New MySQL Distribution: ExtSQL Provides Usage Accounting

Based on MySQL Code Base - Extends SQL and Helps Admins Monitor All Database
Activity.

SYRACUSE, N.Y., Oct. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Many MySQL(R) DBAs are frustrated by
their inability to account for high server usage. The engineers at Software
Workshop had similar feelings when trying to find 'usage hogs' among web
hosting clients. Current tools provide good reports on overall activity -- but
none report usage by individual users, a specific database, or connecting
client.

Relying on years of expertise, Software Workshop developed their own
modifications to Open Source MySQL and called it ExtSQL(TM). It gives DBAs a
simple way to monitor activity by individual users, database, or even
connection. ExtSQL has new commands built into the server as an extension to
the SQL language, e.g.

SHOW STATISTICS select, insert FROM user HISTORY -- allows the DBA to see the
number of select and insert statements issued by all users by hour.

Kelly Button, a senior admin stated, "We used to see spikes in usage, but it
was difficult to track down to an individual customer. ExtSQL makes monitoring
easy; especially since it also stores historical data. High usage patterns
are easy to track and often times the customers didn't even know they were
running poorly designed applications."

MySQL has an installed base of millions, with many installations running older
versions. DBAs can be very reluctant to go through an upgrade process.
Software Workshop decided to pursue this huge 'aftermarket' by offering source
patches and binaries for older versions of MySQL on a variety of OS and
hardware combinations. They've already been featured in Linux Journal's
October 2008 edition new products column. ExtSQL is being released under the
GPL and can be found at http://www.ExtSQL.com/

Software Workshop is a member of the INCITS H2 Technical Committee (the U.S.
National Standards body with responsibility for SQL) and has made an initial
proposal SQL be extended to define a usage accounting standard that could be
implemented by other DB vendors such as Oracle(R), IBM(R), and Microsoft(R).

A company spokesperson said, "We anticipate our source code will eventually
become part of the main MySQL distributions. But we hope to remain a focal
point for future development and anticipate feedback and changes generated by
the user community..."

http://www.SoftwareWorkshop.com/

SOURCE Software Workshop

Tressa McManus of Software Workshop, +1-877-635-1968 x-214,
tressam@ExtSQL.com