32-Bit Binary Running on 64-Bit AMD Or Intel System

The chip architecture and operating system installed on a machine both impact the performance of software running on the system. While it is possible to run 32-bit software on many 64-bit systems, in general, software built to run on a 64-bit system will run better on such a system than software built to run on a 32-bit system.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Account Has An Overly Broad Host Specifier

The MySQL server has user accounts with overly broad host specifiers. A MySQL account is identified by both a username and a hostname, which are found in the User and Host columns of the mysql.user table. The User value is the name that a client must supply when connecting to the server. The Host value indicates the host or hosts from which the user is allowed to connect. If this is a literal hostname, the account is limited to connections only from that host. If the hostname contains the '%' wildcard character, the user can connect from any host that matches the wildcard character and potentially from any host at all.

From a security standpoint, literal host values are best and % is worst. Accounts that have Host values containing wildcards are more susceptible to attack than accounts with literal host values, because attackers can attempt to connect from a broader range of machines.

For example, if an account has user and host values of root and % , it means that you can connect as the root user from any machine if you know the password. By contrast, if the host name is localhost or 127.0.0.1, the attacker can only attempt to connect as the root user from the server host.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Account Has Global Privileges

A MySQL server may have user accounts with privileges on all databases and tables (*.*). In most cases global privileges should be allowed only for the MySQL root user, and possibly for users that you trust or use for backup purposes. Global privileges such as DROP, ALTER, DELETE, UPDATE, INSERT, and LOCK TABLES may be dangerous as they may cause other users to be affected adversely.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Account Has Old Insecure Password Hash

Prior to MySQL 4.1, password hashes computed by the PASSWORD() function were 16 bytes long. As of MySQL 4.1 (and later), PASSWORD() was modified to produce a longer 41-byte hash value to provide enhanced security.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Account Has Strong MySQL Privileges

Certain account privileges can be dangerous and should only be granted to trusted users when necessary. For example, the FILE privilege allows a user to read and write files on the database server (which includes sensitive operating system files), the PROCESS privilege allows currently executing statements to be monitored, and the SHUTDOWN privilege allows a user to shut down the server. In addition, the GRANT privilege allows a user to grant privileges to others.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Agent Host Time Out of Sync Relative to Dashboard

To maintain data consistency and to facilitate day-to-day system management operations, which often require comparing logs, files, and timestamps across servers, it is important that the server clocks across all your systems and data centers be synchronized with respect to each other relative to UTC time (which takes timezones into account). When the clock on one server is minutes or hours behind another server, any timestamps created in the databases or on the file systems of those two servers will differ by that amount. Thus if you depend on timestamps to test the freshness of some data item, or if you are trying to diagnose a problem and need to compare timestamps across systems, your task will be more complicated due to this time difference.

In addition, the data and graphs shown in the MySQL Enterprise Monitor Dashboard will be skewed by the difference in time between the machine hosting the Service Manager and the machines running the Agents. For example, if the time on an Agent machine is one hour behind the time on the Service Manager machine, the MySQL server that Agent is monitoring will appear to be down (see Bug#45937) and no data will appear in the graphs for that server for the first hour after the Agent is started.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Attempted Connections To The Server Have Failed

Aborted connection attempts to MySQL may indicate an issue with respect to the server or network, or could be indicative of DoS or password-cracking attempts against the MySQL Server. The aborted-connects count is incremented when:

Default frequency 00:05:00

AUTO_INCREMENT Field Limit Nearly Reached

Many applications need to generate unique numbers and sequences for identification purposes (e.g. customer IDs, bug or trouble ticket tags, membership or order numbers, etc). MySQL's mechanism for doing this is the AUTO_INCREMENT column attribute, which enables you to generate sequential numbers automatically.

However, the range of numbers that can be generated is limited by the underlying data type. For example, the maximum value possible for a TINYINT UNSIGNED column is 255. If you try to generate a number that exceeds the maximum allowed by the underlying data type (e.g. by inserting a NULL value into the AUTO_INCREMENT column), you will trigger database errors and your application may not behave properly.

Note that the primary purpose of AUTO_INCREMENT in MySQL is to generate a sequence of positive integers. The use of non-positive numbers in in an AUTO_INCREMENT column is unsupported, so you may as well define those columns to be UNSIGNED, which effectively doubles their allowable range.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Binary Log File Count Exceeds Specified Limit

The binary log captures DML, DDL, and security changes that occur and stores these changes in a binary format. The binary log enables replication as well as point-in-time recovery, preventing data loss during a disaster recovery situation. It also enables you to review all alterations made to your database. However, binary logs consume disk space and file system resources, and can be removed from a production server after they are no longer needed by the slaves connecting to this master server, and after they have been backed up.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Binary Log Space Exceeds Specified Limit

The binary log captures DML, DDL, and security changes that occur and stores these changes in a binary format. The binary log enables replication as well as point-in-time recovery, preventing data loss during a disaster recovery situation. It also enables you to review all alterations made to your database. However, binary logs consume disk space and can be removed from a production server after they are no longer needed by the slaves connecting to this master server, and after they have been backed up.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Binary Log Usage Exceeding Disk Cache Memory Limits

When binary log usage exceeds the binary log cache memory limits, it is performing excessive disk operations. For optimal performance, transactions that move through the binary log should be contained within the binary log cache.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Binary Logging Is Limited

The binary log captures DML, DDL, and security changes that occur and stores these changes in a binary format. The binary log enables point-in-time recovery, preventing data loss during a disaster recovery situation. It also enables you to review all alterations made to your database.

Binary logging can be limited to specific databases with the --binlog-do-db and the --binlog-ignore-db options. However, if these options are used, your point-in-time recovery options are limited accordingly, along with your ability to review alterations made to your system.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Binary Logging Not Enabled

The binary log captures DML, DDL, and security changes that occur and stores these changes in a binary format. The binary log enables point-in-time recovery, preventing data loss during a disaster recovery situation. It also enables you to review all alterations made to your database.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Binary Logging Not Synchronized To Disk At Each Write

By default, the binary log is not synchronized to disk at each write. If the server host, operating system, or MySQL server crash, there is a chance that the latest statements in the binary log are not written to disk. To prevent this, you can cause the binary log to be synchronized to disk after every Nth binary log entry using the sync_binlog global variable. 1 is the safest value, but also the slowest.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Connection Usage Excessive

Once the maximum connection limit for the MySQL server has been reached, no other user connections can be established and errors occur on the client side of the application.

Default frequency 00:01:00

CPU I/O Usage Excessive

CPU I/O usage should be low on a properly configured and well-tuned system. Excessive CPU I/O usage is often indicative of poor disk or network performance.

Default frequency 00:01:00

CPU Usage Excessive

CPU usage should be low-to-moderate on a properly configured and well-tuned system. Excessive CPU usage can be indicative of many problems: insufficient RAM, fragmented disks, poorly-tuned queries, etc.

Default frequency 00:01:00

CREATE TABLE LIKE Does Not Require Any Privileges On Source Table

Due to Bug#25578, a user who does not have any access to a database can still clone the structure of tables in that database. Knowing the structure of tables in a database may give a determined hacker insight that allows him or her to proceed with other exploits.

This bug has been fixed in later versions of the MySQL server.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Data Flushed To Disk After Each SQL Statement

MySQL updates its data files on disk with the write() system call after every SQL statement and lets the operating system handle the synchronizing to disk. You can force MySQL to flush everything to disk after every SQL statement with the --flush option, however, this will have an adverse effect on performance.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Database May Not Be Portable Due To Identifier Case Sensitivity

The case sensitivity of the underlying operating system determines the case sensitivity of database and table names. If you are using MySQL on only one platform, you don't normally have to worry about this. However, depending on how you have configured your server you may encounter difficulties if you want to transfer tables between platforms that differ in filesystem case sensitivity.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Date-Handling Bugs Can Crash The Server

Two bugs related to date-handling operations can crash the server leading to potential Denial of Service (DoS) attacks:

Default frequency 06:00:00

Default Value Being Used For max_prepared_stmt_count

Prepared statements may increase performance in applications that execute similar statements more than once, primarily because the query is parsed only once. Prepared statements can also reduce network traffic because it is only necessary to send the data for the parameters for each execution rather than the whole statement.

However, prepared statements consume memory in the MySQL server until they are closed, so it is important to use them properly and to limit the number of statements that can be open at any one time. The default value for max_prepared_stmt_count may not be appropriate for your application and environment.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Disabling Next-Key Locking In InnoDB Can Crash The Server

Due to several bugs, the server could crash if next-key locking in InnoDB was disabled.

These bugs have been fixed in later versions of the MySQL server.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Event Scheduler Disabled

The Event Scheduler is a very useful feature when enabled. It is a framework for executing SQL commands at specific times or at regular intervals. Conceptually, it is similar to the idea of the Unix crontab (also known as a "cron job") or the Windows Task Scheduler.

The basics of its architecture are simple. An event is a stored routine with a starting date and time, and a recurring tag. Once defined and activated, it will run when requested. Unlike triggers, events are not linked to specific table operations, but to dates and times. Using the event scheduler, the database administrator can perform recurring events with minimal hassle. Common uses are the cleanup of obsolete data, the creation of summary tables for statistics, and monitoring of server performance and usage.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Excessive Disk Temporary Table Usage Detected

If the space required to build a temporary table exceeds either tmp_table_size or max_heap_table_size, MySQL creates a disk-based table in the server's tmpdir directory. Also, tables that have TEXT or BLOB columns are automatically placed on disk.

For performance reasons it is ideal to have most temporary tables created in memory, leaving exceedingly large temporary tables to be created on disk.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Excessive Number of Locked Processes

Depending on the circumstances, storage engines, and other factors, one process may be using or accessing a resource (e.g. a table or row) required by another process in such a way that the second process cannot proceed until the first process releases the resource. In this case the second process is in a "locked" state until the resource is released. If many processes are in a locked state it may be a sign of serious trouble related to resource contention, or a long running session that is not releasing currently held locks when it should have.

Default frequency 00:01:00

Excessive Number of Long Running Processes

Most applications and databases are designed to execute queries very quickly. If many queries are taking a long time to execute (e.g. more than a few seconds) it can be a sign of trouble. In such cases queries may need to be tuned or rewritten, or indexes added to improve performance. In other cases the database schema may have to be redesigned.

Default frequency 00:01:00

Excessive Number of Long Running Processes Locked

Most applications and databases are designed to execute queries very quickly, and to avoid resource contention where one query is waiting for another to release a lock on some shared resource. If many queries are locked and taking a long time to execute (e.g. more than a few seconds), it can be a sign of performance trouble and resource contention. In such cases queries may need to be tuned or rewritten, or indexes added to improve performance. In other cases the database schema may have to be redesigned.

Default frequency 00:01:00

Excessive Percentage Of Attempted Connections To The Server Have Failed

Excess aborted connection attempts to MySQL may indicate an issue with respect to the server or network, or could be indicative of DoS or password-cracking attempts against the MySQL Server. The aborted-connects count is incremented when:

Default frequency 00:05:00

Flush Time Set To Non-Zero Value

If flush_time is set to a non-zero value, all tables are closed every flush_time seconds to free up resources and synchronize unflushed data to disk. If your system is unreliable and tends to lock up or restart often, forcing out table changes this way degrades performance but can reduce the chance of table corruption or data loss. We recommend that this option be used only on Windows, or on systems with minimal resources.

Default frequency 06:00:00

General Query Log Enabled

The general query log is a general record of what mysqld is doing. The server writes information to this log when clients connect or disconnect, and it logs each SQL statement received from clients. The general query log can be very useful when you suspect an error in a client and want to know exactly what the client sent to mysqld.

However, the general query log should not be enabled in production environments because:

Default frequency 06:00:00

Improper key_cache_block_size Setting Can Corrupt MyISAM Tables

The server deducts some bytes from the key_cache_block_size option value and reduces it to the next lower 512 byte boundary. The resulting block size is not a power of two. Setting the key_cache_block_size system variable to a value that is not a power of two results in MyISAM table corruption.

This bug has been fixed in later versions of the MySQL server.

Default frequency 06:00:00

In-Memory Temporary Table Size Limited By Maximum Heap Table Size

If the space required to build a temporary table exceeds either tmp_table_size or max_heap_table_size, MySQL creates a disk-based table in the server's tmpdir directory. For performance reasons it is ideal to have most temporary tables created in memory, leaving exceedingly large temporary tables to be created on disk. Many DBAs configure tmp_table_size appropriately, but forget that max_heap_table_size also plays a role.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Incorrect InnoDB Flush Method On Windows Using MySQL Version 4.1.9

If innodb_file_per_table is enabled and innodb_flush_method is not set to unbuffered on Windows when using MySQL Server version 4.1.9, MySQL may not start and you may see operating system error code 87.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Indexes Not Being Used Efficiently

The target server does not appear to be using indexes efficiently. The values of Handler_read_rnd_next and Handler_read_rnd together - which reflect the number of rows read via full table scans - are high compared to the Handler variables which denote index accesses - such as Handler_read_key, Handler_read_next etc. You should examine your tables and queries for proper use of indexes.

Default frequency 00:05:00

InnoDB Buffer Cache Has Sub-Optimal Hit Rate

Logical I/O is many times faster than physical I/O, and therefore a DBA should strive to keep physical I/O to a minimum. It is true that logical I/O is not free, and that the DBA should work to keep all I/O to a minimum, but it is best if most data access is performed in memory. When using InnoDB, most data access should occur in RAM, and therefore the InnoDB buffer cache hit rate should be high.

Default frequency 00:05:00

InnoDB Buffer Pool Writes May Be Performance Bottleneck

For optimal performance, InnoDB should not have to wait before writing pages into the InnoDB buffer pool.

Default frequency 00:05:00

InnoDB Doublewrite Buffer Enabled

InnoDB uses a novel file flush technique called doublewrite. It adds safety to recovery following an operating system crash or a power outage, and improves performance on most varieties of Unix by reducing the need for fsync() operations.

Doublewrite means that before writing pages to a data file, InnoDB first writes them to a contiguous tablespace area called the doublewrite buffer. Only after the write and the flush to the doublewrite buffer has completed does InnoDB write the pages to their proper positions in the data file. If the operating system crashes in the middle of a page write, during recovery InnoDB can find a good copy of the page from the doublewrite buffer.

Default frequency 06:00:00

InnoDB Flush Method May Not Be Optimal

Different values for innodb_flush_method can have a marked effect on InnoDB performance. In some versions of GNU/Linux and Unix, flushing files to disk by invoking fsync() (which InnoDB uses by default) or other similar methods, can be surprisingly slow. If you are dissatisfied with database write performance, you might try setting the innodb_flush_method parameter to O_DIRECT or O_DSYNC.

Default frequency 06:00:00

InnoDB Log Buffer Flushed To Disk After Each Transaction

By default, InnoDB's log buffer is written out to the log file at each transaction commit and a flush-to-disk operation is performed on the log file, which enforces ACID compliance. In the event of a crash, if you can afford to lose a second's worth of transactions, you can achieve better performance by setting innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit to either 0 or 2. If you set the value to 2, then only an operating system crash or a power outage can erase the last second of transactions. This can be very useful on slave servers, where the loss of a second's worth of data can be recovered from the master server if needed.

Default frequency 06:00:00

InnoDB Log Waits May Be Performance Bottleneck

For optimal performance, InnoDB should not have to wait before writing DML activity to the InnoDB log buffer.

Default frequency 00:05:00

InnoDB Tablespace Cannot Automatically Expand

If the InnoDB tablespace is not allowed to automatically grow to meet incoming data demands and your application generates more data than there is room for, out-of-space errors will occur and your application may experience problems.

Default frequency 06:00:00

InnoDB Transaction Logs Not Sized Correctly

To avoid frequent checkpoint activity and reduce overall physical I/O, which can slow down write-heavy systems, the InnoDB transaction logs should be approximately 50-100% of the size of the InnoDB buffer pool, depending on the size of the buffer pool.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Insecure Password Authentication Option Is Enabled

Prior to MySQL 4.1, password hashes computed by the PASSWORD() function were 16 bytes long. As of MySQL 4.1 (and later), PASSWORD() was modified to produce a longer 41-byte hash value to provide enhanced security. However, in order to allow backward-compatibility with user tables that have been migrated from pre-4.1 systems, you can configure MySQL to accept logins for accounts that have password hashes created using the old, less-secure PASSWORD() function, but this is not recommended.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Insecure Password Generation Option Is Enabled

Prior to MySQL 4.1, password hashes computed by the PASSWORD() function were 16 bytes long. As of MySQL 4.1 (and later), PASSWORD() was modified to produce a longer 41-byte hash value to provide enhanced security. In order to allow backward-compatibility with older client programs, you can configure MySQL to generate short (pre-4.1) password hashes for new passwords, however, this is not recommended.

Default frequency 06:00:00

INSERT ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE Bug May Break Replication

For INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE statements where some AUTO_INCREMENT values were generated automatically for inserts and some rows were updated, one auto-generated value was lost per updated row, leading to faster exhaustion of the range of the AUTO_INCREMENT column. Affected versions of MySQL include 5.0.24 to 5.0.34, and 5.1.12 to 5.1.17 (inclusive).

Because the original problem can affect replication (different values on master and slave), it is recommended that the master and its slaves be upgraded to the current version.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Key Buffer Size Greater Than 4 GB

To minimize disk I/O, the MyISAM storage engine employs a key cache (or key buffer) to keep the most frequently accessed index blocks in memory. However, prior to MySQL version 5.0.52 this key buffer is limited in size to 4 GB, even on 64-bit operating systems. If set to a larger value, mysqld may crash when it tries to increase the actual buffer beyond 4 GB. Note that key_buffer_size is limited to 4GB on both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows systems, even in MySQL version 5.0.52 and later.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Key Buffer Size May Not Be Optimal For Key Cache

The key cache hit ratio represents the proportion of keys that are being read from the key cache in memory instead of from disk. This should normally be greater than 99% for optimum efficiency.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Key Buffer Size May Not Be Optimal For System RAM

The target server does not appear to have sufficient memory devoted to the key cache. On a dedicated server, this cache is commonly about 25%-50% of total RAM.

Default frequency 06:00:00

LOCAL Option Of LOAD DATA Statement Is Enabled

The LOAD DATA statement can load a file that is located on the server host, or it can load a file that is located on the client host when the LOCAL keyword is specified.

There are two potential security issues with supporting the LOCAL version of LOAD DATA statements:

Default frequency 00:05:00

Lock Contention Excessive

Performance can be degraded if the percentage of table operations that have to wait for a lock is high compared to the overall number of lock requests. This can happen when using a table-level locking storage engine, such as MyISAM, instead of a row-level locking storage engine.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Malformed Password Packet In Connection Protocol Can Crash Server

Due to Bug#28984, a malformed password packet in the connection protocol could cause the server to crash. This can lead to denial of service (DoS) attacks.

This bug has been fixed in later versions of the MySQL server.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Maximum Connection Limit Nearing Or Reached

Once the maximum connection limit for the MySQL server has been reached, no other user connections can be established and errors occur on the client side of the application.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Missing Security Improvements In GRANT Options

The GRANT statement is used to create MySQL user accounts and to grant rights to accounts. Due to bugs 15756 and 14385, rights may be granted erroneously in certain circumstances:

Default frequency 06:00:00

Multi-Byte Encoding Processing Can Lead To SQL Injection

Due to bug 8378, the server incorrectly parsed strings escaped with the mysql_real_escape_string() C API function. As a result, even when the character set-aware mysql_real_escape_string() function was used, SQL injection was possible.

This bug has been fixed in later versions of the MySQL server.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Multiple Threads Used When Repairing MyISAM Tables

Using multiple threads when repairing MyISAM tables can improve performance, but it can also lead to table and index corruption as reported by several bugs (#11527, #11684, #18874). Even though these bugs have been fixed, this feature is still considered beta-quality, as noted in the manual.

Default frequency 06:00:00

MyISAM Concurrent Insert Setting May Not Be Optimal

MyISAM uses table-level locking, which can adversely affect performance when there are many concurrent INSERT and SELECT statements because INSERTs will block all SELECTs until the INSERT is completed. However, MyISAM can be configured to allow INSERT and SELECT statements to run concurrently in certain situations.

Default frequency 06:00:00

MyISAM Indexes Found with No Statistics

The MySQL optimizer needs index statistics to help make choices about whether to use indexes to satisfy SQL queries. Having no statistics or outdated statistics limits the optimizer's ability to make smart and informed access plan choices.

Default frequency 12:00:00

MyISAM Key Cache Has Sub-Optimal Hit Rate

The key cache hit ratio represents the proportion of index values that are being read from the key cache in memory instead of from disk. This should normally be greater than 99% for optimum efficiency.

Default frequency 00:05:00

MySQL Agent Memory Usage Excessive

The memory needed by the MySQL Agent for basic monitoring is fairly small and consistent, and depends on the number of rules you have enabled. However, when the Query Analyzer is enabled, the Agent can use significantly more memory to monitor and analyze whatever queries you direct through it. In this case, the amount of memory used depends on the number of unique normalized queries, example queries and example explains being processed, plus the network bandwidth required to send query data to the Service Manager. In general, the amount of memory used for the Query Analyzer is small and well-bounded, but under some circumstances it can become excessive, especially on older versions of Linux.

Default frequency 00:01:00

MySQL Agent Not Communicating With Database Server

The MySQL Enterprise Service Agent must be able to communicate with the local MySQL database server in order to monitor the server and provide advice on enforcement of best practices.

Default frequency 00:01:00

MySQL Agent Not Reachable

In order to monitor a MySQL server, a Service Agent must be running and communicating with the Service Manager. If the Agent cannot communicate with the Service Manager, the Service Manager has no way of knowing if the MySQL database server being monitored is running, and it cannot collect current statistics to properly evaluate the rules scheduled against that server.

Default frequency 00:00:01

MySQL Server Has Been Restarted

To perform useful work, a database server must be up-and-running continuously. It is normal for a production server to run continuously for weeks, months, or longer. If a server has been restarted recently, it may be the result of planned maintenance, but it may also be due to an unplanned event that should be investigated.

Default frequency 00:05:00

MySQL Server Not Reachable

To perform useful work, it must be possible to connect to the local MySQL database server. If the MySQL Enterprise Service Agent cannot communicate with the server, it is likely the server is not running.

Default frequency 00:01:00

Next-Key Locking Disabled For InnoDB But Binary Logging Enabled

Next-key locking in InnoDB can be disabled, which may improve performance in some situations. However, this may result in inconsistent data when recovering from the binary logs in replication or recovery situations. Starting from MySQL 5.0.2, this option is even more unsafe than it was in version 4.1.x.

Default frequency 06:00:00

No Limit On Total Number Of Prepared Statements

Due to Bug#16365, there is no limit to the number of prepared statements that can be open per connection. This can lead to a Denial Of Service (DoS) attack, as the server will crash with out-of-memory (OOM) errors when the amount of statements becomes very large.

This bug has been fixed in later versions of the MySQL server.

Default frequency 06:00:00

No Value Set For myisam-recover

The myisam-recover option enables automatic MyISAM crash recovery should a MyISAM table become corrupt for some reason. If this option is not set, then a table will be "Marked as crashed" if it becomes corrupt, and no sessions will be able to SELECT from it, or perform any sort of DML against it.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Non-Authorized User Has DB, Table, Or Index Privileges On All Databases

Privileges such as SELECT, INSERT, ALTER, and so forth allow a user to view and change data, as well as impact system performance. Such operations should be limited to only those databases to which a user truly needs such access so the user cannot inadvertently affect other people's applications and data stores.

Default frequency 01:00:00

Non-Authorized User Has GRANT Privileges On All Databases

The GRANT privilege, when given on all databases as opposed to being limited to a few specific databases, enables a user to give to other users those privileges that the grantor possesses on all databases. It can be used for databases, tables, and stored routines. Such a privilege should be limited to as few users as possible. Users who do indeed need the GRANT privilege should have that privilege limited to only those databases they are responsible for, and not for all databases.

Default frequency 01:00:00

Non-Authorized User Has Server Admin Privileges

Certain privileges, such as SHUTDOWN and SUPER, are primarily used for server administration. Some of these privileges can have a dramatic effect on a system because they allow someone to shutdown the server or kill running processes. Such operations should be limited to a small set of users.

Default frequency 01:00:00

Object Changed: Database Has Been Altered

For development environments, changes to databases and objects may be a normal occurrence, but not for production environments. It is wise to know when any changes occur in a production environment with respect to any database structures and investigate the reasons for the changes.

Default frequency 00:10:00

Object Changed: Database Has Been Created

For development environments, changes to databases and objects may be a normal occurrence, but not for production environments. It is wise to know when any changes occur in a production environment with respect to any database structures and investigate the reasons for the changes.

Default frequency 00:10:00

Object Changed: Database Has Been Dropped

For development environments, changes to databases and objects may be a normal occurrence, but not for production environments. It is wise to know when any changes occur in a production environment with respect to any database structures and investigate the reasons for the changes.

Default frequency 00:10:00

Object Changed: Function Has Been Created

For development environments, changes to databases and objects may be a normal occurrence, but not for production environments. It is wise to know when any changes occur in a production environment with respect to any database structures and investigate the reasons for the changes.

Default frequency 00:10:00

Object Changed: Function Has Been Dropped

For development environments, changes to databases and objects may be a normal occurrence, but not for production environments. It is wise to know when any changes occur in a production environment with respect to any database structures or functions and investigate the reasons for the changes.

Default frequency 00:10:00

Object Changed: Index Has Been Created

For development environments, changes to databases and objects may be a normal occurrence, but not for production environments. It is wise to know when any changes occur in a production environment with respect to any database structures and investigate the reasons for the changes.

Default frequency 00:10:00

Object Changed: Index Has Been Dropped

For development environments, changes to databases and objects may be a normal occurrence, but not for production environments. It is wise to know when any changes occur in a production environment with respect to any database structures and investigate the reasons for the changes.

Default frequency 00:10:00

Object Changed: Table Has Been Altered

For development environments, changes to databases and objects may be a normal occurrence, but not for production environments. It is wise to know when any changes occur in a production environment with respect to database structures and investigate the reasons for the changes.

Default frequency 00:10:00

Object Changed: Table Has Been Created

For development environments, changes to databases and objects may be a normal occurrence, but not for production environments. It is wise to know when any changes occur in a production environment with respect to database structures and investigate the reasons for the changes.

Default frequency 00:10:00

Object Changed: Table Has Been Dropped

For development environments, changes to databases and objects may be a normal occurrence, but not for production environments. It is wise to know when changes occur in a production environment with respect to database structures and investigate the reasons for the changes.

Default frequency 00:10:00

Object Changed: User Has Been Dropped

For development environments, changes to databases and objects may be a normal occurrence, but not for production environments. It is wise to know when changes occur in a production environment with respect to database structures and investigate the reasons for the changes.

Default frequency 00:10:00

Object Changes Detected

For development environments, changes to databases and objects may be a normal occurrence, but not for production environments. It is wise to know when any changes occur in a production environment with respect to any database structures and investigate the reasons for the changes.

Default frequency 00:10:00

Prepared Statements Not Being Closed

Prepared statements may increase performance in applications that execute similar statements more than once, primarily because the query is parsed only once. Prepared statements can also reduce network traffic because it is only necessary to send the data for the parameters for each execution rather than the whole statement.

However, prepared statements take time to prepare and consume memory in the MySQL server until they are closed, so it is important to use them properly. If you are not closing prepared statements when you are done with them, you are needlessly tying up memory that could be put to use in other ways.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Prepared Statements Not Being Used Effectively

Prepared statements may increase performance in applications that execute similar statements more than once, primarily because the query is parsed only once. Prepared statements can also reduce network traffic because it is only necessary to send the data for the parameters for each execution rather than the whole statement.

However, prepared statements take time to prepare and consume memory in the MySQL server until they are closed, so it is important to use them properly. If you are only executing a statement a few times, the overhead of creating a prepared statement may not be worthwhile.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Query Cache Has Sub-Optimal Hit Rate

When enabled, the query cache should experience a high degree of "hits", meaning that queries in the cache are being reused by other user connections. A low hit rate may mean that not enough memory is allocated to the cache, identical queries are not being issued repeatedly to the server, or that the statements in the query cache are invalidated too frequently by INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE statements.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Query Cache Not Available

MySQL can cache the results of SELECT statements in memory so that they do not have to constantly be parsed and executed. If your application often runs the same queries over and over, caching the results can increase performance significantly. It's important to use a version or binary of MySQL that supports the query cache.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Query Cache Not Enabled

Enabling the query cache can increase performance by 200% for queries that are executed often and have large result sets.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Query Cache Potentially Undersized

When the Query Cache is full, and needs to add more queries to the cache, it will make more room in the cache by freeing the least recently used queries from the cache, and then inserting the new queries. If this is happening often then you should increase the size of the cache to avoid this constant "swapping".

Default frequency 00:05:00

RAM Usage Excessive

A reasonable amount of free memory is required for a system to perform well. Without free memory, new processes and threads cannot start, and the operating system may do excessive paging (swapping blocks of memory to and from disk).

Default frequency 00:01:00

Root Account Can Login Remotely

By default, MySQL includes a root account with unlimited privileges that is typically used to administer the MySQL server. If possible, accounts with this much power should not allow remote logins in order to limit access to only those users able to login to the machine on which MySQL is running. This helps prevent unauthorized users from accessing and changing the system.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Root Account Without Password

The root user account has unlimited privileges and is intended for administrative tasks. Privileged accounts should have strong passwords to prevent unauthorized users from accessing and changing the system.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Row-based Replication Broken For UTF8 CHAR Columns Longer Than 85 Characters

Due to Bug#37426, row-based replication breaks when CHAR() UTF8 fields with a length greater than 85 characters are used.

This bug has been fixed in later versions of the MySQL server.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Security Alterations Detected: User Privileges Granted

For development environments, changes to database security privileges may be a normal occurrence, but for production environments it is wise to know when any security changes occur with respect to database privileges, and to ensure that those changes are authorized and required.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Security Alterations Detected: User Privileges Revoked

For development environments, changes to database security privileges may be a normal occurrence, but for production environments it is wise to know when any security changes occur with respect to database privileges, and to ensure that those changes are authorized and required.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Security Alterations Have Been Detected

For development environments, changes to database security privileges may be a normal occurrence, but for production environments it is wise to know when any security changes occur with respect to database privileges, and to ensure that those changes are authorized and required.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Security Risk with BINLOG statement

Due to Bug#31611, any user can execute BINLOG statements, which effectively gives them the ability to execute any SQL statement regardless of the privileges associated with their user account (i.e. as given by the GRANT statement). This allows any connected user to get any privileges they want, edit any data they want, add and drop tables, etc.

This bug has been fixed in later versions of the MySQL server.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Server Contains Default "test" Database

By default, MySQL comes with a database named test that anyone can access. This database is intended only for testing and should be removed before moving into a production environment. Because the default test database can be accessed by any user and has permissive privileges, it should be dropped immediately as part of the installation process.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Server Has Accounts Without A Password

Accounts without passwords are particularly dangerous because an attacker needs to guess only a username. Assigning passwords to all accounts helps prevent unauthorized users from accessing the system.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Server Has Anonymous Accounts

Anonymous MySQL accounts allow clients to connect to the server without specifying a username. Since anonymous accounts are well known in MySQL, removing them helps prevent unauthorized users from accessing the system.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Server Includes A Root User Account

By default, MySQL includes a root account with unlimited privileges that is typically used to administer the MySQL server. There is no reason this account must be named 'root'. Accounts with this much power should not be easily discovered. Since the root account is well known in MySQL, changing its name helps prevent unauthorized users from accessing and changing the system.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Server-Enforced Data Integrity Checking Disabled

SQL Modes define what SQL syntax MySQL should support and what kind of data validation checks it should perform. If no SQL modes are enabled this means there is no form of server-enforced data integrity, which means incoming data that is invalid will not be rejected by the server, but instead will be changed to conform to the target column's default datatype. Note, however, that beginning with MySQL 4.1, any client can change its own session SQL mode value at any time.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Server-Enforced Data Integrity Checking Not Strict

SQL Modes define what SQL syntax MySQL should support and what kind of data validation checks it should perform. There are many possible options that can be used in conjunction with each other to specify varying degrees of syntax and data validation checks the MySQL server will perform. However, to ensure the highest level of confidence for data integrity, at least one of the following should be included in the list: TRADITIONAL, STRICT_TRANS_TABLES, or STRICT_ALL_TABLES.

Note, however, that beginning with MySQL 4.1, any client can change its own session SQL mode value at any time.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Slave Detection Of Network Outages Too High

Slaves must deal with network connectivity outages that affect the ability of the slave to get the latest data from the master, and hence cause replication to fall behind. However, the slave notices the network outage only after receiving no data from the master for slave_net_timeout seconds. You may want to decrease slave_net_timeout so the outages -- and associated connection retries -- are detected and resolved faster. The default for this parameter is 3600 seconds (1 hour), which is too high for many environments.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Slave Error: Unknown or Incorrect Time Zone

In order to use time zone names in conjunction with certain statements, functions, and data types, you must configure the server to understand those names by loading information from the operating system's time zone files into a set of tables in the mysql database. However, while the MySQL installation procedure creates those time zone tables, it does not load them; they must be loaded manually after installation.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Slave Execution Position Too Far Behind Read Position

When a slave receives updates from its master, the I/O thread stores the data in local files known as relay logs. The slave's SQL thread reads the relay logs and executes the updates they contain. If the position from which the SQL thread is reading is way behind the position to which the I/O thread is currently writing, it is a sign that replication is getting behind and results of queries directed to the slave may not reflect the latest changes made on the master.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Slave Has Been Stopped

If replication on a slave has been stopped, it means the slave is not retrieving the latest statements from the master and it is not executing those statements on the slave.

Default frequency 00:01:00

Slave Has Experienced A Replication Error

When a slave receives updates from its master it must apply those updates locally so the data on the slave matches that on the server. If an error occurs while applying an update on a slave, the data on the slave may not match that on the master and it is an indication that replication may be broken.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Slave Has Login Accounts With Inappropriate Privileges

Altering and dropping tables on a slave can break replication. Unless the slave also hosts non-replicated tables, there is no need for accounts with these privileges. As an alternative, you should set the read_only flag ON so the server allows no updates except from users that have the SUPER privilege or from updates performed by slave threads.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Slave Has Problem Communicating With Master

Slaves must connect to a master to get the latest data from the master. If they cannot connect, or periodically have trouble connecting, replication may fall behind (i.e. the slave may not have the lastest data that was written to the master).

Default frequency 00:05:00

Slave Has Stopped Replicating

If neither the slave I/O thread nor the slave SQL threads are running, it means the slave is not getting the latest statements from the master and it is not executing those statements on the slave, and thus replication has stopped entirely.

Default frequency 00:01:00

Slave I/O Thread Not Running

The slave I/O thread is the thread that retrieves statements from the master's binary log and records them into the slave's relay log. If this thread isn't running, it means the slave is not able to retrieve the latest data from the master.

Default frequency 00:01:00

Slave Not Configured As Read Only

Arbitrary or unintended updates to a slave may break replication or cause a slave to be inconsistent with respect to its master. Making a slave read_only can be useful to ensure that a slave accepts updates only from its master server and not from clients; it minimizes the possibility of unintended updates.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Slave Relay Log Space Is Very Large

When a slave receives updates from its master, the I/O thread stores the data in local files known as relay logs. The slave's SQL thread reads the relay logs and executes the updates they contain. After the SQL thread has executed all the updates in a relay log, the file is no longer needed and can be deleted to conserve disk space.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Slave Relay Logs Not Automatically Purged

When a slave receives updates from its master, the I/O thread stores the data in local files known as relay logs. The slave's SQL thread reads the relay logs and executes the updates they contain. After the SQL thread has executed all the updates in a relay log, the file is no longer needed and can be deleted to conserve disk space.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Slave SQL Thread Not Running

The slave SQL thread is the thread that reads statements from the slave's relay log and executes them to bring the slave in sync with the master. If this thread isn't running, it means the slave is not able to apply the latest changes it has read from the master, and results of queries directed to the slave may not reflect the latest changes made on the master.

Default frequency 00:01:00

Slave SQL Thread Reading From Older Relay Log Than I/O Thread

When a slave receives updates from its master, the I/O thread stores the data in local files known as relay logs. The slave's SQL thread reads the relay logs and executes the updates they contain. If the SQL thread is reading from an older relay log than the one to which the I/O thread is currently writing, it is a sign that replication is getting behind and results of queries directed to the slave may not reflect the latest changes made on the master.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Slave Too Far Behind Master

If a slave is too far behind the master, results of queries directed to the slave may not reflect the latest changes made on the master.

Default frequency 00:01:00

Slave Waiting To Free Relay Log Space

For slaves with limited disk space you can place a limit on how large the replication relay log can grow. When the limit is reached, the I/O thread stops reading binary log events from the master server until the SQL thread has caught up and deleted some unprocessed relay logs. While this protects MySQL from filling up the disk, it means replication is delayed and the slave will fall behind the master.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Slave Without REPLICATION SLAVE Accounts

If the master ever fails, you may want to use one of the slaves as the new master. An account with the REPLICATION SLAVE privilege must exist for a server to act as a replication master (so a slave can connect to it), so it's a good idea to create this account on your slaves to prepare it to take over for a master if needed.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Slow Query Log Not Enabled

The slow query log can be used to identify queries that take a long time to complete.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Stored Procedures Found With SELECT * Syntax

Best practices for SQL coding state that no query should be issued with SELECT *. Reasons include:

Default frequency 06:00:00

Stored Routine Runs In Definer''s Rather Than Caller''s Security Context

Due to bug 18630, a stored routine created by one user and then made accessible to a different user using GRANT EXECUTE could be executed by that user with the privileges of the routine's definer.

This bug has been fixed in later versions of the MySQL server.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Symlinks Are Enabled

You can move tables and databases from the database directory to other locations and replace them with symbolic links to the new locations. You might want to do this, for example, to move a database to a file system with more free space or to increase the speed of your system by spreading your tables to different disks.

However, symlinks can compromise security. This is especially important if you run mysqld as root, because anyone who has write access to the server's data directory could then delete any file in the system!

Default frequency 06:00:00

Table Cache Not Optimal

MySQL is multi-threaded, so there may be many clients issuing queries for a given table simultaneously. To minimize the problem with multiple client threads having different states on the same table, the table is opened independently by each concurrent thread.

The table cache is used to cache file descriptors for open tables and there is a single cache shared by all clients. Increasing the size of the table cache allows mysqld to keep more tables open simultanously by reducing the number of file open and close operations that must be done. If the value of Open_tables is approaching the value of table_cache, this may indicate performance problems.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Table Cache Set Too Low For Startup

The table cache size controls the number of open tables that can occur at any one time on the server. MySQL will work to open and close tables as needed, however you should avoid having the table cache set too low, causing MySQL to constantly open and close tables to satisfy object access.

If the table cache limit has been exceeded by the number of tables opened in the first three hours of service, then the table cache size is likely set too low.

Default frequency 00:30:00

Table Lock Contention Excessive

Performance can be degraded if the percentage of table operations that have to wait for a lock is high compared to the overall number of lock requests. This can happen when using a table-level locking storage engine, such as MyISAM, instead of a row-level locking storage engine.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Table Scans Excessive

The target server does not appear to be using indexes efficiently. The values of Handler_read_rnd_next and Handler_read_rnd together - which reflect the number of rows read via full table scans - are high compared to the sum of Handler variables which denote all row accesses - such as Handler_read_key, Handler_read_next etc. You should examine your tables and queries for proper use of indexes.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Tables Found with No Primary or Unique Keys

A primary or unique key of a relational table uniquely identifies each record in the table. Except in very unusual circumstances, every database table should have one or more columns designated as the primary key or as a unique key, and it is common practice to declare one.

Default frequency 12:00:00

Temporary Tables To Disk Ratio Excessive

If the space required to build a temporary table exceeds either tmp_table_size or max_heap_table_size, MySQL creates a disk-based table in the server's tmpdir directory. Also, tables that have TEXT or BLOB columns are automatically placed on disk.

For performance reasons it is ideal to have most temporary tables created in memory, leaving exceedingly large temporary tables to be created on disk.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Thread Cache Not Enabled

Each connection to the MySQL database server runs in its own thread. Thread creation takes time, so rather than killing the thread when a connection is closed, the server can keep the thread in its thread cache and use it for a new connection later.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Thread Cache Size May Not Be Optimal

Each connection to the MySQL database server runs in its own thread. Thread creation takes time, so rather than killing the thread when a connection is closed, the server can keep the thread in its thread cache and use it for a new connection later.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Too Many Concurrent Queries Running

Too many active queries indicates there is a severe load on the server, and may be a sign of lock contention or unoptimized SQL queries.

Default frequency 00:05:00

Use Of View Overrides Column Update Privileges On Underlying Table

Due to Bug#27878, by using a view, a user who only has privileges to update a given column of a table is able to update any column of that table, even though the view is defined with SQL SECURITY INVOKER. Also, use of a view could allow a user to gain update privileges for tables in other databases.

This bug has been fixed in later versions of the MySQL server.

Default frequency 06:00:00

User Can Gain Privileges By Running Stored Routine Declared Using SQL SECURITY INVOKER

Due to Bug#27337, if a stored routine was declared using SQL SECURITY INVOKER, a user who invoked the routine could gain privileges. For example, a user without the CREATE privilege on a certain database could gain that privilege after invoking a stored routine.

This bug has been fixed in later versions of the MySQL server.

Default frequency 06:00:00

User Has Rights To Database That Does Not Exist

When a database is dropped, user privileges on the database are not automatically dropped. This has security implications as that user will regain privileges if a database with the same name is created in the future, which may not be the intended result.

Default frequency 00:05:00

User With Only ALTER Privilege On Partitioned Table Can Obtain SELECT Privilege Information

Due to Bug#23675, a user with only the ALTER privilege on a partitioned table could obtain information about the table that should require the SELECT privilege.

This bug has been fixed in later versions of the MySQL server.

Default frequency 06:00:00

Users Can View All Databases On MySQL Server

The SHOW DATABASES privilege should be granted only to users who need to see all the databases on a MySQL Server. It is recommended that the MySQL Server be started with the --skip-show-database option enabled to prevent anyone from using the SHOW DATABASES statement unless they have been specifically granted the SHOW DATABASES privilege.

Note: If a user is granted any global privilege, such as CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES or LOCK TABLES, they are automatically given the ability to show databases unless the server is started with the --skip-show-database option enabled. DBAs should be aware of this fact, in the event that any applications make use of temporary tables.

Default frequency 00:05:00

XA Distributed Transaction Support Enabled For InnoDB

XA Distributed Transaction support is turned on by default. If you are not using this feature, note that it adds an extra fsync for each transaction and may adversely affect performance.

Default frequency 06:00:00