In this month’s Database Journal piece we look at the spectrum of MySQL storage engines available, and examine what some of their strengths and weaknesses are.
Archive for category mysql
I recently presented a webcast hosted by O’Reilly and Webex. In it I take you on a step-by-step installation of DRBD and MySQL. I start by using Sun’s Virtualbox to create to virtual machines running CentOS. I then explain how to configure them with virtual external drives to use for DRBD. I next configure the network interfaces to support routed packets into and out of the boxes. Then I install various packages with yum, configure drbd and finally install MySQL as the last step. You can follow along at the command line and do it yourself on a Windows, Mac or Linux box.
DBJ – Heartbeat Setup
Feb 12
In the last of our three part series on MySQL high availability we discuss the Linux Heartbeat project, and how it can be used to automate failover between two MySQL databases.
Heartbeat exposes a virtual IP address for use by the database, and manages it as well. In the event that one server becomes unavailable, Heartbeat will revoke primary control of DRBD from that node, hand over the IP address to the alternate node, mount the DRBD device, and start MySQL. MySQL’s InnoDB engine will then perform crash recovery, rollback uncommitted transactions, and startup.
Read the full article at Database Journal – DRBD & MySQL, Heartbeat Setup
In part two of our article on DRBD and High Availability, we take you step-by-step through setting up Sun’s Virtualbox software, creating a couple of VMs, and then installing CentOS on those. These two virtual Linux boxes then serve as two nodes in our DRBD mirrored disk setup which we use as a platform to install MySQL.
DRBD, MySQL and the Virtualbox Setup – Database Journal
Keep on the lookout for our third part in the series next month. In that issue we’ll explain how the Linux Heartbeat project can be used to control the whole setup, and provide automatic failover in the event that one node goes down.
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
webcast – DRBD and MySQL
Nov 24
I’ve teamed up with O’Reilly once again to do another webcast this coming January. In it, I’ll provide a step-by-step live tutorial of setting up DRBD with MySQL on a couple of virtual servers. After the live demo there will be time for Q&A as well, so hope you all can tune in.
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.
I recently did a webcast for O’Reilly and Associates on MySQL Clustering Setup and configuration.
DBJ: Five More Dials To Turn
Jul 10
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.