October 2009 - News in Support and Training for MySQL

Posted Thu, 08/10/2009 - 15:01 by arjen

Hi, and welcome to the October 2009 issue of the Open Query Newsletter.

In this issue:

  • quick news
  • our distinct support offerings
  • upcoming training schedule
  • upcoming events
  • tip: dealing with UTF-8

Quick News

As you probably already know, Open Query a so-called micro-multinational: we're a small company with a number of people in different countries across the globe. Recently, Sean Pringle joined us with a wealth of experience in MySQL tuning and High Availability architecture, but he's also turning out to be an ace trainer! On the side, he hacks on our Eventum service tracker to make it work better with our proactive workflow. Previously, Sean worked for MySQL AB and Sun Microsystems.

The Open Query sponsored OurDelta builds of MySQL 5.0.86-d9 are now available, offering up-to-date bugfixes as well as enhancements in performance, logging and administration. Another key feature is that you can install/upgrade OurDelta builds through YUM and apt-get repositories, for most versions of Red Hat, CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu. So much easier! We recommend using OurDelta builds as they save you (and us) time and other hassles, but we're happy to help you whatever version you run.

You may have noticed the improved look of the OQ web site, we hope you find it easier to navigate as well as being easier on the eye. We also have a new logo, designed by Andy Fitzsimon from a concept by Zak Greant.

By the way, are you following our blog already? We regularly post tips as well as informative lessons from the real world; and you might see news there before the next newsletter, which is sometimes useful. Useful and free. You can subscribe to an RSS or Atom feed too, of course.

Next time we'll focus a bit on MariaDB, Monty's branch of MySQL 5.1.

Pro-Active Support for MySQL

At Open Query, we believe that it's wiser to help before trouble occurs, and to prevent it. You really can't prevent servers from failing in some way, in the end they all do. But you can make your infrastructure more resilient, and this mainly requires smarts and expertise, not a massive budget. We do some ad-hoc consulting, but our subscriptions are the most popular:

  • Mentoring: up to one hour/month email support, anything MySQL-related (95/month)
  • Pro_Active Support: 4-8-16 hours/month average, includes remote login. Have us tune, DBA, analyse, build, architect, and answer developer questions (from 465/month)

      • We don't believe in insurance for MySQL deployments, we deliver real value: you subscribe for our time (and expertise, of course), and we use this time to help you, every month.

      Training for MySQL

      We currently have Developer, DBA and High Availability course days scheduled in

      • Oceania: Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne (November, December)
      • Europe: London, Stockholm, Amsterdam (December, January)

      You can register for Open Query course days/modules individually, to suit your time, budget and current needs. Your trainers are Sean, Ray, Nick and Arjen.

      If you sign up early for all adjacent DBA/HA days in a city, you will receive a copy of the "High Performance MySQL" book. Secure your seat today!

      Canberra

      • Thu 5 Nov: MySQL High Availability - Strategy and Tools (AUD 575 + GST)
      • Fri 6 Nov: MySQL Cluster Workshop (AUD 575 + GST)

      Sydney

      • Mon 9 Nov: MySQL Optimisation by Design (AUD 475 + GST)
      • Tue 10 Nov: MySQL Locking, Transactions & Storage Engine Optimisation (AUD 475 + GST)

      Brisbane

      • Thu 19 Nov: MySQL Query Performance Optimisation and Tuning (AUD 475 + GST)
      • Fri 20 Nov: MySQL Server Performance Optimisation and Tuning (AUD 475 + GST)

      Melbourne

      • Wed 9 Dec: MySQL Installation, Security and User Management (AUD 575 + GST)
      • Thu 10 Dec - Fri 11 Dec MySQL Backup and Recovery + Replication Workshop (AUD 975 + GST)

      London

      • Thu 10 Dec: MySQL Optimisation by Design (EUR 375, bring-your-own laptop)
      • Fri 11 Dec: MySQL Locking, Transactions & Storage Engine Optimisation (EUR 375, bring-your-own laptop)

      Stockholm

      • Wed 16 Dec: MySQL Installation, Security and User Management (EUR 475)
      • Thu 17 Dec - Fri 18 Dec MySQL Backup and Recovery + Replication Workshop (EUR 975)

      Amsterdam

      • Thu 14 Jan: MySQL Optimisation by Design (EUR 375, bring-your-own laptop)
      • Fri 15 Jan: MySQL Locking, Transactions & Storage Engine Optimisation (EUR 375, bring-your-own laptop)

      For bookings and questions, contact us today!

      Upcoming Events

      • Online, 22 Oct 2009: MySQL University - Dual Masters with MMM. Presented by OQ's Walter Heck, our resident lead MMM expert)
      • Kuala Lumpur, 24-25 Oct 2009: FOSS.MY 2009. Walter hops from his current location Thailand to give an MMM tutorial. Also more news on MySQL, MariaDB, Drizzle and other free/open source software.
      • Portland OR, 14-15 Nov 2009: OpenSQL Camp
      • Brisbane QLD, 25-27 Nov 2009: Open Source Developers' Conference. Excellent conference, only $275 for the 3 days, including lunches and the conf dinner! OQ's Arjen also has sessions so it's an excellent opportunity to meet us.
      • Wellington NZ, 19 Jan 2010: Data Storage & Retrieval Miniconf. Organised by OQ's Peter Lieverdink, part of LCA2010

      Tip: dealing with UTF-8

      You've made it this far, and hopefully found items of interest; but we reckon something extra is always nice, so we put a tip at the end of every newsletter.

      We often get questions about UTF-8, whether/when to use it and related issues. So here's a quick overview.

      First off, UTF-8 has overhead: up to 3x as much space (in MySQL 5.0) for any CHAR field, and RAM usage for temporary tables and grouping/sorting operations. Just so you know. But if you need to deal with special characters, it is the way. MySQL can handle columns, tables, databases in different charactersets, but you really don't want to confuse yourself like that. What we recommend is to just go UTF-8, unless you know you will be fine in all latin1. If you're using Java, just always go UTF-8. To make UTF-8 your server default, put the following in your my.cnf:

      [server]
      default-character-set = utf8
      default-collation = utf8_general_ci
      character_set_server = utf8
      collation_server = utf8_general_ci
      [client]
      default-character-set = utf8

      The [client] block works for all the mysql command line tools including mysqldump when run on the same machine. Do mind if you connect with tools from other machines, be sure they have the right settings! You might not notice at first, but you could end up with wrong data from mysqldump, or wrong data loaded. From PHP you need to issue the command "SET NAMES=utf8" after you open a connection.

      Collation is about sort order and will affect GROUP BY and ORDER BY. The "ci" suffix stands for "case insensitive" which is MySQL's default way of handling strings.

      For a new application, going straight to UTF-8 is by far the easiest. For existing apps things will depend on your current setup... converting an existing dataset can be a bit of work, with potential pitfalls. Feel free to ask us for assistance. You want to be really careful to not mangle any text.

      Until next time!

      Feedback welcome through http://openquery.com/contact
      You can also access this issue online: http://openquery.com/newsletter/2009-10

      -- the OQ team
      We aim to keep our newsletter in plain text, apart from links.
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