A Rockstar Speaks

MySQL Rockstar,

 

René Cannaò, drops in on Fred & Scott to wax philosophical about the success of MySQL, the MySQL Community, and his inspiration for ProxySQL

 

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Episode Transcript:

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:36:10
Unknown
Welcome to Inside MySQL: Sakila Speaks, a podcast dedicated to all things MySQL. We bring you the latest news from the MySQL team, MySQL project updates and insightful interviews with members of the MySQL community. Sit back and enjoy as your hosts bring you the latest updates on your favorite open-source database. Let's get started! Hello and welcome to Sakila Speaks, the podcast dedicated to MySQL.

00:00:36:14 - 00:01:01:13
Unknown
I am leFred and that is Scott Stroz. Today we are happy to welcome René Cannaò to our podcast. René is a well-known figure in the MySQL ecosystem. He's mainly known as the author of ProxySQL, which he founded in 2016 after developing it since 2013. René is one of our rockstasr and recently received his award during the last Pre-FOSDEM MySQL Belgium Days.

00:01:01:15 - 00:01:25:11
Unknown
Welcome, René. Hi, Fred. Thanks for the introduction. I'm very excited to be part of this podcast. And, yeah, it's I'm way I also very much appreciate the MySQL award that I received the early last last month. It was a nice surprise, and I'm very excited to be part of this growing community. Awesome. Thank you René, it was great meeting you last month.

00:01:25:13 - 00:01:48:07
Unknown
So, as a longtime member of the MySQL community, do you have any thoughts on how MySQL became the most popular open source database that powers the internet? I don't think that MySQL  popularity can be attributed to just one single factor, but I think the combination of factors that made, MySQL so popular as an open source database that is powering the web.

00:01:48:08 - 00:02:17:19
Unknown
So, I would say that the probably the very first factor is its simplicity and easy to use, that it made it accessible to all developers of all levels, especially during the early days of the web. So, everybody could have access to MySQL and install it. And this made possible for MySQL to be part of, that very classic Lamp stack in which we had the Linux, Apache, MySQL, and then PHP, Python or Perl.

00:02:18:01 - 00:02:47:14
Unknown
So,  MySQL was part of this stack, and this allowed it to have, widespread adoption, especially for web application. And, you know, this, this sort of created, positive feedback loop because, as more, users were using MySQL, then the product was becoming a bigger product and then more users were using MySQL. So, you know, this created an absolutely, feedback loop.

00:02:47:19 - 00:03:21:04
Unknown
And I think another factor that absolutely affected, the popularity of MySQL was the fact that, not only was easy to download it easy to install, but it was also very reliable, very, very good performance for web application. And it was focused on what the traditional and nontraditional, transactional and non-transactional, workload. So, everybody could make it, and could use it no matter how big were their specific web application.

00:03:21:05 - 00:03:51:11
Unknown
And, finally, I think, another important factor was the fact that it had a very, fast growing community around it. So, this absolutely is one of the factors that made it, one of the most popular open-source database. Awesome. Thank you. René. So, as we can hear, you know, very well, MySQL, you're around for a long time in the community, but, it seems that you also worked at MySQL, isn't it?

00:03:51:11 - 00:04:19:05
Unknown
Yes. That's correct. As I said, so if you correct, have been in the MySQL ecosystem for very long time, I think I started using MySQL in production in 2004. I was one of the very, few people that saw getting the MySQL certification. Actually, I think it was I was, number 23 with the MySQL Cluster certification.

00:04:19:09 - 00:05:04:01
Unknown
So, I've been using my secret for very long time. And as you correctly mentioned, I also worked for MySQL from 2008 till 2011. And, I was part of the MySQL support team. Immediately after the acquisition from Sun. And there was that the last 11. So, after, the acquisition, for Oracle. And I would say that as me, I have been very fortunate in, working, team member of the MySQL support team because there I had the opportunity not only to work together with excellent, and very knowledgeable people that were working in my same team, in the MySQL support team.

00:05:04:06 - 00:05:27:19
Unknown
But, I also had, let's say easy access to developers or MySQL developers. So, if there was anything that none of us in the MySQL support team were able to answer about some specific internal of MySQL, it was it was extremely good that we always had the some developers who we could ask for feedback or for clarification.

00:05:27:21 - 00:06:07:09
Unknown
And I would say that, I was also very fortunate in working in, in the MySQL support team because during the time I get, exposure to how customers are using MySQL in, in a variety of environments. So, from very basic environment to extremely complex one. So, I had I gained experience in helping them on how to tune MySQL the right way and how to address device, ability challenges and how to make sure that their MySQL environment and their full stack was, having higher ability.

00:06:07:15 - 00:06:47:06
Unknown
So yes, I would say that, it was an exciting time in my career. That's fantastic. , we mentioned that you created ProxySQL. Can you give us a high-altitude overview of what ProxySQL is and what what gap was it meant to fill when you started creating it? Yes, sure. So, as I mentioned before, I was working for MySQL  from 2008 to 2011, but also before I joined MySQL support, I was consulting and doing work related to MySQL and same thing after.

00:06:47:08 - 00:07:12:21
Unknown
After I left MySQL, I was still doing consulting for users of MySQL large infrastructure. And during all those years, during my career, until I start ProxySQL, I noticed that there was, consistent pattern of, common challenges that the users were facing. And sometimes they don't even they didn't realize it that they were facing those challenges and those challenges.

00:07:12:21 - 00:07:37:07
Unknown
were related to connection management, query routing, query caching and overall scalability. So how to be able to make sure that that database infrastructure is able to scale. And, you know, sometimes it was possible to tune MySQL in the right way to get the maximum performance out of it. But as a whole it was still difficult to be able to route traffic on.

00:07:37:08 - 00:08:05:12
Unknown
Or if route traffic on the flight or managed connection properly. So, this is when I started writing ProxySQL. So, basically it was a side project that was born out of necessity. I needed a tool that was able to performs the action that I wanted to perform. That was a, as I was saying, making connection, performing override caching and so on.

00:08:05:14 - 00:08:23:14
Unknown
So, this is how it started. So, it started, a very simple prototype. Initially, I started looking around. I didn't want to start a new project at the beginning. So, at the beginning, what I did was looking around, trying to find the right tools, for what they needed. But there was nothing really available.

00:08:23:16 - 00:08:47:11
Unknown
That was MySQL Proxy back then, but it was, sort of an abandoned project. I tried to play with it, but I didn't manage to get, anything from it. So, this is where I said, okay, it's time to start a new project. So, I start this new project, I push it on GitHub, and, initially, I was the only one using it, to my customers.

00:08:47:12 - 00:09:21:13
Unknown
So, you know, we it went from development to production straight away because the users I was, managing, they immediately got ProxySQL in their environment. So, I knew that was solving their specific, problem. And, you know, people start using it to so they start getting traction and that's, contraction and then adoption, automatically grew. And from a side project, it quickly evolved into a full-fledged product and eventually into a company.

00:09:21:15 - 00:09:53:21
Unknown
Awesome. Thank you, René. There is, urban legend, about about it that, you, share with, some people, before developing it or just at the start, at FODSDEM on the beer coaster, you shared the architecture of a ProxySQL with some friends. Is it true? Yes. There are a lot of a lot of stories on, you know, this goes back to the the initial question about the MySQL community.

00:09:53:21 - 00:10:31:12
Unknown
I think the MySQL community is a very vibrant, community. So, it is not uncommon, that, while drinking or a beer, we share great ideas or we create some new design or, we brainstorm about a new product. And this is what I love about FOSDEM and Pre-FOSDEM the ability to meet with, like-minded people that, they are very engaged in the, the MySQL ecosystem, and they are always looking forward to improving the product and all the products around MySQL.

00:10:31:14 - 00:10:57:23
Unknown
Excellent. So why we are discussing, about FOSDEM, you could attend, so on the last, MySQL, dev room and at FOSDEM, you could attend the very first session about the MySQL routine guidelines. So, what are your thoughts about, this, completely new feature in MySQl Router? Well, I think it was a very interesting presentation.

00:10:58:01 - 00:11:45:02
Unknown
I think it was, very exciting. And, for the people that are listening this podcast and we are not familiar with, what the MySQL Routing Guidelines say. So, I will give a very brief introduction. I think that, routing guidances is a great, great step forward for managing query distribution in MySQL architecture. You know, I, I spoke before about ProxySQL, how one of its main features is about, routing traffic and, because routing traffic has always been, has always had a critical role in high availablity setup and scale out environment when there are multiple MySQL server either co-located or geographically spread.

00:11:45:04 - 00:12:23:03
Unknown
And so the MySQL routing guidelines, what allow is to define routing in a way, complex, you know, way more complex way than how previously was possible in MySQL out there. So MySQL router the routing was extremely simple. And now with MySQL routing guidance, this is becomes more complex and more dynamic and more declarative. So, this, routing guidelines allow administrator to define destination and route using expression.

00:12:23:05 - 00:12:49:17
Unknown
So, it allows more granular control over how client sessions are directed to backend servers. So this is what guidance is and routing guidance is. And I was very excited to see this presentation. One of the reasons why I was so excited is that basically, this approach aligned a lot to with what we have been doing in with, with ProxySQL for years.

00:12:49:21 - 00:13:14:22
Unknown
So, the ability of having complex, routes that allow the administrator of a MySQL router or ProxySQL to define the what to do with, with the traffic and where to send the traffic and what operations need to be performed. So, I'm very excited to see that, MySQL is officially embracing, more advanced routing model.

00:13:14:22 - 00:13:45:16
Unknown
I think that this will allow to standardize how, routing is being defined. So, I'm very, curious to know how users will start utilizing this routing guidelines and also how vendors will adapt to, to this new solution, proposed by MySQL. So, I'm pretty sure it will affect also us, ProxySQL. So I'm very excited to see how this is going to evolve.

00:13:45:18 - 00:14:11:23
Unknown
And finally have, one further comment on this. That is one of the issues that we have been seeing with ProxySQL over the years as well, the ability of creating rules that are very flexible for some time and make it very difficult to combine the flexiblibility from one side and the simplicity from the other, because, you know, the more flexibility you have, the more the config, the more complex the configuration can become.

00:14:11:23 - 00:14:35:20
Unknown
So, it's very interesting to find the right balance between simplicity and, flexibility. Now, René, thank you for joining us. I appreciate it. As I said, it was it was great meeting you at FOSDEM. It was great meeting so many of the the community members whose names I had recognized for for quite some time and, actually finally get to to to meet a lot of you in person was was really pretty cool.

00:14:35:22 - 00:15:04:07
Unknown
That's a wrap on this episode of Inside MySQL: Sakila Speaks. Thanks for hanging out with us. If you enjoyed listening, please click subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We would also love your reviews and ratings on your podcast app. Be sure to join us for the next episode of Inside MySQL: Sakila Speaks.