Chapter 14. Tools for High Performance

The MySQL server distribution doesn’t include tools for many common tasks, such as monitoring the server or comparing data between servers. Fortunately, MySQL’s devoted community has made a wide variety of tools available, reducing the need to roll your own. Many companies also provide commercial alternatives or supplements to MySQL’s own tools.

This chapter covers some of the most popular and important productivity tools for MySQL. We divide the tools into categories: interface, monitoring, analysis, and utilities.

Interface Tools

Interface tools help you run queries, create tables and users, and perform other routine tasks. This section gives a brief description of some of the most popular tools for these purposes. You can generally do all or most of the jobs they’re used for with SQL queries or commands; the tools we discuss here just add convenience, help you avoid mistakes, and speed up your work.

MySQL Visual Tools

MySQL AB distributes a set of visual tools that includes MySQL Query Browser, MySQL Administrator, MySQL Migration Toolkit, and MySQL Workbench. These are all freely available, and you can download and install them as a bundle. They run on all popular desktop operating systems. These tools previously had many annoying quirks, but MySQL AB recently made an effort to find and fix bugs in all four of them.

MySQL Query Browser can be used for tasks such as running queries, creating tables and stored procedures, exporting data, and browsing ...

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