Thanks to all who showed up at the North Texas MySQL Users Group Meeting on Monday night. We had two speakers, Pizza, and beer.
. It covers everything from installing and monitoring MySQL servers to tuning and scaling. This book is written in a clear, easy to read style and deserves to be on the bookshelf of any MySQL DBA. This will be one of those books that you will dog-ear pages and festoon with PostIt notes. 
. I have been using PHP back when it was called Personal Home Page (and using it with a free database from tcx.se called MySQL) and have a habit of skimming every PHP book I see in bookstores (and databases, Linux, and a few others; My family knows this and avoid my book store trips). Particularly interesting for those in the MySQL world is the information under Workload-driven Performance Tuning. I started skimming this book and realized that there was a lot of good information inside the covers that made it worthy of purchase.
for light riding. It is a re-telling of King Lear as written by the court fool. There is nothing in this book that will make your code run better or your server return data more efficiently but it a very funny read.
I have had a few MySQL DBAs ask about how to get started learning Oracle.
I will admit that it has been on my to-do list for quite a while1. It never hurts to know more than one database system and a great deal of DBA help wanted ads mention Oracle. Someone once said that you must make sure your capabilities exceed your limitations2 and recently I have been feeling limited when others have started to talk about Oracle capabilities.
So what does it take for a MySQL DBA to get their hands on their own Oracle instance? I used my Ubuntu box to go to Oracle's web site to get the free Oracle XE software.
The list of MySQL Certified Candidates will pass into history at the end of November. The data was moved into Sun's system last July and what remains on the MySQL certification list is not aging well.
The Sun Certmanager has most of the same features but does not let us pull records for display on a web page. You can still get verification of your credentials for a third part, such as a job interview or customer, but it now requires having an email sent to the third party with the information on how they can view the information.
We will live the old information up for the coming month for those of you who wish to double check your data in the Sun system.
On behalf of the MySQL Certification Team, both past and present, we have enjoyed watching the list expand over time. It was a very valuable tool with many uses but sadly it now goes into history. And thank you to all of you listed there.
Every wonder how Google plans for growth? Well, if you are in the Dallas / Fort Worth area on Monday, November 2nd you can find out exactly how they do it!
Strategic MySQL Planning for Complexity & Growth (i.e. MySQL Scaling for Dummies) will be presented by Tommy Falgout at the North Texas MySQL Users Group Meeting
Sometimes a data driven website is a simple matter. Sometimes it only starts out that way. Membership records can grow from dozens to hundreds to thousands (or more). Performance or historic logs can grow astronomically. The ongoing need to coordinate different sets of data can lead to outrageously complex schema and duplicate data. How can you avoid those troubles? There are ways. Tommy Falgout will talk about designing your database for growth and performance before those challenges become bottlenecks on your website.
Reference:
http://dallasphp.org/html/Topics.htm?article_id=178
The next meeting of the North Texas MySQL Users group will be Monday, November 2nd at 7:00 PM (Daylight savings time change on Sunday the 1st).
Tommy Falgout is a Sr. Application Developer at Yahoo! He started his journey at Y! with a background in PHP & MySQL. Since then he has expanded his horizon by becoming a certified MySQL DBA, managing the Yahoo! Live Flash Video architecture, dabbling in Oracle, MSSQL, Java, Flash, Flex and the occasional Perl when noone's looking. He welcomes challenges, questions and not afraid to admit he owns a scooter. On the side, he is actively trying to get rid of 1000+ rubber duckies, left at his house from a prank, at duckiehunt.com.
The previously scheduled presentation will be on making good queries with JOINS, subqueries, and UNIONs will be moved to December. If you want to learn how to get your data from your database faster, more efficiently, and easier then this is the session for you.
We meet in the Sun offices, Suite 700, 16000 Dallas Tollway. All are welcome, beginners encouraged to attend!
I did not mean to stir up a hornets nest!
I received a lot of feedback on the last blog entry on shutting down the old MySQL system and that included the lists of certified candidates. Yes, I know how valuable these lists are. But you might want to check this out ORACLE UNIVERSITY LAUNCHES CERTVIEW. I will see if I can get some details the next time we speak to the fine Oracle Certification folks.
The certification industry have started initiatives like the ITCC to allow you to have your certifications listed for viewing by a potential employers or the world at large. So do not worry that we are taking some draconian action and the knowledge of your accomplishments is being shoved into the great bit bucket in the sky. We just need a little time to transition from system to system (to system).
And feel free to ping us for updates at Certification@MySQL.com or by commenting below.
The MySQL Certification: Listing of MySQL Certified Users has been a valuable resource for many years. I have a small stack of emails from people who were recruited for jobs after someone spotted their names on the lists. But the lists are going away.
The vast majority of MySQL Certification information is now part of Sun's certification system and has been since the end of July. Prometric exam results feed into that system and not the MySQL system. The lists of certified users pulls from the now out of date MySQL system. That means the data from the listings are not up to date. There is no easy way to cross-tie the information from Sun's systems into the MySQL web system. So please spread the word that the lists are going away, most likely by the end of the calendar year.
The next meeting of the North Texas MySQL Users Group is next Monday and the presentation will be on designing database tables. This is part of a series for novices with MySQL and/or databases. Too often novices commit obvious sins like BIGINTs for any numeric storage field or indexing every column. EXPLAIN is a valuable tool in optimizing SELECT statements but too many DBAs do not discover it until well after they are stuck with a small, unruly group of badly designed tables.
Using EXPLAIN is seen as a 'dark art' by too many and hopefully we can get the novices in North Texas off on the right foot. The meeting is free and starts at 7:00 PM in the Sun Offices, Suite 700, 16000 Dallas Tollway, in Dallas. All are welcome and please try to be a bit early as the downstairs door automatically lock at seven sharp.
going under a review. The hands on exam for 5.1, which has been hindered by other chores, is also under construction. But I still have a fundamental question : What makes someone a MySQL Developer?
Jackalopes, like unicorns, are fabled creatures may be based on real creatures with injuries, growths, or encounters with taxidermists with too much spare time. What does that have to do with MySQL Certification you ask?
My copy of Pentaho Solutions: Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing with Pentaho and MySQL arrived last week. I need to disclose that I was originally hired by MySQL to replace one of this books authors, Roland Bouman. He told me a year ago that he was working on this book. And I have found that he is always investigating something interesting.
I am going through all the MySQL Cluster 5.1 DBA exam questions to bring up up to date with the latest release of the software. Part of this is reading all the comments exam candidates have left for a question, looking at what percentage of folks answered it correctly, and then making sure that the questions is still valid.
Reviewing the old exam questions shows some of them are badly dated. Prometric is beginning to offer the MySQL Exams as part of the Sun catalog. Currently only the Associate and Developer exams are listed but the DBA 5.0 and cluster exams are on the way.
| ID | Exam |
| 310-810 | DBA 5.0 I |
| 310-811 | DBA 5.0 II |
| 310-812 | Dev 5.0 I |
| 310-813 | Dev 5.0 II |
| 310-814 | Associate |
| 310-815 | Cluster DBA 5.1 |
I find myself working while on vacation this week. Originally I planned to give my younger son some 'seat time' so he can practice for his driving test. But he is resting after a frantic day driving the hills and valleys of the Fossil Rim Wildlife Park. Managing an unfamiliar vehicle on poor to bad roads while watching out for zebras, Emus, deer, and ostriches is not easy. There is something about teaching a person in their mid-teens to drive that points out how much experience at an activity brings proficiency. Many common tasks done over and over again become ingrained and automatic. Live avoiding animals in the road while driving or checking on data backups as a DBA. It is easy to forget all the little skills that need to be built to be able to handle a car or a database well.
That reminds me of the old joke about the DBA who asked the system admin is the systems were backed up every night. The sysadmin then walked over to the server rack and physically pushes the rack before answering 'yup'!
| Year | Exams | Certs |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 134 | 100 |
| 2006 | 248 | 121 |
| 2007 | 348 | 101 |
| 2008 | 450 | 153 |
| 2009 | 496 | 208 |
The MySQL DBA 5.1 Certification Exam is a big change from previous exams.
The exam is divided into two sections -- mandatory and optional tasks. The mandatory tasks are core knowledge that every DBA should be able to perform even under heavy pressure, early in the morning, while suffering from sleep deprivation, or with a Dilbert style PHB looking over your shoulder. The optional tasks cover many different facets of MySQL.
Exam candidates will get their own MySQL instance with which to do their assignments. When they have completed all they can or time runs out, the instance is checked to see how well the DBA certification candidate was able to shape MySQL to what was desired. No more will you have to remember if the -p switch is for the port, password, or something else that begins with the letter 'p'.
Right now hands-on or performance based tests are on the bleeding edge of technology for testing companies (Pearson Vue, Prometric, Kryterion, etc.) are looking for robust and secure ways to offer these exams. So the DBA 5.1 Exam will have only limited availability until the exam vendors can support us. But the exam will be at the April MySQL Users Conference and part of MySQL for Database Administrator Classes.
If you are studying the MySQL 5.0 DBA material and are ready to take an exam, please do so! We will not be expiring these certifications and they are still a good judge of your knowledge of MySQL.
So why change the format at this time? How many times have you heard that a certification is not worth the paper it is written on? Funny the same folks do not say the same thing about car drivers licenses or pilot licenses. The reason is that for those certification there is a major component of hands-on testing. The folks who earn the MySQl DBA 5.1 Certification can really administer a database.
Employers will know that a job candidate with a MySQL 5.1 Certification has proven their proficiency with a real database under demanding circumstances. This certification is earned by hard work and not rote memorization.
I will miss the study guides and have found both editions to be valuable references. MySQl Certification will no longer have a hand in the process of creating the study guides and the previous authors are extremely busy. And with hands-on exams we can tell you want you need to do to pass the exam and that you will see in parts 2 and 3 of this blog.
How do you get better with MySQL if you are in a small shop (or you are the shop)? Reading the code of other folks only goes so far if you can not ask them about the details. The more advanced books on MySQL are great but sometimes your environment does not allow you to follow their examples. Time and experience will help eventually but what if you need or want to get better in a hurry?
The MySQL Developer Techniques class is a new offering from MySQL Training is designed to 'want to utilize advanced SQL features to create queries that will result in better results and improved performance of their database queries'. I can guarantee that the curriculum crew have put a lot of effort into developing this class to make sure you really get the best value for your money.
This is a three day class lead by an instructor and includes many hands-on labs. I get emails from folks who have passed the Developer Certification but are seeking better performance out of their databases and themselves. So if you are looking to improve your skills, I highly recommend this course.
The first public offering of the MySQL DBA 5.1 Exam was given in Atlanta this week. After completing the week long MySQL for Database Administrators, an intrepid group agreed to be 'guinea pigs' and take the daunting exam.
The photo shows the test candidates working hard. Thanks to instructor Ian Wrigley and the students for taking up the challenge of this initial exam offering.
Previous MySQL exams are multiple choice while the DBA 5.1 exam is a performance based test. This means they had to login to a virtual server, administer several databases, and fix problems on a running MySQL instance.
Look for more updates on the DBA 5.1 exams (and others) here soon.
Elance Cites Surging Demand for MySQL Experts is an interesting article for several reasons. For many years advocating Open Source products was seen in many circles of management as akin to promotion of some sort of social anarchy. But now they see the cost savings, the performance gains, and the flexibility that a product like MySQL can provide.
Check out the jobs Elance has for MySQL talent.
DFW MySQL Users!
Monday night at seven will be the next meeting of North Texas MySQL Meetup. This meeting will not be MySQL-centric but will discuss creating Facebooks apps and using the MySQL Quiz as an example. The address is suite 700, 16000 Dallas Tollway. Please RSVP at the website so we we know to keep an eye out stragglers.
Meetings Held the Third Thursday of Every Month
Next Session: Thurs Feb 19th (6:30PM Pizza, 7:00PM Program)
Topic: Open Source Roundtable - share your Open Source experiences with the group
Speaker: Jim McGuinness will kick off the discussion with updates on MySQL, Glassfish and Openoffice
Location: Dallas Sun Office, Mansion Conference Room
16000 North Dallas Parkway, Suite 700
Register here:
https://www.suneventreg.com//cgi-bin/register.pl?EventID=2640
Sponsor - Wisemen Consultants
http://www.wisemen.net/
$result = mysql_query("SELECT count(*) FROM fb.quiz");
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$randomMax = $row[0];$randomNbrs = array();
$randomCounter = 0;
while ($randomCounter < $NbrQuestions) {
$newRandom = rand(1,$randomMax);
if (!in_array($newRandom,$randomNbrs)) {
$randomCounter++;
array_push($randomNbrs,$newRandom);
}
}
require_once 'facebook.php';
$appapikey = "yourappapikeyhere";
$appsecret = "yourappsecrethere";
$facebook = new Facebook($appapikey, $appsecret);
$user_id = $facebook->require_login();
echo "Hello world!";
?>
<fb:tabs>
<fb:tab-item href='http://www.mysql.com/certification' title='MySQL Certification' selected='true' />
<fb:tab-item href='http://www.mysql.com/certification/selftest/core/index.php' title='Sample Certification Questions' />
<tb:tab-item href='http://www.mysql.com/training' title='MySQL Classes' />
</fb:tabs>
The MySQL Cluster product seems to intimidate a lot of folks with its complexity. The North Texas MySQL Meetup had a presentation at the January meeting titled 'A Gentle Introduction to MySQL Cluster' where a cluster was setup on a single laptop. The presentation was full of information that needs to be shared to encourage others to try out this valuable piece of software.
The following covers how to set up a cluster on a single computer. The cluster will consist of two data nodes, a SQL node, and a management node. In this case the SQL node and the management node will be on one system. The data nodes will be virtual systems running on the same host. This is not the optimal performance configuration but it will let those new to MySQL Cluster try out the product with a minimal investment in equipment and time.
You will need two free software products -- Virtualbox and MySQl Cluster. You will also need a CDROM/DVD/ISO-image of your favorite supported operating system. In this example Virtualbox was installed on a MacBook and a copy of the Ubuntu desktop ISO was downloaded.
The latest MySQL Cluster binaries is 6.3 as this is written. For those of you not used to Cluster, the version number is out of sync with the MySQL Server GA release number so do not panic that 5.1 was just GA-ed and now 6.3 is on the loose.
The MacBook's IP is 192.168.15.101 in the examples while '103 and '104 are the virtual systems.
Install Virtualbox and then install at least two virtual systems. These two system will be the data nodes. In the example below, Ubuntu was installed, the virtual images were set to use the host's network card, and the software updates for Ubuntu where installed.
A new directory was created, /var/lib/mysql-cluster, and ownership was set to user mysql. Then the MySQL Cluster software binaries were downloaded. The software was installed in /usr/local and the instructions for installing a binary were followed.
Now repeat all that for the second data node and modify the following for your /etc/my.cnf
[mysqld] |
Install the MySql Cluster software on your SQL node, in this case the MacBook. Create a directory owned by mysql named /var/lib/mysql-cluster. Grab your favorite my.cnf from a previous installation or use one of the examples from the support-files directory and add the following.
[mysqld] |
You need put the following in you /var/lib/mysql-cluster and match it to your network addresses.
[NDB_MGMD] |
On the SQL/Management node, run ndb_mgmd and then open a new terminal window to run ndb_mgm. On each of the data nodes, run ndbd --initial (you can drop the --initial after the first successful start) then start mysqld with mysqld_safe --user=mysql&. Back to the SQL Node and start mysqld just like you did on the data nodes. In your window where you left ndb_mgm running, enter show and you should see something like
bash-3.2$ /usr/local/mysql/bin/ndb
-- NDB Cluster -- Management Client --
ndb_mgm> show
Connected to Management Server at: 192.168.15.101:1186
Cluster Configuration
---------------------
[ndbd(NDB)] 2 node(s)
id=2 @192.168.15.104 (mysql-5.1.30 ndb-6.3.20, Nodegroup: 0, Master)
id=3 @192.168.15.103 (mysql-5.1.30 ndb-6.3.20, Nodegroup: 1)
[ndb_mgmd(MGM)] 1 node(s)
id=1 @192.168.15.101 (mysql-5.1.30 ndb-6.3.20)
[mysqld(API)] 4 node(s)
id=4 @192.168.15.103 (mysql-5.1.30 ndb-6.3.20)
id=5 @192.168.15.104 (mysql-5.1.30 ndb-6.3.20)
id=6 @192.168.15.101 (mysql-5.1.30 ndb-6.3.20)
id=7 (not connected, accepting connect from any host)
ndb_mgm>
Note that in this case Node #2 is the Master data node and in Nodegroup #0 while Node #3 is in Nodegroup #1. There are lots of good articles online on MySQL Cluster but I really recommend the MySQl 5.1 Cluster Certification Guide as a reference book.
So do not be afraid of the configuration complexity or worry that you need several computer systems with corresponding network gear. Give MySQL Cluster a try!
2008 was a good year for MySQL Certification. 1,986 folks took exams which is a 14.6% gain over 2007. 736 candidates earned certifications and that is a 14.4% gain. The biggest gains were in Associate (up 300%) and DBA (up 35%) certifications. Oddly the Developer cert was down 40%.
So what happens in 2009?
The DBA and Developer exams are both changing format to performance based tests. Candidates will be tested on a virtual server and provided with a list of tasks that need to be accomplished. The DBA exam is actually in alpha est and about to go to beta. This testing is being done on two sets of virtual environments which provide their own qualities. The Linux environment is probably closer to what most DBA's working environment but the Windows version allows the candidate more control over the system. More news here later in the month.
Computer certifications will take a big leap forward with the ITCC. The ITCC allows the companies that certify a common platform to promote certification, crack down on test cheat companies, and provide a location that will list all your certifications from member organizations.
I hope you all have a great year!