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Understanding How MySQL Works by Understanding Metadata

Sheeri K. Cabral (The Pythian Group), Patrick Galbraith (Grazr Inc.)
1:30pm Monday, 04/20/2009
Architecture and Technology, MySQL Cluster and High Availability, Performance Tuning and Benchmarks, Replication and Scale-Out, Security and Database Administration, Storage Engine Development and Optimization, Tutorial
 Location: Ballroom H

We have spent countless hours researching over 1,000 pieces of metadata. In the process, we have learned a lot about how MySQL works, and realized that it was a pretty good learning method.

Examples: Understanding the “query_cache%” system variables and “Qcache%” status variables helps us learn about the query cache—what it is, when it is used, how to examine query cache efficiency, how to tune the query cache. This relates to the GLOBAL_VARIABLES and GLOBAL_STATUS system views and corresponding SHOW commands.

The CHECKSUM field of the TABLES system view in the INFORMATION_SCHEMA DATABASE seems straightforward—it holds the checksum. But when is that field updated, and for which storage engines?

Like CHECKSUM, there are many storage-engine features that are hiding in plain sight. By reverse engineering MySQL’s metadata, we will show you many of these features.

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Photo of Sheeri K. Cabral

Sheeri K. Cabral

The Pythian Group

Sheeri K. Cabral has a master’s degree in computer science specializing in databases from Brandeis University. She has background as a systems administrator; has worked with Oracle, Sybase, DB2, Solaris, RedHat/Fedora, AIX, and HP-UX. Unstoppable as a volunteer and activist since age 14, Cabral founded and organizes the Boston, Massachusetts, USA, MySQL User group, and co-wrote The MySQL Server Administrator’s Bible, to be published in May 2009. Keep up with all this at www.technocation.org

Photo of Patrick Galbraith

Patrick Galbraith

Grazr Inc.

Ben Galbraith is a frequent technical speaker, occasional consultant, and author of several Java-related books. He is a co-founder of Ajaxian.com, an experienced Chief Technical Officer and Enterprise Java Architect, and is presently a consultant specializing in enterprise architecture and Swing/Ajax development. Ben wrote his first computer program when he was six years old, started his first business at ten, and entered the IT workforce just after turning twelve. For the past few years, he’s been professionally coding in Java. In 2005, Ben delivered over a hundred technical presentations at venues including JavaOne, JavaPolis, and the No Fluff Just Stuff Java Symposiums.

Co-presented By:

O'Reilly Media MySQL/Sun Microsystems
  • Kickfire
  • Virident
  • Infobright, Inc
  • JasperSoft
  • BIRT Exchange by Actuate
  • Continuent
  • Dolphin Interconnect Solutions
  • HiT Software, Inc.
  • iDashboards
  • Oracle
  • Pentaho
  • R1Soft
  • Schooner Information Technology
  • Ticketmaster
  • Zmanda, Inc.
  • Linux Journal

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