Monday, May 28, 2007

Just when you think you know something

Hi,

Been a long time since last I posted.

I just got back from the Cluster Summit in Stockholm.

During this meeting we covered topics such as Design and Internals of MySQL Cluster, Dolphin Express for MySQL Cluster, Road Map discussion, Cluster & Replication Troubleshooting, Benchmarks with new performance patches and of course QA.

Items brought up during the QA Discussion included:

* HA Testing (High Availability)
* Log Events Testing
* Large Data sets
* Backup/Restore
* Configuration Testing
* Functional testing (Regression testing of Standard Functionality)
* Profiling
* Performance

So as you can see from above, I will be busy for some time to come :-)

Many of the above are being done now. We discussed how to take them to the next level.

During this meeting I was asked to take a Cluster Certification Test. No problem I thought, this should be a breeze. Just when you think you know something you are reminded that there is always areas to learn about.

I have been working with Cluster for over 2 years now and loving the product. The Certification test showed me that there was still plenty for me to learn. I am happy to know that MySQL DBA's that take and pass this test will have to know what they are talking about. I am saying that this is not just some easy test; which would lower the value of the Certification IMHO.

Want to see me and others Cluster MySQLers sweating... I mean taking the test?
Checkout this:
http://rpbouman.blogspot.com/2007/05/ssst-quietcluster-certification-exam-in.html

I know, you are asking, well did he pass the test? The answer is yes, but I have to admit that my score was not what I would have liked for it to be. Just means that I have much more to learn.

So if you are a Cluster Shop and you are looking to hire someone that is a MySQL Certified DBA with Cluster Certification, I for one can tell you that they had to have good Cluster knowledge to get that Cert.

Don't believe me, well then, just take the test and see for yourself ;-)

As always, I love to have feedback and ideas about QAing Cluster and Replication.

Jonathan Miller
Austin, Texas USA
Senior Lead Quality Assurance Developer
MySQL AB www.mysql.com

2 comments:

Nilesh Jethwa said...

Hi,
I have been working on an MySQL DBA Dashboard. The Dashboard currently has basic information from the information schema.

Would like your opinion to improve and make it useful, for e.g to add DB performance metrics etc, but not sure where this information would be available.

Your opinion is highly regarded and will really appreciate if you could point me to some resources on this.
( njethwa @ gma!l . com)
Regards
Nilesh
MySQL Dashboards

jbm said...

Hi,

I would suggest you look at the counters inside the MySQLD. These should provide much of what you are looking for.

Your product looks like it provides much of what the MySQL Enterprise Adviser provides. Biggest difference I see is that the Adviser is web base. This allows you to monitor and work on your databases from anywhere in the world as long as you can get to the internet.

MySQL Enterprise Advisors

Best wishes,
/Jeb