MySQL Troubleshooting

Chapter 6. Troubleshooting Techniques and Tools

I have discussed many troubleshooting techniques and tools earlier in this book. Some of them were explained thoroughly, and in other cases I only touched on aspects of their use. This chapter adds details left out of previous chapters. I have tried to avoid repetition. Many techniques and tools depend on each other, so they are combined in this chapter.

There are too many tools to describe them all, so here I stick to those that I find absolutely necessary. They are mostly command-line tools that either come with the MySQL distribution or are provided as separate packages. I include a few descriptions of third-party tools, again command-line utilities. I did this not because I don’t like third-party tools, but to let you know about the great tools that come with MySQL and that you therefore always have. One of the advantages of MySQL tools is that they are always available, which is very important for our customers. Some companies have rules that prevent their employees from downloading a third-party tool. Therefore, when doing customer support, we always prefer tools that come with the MySQL distribution.

For similar reasons, I don’t describe graphical tools here. The command-line tools pose no special requirements, such as the X Window System or a particular operating system, whereas graphical tools are more demanding.

Finally, I know MySQL’s tools much better than their analogs in other packages. If you find more powerful ...