And three, we just keep getting compliment after compliment.  They usually look something like this:

I bought the 2nd edition right around the time I initially contacted you guys.  Congratulations on the book; its a well-written, lucid description of what’s going on, and how to affect it.

That’s a random but real quote.  It’s also a great feeling.

There are different places that we can make changes to improve performance of a MySQL application: schema optimization and indexing, query performance optimization, tuning database server settings. The more detail and deep information on MySQL performance was covered in the guide book of High Performance MySQL, 2nd edition written by the MySQL performance experts. In this document, I have research test results bellow showing that increasing MySQL performance with these methods can actually reduce CPU utilization to save energy.

I couldn’t have said it better.  You should really read the post — it is a great investigation into how increased performance brings cost savings.  (Not only that, it helps conserve natural resources).

In general one of the reasons I felt so strongly about the need for this book, and spent so much time on it, is that it’s really possible to get order-of-magnitude performance gains from MySQL.  That means proportionally fewer servers, less power, less air conditioning, fewer toxic computers manufactured.  And I mean the gains can be dramatic.  One of my current consulting clients is doing exactly what my previous employer did — but less of it — and is using upwards of 80 servers for the task.  In my opinion they only need 4 or 6 servers to handle their load.  Opportunities for this type of performance improvement are all around me on a daily basis.

To clarify, this is a second printing of the second edition, not an entirely new edition.  As each print run sells out there will be more printings to meet demand.

The book is also going to be translated into Spanish, Polish, and Portuguese.  Further translations may be announced in the future.

• A lot more content.  684 pages instead of 230, plus it’s compactly written.  You can count on about 3 or 4 times as much real information.
• Much deeper insight into server internals.  If you found the first edition’s coverage of indexing, schema optimization and query optimization a bit superficial, you will not be disappointed by the second edition.  It probably tells you more than you want to know, really.
• InnoDB, InnoDB, InnoDB.  InnoDB is the leading storage engine for MySQL, and for good reason: it’s fast, stable, robust and has lots of advanced features.  We cover it like nothing you’ve ever read before.  If you’re having trouble with InnoDB tuning or if it’s giving you problems under extreme load, this book is for you.
• A changed focus.  We wrote the book for people who have “real money” in their servers and need to rely on MySQL.  Default installations of MySQL are fine for lightweight forums or something, but we’ve built some of the largest and most heavily trafficked sites in the world on MySQL.  The second edition shows you how to build a MySQL installation that you can really count on.
• A lot of details on operating system and hardware tuning, plus how to choose hardware for your server.
• Much more information on replication. You can get setup guides from anywhere.  What you can’t get from anywhere is how to make replication rock-solid.
• Real insight into how you can scale your systems big.  We give specific advice, not generic “oh, you might consider this and that.” We’ve been through a lot of projects building MySQL out to really really big sizes, and we’ve seen dozens of different ways to do it.  If you ever think your systems won’t fit on a single server, buy the book and save a ton of time and money.  Scaling big is no simple matter.
• Much more useful advice on benchmarking and profiling.
• Tons of “hacks” that get around MySQL’s weaknesses, with advice on when to use them.
• A thorough guide to tuning MySQL.  Again this is an area where the first edition was not very comprehensive.  Special attention is given to InnoDB and MyISAM tuning.
• Deep dives into advanced topics: the query cache, views, character sets, partitioning, and so on.  Most of these were not mentioned in the first edition, and certainly not in any depth.
• Advice on how to optimize your applications.  Three of the authors are full-stack performance consulting experts — we know a lot more than just MySQL.
• Backup advice that actually works.  Backing up MySQL is non-trivial, especially in mixed environments (common these days).  If you do it the first edition’s way, you are likely to be doing it wrong.  The first edition’s advice was pretty much good only for MyISAM tables.
• The best information anywhere on SHOW INNODB STATUS and many other advanced topics.
• Four appendixes about essential topics.

You can download the sample table of contents from the Download tab above to browse the topic list in more detail.

• Read the sample chapter, table of contents, and index on the Downloads page.
• Go to the O’Reilly page for the book, and browse the table of contents. The chapters and first-level headings are shown, and you can click on each and get about a 1-2 page preview. So this is a great way to preview about 10-15 pages per chapter.

Being an author gives you a lot of appreciation for other authors, and helps you understand how much a book is worth.

And that’s before it’s even available!

This is sales rank in all books. Not technical books, not MySQL books. All books.

Unbelievable.

I’ve asked for the PDF of the final book as it went to press, and will extract and update the sample material when I get it.  The figures were revised until literally the last few hours. (Note to prospective authors: consider figures just like text; make sure you have a professional helping with them along the way, just as you do with the text.)

The publisher has promised that they’ll have the books at the upcoming Velocity conference, so you will be able to physically buy one there.  Stop in and see Peter; he is speaking at that conference, too.