Oracle + Open Source
two worlds inexorably colliding

Presentation Abstract
More and more MySQL databases are sneaking their way into the Oracle environment.  If you’re being asked to
managing these new databases, you may not know where to start.

We’ll give and overview of MySQL specifically for Oracle DBAs.  Since you already have the requisite conceptual
framework as an Oracle DBA, a quickstart will help you get up to speed with how things are done in the MySQL
world.

Outline

Introduction
1. Installation
2. User Management, Authentication + Privileges
3. Backup and Recovery
4. Replication Solutions Compared to DataGuard
5. Transactions, Query Optimization + Profiling
6. Views and Partitioning
7. Server Tuning and Optimization
Conclusions

Learning Objective 1
Bring Oracle DBAs up to speed with MySQL

Learning Objective 2
Feature comparison between Oracle + MySQL, what’s there, what’s not etc.

Learning Objective 3
Tuning and Profiling MySQL from an Oracle perspective.

Attendee Prerequisites
Intermediate Oracle DBA experience required.

Presentation Abstract
Technology consulting is always one part science, one part thinking on your toes, and one part client relationship.
In a recent engagement at a large educational software services company we were faced with a very challenging
problem.  They were running up against a wall as their user base steadily grew.  They were growing at a steady
rate, but their database systems were becoming a bottleneck to the application performance and thus the service
they offered their customers.

We looked at the technology involved to scale up based on their growth rates, but found it was becoming cost
prohibitive.  They asked us how it could be done cheaper.

Stepping back from the problem, we devised a very unorthodox solution, which upon inspection may seem rather
obvious.  Yet the business had been doing things a certain way for so long, they had not considered this alternate
view.

Outline

Introduction
1. Initial meetings with client, discuss problems
2. Review of database systems
3. Cost estimate based on current growth patterns.
4. Discussions with client, and further review
5. Creative problem solving to do more with less hardware.
Conclusions

Learning Objective 1
Measuring growth of database applications

Learning Objective 2
Discussing business needs, and projecting requisite technology needs and requirements.

Learning Objective 3
Balancing technology costs with business requirements, and using creative problem solving to increase

Attendee Prerequisites
Beginning DBA skills.
Basic understanding of internet platform, client, webserver, and database.

Just submitted a couple proposals for O’Reilly’s MySQL Conference in April 2009, Santa Clara, CA.  Fingers crossed!

Proposal details

Proposer

Sean Hull (hullsean@gmail.com)

Speakers

Sean Hull (hullsean@gmail.com)

Description

Drupal is an open-source CMS that has a huge user base and community. I recently managed the MySQL side of the equation for a Drupal-based website of a large television brand. There are some documents out there for high performance MySQL with Drupal, I found them lacking. So I did extensive benchmarking, and profiling of queries, to find the best overall setup.

Session type: 45 minute conference session

Topics: Business and Case Studies

Abstract

Drupal is the open-source CMS du-jour. It has become very popular very quickly, but performance isn’t necessarily tip-top out of the box.

In our implementation of MySQL for a drupal-based website of a large television brand, we went down the path of doing our own benchmarking for our expected pageviews, and ares of the site we thought would get the most traffic. We benchmark the base set of modules, and our own extensions as well using apachebench, http_load, supersmack, and sql-bench. We then optimized the queries inside those modules using various MySQL profiling tools such as EXPLAIN, innotop, slow query log, and show status.

In this presentation we discuss the site, the business requirements, the benchmarking tools, profiling tools, and the final results. It provides a window into the workings of a large high-traffic internet website.

Just submitted a couple proposals for O’Reilly’s MySQL Conference in April 2009, Santa Clara, CA.  Fingers crossed!

Proposal details

Proposer

Sean Hull (hullsean@gmail.com)

Speakers

Sean Hull (hullsean@gmail.com)

Description

MySQL has a number of great features for managing archival data, and very large tables. We look at the MERGE storage engine first. Then we look at views which can hide many tables behind the scenes. And lastly we look at partitioned tables.

Session type: 45 minute conference session

Topics: Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence

Abstract

MySQL has some very powerful features for large databases now available in 5.1.

We’ll look at the MERGE storage engine first. Then we’ll take a look at views, and the strengths and weaknesses there. And lastly we’ll consider partitioning as an option.

Each of these solutions has pros and cons. When you consider performance, ease of administration, and manageability, they all have tradeoffs.

Just submitted a couple proposals for O’Reilly’s MySQL Conference in April 2009, Santa Clara, CA.  Fingers crossed!

Proposer

Sean Hull (hullsean@gmail.com)

Speakers

Sean Hull (hullsean@gmail.com)

Description

MySQL Replication is powerful technology, but many things can trip you up. Sometimes the slaves get out of sync with the master, or dump errors into their logfiles. Sometimes replication just can’t keep up. In this presentation will explain how to verify with checksums, avoid traps in your code, monitor, and even help you improve the performance of your replication setup.

Abstract

There are a few big gotchas with MySQL’s statement based replication. Non-deterministic functions can cause the slave to get out of sync, mixing innodb and MyISAM tables, to name just a few. What you need to do is watch for errant and incompatible SQL, and then verify that your setup is correct. Verification can be done with checksums on the tables, and comparing those against the slave copies.

We’ll discuss all this, and the tools and techniques you can use to bulletproof your own replication setup. We’ll also discuss performance tuning. If your slave is getting slowly further and further behind, there are techniques, parameters, and re-architecting that can improve its speed and performance.

The fifth and last abstract submitted for the O’Reilly MySQL Conference in April 2008.

As an independent consultant, there are quite a few trouble spots I see repeatedly. I’ll discuss five of them, and how to avoid them in your own infrastructure.

As an independent consultant for twelve years, I’ve encountered a lot of interesting and challenging projects. I’ll discuss five different cases, and what lessons I took away from each.

1. Intro
2. The Right Hardware
3. Importance of Good Testing
4. Patchwork or Good Design
5. Don’t Mix Opposites
6. Use The Technology
7. Conclusion

The fourth in a series of five abstracts for the O’Reilly MySQL Conference in April 2008.

Learn how to audit your systems, and run through the right checklists so you can sleep better at night knowing your systems are more secure.

Security is on everyone’s radar these days. You may be wondering yourself whether your database systems are really as secure as they should be. We’ll discuss some of the latest vulnerabilities, and what you can do to protect your systems.

1. Introduction
2. Authentication
3. SQL Injection
4. OS Security
5. Network Security
6. Conclusions

This is the third in a series of five abstracts submitted to the O’Reilly MySQL Conference in April 2008.

MySQL has a great facility for creating a read-only failover database. We’ll show you how to setup, start, failover, and monitor it.

Setting up MySQL to have a master + slave failover capability might be intimidating, but it needn’t be.

1. Intro
2. Anatomy of MySQL Replication
3. Initial Master copy
4. Setup + starting the slave
5. Failover from Master
6. Adding another slave
7. Monitoring your slave db
8. Conclusions

The second in a series of five abstracts for the O’Reilly MySQL Conference in April 2008.

Inevitably hackers are trying to get at your data, so you mine as well know what they can and can’t do. What better way to discover where you’re vulnerable than hacking your own systems.

Operating Systems have bugs, Database Software has bugs, and so does your application, probably. A better question is how hackable are you? We’ll look at some of the nefarious ways intruders can get in, so you’ll better know how secure your systems really are.

1. Intro
2. OS level
3. Database level
4. Application level
5. Conclusions

I’ve just put together my abstracts for O’Reilly’s MySQL Conference in April 2008. Some of them might sound familiar…

Learn to watch your database like a fitness diet. Trim down the SQL queries, use the right hardware, and monitor the right metrics to keep it running fast.

There are healthy databases and their are unhealthy ones. We’ll take a look at what you feed your database, and how to keep it fit with just the right diet of hardware, configuration, and SQL query tuning.

1. Introduction - Diet of a Champion Database
2. Disk, Memory, CPU - Body by Intel
3. Applications - Lean & Fit
4. SQL Queries - High Fiber, Low Fat
5. Conclusions

This is the fifth in a series of abstracts I’ve submitted for the Collaborate 2008 conference in Denver CO.
There are healthy databases and their are unhealthy ones. We’ll take a look at what you feed your database, and how to keep it fit with just the right diet of hardware, configuration, and SQL query tuning.

1. Introduction - Diet of a Champion Database
2. Disk, Memory, CPU - Body by Intel
3. Applications - Lean & Fit
4. SQL Queries - High Fiber, Low Fat
5. Conclusions

This is the fourth in a series of abstracts I’ve submitted for Collaborate 2008 in Denver CO.
As an independent consultant for twelve years, I’ve encountered a lot of interesting and challenging projects. I’ll discuss five different cases, and what lessons I took away from each.

1. Intro
2. The Right Hardware
3. Importance of Good Testing
4. Patchwork or Good Design
5. Don’t Mix Opposites
6. Use The Technology
7. Conclusion

This is the third in a series of abstracts I’ve submitted for Collaborate 2008 in Denver CO.

Security is on everyone’s radar these days. You may be wondering yourself whether your database systems are really as secure as they should be. We’ll discuss some of the latest vulnerabilities, and what you can do to protect your systems.

1. Introduction
2. Authentication
3. Privilege Escalation
4. SQL Injection
5. OS Security
6. Network Security
7. Conclusions

This is the second in a series of abstracts I’ve submitted for the Collaborate 2008 conference in Denver CO.

A little known fact is that Oracle’s standby technology - the stuff DataGuard is built on top of - is available in Standard Edition of Oracle. With a little elbow grease, and some simple scripts, we can have a rudimentary and functioning HA solution in Oracle SE.

1. Intro
2. Anatomy of a Standby Database
3. What’s there in Oracle SE
4. Setup standby
5. Shipping logs
6. Applying logs
7. Verifying setup
8. Manual Failover
9. Conclusions

This is the first in a series of abstracts I’ve submitted for Collaborate 2008 in Denver CO.

Marketing is one thing, bulletproof technology is quite another. Operating Systems have bugs, Database Software has bugs, and so does your application, probably. A better question is how hackable are you? We’ll look at some of the nefarious ways intruders can get in, so you’ll better know how secure your systems really are.

1. Unbreakable As a Pie In the Sky
2. OS level
3. Database level
4. Application level
5. Conclusions