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Hello Birmingham!

It’s past Sunday midnight and I’m stuck in my room in the last couple hours finishing my slides for my masterclass tomorrow. Turns out that I’m presenting the very first session of the conference at 9am. I wish there is a keynote instead so that I could grab one more hour of sleep (it’s going to be deep into the night back home in Canada). Strange that the keynote was moved to Wednesday — I hope UKOUG has really good reason for that!

My two hours masterclass will start at the same time as Tom Kyte’s a-la keynote session — what a competition. On the other hand, there is no other sessions in server technology so I expect that folks without interest of database development will automatically end up in my session. I’m in Hall 5 – quite large room. Is it the second biggest room after the Hall 1?

I will need to work hard to keep the audience… maybe I shouldn’t plan for any breaks to make sure I don’t let folks slip out to the next sessions like James Morles’ Sane SAN 2010 or Jeremy Schneider’s Large Scale ASM.

My masterclass is based on the slides that I presented at the Oracle OpenWorld few months ago which, in turn is reworked session on Oracle Clusterware internals that I’ve done number of times as long session with demos. I thought updating this material to 11gR2 would be easy… Boy was I wrong!

11gR2 Grid Infrastructure has changes so much that it took me much much longer to get something sensible ready. I also had to limit the scope a bit as Grid Infrastructure has become so much more complex than older pre-11gR2 Clusterware. (stop complaining Alex!)

Anyway, everything is ready now and demos look reasonable. It will be a bit rough doing it first time – I’m sure I’ll stumble few times but fingers crossed we get to the end timely. I actually hope to finish early and allocate a bit more time for Q&A and potential ad-hoc demos at the end. But enough about me…

Who from Pythian are at the UKOUG conference this year? In additional to myself, it’s Christo Kutrovsky, Daniel Fink, Paul Vallee and Andrew Poodle. Christo, Dan and myself are presenting, Andrew is helping organization of MySQL track as a MySQL SIG Chair and Paul… well, I’d say Paul is a slacker so he is covering the beer tap to pay up! :)

It’s close to 2am – gotta get some sleep before tomorrow. Few words against Jurys Inn Hotel this year. It’s the first year I’m having so much troubles here including no early check-ins, not working phones, no internet in two rooms (I had to switch twice!), and somewhat unfriendly stuff this year. Has hotel management change since last year or what? Will consider another hotel next time I think.

Oh… and it’s indeed bloody cold here! So cold that it seems to impact the amount of girls-who-forgot-their-skirts-at home at the Broad Street. This unusually cold weather does impact travel plans of other conference speakers and attendees. Doug Burn seems to have been delayed for like a day and barely made it to have a pint at Tap&Spile – I wish I could accompany the crowd there until late but thanks to the awesome schedule (and unfinished state of my presentation, to be fair) I had to miss some of the fun.

PS: I have another session on Tuesday — Analysis of Oracle ASM Failability (should be Fallibility I guess but I’ll keep it misspelled simply because I can!). If anybody wants to catch up for any reason (like buying me a beer) — text me at +1 613 219 7031. iPhone doesn’t work with data-plans here for unknown reason so no twitter/email on the go.

Today marks my last day at Pythian. I have been at Pythian for almost three years. In those three years, Pythian’s already thriving MySQL practice has grown even more. I have worked with big and small clients alike, across many industries, managed a team of up to 4 DBAs, and learned a lot not just about MySQL, but what my goals are in general.

Though I am leaving, everything I said in the blog post I made when I announced I was coming to Pythian still holds true. Pythian is a challenging environment and one I would recommend to anyone who finds their current DBA environment boring that they should come to Pythian and experience what it is like to work here. I had lunch with Paul Vallee yesterday and we even discussed possible future collaborations (hence the title, a joke that I am “forking” off of Pythian).

So if it is so great, why am I leaving? It’s simple, really — Pythian is growing by leaps and bounds. I started when Pythian was about half the size it currently is. There is a lot of change happening within Pythian, and I believe it is very good change. However, I enjoyed the environment Pythian was when I started almost three years ago, and personally I am not ready to go with Pythian on the journey it is taking.

So where am I going next? For starters, I will take the month of August off paid work. I have an idea of where I might go for paid work in September, but you will have to watch Planet MySQL for the announcement. During August I will be doing some conference planning and organizing, for OpenSQLCamp in Boston in October first, and then for conferences in 2011. I will also be moving apartments, which is a big task. And I will be focusing on some personal goals, such as spending more time with my husband and becoming more active.

I am excited about having a month off, even though I have a lot to work on in that month.

Yes, you read the title correctly — there are three editions of MySQL available, according to http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/server.html. Well, that page names two, and then of course there is the community edition….

From the manual page:

MySQL Enterprise Server is available in the following editions:

* MySQL Enterprise Server – Pro is the world’s most popular open source database that enables you to rapidly deliver high performance and scalable Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) applications.
* MySQL Enterprise Server – Advanced is the most comprehensive edition of MySQL. It provides all the benefits of MySQL Enterprise Server Pro and adds horizontal table and index partitioning for improving the performance and management of VLDBs (Very Large Databases).

How is “horizontal table and index partitioning” different from the regular partitioning available in MySQL 5.1?

Those of us that have been around for the past 3 or so years know that there was a point in time where there were two different editions of MySQL available, back when MySQL Enterprise and MySQL Community were actually different. But that experiment was a complete failure, and the code is now the same. MySQL Enterprise does package the software in a way that is not available to the community, specifically the quarterly service pack (QSP) releases. But the actual code….the same.

The pricing page at http://globalspecials.sun.com/store/mysql/ContentTheme/pbPage.categoryEnterprise shows that the Advanced server can be acquired for $3k (Gold) or $5k (Platinum) per year. The fee is worth it for the support MySQL will give you, but why is MySQL muddying the waters by having more “editions”, which very likely are not even different code?

(Special thanks to Aaron Macks for pointing out the existence of mysql-advanced, which was the impetus for this blog post.)

It is time… Time for one more very special conference for me. Why special?

1. I have never been to ODTUG Kaleidoscope before. I always like new conferences — new experience.
2. Unlike Sheeri, I do not speak! This is one of those rare conferences where I come to slack off, meet old friends and make new ones, go to lots of sessions and actually learn stuff.
3. Coming from the DBA background, it’s not often that I come to development oriented conferences and I think I should do more of that.
4. It’s in Washington, DC. I lived there for some time and have number of good friends there. I’m really excited to see them again!

So what am I going to do there? I just arrived and right in time for the Oracle ACE Directors’ briefing that will run for the whole days of Friday. This is a super secret meeting where Oracle’s super secret plans are shared. Nobody can talk about that after this meeting or their tongues are cut off on the spot. For those of you who didn’t realize I’m joking, the ACE Director’s briefing is where Oracle shares the roadmap of its products — some of it is long term strategy and some is about the upcoming releases. There are few things that we are asked not to share in public but, frankly, there is nothing really sensitive. One of the most interesting parts of the briefing are the Q&A moments when all kind of questions get asked (sometimes tough ones) and, to the most parts, gets answered.

It took me the same time to get to the hotel from Dulles International Airport as flying from Ottawa. Oh well, the beauty of DC traffic. Now I’m sitting at the back of the room enjoying the demo of the new APEX 4.0 and quietly having a bite. I see quite a few familiar faces (or rather backs) that I’m about to say hello to (pending the next break).

So what’s ahead? Yesterday, we all received a surprise invitation (well, surprise to me at least) to ACE Directors welcome reception organized by the ODTUG board members. Looking forward to that.

Saturday is the ODTUG Community Service Day where the volunteers help to beautify Ronald H. Brown Middle School in Washington, D.C.

Sunday is ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010 Symposia and I’m still not sure whether I should select APEX or Performance, Scalability, and Security track. Sunday night is the night of Oracle ACE dinner and I think I managed to miss few ACE program dinners at the past few conferences so I’m really looking forward to this Sunday.

Monday evening, come for the Sundown Sessions which are open discussions moderated by Oracle ACE Directors. I’ll be hanging either in MySQL or Database Development halls. Immediately following that, on my agenda is Oracle ACE Directors Reception — this is your chance to mingle with the bunch of Oracle ACE Directors and other cool folks and abuse some complimentary food and drinks (thanks to OTN).

OpenSQLCamp is less than 4 months away, and I have finally gotten around to updating the site. Special thanks go to Bradley Kuzsmaul and the folks at Tokutek for getting the ball rolling and making the reservation at MIT. Using MIT means that we will have *free* reliable wireless guest access and projects.

OpenSQL Camp is a free unconference for people interested in open source databases (MySQL, SQLite, Postgres, Drizzle), including non-relational databases, database alternatives like NoSQL stores, and database tools such as Gearman. We are not focusing on any one project, and hope to see representatives from a variety of open source database projects attend. As usual I am one of the main organizers of Open SQL Camp (in previous years, Baron Schwartz, Selena Deckelmann and Eric Day have been main organizers too; this year Bradley Kuzsmaul is the other main organizer). The target audience are users and developers, but others are encouraged to attend too. There will be both presentations and hackathons, with plenty of opportunities to learn, contribute, and collaborate!

I have updated the main Boston 2010 page at http://opensqlcamp.org/Events/Boston2010/ with travel and logistics information, including links to:

Register — it’s free and easy, and you can always change your mind later!

Maybe you have an idea for a session you would like to see, or a session you would like to give? If so, you can note it on the sessions page. This will give everyone a sense of what type of presentations will be there. I have started by putting 2 sessions I am willing to give and a third at the bottom for one I’d like to see, to give everyone an idea of both types of descriptions.

Probably the most important link right now is the way we keep OpenSQLCamp free for all attendees – sponsor or donate to the conference! Any donation amount is accepted, and all donations are tax-exempt to the fullest extent of the law. Businesses and organizations will be listed as sponsors if they make a donation of $250 or more, and individuals will be listed as sponsors if they make a donation of $100 or more. More information on sponsor benefits, including where to send a graphic to, at the link.

There is a preliminary schedule, up until the conference itself it will only show the agenda of the conference — how many rooms and what time the presentations are supposed to be. During and after the conference we will update this schedule page with the titles, presenters and links to any notes/videos/audio taken.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask on the mailing list or by posting a comment here.

By now you know that there is a MySQL Track during next week’s ODTUG Kaleidoscope in Washington, DC. Ronald Bradford and I organized the schedule at the last minute (Ronald did a lot of the work!). It was difficult to fill a schedule with 19 sessions that are either 1 hour or 1.5 hours long, and to do it I ended up with three presentations.

At each presentation I will be giving away a copy of The MySQL Administrator’s Bible, so be sure to show up! All MySQL track sessions are in Maryland C, and all times are Eastern.

On Monday, June 28th from 4 pm – 5:30 pm I will be presenting “What do you mean, SQL Syntax Error?”, a presentation about how MySQL’s SQL syntax extends and deviates from the ANSI/ISO SQL:2003 standard. There is an 80-page PDF accompaniment that will be given out for free during this session.

On Tuesday, June 29th from 11 am to 12 noon I will be presenting Importing and Exporting Data with MySQL, about the many tools to load and bulk load data, and how to export data for regular and bulk loads. I will also be going over which storage engines are particularly well-suited for bulk loading, and the caveats to watch out for. This session is useful for those who know MySQL as well as those asking the question, “What’s the equivalent of Oracle’s SQL Loader for MySQL?”

On Wednesday, June 30th from 8:30 am to 9:30 am I will be presenting Navigating MySQL Stored Procedures & Functions, Views and Triggers, which covers all the ways stored procedures, stored functions, views and triggers can be used, including a highlight of Oracle differences.

I hope to see you there!

I found I never published this post as it was sitting in my drafts few months now — it was written in 13th February, 2010. I’m publishing it without any changes.

I learn therefore I am!

I’ve just wrote few bits about learning a new technology and after skimming through my Google Reader, I noticed a great post by Chen Shapira — Deliberate Practice. That’s reminded me about another aspect of learning that I didn’t mention — learning is a continuous process.

There are two aspects…

• No matter how good I am and how much I know, my knowledge and expertize become outdated relatively quickly these days unless I keep up with the new stuff. Unfortunately, there is so much new technologies these days that I have to be very selective on what I want to follow which is a big challenge in itself. On the other hand, I’d rather be challenged than bored. As DBA’s we are luckier than Developers — their world changes much faster than ours.
• I forget things I don’t use/do/read about/think about regularly. Refreshing my “old” memory is a must do. This is why I think Chen’s idea of deliberate practice is so great.

Some people are better on keeping the existing tools sharp, while others succeed on the lookout for new ways and techniques. To truly excel, we need to master both.

This photo (it was taken 5 years ago in Australia in one of Sydney’s “wild” parks) reminds me of this continuous learning process — perhaps, it will do the job for you as well.

The MySQL track at Kaleidoscope in Washington, DC during June 28-July 1st is set! Here is the schedule, Lincoln VI is the MySQL track room.

Ronald has done a super job and spent a ton of hours in the past several weeks coordinating this effort. Work has kept me much busier than normal, but I have lent some time to the coordination as well. It is a credit mostly to Ronald that we have been able to plan an entire 19-session conference track, complete with confirming speakers, in less than a month. (You may notice the schedule does not have all 19 sessions full, we are just waiting for some more speakers to confirm details.)

Whether or not you made it to last month’s O’Reilly MySQL User Conference & Expo, and whether you are an expert or casual user, the sessions at Kaleidoscope will teach you new and exciting things. This is a credit to the planning we did (and again, Ronald spent the lion’s share of time on this) — we did not just want to re-do the same content from the April conference, and we wanted something that would be accessible to developers and DBAs who know what they’re doing when it comes to writing SQL queries, but may or may not know how MySQL itself works.

I will definitely be giving away copies of my book, The MySQL Administrator’s Bible, and Ronald will be giving away copies of his new book, Expert PHP and MySQL, so the conference is definitely not-to-be-missed!

It’s not too late to register for Kaleidoscope – be sure to use the discount code MYSQL to save $300 off your registration (assuming you are not a member of ODTUG).

I have been talking with a group of folks who have been making a product that has lots of free functionality, including the ability to centrally manage many MySQL instances. The administration functions include starting and stopping MySQL, seeing status and system variables, seeing and managing the MySQL config file (/etc/my.cnf), seeing and managing accounts, a small dashboard of overall health graphs, and more.

With this free tool you can look at and manage local and remote databases. It supports ssh tunneling, including ssh using password-protected ssh keys. It’s pretty neat, and I have been working with the product manager to add features. I think this took will become the de facto standard for centralized GUI administration of MySQL.

The tool is
MySQL workbench….Surprise! One of the best new features for the administrator is that you can now create an administration connection for an existing workbench connection with a click of a button, instead of having to enter in all that information again.

I use the “developer” version, 5.2.21. Note that the 5.1 version does not have administration capabilities.

A MySQL user group member saw that I use Poderosa as my ssh-on-Windows tool, and asked why I did not use PuTTY. My response was that I like having tabbed windows and hate having to keep opening another PuTTY program every time I want to open another connection. With Poderosa I can open a new connection with Alt-N, and I can even connect directly to Cygwin with an icon.

But Poderosa is not the tool I wanted to mention….Another user group member mentioned PuTTY Connection Manager. It wraps around PuTTY and gets the existing saved connections, makes a nicely tabbed browsing window where you can open sessions by double-clicking the connections, which are now listed on the right-hand side.

See screenshot below:

I have not played with other features such as sending a command to multiple windows, but even just having this is a HUGE win.