MySQL's Mystery Files

MySQL is a very powerful and easy to use - and administer RDBMS. For light use it mostly just works out of the box - but if you intend to use it for something serious you need to tweak it some.

For one thing, MySQL makes use of temporary space - that is, temporary space outside of the designated areas where it stores the database files themselves. It appears to be configured as follows:

On Unix, MySQL uses the value of the TMPDIR environment variable as the path name of the directory in which to store temporary files. If TMPDIR is not set, MySQL uses the system default, which is usually /tmp, /var/tmp, or /usr/tmp.

On Windows, Netware and OS2, MySQL checks in order the values of the TMPDIR, TEMP, and TMP environment variables. For the first one found to be set, MySQL uses it and does not check those remaining. If none of TMPDIR, TEMP, or TMP are set, MySQL uses the Windows system default, which is usually C:\windows\temp\.

Source: Where MySQL Stores Temporary Files

One potential caveat is that it uses "hidden" files that can not be detected by normal file system level tools. Here's a discussion on how that is possible. In short - MySQL creates files which are not linked in the file system and hence can not be found and simply vanish if the process making use of them - i.e., the MySQL daemon process - disappears. In other words, you are guaranteed that no left-over space will be used. From the IT standpoint it is a nuisance though as you get file system space consumed without being able to find the files responsible for such consumption.

As to the size of such consumption - I was actively using a database amounting to no more than 300 GB and due to the fact that I only had about 900 GB to spare in the filesystem I was forced to do "repairing with keycache" which is way slower than regular reindexing - but regular reindexing requires lots of temporary space which I apparently lacked.

Some pracitcal uses of VPN

VPN is a term one hears often these days. However, while many people have some ideas about what it is used for - secure access, for instance - many probably lack vision of how they could benefit from its use. So for starters - what is VPN? You can use the Wiki link for a formal definition but in a less formal way one can define it as a network one can build to their own design provided one controls the server and the other machines one intends to network together have the capability to access that server via the internet.

So let us say you control a machine on the Internet with a public IP address. On it you can install a VPN server process. Then you can issue authorization to those you want to allow to join your VPN network.

Let us consider a practical example. I configure a server to serve a VPN with a private network defined as 192.168.20.0/255.255.255.0. Let us say the server gets the virtual IP address of 192.168.20.1, with the other addresses (192.168.20.2-254) available for grabs. So let us say my laptop gets an address of 192.168.20.2, my home machine gets an address of 192.168.20.5 and my office machine gets an address of 192.168.20.10.

Thus - using the same network protocols - I can collect the video feed off of my home computer to see what is going on at home, print to my office computer's printer - and do all of it from a WiFi point half the world away using my laptop.

Or - let us say - in addition to my office in Boston I decide to get one in Buenos Aires. No problem. I get another machine there - let's say, with a virtual IP address of 192.168.20.15 - and use it and the one at my office in Boston - 192.168.20.10 - to link the two networks. Now they are linked - via the internet but at the same time utilizing the VPN's security which is normally considered an unrbeakably secure way to communicate.

Those are just a couple of possible usage scenarios. I will try to cover this topic in more detail later on. For now just think of the VPN as a network you can define the way you like no matter where the computers who will join it happen to be geographically and topologically. So long as they have access to the internet and you allow them to join your VPN they can do so.