MySQL Sandbox 2.0 has been released

Taking advantage of Launchpad excellent development services, I completed the tasks necessary to release MySQL Sandbox 2.0. So, you may ask, what's new? Quite a lot, actually: more intuitive script names master sandbox directory faster supports circular replication more error checking includes a test suite uses a default options file

more intuitive script names

One of the problem in the old sandbox was that the names of the scripts suggested some installation of the sandbox itself. This has been addressed in version 2.0. You now have the very clear names:

 make_sandbox                  creates a single sandbox
make_replication_sandbox      creates a replication sandbox
make_multiple_sandbox         creates sandbox containing many servers
                                of the same version
make_multiple_custom_sandbox  creates a sandbox containing many servers
                                of different versions

master sandbox directory

By default, MySQL Sandbox will create a directory under your home, named "sandboxes", and all sandboxes will be created under that directory. In addition of making your sandboxes more organized, the master directory provides some handy scripts to deal with many sandboxes at once. You can start, stop, or send a SQL command to all the sandboxes with just one command.

faster

The Sandbox had a few "sleep" instructions, to wait for the server being installed to come online. This solution was slowing down fast machines, where the server can start much faster than the standard 3 seconds I added to the sandbox, but was sometimes not enough for slower machines, where the server may take more than 3 seconds to start up, especially with replication. The new sandbox uses a loop coupled with a timeout limit. Thus, quick machines are faster, and slow machines don't fail.

supports circular replication

Now you can create a replication ring.

./make_replication_sandbox --topology=circular --how_many_nodes=5 VERSION
# or
./make_replication_sandbox --master_master VERSION

includes a test suite

If you have resources and MySQL binary tarballs at your disposal, you can stress test MySQL Sandbox (and your box!) with this test suite. For example, assuming that your 5.0.51 and 5.1.25 binaries are in $HOME/opt/mysql

./test/test_sandbox.pl --versions=5.1.51,5.1.25

This will create 22 sandboxes

more error checking

This is a direct consequence of the above item. Having a test suite has made the sandbox much more robust.

uses a default options file

There is also a default option file, where you can keep the options that you need to be executed always.

Try it!

Go get the 2.0 tarball from launchpad. If you find any bugs, there is a very convenient bugs reporting system. Please use it!