Enterprise Manager (EM) is Oracle’s flagship monitoring and management solution for Oracle databases, applications, and infrastructure for hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Enterprise Manager for MySQL offers deep visibility, rich monitoring, and compliance management for your MySQL database environments. In this blog, you will find information about extended support in Enterprise Manager for MySQL to monitor InnoDB Cluster and ClusterSet targets, an enhanced Query Analyzer that enable DBAs to better identify and address poor performing queries, and more secure monitoring with TLS encryption and Kerberos authentication.

Resilient monitoring for InnoDB Cluster and ClusterSet environments

Starting with Enterprise Manager for MySQL release 13.5.3, you can now monitor InnoDB Clusters and InnoDB ClusterSets in addition to standalone MySQL databases, enabling high availability and disaster recovery strategies for your MySQL environments.

InnoDB Clusters ensure high availability by grouping multiple MySQL server instances as a single cluster. InnoDB ClusterSets provide disaster recovery across geographically distributed clusters by organizing multiple InnoDB Clusters into a single managed group. Enterprise Manager for MySQL monitors key metrics from InnoDB Clusters and ClusterSets such as the availability of MySQL servers in each group, synchronization status of data across all servers, delays in updating information, or unexpected changes in the group’s structure. This helps ensure that your MySQL environment remains highly available and ready to recover.

Since InnoDB Clusters and ClusterSets are built on groups of MySQL servers, Enterprise Manager for MySQL monitors these groups by connecting directly to each underlying MySQL server. To enable continuous monitoring of InnoDB Clusters and ClusterSets, the monitoring agent checks the status of all servers in these groups even if one of your MySQL servers goes offline. If the monitoring agent loses contact with one server, it continues monitoring the other servers within the Cluster and ClusterSet. This enables you to continuously monitor your InnoDB Clusters and ClusterSets, whether connecting directly to MySQL servers or through MySQL routers.

Figure 1: Example Topology of High Availability Monitoring of MySQL InnoDB Cluster

Greater visibility on poorly performing queries using Query Analyzer

Dive deeper into problematic queries that may be the root cause of poor application performance using the following enhancements in Query Analyzer:

  • Filters to view the worst-performing queries based on highest executions, top latencies, or first-seen occurrences.
  • Access to historical queries to understand performance over time.
  • Explain plans to identify performance bottlenecks in your queries.
  • Graphs to view unusual trends or spikes in average execution time, execution time, and rows affected.
Query Analyzer gif
Figure 2: Query Analyzer Enhancements

Secure monitoring with TLS and Kerberos

Enhance the security of your MySQL environment by securing EM Agent-to-MySQL connectivity with TLS encryption, and by accessing your full Kerberos environment settings during configuration.

TLS encryption safeguards your data in transit, protecting it from unauthorized access or tampering as it moves between the EM Agent and your MySQL database.

Enterprise Manager for MySQL now supports a comprehensive Kerberos authentication setup. In addition to configuring with just a Kerberos realm and Key Distribution Center (KDC) server host, you can now specify the path to your Kerberos configuration file. This allows Enterprise Manager for MySQL to leverage all Kerberos environment properties, making it possible to map DNS domains to Kerberos realms and define multiple KDC servers for each realm. As a result, Enterprise Manager for MySQL can seamlessly delegate authentication to Kerberos across different network domains and maintain authentication continuity by automatically switching to the next listed KDC server if one becomes unavailable.

These latest enhancements make Enterprise Manager for MySQL a powerful solution for resilient, secure, and insightful database management. Explore these features to improve availability, performance, and security across your MySQL environments.

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