MySQL Admin Cookbook
99 great recipes for mastering MySQL configurations and administration
by Daniel Schneller,  Udo Schwedt
Published by PACKT Publishing

This book is a great first attempt at a book that has been needed for a long time.   It covers the everyday practical parts of managing a MySQL server.

I have been hungry for this book for a long time. Most books about MySQL focus on the SQL language and give you long chapters on how to form complex queries. Or, they dive deep into MySQL commands command and the use of my.cnf. I have a bookshelf full of these books. None have given me help making backups on-the-fly without interrupting customer services or preventing mysqldump from failing with error 2013. This book, “MySQL Admin Cookbook”, covers everyday issues database administrators (DBA) face.

I’m calling it a “first attempt” because you’ll get a taste of the practical side but the authors don’t give you all the tools. It covers transferring connections settings between different machines with a network share. Good. It doesn’t talk enough about the tools every MySQL DBA know, like MaatKit, openarkkit, mycheckpoint, mysqltuner and so many more.

Another example, Chapter 5 covers the common details for loading large data sets using the LOAD DATA INFILE command. Common. But it doesn’t talk about how you can replace a CSV or MyIsam files directly with tools like mysql-replace-tables-live.

If you are NOT a DBA and MySQL is something you’re using, I fully recommend this book.  If you are a DBA, unless your new, you will find most of this book covers things you have already learned on your own.

This book starts like a very good HOWTO with replication in chapter one without mentioning
the monitoring tool mk-heartbeat. By chapter six it get cooking with good tips on analyzing, monitoring and configuring your MySQL and then simmers to an ending with managing users and schemas.

99 GREAT recipes?   No.  Everyday foods is more what it is.

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