Back in the day, if you had a stranded .ibd file (the individual InnoDB data file with –innodb-file-per-table option), you basically had nothing (even though that file contained all of the data). This was because unless you had the original instance that that particular .ibd file (table) originated from, there was no way to load it, import, or dump from it. So it was not of much use, though all the data was *right* there.

Thus I created the method of Recovering an InnoDB table from only an .ibd file (I should note that this was before the InnoDB Recovery Tool had been released, which can also be used to recover data from a stranded .ibd file too).

However, if you’ve used either my method or the InnoDB Recovery Tool for such a job, it can be a bit of work to get the data dumped. For those experienced, it goes much faster. But still, you cannot get any faster than just being able to (roughly) import the individual tablespace right into any running MySQL 5.6 instance.

Nice work!

Note: Again, I must mention this is only in MySQL 5.6, so if you have a stranded .ibd file you need to recover data from pre-5.6, you’ll either need to use my method or the InnoDB Recovery Tool.

Old Way:

sc create "maria55" binpath= "\"C:/Program Files/MySQL/MariaDB 5.5/bin/mysqld\"
\"--defaults-file=C:/Program Files/MySQL/MariaDB 5.5/data/my.ini\""
DisplayName= "Maria55" start= "auto"

New Way:

sc create "maria55" binpath= "\"C:/Program Files/MySQL/MariaDB 5.5/bin/mysqld\"
\"--defaults-file=C:/Program Files/MySQL/MariaDB 5.5/data/my.ini\" maria55"
DisplayName= "Maria55" start= "auto"

The key is adding the name, maria55, after the –defaults-file=.. option, but still within the “” that belong to “binpath”.

This extra parameter exists so that mysqld knows whether or not it was started as a service or not.

Without it, the server does not know, and therefore didn’t realize it was running as a service, and thus since the service manager got no response from mysqld, it terminated the service after 30 seconds (though I could connect and issue any MySQL command or query within that 30 seconds).

Many thanks to Wlad for helping me to track this down!

For reference, here is my terminal output:

C:\>sc create "maria55" binpath= "\"C:/Program Files/MySQL/MariaDB 5.5/bin/mysqld\"
\"--defaults-file=C:/Program Files/MySQL/MariaDB 5.5/data/my.ini\" maria55"
DisplayName= "Maria55" start= "auto"
[SC] CreateService SUCCESS

C:\Users\Chris>net start maria55
The maria55 service is starting.
The maria55 service was started successfully.

With the initial service attempt, the service creates fine, but fails after 30 seconds:

C:\Users\Chris>net start maria55
The service is not responding to the control function.

More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2186.

Hope this helps.

The usual suspects, Baron, Sarah, Gerardo, and Sheeri, each won, and deservedly so. All 4 contribute a great deal to the MySQL Community and ecosystem, and it is very much appreciated.

However, I was especially happy to hear that James Day was also a winner (a name everyone might not be so familiar with). But, having worked with James for 5 years, I really couldn’t say it better than Henrik Ingo already did (in his initial post of this year’s winners), so let me quote him:

“James was nominated for ‘MySQL advocacy and swimming upstream to keep people informed about bugs and other issues.’ When looking into James’ activities in the community, the panel first didn’t find much evidence to support an award. For instance, unlike most winners, he is not a frequent blogger on Planet MySQL. But when digging deeper it became clear that James’ instead is a very active commenter on everyone else’s blogs, contributing in depth additional information to the community dialogue. James therefore is an excellent example of the kind of helpful support person that tirelessly helps everyone he meets in their use of MySQL.”

There is not a single bug comment from James that I don’t appreciate, and he gladly shares his in-depth knowledge, and always has.

So this was definitely great to see, and that award, as were all, were well deserved!

Congratulations, James, Baron, Sarah, Gerardo, and Sheeri!

Let me post the main part of the press release here:

SAN JOSE – April 18, 2012 – SkySQL, the first choice in affordable database solutions for the MySQL® and MariaDB® databases in the enterprise and the cloud, today announces that the company has raised $4 million in Series A funding from a number of investors, including OnCorps, an elite peer-based community of veteran technology investors and advisors committed to bringing better, cost-disruptive technologies into the mainstream. Also funding the round are European investors including Finnish Industry Investment Ltd., Spintop Ventures and Open Ocean Capital.

SkySQL will primarily use the investment to fund growth in its new product development, including adding critical positions. This is the company’s most recent move in expanding beyond a MySQL and MariaDB services-only company into a fully-fledged database products and services provider. SkySQL made its debut in October 2010 and has been funded to date with seed money from OnCorps, as well as Open Ocean Capital. Today, SkySQL is currently operating in 13 countries.

“The SkySQL strategy aligns well with OnCorps’s technology leadership vision,” said Bob Suh of OnCorps. “SkySQL will capitalize on the growing database and cloud services market. We are delighted and look forward to working with the SkySQL team to contribute to their continued success.”

“This investment will let us focus on ramping up development and efforts behind both enterprise and cloud database products that address a very real need in the marketplace,” said Ulf Sandberg, chief executive officer of SkySQL. “We also plan to build on our existing MySQL and MariaDB services offering, which offers customers unrivaled support, consulting and training.”

You can read the full press release here:

http://www.skysql.com/news-and-events/press-releases/skysql-raises-4-million-series-round

Very exciting times!

However, SkySQL also had some great individual news in that it announced 2 new partners:

• hastexo
• PalominoDB

I just wanted to take a moment and officially welcome both to the SkySQL fold!

PalominoDB and hastexo, it’s great to be partnered with you!

And we’re looking forward to all the exciting things the future has to hold!

For those interested, you can read more about each partnership here:

SkySQL & hastexo Partnership Press Release
SkySQL & PalominoDB Partnership Press Release

It was only about 6-ish weeks ago that MariaDB 5.5 had been released as alpha, so the fact it’s already GA is excellent news for all MariaDB users (and MySQL 5.5 users looking to migrate).

Some of the 5.5 enhancements include:

• Significantly more efficient thread pool, comparable in functionality to the closed source feature in MySQL Enterprise.
• Non-blocking client API Library (MWL#192)
• @@skip_replication option (MWL#234)
• SphinxSE updated to version 2.0.4.
• “extended keys” support for XtraDB and InnoDB
• New INSTALL SONAME statement
• New LIMIT ROWS EXAMINED optimization.
• mysql_real_connect() Changes
  In MySQL, and in MariaDB versions before 5.5.21, mysql_real_connect() removes from the MYSQL object any options set with mysql_option() when it fails. Beginning with MariaDB 5.5.21, options are preserved by a failing mysql_real_connect(); use mysql_close(), as normal, to clear them.
  This only has effect if the MYSQL object is reused after a mysql_real_connect() failure (which is unusual). No real-life incompatibilities are expected from this change (it is unlikely that an application would rely on options being automatically removed between connection attempts).

• The variables replicate_do_*, replicate_ignore_*, and replicate_wild_* have been made dynamic, so they can be changed without requiring a server restart. See Dynamic Replication Variables for more information.
• Updates to performance schema tables are not stored in binary log and thus not replicated to slaves. This is to ensure that monitoring of the master will not cause a slower performance on all slaves. This also fixes a crash on the slaves.

Here is the official “What is MariaDB 5.5″ page:

http://kb.askmonty.org/en/what-is-mariadb-55

Also of interest:

Release Notes
Changelog
General Info

And as always, if you’d like full support for MariaDB, just contact us at SkySQL.

Hope this helps.

This is an invention she’s been perfecting for over 4 years, so this was a long-time coming, and I’m just so proud of her for creating such an innovative and quality product.

All menstruating women will want to own a pair (or two or three) of these, and I think it’s awesome that Vida had the idea, and so will women everywhere once they get a chance to try them out.

And it is not just for women. There are great resources for Dads who have to have “the talk” with their daughter. And Period Panteez make a great gift ideas for Dads, husbands, or boyfriends.

Let me post her full, recent press release:

Cincinnati, OH, April 4, 2012

Ohio Woman Invents What She Calls “The Product of the Year for Women, Period!”

Thanks to entrepreneur and inventor, Vida Calender, of Hamilton, Ohio, women can finally throw out their old granny panties and own a pair of real Period Panteez! Until now, women have had to worry about accidents while on their period, especially while sleeping or exercising, but with Period Panteez, worry no more! Period Panteez are a trendy, triple-layered boy short that provide support and peace of mind, protect clothing and bedding, and prevent accidents and embarrassment.

From tween girls to mature women, Period Panteez offer the solution to an age old problem that nearly all menstruating ladies experience! After buying brand new soft sheets and then having to sleep on itchy, uncomfortable towels to protect her bedding while menstruating, Vida said, “There’s got to be a better way!”, and Period Panteez was born. “I’m comfortable knowing I won’t ruin my clothing or embarrass myself with leakage. I love the product! I do not worry anymore about leakage and that is a huge relief! Thank you!”, commented Jackie, a focus group participant from Hamilton, Ohio.

After more than four years of research and development, countless prototypes, and extensive product testing, Period Panteez finally had its official product launch at Tri-County Mall in Springdale, Ohio on March 31, 2012. To celebrate the launch of Period Panteez, there will be fun giveaways the entire month of April. Visit Period Panteez’ website at http://www.periodpanteez.com to enter to win movie passes and shopping gift cards!

Once Vida had her “Aha” moment and discovered that nothing like her invention existed, she applied for a patent, located all necessary suppliers, and not only began manufacturing her product, but began transforming her dream into a reality! “My dream is that through Period Panteez, I can help improve the quality of women’s lives, from tweens to grandmas, and help make the world a better place by putting people first, period”, said Vida.

Being part Cherokee herself, Vida is honored and proud to design and manufacturer Period Panteez in the United States of America, for women by women, using fine quality, hand picked fabrics. Period Panteez can be purchased at http://www.periodpanteez.com at any time.

“The product is fantastic and solves a problem I have had since my menstruation cycles began, and helps me to feel totally confident that my period nightmare isn’t going to happen!”, said Lauren from Oakland, California.

Press Contact:
Vida Calender, Inventor/President
Period Panteez, LLC
vida@periodpanteez.com
http://www.periodpanteez.com
1-888-878-8364

# # #

While there’s been a lot of talk about MySQL 5.6 Replication, I specifically wanted to mention the new ‘mysqlfailover’ and ‘mysqlrpladmin’ utilities.

These are two new MySQL replication utilities (results of the new Global Transaction Identifiers (GTIDs) in MySQL 5.6).

Let me quote the MySQL 5.6 Replication article for both of these utilities:

mysqlfailover

“Provides continuous monitoring of the replication topology, enabling failover to a slave in the event of an outage on the master.

The default behavior is to promote the most up-to-date slave, based on the sets of GTIDs that have been applied, but the promotion policies are fully configurable. Therefore, a user can nominate a specific candidate slave to become the new master (i.e. because it is configured in a certain way or has better performing hardware), and the utility will automatically poll the other slaves to retrieve any events so far not replicated to the candidate slave’s relay log.

This ensures no replicated transactions are lost, even if the candidate is not the most current slave when failover is initiated.”

mysqlrpladmin

“If a user needs to take a master offline for scheduled maintenance, mysqlrpladmin can perform a switchover to a slave, defaulting to the most recent slave, or to a nominated candidate slave. It can also perform a manual failover in the event a master server has gone offline.

The utility can also be used to start and stop slaves, as well as provide slave discovery and basic monitoring, including

• Status of the slave and its I/O and SQL threads;
• Status of replication processing through the topology, including any lag or errors;
• Configuration of slave promotion policies.

With either of these utilities, the user may register scripts to be called in the event of a slave promotion – for example to redirect an application to use the new master for writes and for reads that must always be consistent.”

The new MySQL Utilities are only included in MySQL Workbench, which you can download from:

http://www.mysql.com/downloads/workbench/

Again, I should note this functionality is included in 5.6, which is not GA, so I certainly don’t recommend this for production usage.

I’ve not had a chance to test these out yet myself, but Dr. Chuck Bell has posted some usage/results here, which I think you’ll find useful.

Hope this helps.

The schedule extends as far as September 2012.

There are courses in the Belgium, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and and the United States.

And some of the course titles include:

• Administering a MySQL® Database
• Developing Applications with the MySQL® Database
• Performance Tuning for the MySQL® Database
• High Availability for the MySQL® Database
• Administering MySQL® Cluster

You can read the full schedule here:

http://www.skysql.com/services/training/schedule?vdt=training_course_list|page_3

You may have read about some of the security bugs fixed in the recent 5.0.95, and now 5.0.96 is available (it’s been nearly 9 months since 5.0.94 was released – so this is quite a lot of activity as far as 5.0 is concerned).

So if for some reason you’re still running MySQL 5.0, you should at least upgrade to the latest 5.0.96.

The upgrade process should be smooth and simple if you’re already running 5.0 (just be safe and backup your data first though).

You can download 5.0.96 from here:

http://downloads.skysql.com/archive/index/p/mysql/v/5.0.96

And if you’re interested in the 5.0 changelogs, I have direct links to them here (just look for MySQL 5.0):

http://www.chriscalender.com/?page_id=595

Hope this helps.