(Leo Hsu and Regina Obe) In our PLPython Part 4: PLPython meets aggregates we demonstrated the power of PostgreSQL in combination with PLPython to create a sequence of ascii plots by using the power of aggregation. Our friend Simon Greener over at Spatial Db Advisor told me the example was clever bu

(Arjen Lentz) When connecting to MySQL, or executing a query, proper error handling is required. Many take this very seriously, and do a construct like mysql_connect() or die() or the equivalent with mysql_query(). For web apps this generally makes error codes end up on the user page, you can easily

(Peter Zaitsev) One question which comes up very often is when one should use SAN with MySQL, which is especially popular among people got used to Oracle or other Enterprise database systems which are quite commonly deployed on SAN.

(Shlomi Noach) A long time missing feature in MySQL is temporarily blocking accounts: denying a user to log in, without affecting any other of her privileges.

(Ronald Bradford) Correctly managing your MySQL database objects such as schemas, tables, indexes, base data etc, is critical to the success of a 24×7 online website. I rarely encounter a robust working solution as part of my consulting so I would like to share my experience in identifying the best

(Vadim) We finally managed to get Intel X25-E SSD drive into our lab. I attached it to our Dell PowerEdge R900. The story making it running is worth separate mentioning – along with Intel X25-E I got HighPoint 2300 controller and CentOS 5.2 just could not start with two RAID controllers (Perc/6i and

(Anders Karlsson) There has been some discussion on the performance of MySQL Stored Procedures here, last up was Anthony T Curtis in his blog where he writes about Perl stored procedures. Brooks Johnson writes on the SP performance in his blog and concludes that procedures really are slow., in terms

(Peter Zaitsev) There are few terms you need to have a good understanding if you’re working with high volume systems. I commonly see these mixed and people not understanding the difference between them.

(Ronald Bradford) I can’t stress enough that people look at SQL statements that are being executed against your production MySQL database, and you optimize queries when you can.

(Gary Pendergast) With the release of MySQL 5.1, many DBAs are going to be scheduling downtime to upgrade their MySQL Server. As with all upgrades between major version numbers, it requires one of two upgrade paths: –Dump/reload: The safest method of upgrading, but it takes out your server for q