MySQL DBA Roadmap: Industry Best Practices

Create a Backup and Recovery Plan

Design a backup schedule for a MySQL database including full and incremental backups, and describe how you would test recovery.

Expected output: A documented backup and recovery plan with testing procedures.

Hint: Consider backup frequency, storage location, and restoration testing.

Implement User Privilege Restrictions

Create MySQL users with limited privileges following the principle of least privilege.

Expected output: SQL commands that create users with minimal required privileges.

Hint: Use GRANT statements to assign only necessary permissions.

Analyze and Optimize Slow Queries

Identify slow queries from the slow query log and suggest optimizations.

Expected output: A report listing slow queries and recommended improvements.

Hint: Look for missing indexes or inefficient joins.

A key backup strategy includes regular full and incremental backups, secure storage, automation, and periodic testing of restore procedures.

By enforcing strong passwords, limiting user privileges, enabling encryption, keeping software updated, and monitoring access logs.

Tools like MySQL Enterprise Monitor, Percona Monitoring and Management (PMM), and open-source solutions such as Nagios or Zabbix can be used.