High Performance MySQL, 4th Edition

Foreword

A fresh copy of High Performance MySQL has been the first book to get plopped down on the desk of every newly-hired DBA, systems engineer, or database-minded developer since it came out nearly two decades ago.

When Jeremy Zawodny and Derek Balling set out to write a book about running MySQL at scale, to bring clarity and structure to years of mystery, it was destined to become an instant classic in the MySQL world. Through the years and several updates, some of the content of the original and the subsequent updates has held up, and some not so much.

MySQL itself has advanced, the MySQL community has changed a lot, and the ways in which we use MySQL have changed. Now in the 4th edition, Silvia and Jeremy undertake a thankless and gargantuan task to update this classic for the modern era—and they are just the pair for the task.

In my time (now more than 20 years!) in the MySQL community, the one consistent thing has been, well, inconsistency. Everyone uses MySQL (and databases in general) in slightly different ways, and they each have different expectations of it. Everyone makes some good decisions, some well-intentioned but questionable decisions, and, always, their share of bad ones. Sometimes, progress is easy, but sometimes it takes sage advice and a new way of thinking about the problem learned straight from an expert.

Silvia and Jeremy are just such experts. Everything from MySQL architecture, optimization, replication, backups, and more, stood to benefit from them ...