This is the first of a series of posts about business intelligence tools, particularly OLAP (or online analytical processing) tools using MySQL and other free open source software. OLAP tools are a part of the larger topic of business intelligence, a topic that has not had a lot of coverage on MPB. Because of this, [...]
What does Handler_read_rnd mean?
MySQL’s SHOW STATUS command has two counters that are often confusing and result in “what does that mean?” questions: Handler_read_rnd Handler_read_rnd_next As I understand it, there is some historical context to the choice of names here, hearkening back to before I was involved with MySQL, way back when it was a wrapper around ISAM tables [...]
Two Types of MySQL Users
In comments to my previous post I got number number of comments saying if MySQL would not have multiple storage engine interface it would not allow people to do various very cool stuff. And I agree with this. The question is how cool you want your database operation to be ? Visiting customers I see [...]
Air traffic queries in MyISAM and Tokutek (TokuDB)
This is next post in series Analyzing air traffic performance with InfoBright and MonetDB Air traffic queries in LucidDB Air traffic queries in InfiniDB: early alpha Let me explain the reason of choosing these engines. After initial three posts I am often asked “What is baseline ? Can we compare results with standard MySQL engines [...]
Talking MySQL to Sphinx
In the recently released Sphinx version 0.9.9-rc2 there is a support for MySQL wire protocol and SphinxQL – SQL-like language to query Sphinx indexes. This support is currently in its early preview stage but it is still fun to play with. A thing to mention – unlike MySQL Storage Engines, some of which as InfoBright [...]
When would you use SAN with MySQL ?
One question which comes up very often is when one should use SAN with MySQL, which is especially popular among people got used to Oracle or other Enterprise database systems which are quite commonly deployed on SAN. My question in such case is always what exactly are you trying to get by using SAN ?
KISS KISS KISS
When I visit customers quite often they tell me about number of creative techniques they heard on the conferences, read on the blogs, forums and Internet articles and they ask me if they should use them. My advice is frequently – do not. It is fun to be creative but creative solutions also means unproven [...]
7 Reasons why MySQL Quality will never be the same
I had a call with Monty the other day and I told him why I think MySQL Server Quality will never be the same again. I’ve been thinking a bit more about it and here is the extended list. In particular I think MySQL Server will never be able to reach its original quality guidelines [...]
Fighting MySQL Replication Lag
The problem of MySQL Replication unable to catch up is quite common in MySQL world and in fact I already wrote about it. There are many aspects of managing mysql replication lag such as using proper hardware and configuring it properly. In this post I will just look at couple of query design mistakes which [...]
AUTO_INCREMENT and MERGE TABLES
How would you expect AUTO_INCREMENT to work with MERGE tables ? Assuming INSERT_METHOD=LAST is used I would expect it to work same as in case insertion happens to the last table… which does not seems to be the case. Alternatively I would expect AUTO_INCREMENT to be based off the maximum value across all tables, respecting [...]

