Databases Archive

Linux Labs announced a key stepping stone towards large-scale deployment of the Linux Operating System. Called Clusgres, this product has the ability to make standalone applications run in parallel across a group of computers and act as one, including the Open Source database system PostgreSQL. To date there has been no capability to either increase speed of free database servers for Linux or to allow them to scale past the limitations of a single server. Despite advances in clustered supercomputing, there has been no capability for a server program running on a single machine, let alone the PostgreSQL database, to transparently operate across linked computers and to operate as if a single large program.

It's not quite an Oracle or IBM database yet, but open source MySQL is catching up to the giants in terms of enterprise features. Version 5.0 was released Monday by developers MySQL AB of Sweden and includes for the first time stored procedures that simplify the development of enterprise applications.

Firebird 1.5 Linux CS RC8 released. This RC has many small enhancements in install procedure made by Mark O'Donohue and it should install more "smoothly". Additionally, this is the first RC built with external debug info which you can download separately.

MySQL 5.0.0-Alpha, a new version of the popular Open Source/Free Software Database Management System, has been released. The most prominent new feature of MySQL 5.0 is probably Basic support for stored procedures (SQL-99 style). However, there are several additional enhancements, which are planned to be implemented before MySQL 5.0 reaches beta status.

Apache, MySQL, and PHP have become one of the most utilized combinations for developing content driven websites. That being said, lets get to building a web server. This tutorial is designed to guide you through the initial steps of setting up Apache, MySQL, and PHP on Linux. The Linux distribution being utilized for this tutorial is Fedora Core 1, however the steps should be very similar across most distros.

If you are a DBA or a database programmer, your manager may have asked you to prepare a breakdown of employees by location and department, or a breakdown of products by category and provider. If your boss is a techie, instead of a breakdown she might have mentioned a pivot table, or, if she likes to use "the right words," a cross-tabulation, Giuseppe Maxia writes. Elsewhere on OnLamp.com another article advises on "Quick and Dirty RDBMS Tuning".

DB2 Universal Database Express Edition is a new specially tailored full feature relational database for small and medium business.

Open-source database software maker MySQL AB has released a new, more powerful complement to its MySQL flagship database. Called MaxDB version 7.5.00.06, the latest release, which was built on database assets it acquired from SAP in May, is more robust than MySQL's main product and also boasts such features as stored procedures, triggers and views, which MySQL lacks.

The new PostgreSQL version, 7.4, includes a host of new features which make PostgreSQL a more powerful and scalable database for large enterprises. These include AMD Opteron optimization, improved index maintenance tools, and enhanced support of full text indexing which adds ranked result sets. Combined with the recent contribution of the eRServer replication solution, these advances fulfill PostgreSQL's potential to run high-availability, large-scale data centers. Press release here.

Led by a surge in the amount of data being analyzed in data warehouses, the world's largest databases are pushing new heights as they double and triple in size, according to a survey.

A new production version of the MySQL database, version 4.0.15, has been released. Additionally, MySQL Studio 4.2.5 is out: a set of MySQL GUI tools for database management, import/export, backup and monitoring tools for OSX and Windows. Firebird-SQL 1.5 RC-6 is out too, release notes. In the meantime, SAP unveils GUI Machine, a set of dev RAD tools, while an Oracle executive says the company is building a consortium of industry players to help create standards for commercial use of grid computing. Interesting results of the recent TPC-H benchmark performance testing on Clustered and non-Clustered 100GB and 300GB configurations.

Speaking to thousands of attendees at Oracle's customer and partner conference, Chairman and CEO Larry Ellison launched Oracle's Grid Computing initiative, but to explain its significance, he dialed back the clock to 1964, to the advent of mainframe computing. Also, beta customers tap into Oracle Grid Computing while Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 achieves record-breaking benchmark with Oracle and HP.

In keeping with their policy of releasing all commercial products as BSD licensed open source within two years of development, PostgreSQL, Inc. has released a robust, scalable replication solution for PostgreSQL under the BSD license. The article quotes an statement from the company which says:

"Oracle is aggressively adopting Linux both internally and for its products, despite SCO Group's threats earlier this week that it may sue those who don't pay licensing fees to the company. Chuck Rozwat, an Oracle executive VP, says the company has moved its IT infrastructure to Linux, a year after CEO Larry Ellis issued the mandate." Read more at InfomationWeek.