Michal Hrušecký

Original title was 'MySQL dropped from openSUSE!!!'. I wanted to have some shocking title, but I changed it as I don't really want to scare you so much But it is partially true, there is no mysql package in openSUSE anymore. But of course we DID NOT really dropped MySQL. In fact, we now have more MySQL in openSUSE then we ever had! Do I got your attention? Read on

What and why?

What really happened is that I renamed original MySQL package. Now it is called mysql-community-server. If you take a look at SUN/Oracle web, they call it like this for a long time, so it makes a little sense... As a result, there is no real package called mysql in openSUSE anymore. But mysql-community-server provides mysql so even if you try to install mysql, it will work. This change also have one funny consequence. Do you remember package mysql-client? Now it's called mysql-community-server-client

Why such a change? I haven't done something like this just because such a little difference in the naming of packages. No, I had some other plans as well. Reason to rename original MySQL package was to provide some space for other possible mysql providers. And we have them in 11.3! These other providers are MariaDB and MySQL Cluster. So now you can choose which MySQL do you want And as all of them provides the same symbol, namely mysql, you can use whichever you want to satisfy dependencies. But the default one is still mysql-community-server. So if you don't need anything special, nearly nothing changed for you.

Alternatives

So let's take a brief look at what MySQL Community Server alternatives do we now have in openSUSE...

MariaDB

MariaDB is a backward compatible, drop-in replacement branch of the MySQL Database Server. That means that differences in the user interface are minimal. You probably wouldn't even notice on the first sight if they get replaced. So what are the differences? The best way is to read official page about differences:

http://askmonty.org/wiki/MariaDB_versus_MySQL

Basically MariaDB incorporates many community provided patches out there and some more bleeding edge storage engines. If you want to try it, you can simply type

zypper in mariadb

And zypper will take care of conflicts and replace your MySQL with Maria. If you want to get back to MySQL, it's similarly simple, just use

zypper in mysql-community-server

MySQL Cluster

Other MySQL alternative is MySQL Cluster. This should provide real clustering support for MySQL. And it is also distributed and maintained by Oracle. If you are interested in HA, you have many servers, you might be interested in this. For more information check official web (we included version 7.0 in 11.3):

http://www.mysql.com/products/database/cluster/

If you want to try it, you can simply type

zypper in mysql-cluster

And zypper will take care of conflicts and replace your ordinary MySQL with MySQL Cluster. If you want to get back to MySQL, it's similarly simple, just use

zypper in mysql-community-server