Category Archives: PlanetMySQL

Blog posts to appear at PlanetMySQL

db4free.net, PlanetMySQL

db4free.net goes MySQL 8.0

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MySQL 8.0 has been released as stable (GA) earlier this month. For db4free.net this means it’s time to make MySQL 8.0 the default version and to deprecate the MySQL 5.7 server instance.

The new MySQL 8.0 server is running on the default port 3306. All new registrations will have the database created on this server. It is fresh and empty and will start from scratch.

The previous MySQL 5.7 server will remain available on port 3308. All users who have data there which they want to keep should migrate it to the new MySQL 8.0 server. This will require you to sign up again.

The previous MySQL 8.0 server will remain on port 3307. Both the old MySQL 5.7 and the old MySQL 8.0 server on port 3307 will be available until June 15, 2018. Data which isn’t migrated to the new server instance by then will be lost.

The new MySQL 8.0 server instance will come with the new utf8mb4 character set and the new utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci collation, which are the new defaults in MySQL 8.0. Since db4free.net already used utf8mb4 on the previous MySQL 5.7 server instance, this should not affect many people, if any at all.

Another long overdue change is that the default timezone (on db4free.net, this is not a change in MySQL 8.0 itself) will be UTC. Previously the servers were set to Central European Time since that’s the home time zone where db4free.net is hosted. But with a large international audience it makes sense to use UTC going forward. The timezone can be changed per connection as described in the MySQL Reference Manual.

The MySQL 8.0 Reference Manual is the place to go for all general MySQL questions and to find out what’s new in MySQL 8.0 (which are a lot of things).

As always: please backup data which you can’t afford to lose. db4free.net is a testing service and there is always a risk that something goes wrong, like the server doesn’t start up anymore. This has happened before and may happen again, especially with a brand new version. This service comes with no warranties at all.

If you keep that in mind you should have much fun exploring the new (and old) goodies of MySQL 8.0. Consider following db4free.net on Twitter as this is where you get updates and status information the quickest.

Enjoy!

db4free.net, MySQL, PlanetMySQL

db4free.net and MySQL 8.0

7 Comments

db4free.net was born in 2005 (which makes it older than Twitter or Google Chrome) when MySQL 5.0 was in early development. 11 years went by but one thing always remained the same: the 5 in MySQL’s major version number. MySQL versions went from 5.0 to 5.1 to 5.5, 5.6 and recently to 5.7. There was always this 5.something.

While this 5 will stay around for a bit longer, it is not alone anymore.

Now there is a duplicate of the db4free.net website at

https://mysql8.db4free.net

where you can create a database on a newly set up MySQL 8.0 server!

MySQL 8.0 is in very early development, the first Development Milestone Release (MySQL 8.0.0 DMR) has just been released on September, 12. It will take several months until there will be a final release.

db4free.net makes it easy to try new features early. The MySQL 8.0 Reference Manual is a good entry point, especially the section What Is New in MySQL 8.0.

While the MySQL 5.7 server keeps running unchanged, the new MySQL 8.0 server will run on port 3307. Make sure to address the correct server in your client. Maybe there is a separate field to set the port, or you may have to change the host name to db4free.net:3307. Of course you can also use phpMyAdmin at https://mysql8.db4free.net which will give you access to the MySQL 8.0 server (while phpMyadmin at https://www.db4free.net will still connect you to the MySQL 5.7 server).

Speaking of clients, please keep in mind that clients may not be fully ready for MySQL 8.0 yet and there may be a problem here and there. This is part of testing a new version in early development.

The mysql8.db4free.net website with black-orange header is mostly a duplicate of the www.db4free.net website with black-blue header. The only major difference is that mysql8.db4free.net manages databases on the MySQL 8.0 server whereas www.db4free.net manages databases on the MySQL 5.7 server. Accounts created on either site do not affect the other site, so they are completely separate. If you want a MySQL 5.7 database as well as a MySQL 8.0 database you need to register on both sites.

Have fun and enjoy!

A word on Bitcoins

db4free.net now accepts donations in Bitcoins. Donations in traditional currencies are also supported via PayPal.

db4free.net, MySQL, PlanetMySQL

db4free.net offering MySQL 5.7

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db4free.net finally runs MySQL 5.7 which was released on October 21.

Rather than upgrading the existing MySQL server I set up a new MySQL 5.7 server. This is cleaner and it helps to get rid of accounts which are no longer used.

For active users, the MySQL 5.6 server will stay online

until January 15, 2016.

You can access it on port 3307 (the new MySQL 5.7 server will again run on MySQL’s default port 3306).

Users who want to keep their data need to migrate it to the new server:

  • create a backup of your data on the MySQL 5.6 server
  • signup for a new db4free.net account
  • restore your backup in the new MySQL 5.7 server

If you use the MySQL default client and mysqldump, it goes like this (commands in one line):

  • mysqldump -h db4free.net -P 3307 -u [username] -p[password] --database [databasename] --opt > backup.sql
  • (remember to create the new account)
  • mysql -h db4free.net -u [new_username] -p[new_password] [new_databasename] < backup.sql

You can also use phpMyAdmin (there are now 2 login boxes) or MySQL Workbench or any other client software which does the job.

Please remember: db4free.net is a testing service. Data loss can happen any time!

The primary reason why not data loss occurred in the last 2 years (how time flies!) are the many stability and bug fix updates that MySQL 5.6 received over time (current version is 5.6.27).

There were some problems while MySQL 5.6 was young though!

With MySQL 5.7 being a new major release (current version is 5.7.9), the risk of data loss and outages will again be higher. Please take this into account (backups, backups, backups!). It’s the price for the shiny new features.

Since db4free.net is a testing service, this shouldn’t be a problem for you. If it is a problem, db4free.net is probably not the right service for you.

Have fun and enjoy!

db4free.net, MySQL, PlanetMySQL

db4free.net Relaunch

21 Comments

Finally! The new db4free.net Website has launched and along with it comes a new (slightly stronger) server and some simplifications with the service itself.

So what is new? Of course the new website which now is up to modern standards again, using a responsive design. While the old site was only designed for desktop (no surprise if you consider it was created in 2005 and remained more or less unchanged since), the new site adopts to small screen devices like mobile phones and tablets as well. Also the look is totally different:

db4free.net old

db4free.net old

db4free.net new

db4free.net new

The service now has a few simplifications. It is no longer allowed, or necessary, to set a collation and define IP addresses or hosts from which db4free.net can be accessed. Most users didn’t change the default anyway and many who did locked themselves out. As for character set and collation, UTF8 should work fine in all languages. If you really need to change it, you can do so from your MySQL client.

Now to the biggest new feature (Woohoo!). You can now easily help us translate the db4free.net website. The old website had the texts spread across many files in various places so there was no easy way to share them so to allow users to contribute in ways like fixing mistakes (I hope there aren’t any, but who can be sure?), improving linguistic style or even add an entirely new language. The new website fixes that and allows me to publish all website texts in a GitHub repository at:

https://github.com/mpopp75/db4free-net-l10n

You can fork this repository, fix texts and/or add translations and send a pull request back, so your updates can be integrated into the website. Find instructions how to do that in the new Translation page and if you need further assistance, please open a ticket at GitHub. I will be happy to guide you through the process as good as I can.

Also still quite new is that db4free.net is now on Twitter. Please consider following the account so you can easily stay up-to-date.

Where is your data which you had already stored in a db4free.net database? As like the last time when db4free.net moved to a new server, the old server and service will remain available at db4free.org until August 15, 2014. Since the migration process is exactly the same as last time, please reuse the good old and still valid instructions.

If you have any questions, please use the Comments section below or drop me a line on Twitter. Enjoy!

db4free.net, MySQL, PlanetMySQL

db4free.net server migration

3 Comments

db4free.net‘s server has reached its limits, and it was time for a new one. Now here it is, a shiny new server, with 8 times as much memory than the previous one, and also more disk space. Time for a reboot.

Only recently, MySQL 5.6 has become GA with much better performance than 5.5 and earlier, so the combination of a faster MySQL server and a faster machine should result in a very significant performance boost for db4free.net.

I have not migrated any user databases, but they are still available on the previous/old server. The old server is available at db4free.org, the new server at db4free.net. I will leave the old server running until end of March to allow users to transfer their data to the new server. After that, the server will be shut down and db4free.org will point to the new server as well. This way the server will not have to carry the load of thousands of databases and user accounts which have been created over time and are no longer used.

This means that all users have to register a new account. And here are instructions how to migrate your database from the old to the new server:

On Linux, make sure you have the mysql-client package installed. This should give you everything you need. For Windows users I am providing the 2 client programs you need for download: mysql.exe and mysqldump.exe. Download and copy them into your Windows directory (C:\WINDOWS usually).

To create a backup (dump file) of your database from the old server, run:

mysqldump -h db4free.org -u [myuser] -p[mypass] --database [mydatabase] --opt > dump.sql

[myuser] is of course your user name, [mypass] your password (note that there is no space between -p and your password) and [mydatabase] your database name, as used on the old server.

To import this backup into the new server (after you created the account) run:

mysql -h db4free.net -u [myuser] -p[mypass] [mydatabase] < dump.sql

Note that while mysqldump used db4free.org as host name, you need db4free.net for the mysql command. User name, password and database are those from the new server, in case you used different ones when registering for an account on the new server.

If you prefer phpMyAdmin, you can still access the old server at http://www.db4free.org/phpMyAdmin/.

Should be easy enough, I hope. And when it’s all done: enjoy!

MySQL, PlanetMySQL, WWW

mysql.com goes HTML5 video

2 Comments

In my role as Web Developer for mysql.com I have always tried to advocate open web standards, and to adopt good new web technologies as early as possible. And I believe that an open source product like MySQL owes the World Wide Web open web technologies, rather than content which requires proprietary plugins. Which is why it’s a pleasure for me to tell you that demo videos which used to require Flash have been replaced by new demo videos which work with HTML5 video (and using Flash only as fallback for old browsers).

Take a look:

… or even better, take a look at the real thing at http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/demo.html.

Needless to say, not only the fact that these videos are delivered as HTML5 video is interesting, but of course also what the MySQL Enterprise Monitor can do for you, like analyzing your queries, or monitoring your replication and alert you when things go wrong.

And stay tuned, there is more to come in the future!

MySQL, Personal, PlanetMySQL

5th anniversary working for MySQL

2 Comments

On May 17, 2006 – exactly 5 years ago – I started my new job as web developer at MySQL AB.

Since then I closed 3,049 web requests, worked with 9 colleagues in the web team, had 4 direct managers, attended the MySQL User Conference in Santa Clara, CA 4 times (2006-2009, although in 2006 I wasn’t an employee yet, but that was when I got hired, so lets count it) and one all-company meeting in Orlando, FL and went through 2 acquisitions: in 2008 to Sun Microsystems and in 2010 to Oracle.

Time to say thank you to all the great people who I had the pleasure to work with during these 5 years!

db4free.net, PlanetMySQL

Concerned about db4free.net’s future?

3 Comments

Recently there were some server issues at db4free.net which raised some concerns over a possible soon end of db4free.net.

Here are 3 facts that should convince you that there is no reason for concern:

  • db4free.net has doubled (!) its visit numbers in quite a short period of time. And this doesn’t look like a temporary increase, but very likely to continue and maybe even become more. So db4free.net is currently more successful than it has ever been before.
  • db4free.net recently moved to a new server, which is even slightly stronger than the old one, but costs less than half the money.
  • I invested quite some efforts to clean up the web site infrastructure (which was in a very messy state not long ago). Even though this isn’t entirely finished yet, it allows for new perspectives which seemed unrealistic before. Working on the code becomes increasingly fun again, a while ago it was more pain than fun.

So knowing these 3 facts you probably agree that now would be a really stupid time to shut down db4free.net.