Ronald Bradford
MySQL Expert

MySQL Expert Ronald Bradford shares valuable input in MySQL Performance Tuning, MySQL Scalability and general MySQL Help from his two decades of working with MySQL, Oracle, Ingres and development technologies.

Archive for the ‘MySQL User Conferences’ Category

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2011 MySQL Conferences

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

Next year will mark a significant change for the MySQL community. At least three major conferences will have dedicated MySQL content that is great for attendees getting the best information on how to use MySQL from the experts in the field.

O’Reilly MySQL Conference & Expo

The 9th Annual MySQL conference will be held at is usual home of recent years. Colin will again be back as committee chair for a 3rd year and this will be my 6th straight MySQL conference.

Date: April 11 – 14, 2011
Location: Hyatt Regency, Santa Clara, California
Website: There is no website at this time
Call for Papers: There are no details for call for papers
Program Chairs: Colin Charles from Monty Program AB and Brian Aker.

Collaborate 11

Collaborate is a larger conference (4,000-5,000 attendees) that is actually three separate conferences in one run by the IOUG, OAUG and Quest. The IOUG content is generally a focus for Oracle DBA’s. Last year marked the first year with any MySQL sessions, and this year Collaborate will have dedicated MySQL tracks chaired by fellow ACE director Sheeri Cabral who is well known for her work in the MySQL community.

Date: April 10 – 14, 2011
Location: Orange County Convention Center West, Orlando, Florida
Website: http://collaborate11.ioug.org/
Call for Papers: Now open. Closes Friday October 1, 2010
Program Chair: Sheeri Cabral

KScope 11

ODTUG Kaleidoscope (Kscope for short) is a conference (1500 attendees) that is very focused on delivering the best content from the top community contributors for the communities benefit. 2010 was my first Kaleidoscope conference and I felt completely at home. Great people, great events and the best conference food I’ve had in many years.

With a dedicated MySQL track in 2010 for the first time I will again be the MySQL Program Chair in 2011 with an extended format for the MySQL developer and DBA. The focus will be the best way to develop successful applications with MySQL and will include Architecture, Performance Tuning, Best Practices, Case Studies and Hands-On streams.

Date: June 26 – 30, 2011
Website: http://kscope11.com
Location: Long Beach, California
Call for Papers: Closes Tuesday October 26, 2010
Program Chair: Ronald Bradford – Independent Consultant

Recap

2010 is also not over. MySQL Sunday at OOW promises to be a great event in San Francisco in under 2 weeks. You can still register at a very cheap price of $75 for 4 dedicated tracks of MySQL content. Open SQL Camp being organized also by Sheeri in Boston in October will continue the tradition of a small but focused and free event for the MySQL community.

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Posted in Databases, MySQL, MySQL Events, MySQL Sunday at OOW 2010, MySQL User Conferences, Oracle/MySQL Conferences, Professional | 2 Comments »

Upcoming Conferences with dedicated MySQL content

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

We recently held a dedicated MySQL Track at ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010 conference for 4 days. This is the first of many Oracle events that will begin to include dedicated MySQL content.

If your attending OSCON 2010 in the next few weeks you will see a number of MySQL presentations.

MySQL will be represented at Open World 2010 in September with MySQL Sunday. Giuseppe has created a great one page summary of speakers. This event is described as technical sessions, an un-conference and an fireside chat with Edward Screven. I’ve seen tickets listed at $50 or $75 for the day.

Open SQL Camp will be held in Germany in August, and Boston in October. This is a great FREE event that includes technical content not just on MySQL but other open source databases and data stores.

You will also find dedicated MySQL tracks in Europe at the German Oracle Users Group (DOAG) conference in November and the United Kingdom Oracle Users Group (UKOUG) in November that I am planning on attending.

In 2011 there is already a lineup of events that will all contain multiple tracks of MySQL content.

For the MySQL community the introduction of various large Oracle conferences may be confusing. From my perspective I describe the big three as.

  • Oracle Open World is targeted towards marketing. This includes product announcements, case studies and first class events.
  • Collaborate is targeted towards deployment and includes 3 different user groups, the IOUG representing the Oracle Database, the Oracle Applications User Group, and the Quest Group.
  • ODTUG Kaleidoscope is targeted towards development. This includes the tools and technologies for developers and DBA’s to do your job.

Having just attended Kaleidoscope 2010, and being a relative unknown I left with a great impression of an open, technical and welcoming event. There was a great atmosphere, great events with excellent food for breakfast, lunch and dinner and I now have a long list of new friends. This conference very much reflected being part of a greater extended family, the experience I have enjoyed at previous MySQL conferences. I’ve already committed to being involved next year.

Posted in Databases, Kaleidoscope 2010, MySQL, MySQL Events, MySQL User Conferences, Oracle, Oracle/MySQL Conferences, Professional | No Comments »

2010 MySQL Conference Presentations

Monday, April 19th, 2010

I have uploaded my three presentations from the 2010 MySQL Users Conference in Santa Clara, California which was my 5th consecutive year appearing as a speaker.

A full history of my MySQL presentations can be found on the Presenting page.

IGNITION – MySQLCamp for the Oracle DBA
LIFTOFF – MySQLCamp for the Oracle DBA
10x Performance Improvements

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Posted in Databases, MySQL, MySQL User Conferences, Oracle, Professional, mysqluc2010 | No Comments »

My acceptance with Oracle as ACE Director

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

I hinted last week of my acceptance with Oracle before the formal announcement this week at the MySQL Users Conference, not for a job but as Oracle ACE Director. In today’s State of the MySQL Community keynote by Kaj Arnö I was one of the first three MySQL nominees that are now part of this program.

What exactly is an ACE Director? Using the description from the Oracle website.

Oracle ACEs and Oracle ACE Directors are known for their strong credentials as Oracle community enthusiasts and advocates, with candidates nominated by anyone in the Oracle Technology and Applications communities. The baseline requirements are the same for both designations; however, Oracle ACE Directors work more closely and formally with Oracle in terms of their community activity.

What does this mean to me?

As a significant contributor to the community I now have the opportunity to continue as well as to contribute to how Oracle continues to interact, promote and involve the MySQL community. As stewards our role as an Oracle ACE Director is to be actively involved. I look forward to the challenge to help shape and improve our State of the MySQL Community.

News and References
Welcome, Oracle ACE Directors for MySQL

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Posted in Databases, MySQL, MySQL User Conferences, Oracle, Professional, mysqluc2010 | 2 Comments »

State of the Dolphin – Opening keynote

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Edward Screven – Chief Corporate Architect of Oracle provided the opening keynote at the 2010 MySQL Users Conference.

Overall I was disappointed. The first half was more an Oracle Sales pitch, we had some product announcements, we had some 5.5 performance buzz. While a few numbers and features were indeed great to hear, there was a clear lack of information to the MySQL ecosystem including employees, alumni and various support services. I hope more is unveiled this week.

Some notes of the session.

  • Oracle’s Strategy covers storage, servers, virtual machines, operating system, database, middleware, applications
  • We build a complete technology stack that is “open” and “integrated” based on “open standards”
  • products talk via open standards with the intention for customers to not feel locked in to any technology
  • Examples include apache, java, linux, xen, eclipse, and innodb
  • Unbreakable linux has now over 4,500 customers

After the sales pitch we got down to more about MySQL.

What MySQL means to Oracle? We make the Oracle solution more complete as a stack for customers.

What is the investment in MySQL?

  • Make MySQL a better MySQL
  • Develop, promote and support MySQL
  • MySQL community edition

Integration with Oracle Enterprise Manager, Oracle Secure Backup and Oracle Audit Vault infrastructure. *This I expected and have blogged about, so I’m glad to see this commitment.

MySQL 5.5 is now in Alpha, some features are

  • InnoDB will be default engine
  • Semi sync replication
  • Replication heartbeat
  • Signal
  • Performance Schema

MySQL 5.5 is planned on being faster with Innodb Performance Improvements & MySQL Performance Improvements.
MySQL 5.5 sysbench claims, read 200% faster, write 364% faster.

MySQL Workbench 5.2 announcement

  • SQL Development
  • Database Administration
  • Data Modelling

MySQL Cluster 7.1 GA announcement

  • Improved Administration
  • Higher Performance
  • Carrier Grade Availability & Performance

MySQL Enterprise Backup announcement

  • Online backup for InnoDB only
  • Formally InnoDB hot backup with additional features including incremental backups

MySQL Enterprise Monitor 2.2 Beta announcment

In closing the statement was “MySQL lets Oracle be more complete at the database layer”. Is that good for the MySQL Community or better for the Oracle revenue model?

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Posted in Databases, MySQL, MySQL User Conferences, Professional, Uncategorized, mysqluc2010 | 7 Comments »

Edward Screven of Oracle to Answer Questions for future of MySQL

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

For those of you on the O’Reilly MySQL conference list you will no doubt see this email, but for readers here is the important bits.


Oracle Executive Will Speak at O’Reilly MySQL Conference & Expo
Edward Screven to Answer Questions re: Future of MySQL

Sebastopol, CA, February 24, 2010—Wonder about the future of MySQL? Curious about what Oracle plans for the open source database software? Expect answers when Edward Screven, Oracle’s chief corporate architect and leader of the MySQL business, speaks at the O’Reilly MySQL Conference & Expo, scheduled for April 12-15, at the Santa Clara Convention Center and the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara.

Edward Screven reports to CEO Larry Ellison, and he drives technology and architecture decisions across all Oracle products to ensure that product directions are consistent with Oracle’s overall strategy. He’ll discuss the current and future state of MySQL, now part of the Oracle family of products. His presentation will also cover Oracle’s investment in MySQL technology and community, as well as the role that open source in general is playing within heterogeneous customer environments around the world.

I have not found a link yet to provide reference to this.

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Posted in Databases, MySQL, MySQL User Conferences, Oracle, Professional, mysqluc2010 | 5 Comments »

The Blue Pill or the Red Pill

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

At the recent FOSDEM 2010 event, I presented in my keynote Dolphins, now and beyond a option which I termed the “Blue Pill” or the “Red Pill”. The following slide produced noticed interest in a packed room, and subsequent conversation.

While the ownership of MySQL has changed, the option between MySQL and Oracle as a product for use still remains. While MySQL is the most popular for modern online applications, Oracle continues to have the widely used enterprise database product and has a large number of Oracle DBAs in the IT marketplace.

Over the past 5 years I have presented a number of topics on MySQL for Oracle DBA’s. At the upcoming MySQL Users Conference 2010 I will be presenting the first two talks in my new series “MySQLCamp for the Oracle DBA”.

  • IGNITION – is the preparation necessary for a successful launch of a MySQL ecosystem for an Oracle DBA. This volume covers the preparation needed to be ready for ongoing production administration of MySQL.
  • LIFTOFF – Only after a successful preparation covered in IGNITION can you be ready for the implementation and management of a MySQL ecosystem and a successful launch of your product.

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Posted in Databases, MySQL, Professional, mysqluc2010 | No Comments »

Speaking at MySQL UC 2010

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

My talk on 10x performance improvements – A case study has just been approved for the 2010 MySQL Conference. This will be my 5th straight year speaking at the MySQL conferences. For those in Europe wanting a sneak peek I am also speaking at FOSDEM 2010 in Brussels on Feb 7th where I’ll be giving an abridged version.

As an independent MySQL consultant, my work generally covers performance tuning and scalability and sometimes database architecture. Often however my work involves a review of a given problem and recommendations (immediate, short and long term). I’m rarely involved in the full implementation and generally do not see the full fruits of the proposed work.

Recently however I was able to work with a client, first in resolving critical performance issues and then in a review of the application architecture and MySQL environment, provide recommendations and also helping internal resources in the successful implementation. The result was a very successful engagement and an ideal case study on a strategy for tackling improving performance of an application using MySQL.

With an existing environment that included a MySQL master, 3 database slaves and 6 web servers this application provided the grounds of a well sized configuration and the need for greater availability and scalability.

The Call for Papers for the 2010 MySQL conference is still open. If you would like to share your experiences with MySQL submit your talk today.


O'Reilly MySQL Conference & Expo 2010

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Posted in Databases, MySQL, Open Source, Professional, mysqluc2010 | 1 Comment »

Europe conference options for MySQL Developers

Monday, January 4th, 2010

For those in the US the annual MySQL UC is taking place again in April. For those in Europe we have dedicated room for MySQL and MySQL related products/variants/branches at FOSDEM 2010 being held in Brussels, Belgium on 6-7 Feb.

This conference will feature a full day of talks with a format of 20 minutes presentation and 5 minutes Q&A. More information about submissions can be found at Call for Papers for “MySQL and Friends” Developer Room at FOSDEM 2010 now open!

Other references:

Updated

Wednesday January 6th is the last date for submissions. Extension for FOSDEM MySQL

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Posted in Databases, MySQL, MySQL Events, MySQL User Conferences, Professional | 2 Comments »

Transcending Technology Specific Boundaries

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

I had the pleasure to sit on the Performance Panel at the recent Percona Performance Conference. While the panel contained a number of usual MySQL suspects, one person was not familiar, that being Cary Millsap from Method R.

An expert in optimizing Oracle performance, Cary also gave an session on Day 2 that I attended. While he opened professing not to be an expert in MySQL, his talk provided valuable foundation knowledge irrespective of whether you use MySQL or another database product.

Having come myself from 7 straight years in system architecture and performance tuning in Ingres, then a further 6 years in Oracle again heavily involved in system architecture and performance tuning, a lot of my experience in the 10 years of providing my own MySQL consulting is drawn from my past RDBMS experiences. In addition much of what I actually provide to clients today is common sense that I don’t see applied.

A summary of the excellent content provided by Cary.

The common technology agnostic problem we need to address is:

  • Users say that everything is slow, but I don’t know where to begin
  • Users are complaining but all the monitoring dials are green

From a user’s perspective, their experience consist simply of two elements.

  1. Task
  2. Time

In general, business people simply don’t care about the “system” except thought the specific tasks that make up their pressing business needs. And for these users, performance is all about the time to complete this task.

Throughput can be stated as tasks per time.
Response time is the time taken per task.

Cary also quoted Donald Knuth — “The universal experience of programmers who have been using measurements tools has been that there intuitive guesses fail.”

Performance is easy if you stop guessing where your code is slow. A few best practice tips are:

  • You have to insist on seeing where time goes for any task you think is important
  • You need to look at the sequence diagram of the task
  • What individual part takes the most time, then look at the task before that. The fastest way to do something is don’t.
  • To drill down, you need to attack the skew of each part, not the average.

In Summary the closing points were:

  • Performance is about time and tasks
  • Not all tasks are created equal
  • Read “The Goal”
  • Don’t guess, your probably wrong
  • Measure response time before you optimize anything – Insist on it

Performance is easy when code measures it’s own time and tasks. This closing statement on instrumentation I completely concur with.

Posted in Databases, General, MySQL, MySQL User Conferences, Oracle, Percona Performance Conference 2009, Professional | No Comments »

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