High Performance MySQL
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Spotlight Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 4.78Customer Rating: 5
Summary: Well explained MySQL concepts
Comment: As an Oracle DBA, I was looking for a book that can help me better understand MySQL core concepts and differences compared to my primary working platform. I was looking for a book with the flavor of Oracle Concepts Manual. I partially read official MySQL reference manual but didn't find (get?) all the answers (nor I really enjoyed reading it - sorry AB doc. team!).
I think this book filled my knowledge gap on MySQL perfectly. Actually, this book could easily bear different title, such as "MySQL concepts guide" or something like that. You'll probably read the book in a couple of days, thanks to the author's clear writing style.
Let me give you an example. Some technical topics are difficult to explain in a few sentences, like the one on letter I (Isolation) from ACID rules for 'safe' transactions. Just compare the explanation on "phantom reads" from this book with the one you'll find in Oracle Concepts Manual (freely available on-line from OTN). Now, which one did you understand on the first pass? ;-)
Thanks to clear and short explanations, right from the beginning of the book, I learned some important technical facts about MySQL that I could easily put in perspective with my Oracle background. For example:
-"All InnoDB tables have primary keys"
-"InnoDB tables are similar to Oracle index-organized tables."
-"MySQL will only ever use one index per table per query!"
-"MySQL doesn't cache rows for MyISAM tables, only indexes...as opposed to InnoDB"
-"...counts are very fast on MyISAM tables and slow on InnoDB tables..."
Obviously the chapters that I liked the most in this book are the ones that covers core things very well:
"2. Storage Engines",
"4. Indexes",
"5. Query Performance" and
"10. Security".
All other chapters are fine but not essential for my current use of MySQL (like the excellent chapter on replication where it's obvious that Jeremy poses vast practical experience with replication from his workplace at Yahoo!).
The only complaint that I have is the one on "Storage Engines" chapter. In my opinion multi storage engine architecture is the most important advantage of MySQL over all other database vendors
products. I wish author's went a little deeper with the details (and thanks but no thanks, I don't want to read source code ;-), especially InnoDB engine is not covered enough (hmm...or maybe it's just me, after all :-).
Overall this book is highly recommended to all DBAs, the existing MySQL DBAs as well as to all others that work with other RDBMS and want a fast way to pick the most important technical nuances of MySQL.
Customer Rating: 5
Summary: High Performance INDEED!
Comment: There's mysql documenation, and then there's this book. This book is like taking having the opportunity to pick at a seasoned pro's brain! I have almost every MySQL book out there and while the others merely taught me how to use MySQL, this one taught me how to push make it work FAST and EFFICIENT!
I honestly couldn't believe how much insight and experience I gained from this book. Almost every single page was fun and easy to read. I can honestly say that I can design and build one (...) database now as a direct result of this book.
Thank you so much guys!
Customer Rating: 5
Summary: The best book on MySQL
Comment: I have read many books on MySQL and found this one the best. The book is perfect for me, Systems Architect, Oracle DBA. I found answers for most of my questions on MySQL from the systems, high performance, replication and other advance areas. The book is not for novice users, you need to have some experience in RDBMS to appreciate it. I plan on launching enterprise web site using MySQL, High Performance MySQL answers most of my questions and cleared doubts that I have had on MySQL.