Companies increasingly are realizing the need for specialization and hiring MySQL database administrators. However, there are still many that expect system administrators and application programmers to fill that need. And when a DBA leaves without a replacement, somebody has to maintain the MySQL database.

Administering an existing MySQL instance in a Unix environment can be a challenge. Many conventions are not documented, and some installations do not follow company-wide policies even if they do exist. Information about an instance is contained in logfiles, scripts, configuration files, and OS-level utilities.

In many cases, much information about an instance can be determined with non-privileged access to the operating system. Thus, security measures will be examined and discussed.

This talk will aid in the sleuthing of a production MySQL instance, using non-intrusive methods of detecting login information and replication, backup, logging, and security policies in place on the server.