Customer Reviews

High Availability MySQL Cookbook

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MySQL is an easy database to get running initially but it can be tricky to run in demanding environments. High Availability MySQL Cookbook is a relatively thin book packed with information.

The first four chapters are on the care and feeding of a MySQL 7.x Cluster. It starts simply with an initial configuration, covers backups & replication, covers user defined partitioning, and covers troubleshooting node failures. The examples are short, to the point, and devoid of any unneeded filler.

Next come chapters on replication including the very tricky Multi Master Replication. Used shared storage is covered in a separate chapter from DRBD. The book finishes strongly with performance tuning.

The good points -- the book is concise and not padded with filler. The bad is that it is too short. Considering how well the author covers the topics that may not be too big a of a problem. For a novice to intermediate level MySQL DBA, this is a valuable guide on making your databases highly available. Long time MySQL DBAs will find nothing new but might appreciate the clear and concise explanations presented.

Under the CentOS distribution, a MySQL database service can be transformed into an highly available service using different approaches. High Availability MySQL Cookbook presents them:
* MySQL Cluster
* MySQL replication
* Shared storage
* Block-level replication

This book is mainly focused on the MySQL Cluster approach with four (4) entire chapters dedicated to this method. The three (3) remaining approaches are covered in dedicated single chapters while the last chapter covers performance tuning of MySQL.

The configuration examples presented in the book are rich and well explained. These examples could be used to quickly set up an highly available MySQL database from scratch. However, the inner workings of MySQL in a highly available configuration could be more detailed. The graphical representations used to illustrate the theory behind the examples are poorly designed.

Another weakness of this book is the proposed method of installation for the Multi Master Replication Manager (MMM). The author recommends the installation of source packages. While these tools are a valuable resource for a multi-master replication configuration, the use of manually installed software on a production environment should be avoided. The author should provide a way to install these tools via a set of packages specifically built for the CentOS distribution.

Nonetheless, this book is a valuable resource for a novice to intermediate level MySQL database administrator in his journey toward making its database highly available.