[SGVLUG] LAMPSIG: Multi-Instancing MySQL this Saturday

[Solomon K. Chang]

I normally don't try to mix my LUG mail with each other, but since Matti has cross-promoted here before, I'm putting this out as a LAMPSIG topic this weekend (right before the LUG BBQ).  If this is a topic that gets good feedback, I'll repeat it for SGVLUG:

Multi-Instancing MySQL
By Solomon Chang

There are whispered rumors from the remote corners of MySQL configuration gurus concerning the Dark Art of running more than one instance on MySQL on the same machine.  Like a body possessed by a legion host of demons (well, MySQL daemons, actually), a single machine could serve multiple instances of MySQL that each may respond to different names, ports, and... dare I say it...?  IP addresses!  Oh, the horror!  The terror!  The memory consumption!
However, just as summoning and binding nether-worldly entities into an unwilling mortal shell has its own nefarious uses, so too does the black magic of invoking two or more instances of mysqld on the same single machine.  Slowly and surely, it is a gateway for you to embark upon other unspeakable database experiments, such as Replication and Distributed Clustering, whilst obviating the need for any other machine.  Replication with but a single computer, you say?  Yea, it is an abomination!  But this abomination you can configure for yourself while dangling your sanity between hard drive capacity and memory usage! 
Muhahahahaha!
Ph'nglul mglw'nath MySQL Instance Manager R'yleh!
MySQL Fhtagn!

Black robes and candles optional.  SGVLUG BBQ afterwards.

When he is not obsessing over the stories of HP Lovecraft, Solomon Chang is a MySQL certified DBA and the current acting director of LAMPSIG. He works as a professional Database Administrator in El Segundo, and is a co-author of the MySQL Cluster Certification Study Guide.