While working on MySQLDump.java this weekend I decided to look into the new features that are heading our way in MySQL 5.1. It cannot be long before we see a general release and I needed to start thinking of ways to backup items like Events. This also made a good opportunity to start afresh with my dev server and try out the latest Solaris 10 8/07 release with GlassFish v2, the releases just keep coming! (SXDE 9/07 was just released).

The Solaris 10 install was as smooth as previous releases (Using Text Based) and once started took at least an hour or so to finish, I cannot remember the exact time as after checking the status a couple of times I forgot all about it. The general feel was much improved however, and the overall speed increase made the upgrade worthwhile.

GlassFish installed and ran as expected - easy. I would be very interested to see the difference in http performance when compared to Apache. Something for another day maybe?

Next on my list was MySQL 5.1.21-beta.
I originally downloaded the pkgadd version but failed to start the server due to a an [ERROR] Can’t find messagefile. It was only after receiving the same message with the Tar distribution that I headed over to the MySQL Bug System where it seemed the issue was a known one - BugID 30678.

Not a major issue as the solution was to simply add --language=./share/mysql/english/ to server install / startup commands. Something that I am sure would have been fixed in the release candidate. I would like to see a more complete installer for Solaris, something similar to the FreeBSD port. The pkgadd install does not really offer much customisation and both the Tar file / pkgadd lack any sample service manifest files.

Once installed everything worked as expected and my first task was to install the Sakila test database. I intend to use this database to validate the operation of the MySQLDump.java app. It may not be the biggest database to work with but it does support a wide variety of data types, views, triggers etc. I am currently using the MySQL Toolkit to verify the backup and restore. If you have not used the Toolkit before (it’s written in Perl) it includes a nice utility that can test if 2 tables are identical - handy for validating a backup.

I envisage using unit tests for this purpose in future, but need to find a good book on TestNG first. A quick dump of the film_text table worked as expected and the data was identical to that supplied by MySQL, I must be on the right track! - If only I had more time…

I did however find time to attend the MySQL Backup and Recovery webinar this morning and was impressed with the new Backup API planned for MySQL 5.2 onward. I just booked my place at the European MySQL Conference and hope to get some more insight into future developments, or at least a copy of the MySQL 5.1 Cluster Certification Study Guide.