MySQL Admin Cookbook from Packt Publishing, authored by Daniel Schneller & Udo Schwedt, is a new addition to the MySQL literary genre with 99 great recipes for mastering MySQL configuration and administration. Announcing quick answers to common problems, these 99 recipes cover a broad spectrum of managing MySQL, and are appropriate for new MySQL administrators as well as more experienced administrators. MySQL Admin Cookbook is available in dead tree and PDF formats. The book's website is: https://www.packtpub.com/mysql-admin-cookbook/book with errata found at http://www/packtpub.com/support.

Subjects Covered

• Replication
  
• Indexing Tools
  
• Backing Up & Restoring MySQL Data
  
• Managing Data
  
• Monitoring & Analyzing MySQL Installation
  
• Configuring MySQL
  
• MySQL User Management
  
• Managing Schemas
  
• Good to Know

All in that order.

Recipe Format

All recipes follow a common format:

1. Introduction of what this recipe will accomplish and why you'd want to use it.
   
2. Getting Ready – This section outlines the requirements for the recipe, user privileges, programming language familiarity, additional software required, and where to find additional information.
   
3. How to do it – Step-by-step instructions and expected output from these steps. All the reader has to do is follow the steps.
   
4. How it works – The details on how the recipe works. If you're unsure what happens during the How to do it section, be sure to spend all the time needed to understand how the recipe works. Don't implement any recipe unless you fully understand what it's doing and how it works.
   
5. There's more – Following on from the How it works section, this part will give the reader additional information to expand the functionality of the recipe, or provide other tools that provide the same, or nearly the same functionality. If there are additional concerns to look out for, it'll be included here as well.

MySQL Admin Cookbook Review

MySQL Admin Cookbook really is not designed to be read cover-to-cover as I did for this review, but it left me with a clunkiness about chapter order. There were a few of the recipes I thought were too basic – creating a basic user, creating indexes and tables. Those DBA functions should be automatic before diving into a book with this level of technical content. After those little bits of personal opinion, overall, I really liked the book. I put a few of the recipes into action with the servers I'm responsible for – Using a custom prompt, I would rely on the tab within terminal to see which server I was on, but that tab is missing when I SSH into a server from my phone. I quickly used Display query results page by page and Default pager as well since it makes it much easier to use the MySQL command-line client on smaller screens. Sometimes, it's the small things that make a large impact.

I work mostly from the command-line, but I like the way MySQL Admin Cookbook used both command-line tools and MySQL GUI tools to demonstrate the recipes. The authors acknowledge that the MySQL GUI tools are end of life, but they are still useful tools, so don't discount them. One of the things I thought was left out was using phpMyAdmin as one of the “GUI” tools. If you've never heard of phpMyAdmin, it is a very popular web-based MySQL interface used by many web hosting companies. One of the reviewers is heavily involved with phpMyAdmin development as well, so I would think at least one recipe in Chapter 3: Tools should have used phpMyAdmin.

One of the most popular command-line tools outside of MySQL command-line is Maatkit, which is mentioned several times throughout the book. On this subject, Maatkit could really use its own book ( hint, hint Baron! ), but I digress – hopefully in a positive direction.

At the time of this review, the was no errata on the Pakt website, and I couldn't add anything to the errata anyway. I've not tried all the recipes for accuracy, but I couldn't find any tpyos or mispelings.

If you'd like to see another DBA's perspective on MySQL server management or gain additional MySQL technical expertise, pick up a copy of MySQL Admin Cookbook.

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