Certification first day - 110 exams

110 exams delivered on the first day of the UC! That was despite Wifi Saturation. O'Reilly has provided a few more 'hard line' to help fight the problem.

Exams are in the Magnolia room (opposite the Hyatt registration desk, jut past the escalators) from 8:00 AM to 3:00PM. And the cost is still $25!

Certification at the UC start

Your intrepid MySQL Cart Team opened the doors thirty minutes early to the Magnolia room and Robert Bochenski was the first one to start an exam this morning. Exams are $25 and we will be letting folks into until 3:00PM. Some come by and take a certification exam.

And at 1PM, I am hosting a 30 minute Certification Q&A session about current exams, future exams, and anything else you want to cover.

Cert Team at the UC

Ricky Ho and I are busy at the UC ... pulling our hair out. There are no certification exams on Monday but we found all sorts of network glitches. The Hyatt had some network ports blocked that just happened to be the ones we use for online exams. And the Sun Remote Lab Data Center had a glitch over the weekend that kept the virtual images from starting.

The picture is from Kai Voigt's tutorial on DBA certification. The room is full and I pop n and out between 'hair pulling' sessions. The attendees are asking good questions and I am sure we will have some new certified DBAs by the end of the conference.

MySQL Certification in first quarter of 2009

The first quarter of 2009 was very good for MySQL Certifications. 496 Exams taken and 208 certifications earned. But in regards to the current economic problems, how does this compare?

1st three months of each year

Year	Exams	Certs
2005	134	100
2006	248	121
2007	348	101
2008	450	153
2009	496	208

Not too badly, as it turns out!

MySQL Certification Exams at the Users Conference

There will be big changes for those taking certification exams at the MySQL Users Conference. Once again we are offering $25 MySQL exams which is a big discount from the regular $200 price.

Last year we ran the exams as a drop-in service and it was well received. So we will continue to run it as a drop-in service. No need for an appointment. We will be in the Magnolia Room from 8:30 AM to about 4:00 PM but will not let anyone start an exam later than 3:00PM.

Be sure to bring your WiFi enabled laptop! Last year we killed a lot of trees and got a big workout printing thousands of exams and moving them around. This year the exams will be online. We will be reserving some hard lines for those taking the hands-on DBA 5.1 exam as they need to connect to the virtual servers in Colorado (that is if the O'Reilly folks can get the network gear) but everyone else will be using the wireless connections. Last year the wireless was heavily saturated at lunch and break times but the O'Reilly folks say that is a thing of the past (but please note this as a warning that the wisest of the exam takers will plan their exam times not to overlap major breaks and lunch).

What exams are offered? The Associate exam, the 5.1 Cluster DBA exam, the 5.0 DBA exams (both I and II), the 5.0 Developer exams (both I and II), and the new DBA 5.1 hands-on exam. We will not have study guides on hands so plan accordingly. And Kai Voight is presenting a DBA Certification tutorial on Monday and I highly recommend it to those taking any of our exams.

I had hope to offer the new 5.1 Developer exam but it is still being incubated.

If you have never taken a MySQL exam before, please go to http://www.pearsonvue.com/mysql and create an account. We hand the exam records off the information you enter there and not having and account will slow down processing for your exam. So take it easy on the MySQL Certification Team and your results will be sped to you.

And I am supposed to talk on Tuesday in the Magnolia room (where we have the exams) on MySQL Certification. If you have questions or want to help plot the future, please be there.

DBA 5.1 Exam Contents, Part 3 of 3

The optional section of the MySQL 5.1 DBA exam is a series of ten tasks and the candidate has to complete at least five of them. The five mandatory tasks are tests of core MySQL skills and the optional section is a test of other skills a candidate may have acquired.

All of these tasks can be completed in many different ways. For instance the first mandatory task includes removing three accounts. This can be done in one or more SQL statements. The candidate is graded on IF they accomplished the task and not the method used to accomplish the task.

The Optional Tasks

1. Copy a database


2. Create a fulltext search


3. Create a view to select certain data from a table


4. Alter a table


5. Update a compressed table


6. Create a recurring event


7. Update a global variable


8. Use the INFORMATION_SCHEMA data in views to return instance information


9. Import a CSV file


10. Partition or repartition a table

Once again, do at least five of these optional tasks. It is suggested that a candidate do more that just in case the task is a little more complex or has a subtle twist not apparent at first site.

What the heck does that mean? For instance, one early tested created an event following the information from the help command on the mysql command line client. But it was not a recurring event, just a one time event. That was a simple mistake but costly.

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Next up: Getting ready for exams at the User Conference! Yes, there are short cuts to make your testing experience EASIER at the UC.

DBA 5.1 exam contents, Part 2 of 3

The MyQl 5.1 DAB exam is series of tasks. The material was divided into a mandatory section and an optional section. The mandatory section is a test of core MySQL DBA skills and you must pass all five. The option section, to be detailed in the next post, is made up of ten tasks and the candidate must past at least five of them. This may sound simple but try cramming a full day of DBA work into two hours and you will have a good idea of what taking this new exam is like.

The Mandatory Tasks

1. Account maintenance




• Add, delete and modify accounts using the mysql database.


• Assign privileges for a user on a table and column basis.


• Reset passwords


• Locate 'anonymous' accounts (where password AND user are both = '')
  


2. Index management




• Add, modify, and delete indexes.
  


3. MyIsam table maintenance




• Check MyIsam tables for problems and fix them.




4. InnoDB table maintenance




• Know how to restore an InnoDB table from a backup.
  
• Use the binary log to recover lost data
  


5. Backups




• Be able to backup up entire databases or explicit tables.


• Know options for separating data and SQL.


• Be able to use options to drop tables, drop databases, save stored routines or triggers, and save files to specific locations.

This new exam is very straight forward but requires the candidate to demonstrate their skill. Next posting will cover the option section.

DBA 5.1 Exam Contents, Part 1 of 3

The MySQL DBA 5.1 Certification Exam is a big change from previous exams.

1. No multiple choice, true/false questions
   
2. Must be able to use MySQL
   
3. You are given the answers (in most cases) and must change the database to meet expectations
   
4. No study guide
   

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 to become a better MySQL Developer

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.

DBA 5.1 Exam

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.