strategy.

Fill the Survey Now »

Sun GlassFish Portfolio - A complete, cost-efficient open Web application platform

For enterprises looking for low-cost, high-scale alternatives to proprietary Web application platform software, the Sun GlassFish Portfolio is a leader in price performance features amongst application platform solutions. The GlassFish Portfolio is a complete open source Web application stack with an extensive and growing community supporting both Java and dynamic languages.

Sun GlassFish Portfolio combined with MySQL Enterprise Server is a winning combination for cost containment of small to large scale mission-critical environments.

Gain valuable insight for your enterprise. Read the "Build a High Performance, Open Web Platform for Your Enterprise with Sun GlassFish Portfolio" white paper.

Download the White Paper Now »

Learn More »

Live Webinar: Developing MySQL-Backed Applications with Netbeans and Java RESTful Web Services

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - 10:00am PST

Join us for this informative technical webinar presented by Carol McDonald, Java Architect at Sun Microsystems, where she will demonstrate how to leverage the latest version of the Netbeans IDE to develop RESTful Web Services and clients deployed on Glassfish with MySQL.