Updated

I have an entire section now devoted to various MySQL for the Oracle DBA Resources. You will find additional information here.

This week I presented two one day free seminars, “MySQL DBA Bootcamp for the Oracle DBA” in New York and San Francisco. Both were very successful days providing an opportunity to speak to seasoned enterprise professionals.

One question I was asked was “As an Oracle DBA, how can I become a MySQL DBA, what do I do, where do I start?”

Here are my references and recommendations that have zero cost to get started.

• Read the MySQL Documentation Reference Manual.
• Download MySQL install and use it.
• The MySQL Developer Zone is a great sources for articles, information and references.
• Planet MySQL is our official consolidated Blog Aggregator. Read it daily.
• The MySQL Forge is a detailed reference of MySQL related projects, code snippets, wiki and MySQL WorkLog. A look at what MySQL is doing in future versions, and what others like yourself would like to see in future versions.
• The MySQL Conference website has many papers from the recent 2007 Conference. You can also review the 2006 Conference Papers.
• MySQL has various Forums and Email Lists. We have a specific Oracle Forum to assist Oracle DBA’s and Developers with MySQL questions.
• MySQL also provides a large number of White Papers and Case Studies in it’s Why MySQL section. These are helpful to see how MySQL is being used today.
• Register at mysql.com, if you join a list, fill in download form or respond to a forum, your already registered, but if not you will get a regular newletter that provides helpful information, including events, webinars and training
• Sheeri Kritzer, the She-BA of MySQL and this years community award winner has an extensive list of resources on her website including podcasts and a long list of Audio & Video from the recent MySQL Conference.

For additional Oracle to MySQL specific references from recent conferences include 2006 – MySQL For Oracle DBA’s,
MySQL For Oracle Developers and 2007 – MySQL For Oracle DBA’s and Developers.

For your reference material, I would initially recommend the following books.

• “MySQL 5.0 Certification Guide” – which all attendees received for free.
• “MySQL Cookbook” by Paul DuBois, “MySQL” by the same Paul DuBois or “Pro MySQL” by Michael Kruckenberg and Jay Pipes.
• “MySQL Administrator’s Guide and Language Reference”. – This is just a printed copy of the MySQL Manual, however some people may appreciate this.

Following that, additional resources depending on your level of interest in development or internal workings etc would include.

• “MySQL Stored Procedure Programming” by Guy Harrison.
• “Understanding MySQL Internals” by Sasha Pachev.