Setting Up Percona Server 5.5 on Ubuntu 10.04

I’m deploying some new servers today, and I realized I hadn’t documented my steps on my blog. So here are a few posts detailing my setup process.

What is Percona Server?

Percona Server is a fork of MySQL Server. So what does that mean? For the past few years, MySQL has had some “interesting” developments from the business stand point. Being bought by Sun, which was then sold to Oracle, and a lot of “drama” surrounding all of that. In turn, what seems to have happened is MySQL’s development stalled or slowed down as it took a back seat to the legal sides of things.

Percona took the GPL version of MySQL and created their own distribution of it called “Percona Server.” Their goal is for it to be “an enhanced drop-in replacement for MySQL.” So they switch out InnoDB for XtraDB under the hood (though it is still called InnoDB internally so there are not compatibility issues), fixed a bunch of bugs, added a lot more useful diagnostic and reporting data, and improved it’s performance vastly. Unlike some of the other MySQL Forks, I haven’t found a single compatibility issue between it and “stock” MySQL.

Why use Percona Server?

It is just a better version of MySQL that is completely compatible with a normal version of MySQL. The way I view Percona Server is it is what Sun & Oracle should have done with MySQL. I also think if you’re running MySQL with any real load at all, you should use Percona Server 5.5. I can’t find a single reason not to. It just performs so well.

It also comes with Yum & Apt repositories so you don’t have to worry if your Operating System is only running 5.1, you can run 5.5 easily.

Installing Percona Server 5.5 on Ubuntu

Following the instructions from their Apt & Yum installation directions:

Add the Percona Apt Signed Key:

gpg --keyserver  hkp://keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 1C4CBDCDCD2EFD2A
gpg -a --export CD2EFD2A | sudo apt-key add -

Then, add the repositories too your /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://repo.percona.com/apt lucid main
deb-src http://repo.percona.com/apt lucid main

Update your local repository cache:

apt-get update

Install Percona Server 5.5:

aptitude install percona-server-server-5.5

It’ll prompt for a root password, and you’ll be set! The great thing, is the binaries are all named the same. So you want to log in as root? You type “mysql -u root -p”. The files are all in the same place. The commands are all the same. Everything just works, only with better performance and additional tools. I haven’t had a single problem running it in production.