The second public alpha version (1.0.14-alpha) of HoneyMonitor Audit Pro - the Edition of the HoneySoftware’s GUI for MySQL™ mainly oriented to Server Administration, Monitoring and Tuning - will be released soon.

In this article I’ll try to describe the new features implemented and the most important bugs fix of this version.

You will find the complete list of bugs fix and improvements in a next post - when we will release v.1.0.14-alpha - and in the Release Notes File included in the build.

Your questions, enhancement requests and comments are welcome.

Contents:

A. New Features

1. Audit System
1.0. Introduction
1.1. Replication
1.1.1. STMT - New connection Option
1.2. Support for the Maria Engine
1.3. Other bugs fix

2. Performance Reports
2.0. Introduction
2.1. Custom Reports
2.2. Report Templates

3. Other
3.1. Audit Statistics
3.2. Server Objects List
3.3. FALCON

B. Other Bugs Fix

C. Other

A. New Features

1. Audit System

1.0. Introduction

As you (probably) already know, the Audit Pro Edition of HoneyMonitor uses a database (hs_audit_schema) to collect the “status data” of the server and store, manipulate and use them to create performance reports thus let you monitoring your servers.

The monitoring system that HoneyMonitor let you install and use is a “SQL-based monitoring” system - this means that no Agents are required to run on your Servers and we don’t need a Central Repository Server. All data are collected by a Scheduled Event and stored on your server.

You use a Windows™ Client (HoneyMonitor) installed for example on your laptop, to connect to your MySQL™ Server (in a direct way or through a SSH Tunneling Connection) and open the Performance Tuning Monitor to view the most common derived performance metrics and create reports to see how the ratios are changing over time.

No automated alerts are included - so far - in the HoneyMonitor Audit Pro Edition. The SQL monitoring system does not alert you - for example with an email - if a slave is down or you are reaching the maximum number of allowed connections (so far).

The Performance Tuning Monitor as well as the Replication Monitor and other tools included in HoneyMonitor are developed to help your every-days DBA activities - this is our aim - and they do not (and can’t) replace your (human) supervision of the server activities.

1.1. Replication

The most important bug fix in v.1.0.14-alpha is related to replication. Our SQL scripts now use SET SQL_LOG_BIN = 0 so no errors occur if you start the installation of the audit system (using the Audit Installation Wizard) on a Master. Audit data of the master are not replicated on slaves of course. Previously (v.1.0.13-alpha) we were asking you to filter replication by using “-replicate-ignore-table=db_name.tbl_name” and similar options but beginning with the new version 1.0.14-alpha, you don’t need to filter replication anymore (just because now we use SET SQL_LOG_BIN = 0).

1.1.1. STMT - New connection Option

Please note that now you can set a STMT (statement) option when you create a connection in HoneyMonitor. This improvement has been added in all Editions of our tool (from the Lite Free to the Network Edition). The STMT option is a SQL statement that will be executed every time the software connects to the server. A typical STMT is “SET NAMES…” (already included in early versions of the software) or “SET SQL_LOG_BIN = 0″ (if you want to connect to a master and you want that tasks performed using HoneyMonitor do not affect replication).

Fig. 1: Connection Window - STMT Option

1.2. Support for the Maria Engine

We are developing the tools you need to have a better experience with the new engine Maria (as well as Falcon). In particular, in next versions of HoneyMonitor (Standard, Enterprise and Network Editions) we plan to improve our “Create Table Wizard” to support the new Maria options.

As per Audit Pro Edition, we have tested the monitoring scripts on v.5.1.26-rc and 6.0.6-alpha. Minor bugs fix of next version 1.0.14-alpha are related to the fact that now the new Maria Engine has been put in the 6.x branch of the server (previously it was included in v.5.1.23-maria-alpha-preview. Please note that we don’t support that version anymore. If you want to test the Maria engine, please use v.6.0.6-alpha).

Fig. 2: MySQL™ 6.0.6-alpha - Support for Maria

1.3. Other bugs fix

In the newer version of the MySQL™ Server, status variables “Com_show_column_types” and “Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_latched” have been deprecated so we don’t use them in our audit table anymore [MySQL™ Bugs #36793 and #5299].

2. Performance Reports

2.0. Introduction

Two important improvements are included in the new version 1.0.14-alpha.

2.1. Custom Reports

You can now create your own reports (a Custom Report Template is included and you can use this as the basis of your own reports). HoneyMonitor Audit Pro includes about 10 Reports (Falcon, InnoDB, MyISAM, Temporay Tables, …) for about 90 charts. With a custom report you can choose to monitor a specific variable not included in the standard reports. We will try to create a video tutorial about this new feature soon.

Fig. 3: New entries in the “Auditing” Menu

Fig. 4: Creating a Custom Performance Report - Designer

Fig. 5: Creating a Custom Performance Report - Choosing Variables to add (SQL query)

2.2. Report Templates

You can now edit the Report Templates thus every time you use the Performance Tuning Monitor to create a report your templates will be used (it’s the same when you use the “Audit Report Generation Window ” to create a report in a fast way, by clicking on the menu Auditing / Reports / …). We suggest you backup our templates before editing them so you can restore them if you need (just copy the files included in the directory /audit/reports).

Fig. 6: Customizing Template of the “Query Cache” Report

3. Other

3.1. Audit Statistics

Minor improvements are included in the Audit Statistics Window. A “Refresh” button has been added; 3 new fields now show the date of the first and last audit record included in the audit table and the date difference.

Fig. 7: Audit Statistics Window

3.2. Server Objects List

Minor improvements in the Server Objects List. When you create a (stored) connection you can now choose a “Server Group”

Fig. 8: Connection Window - Server Group

Fig. 9:  Server Objects List - Server Groups

3.3. FALCON

Minor improvements for FALCON variables: Description, Type, Handle, …, are now included (like for other “older” system variables).

Fig. 10: Performance Tuning Monitor - Falcon Variables

B. Other Bugs Fix

For a bug of version 1.0.13-alpha, some errors occur when opening the Table Editor, View Editor and Queries Window if you are connected through SSH. Now fixed.

C. Other

Similar Posts you could be interested on:

• Performance Monitoring, Tuning & Auditing in MySQL 5.1 – A GUI Approach - Part-1

Let us know what you would like us to add in the next versions of our software and, if you would be informed when we will release the new v.1.0.14-alpha, you are welcome to join our newsletter.