Sun MySQL DBA

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As part of my new job I do quite a lot of database fiddling. We currently use Firebird ::shudder:: but I've heard rumours we'll be migrating to MySQL at some point.

As it's likely to be part of my job for some time, and it's the one part of my job I don't really feel comfortable with (I have more of a support/networking background) I was thinking about doing some proper learning so I know what I'm doing for real.

The qualification is a bit far away at the moment, but can anyone recommend any books or sites on either Firebird or MySQL that would give me a good start? I'm not exactly a n00b, I'm happy with writing queries (even with different kinds of joins - on a good day) but I'm worried that due to not knowing any theory I'm missing a lot of the point of what I'm doing (and could one day make a biiiiig mess ).

 

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Sun was bought by Oracle, oracles in the process of re-branding everything so in reality Sun software no longer exists.

MySQL was acquired by Sun and now Oracle, since Oracle already have a production DB and Oracle XE its not sure what will happen to it.

You might want to think about this before investing too much time in a particular product if you are newbie.

The OU have Database modules, never taken then but their quality is normally pretty good.

You might want to also look at Postgres SQL.

Theres many good books about also. Professional training can be a good investment, a seasoned DBA can explain stuff much better.

RDBMS tend to be a sprawling mess with many features so I think most people feel the way you do about them...

 

Aaah thanks. Thought I'd not heard about Sun for a while!

I'd really prefer to go down the Oracle route, though really I guess it depends on what happens to MySQL I suppose. I can't believe it would disappear, it's everywhere.

 

So's syphilis.

As a personal choice, I would look at either Oracle, or SQL Server. I would also rate Oracle above SQL Server any day of the week, and twice on Fridays. However SQL Server is cheap, and seems to be gaining dominance, so its a viable alternative to MySQL I would say.

 

MySQL is popular largely because it was open source and got included in many LAMP stacks or web dev tools, usually as a back end behind PHP.

SQLServer wins easily in the usability stakes, but does not perform as well as Oracle, this used to be by an order of magnitude in some areas, but I hear they are getting better.

Oracle tends to be less user friendly but performs better and has more features.

Most people opted for MySQL because it was free, Oracle is generally the most expensive DB vendor with huge prices, if you want a free MySQL replacement PostgresSQL is an option.

MySQL may continue to remain, like I said its not clear, can't see Oracle adding too many major features to it, some people report that certain transaction modes or ACID properties are missing, never used it so can't say.

You can use SQLExpress for free but it has some limitations in concurrent connections and DB size I beleive, still if you're moving from Firebird these may not concern you.

 

Yeh that's how I got working with MySQL, through attempting to do things with PHP.

I discovered today that it's actually Microsoft we're going for, whoever mentioned MySQL must have been confused.

Guess I'll be getting SQLExpress and having a play about. I'll have to see how it goes before decided whether to do any DBA qualifications. Do you have any advice on books or websites to get going?

 

Give full SQL Server a try instead. I think you can download 180 day trial version or something somewhere. SQL Server lacks functionality which you can end up using in the future.
Download a copy of AdventureWorks database (is it still called that?) and play with it. That's how my first steps with SQL Server looked like.

 

For what it's worth (I realise this thread is quite old) now that the dust has settled on the Sun buyout, it would seem as though MySQL isn't going anywhere, in fact it looks like Oracle will be investing quite heavily in the Open Source DB.

I've worked extensively with both PostgreSQL and MySQL in the past, and they both have their positive and negative aspects, the great thing is that they're both free, which means they're a great way to start learning databases, both are mostly ACID compliant, the only thing they can't teach is the proprietary language extensions offered by Oracle and MS-SQL.

But for all other respects (SQL statements, design, normalisation, indexing, stored procedures, etc) either of the free options are awesome. Moreover, both of the free DB's will handle most things thrown at them, the biggest reason that most large orgs go with the biggies is for the vendor backup and support, because when the poop hits the fan, you need that SLA in place.

Just my tuppence.

T.