NYCPHP Meetup

[David Sklar]

> I have many hesitations using MySQL as a back end for an
> accounting program.
> Access to the database will be at a maximum of 3 people at any given time,
> so server load should not be too heavy.  Eventually I may have 20 people
> connecting to an orders database tied in.
>
> So my question is, aside from the small user loads and performance related
> issues, is MySQL reliable for handling such critical accounting data?

Yes. If you are using more than a P133 for this load, you will be fine. (I
know that sounds sarcastic, but I'm not. It really doesn't need much
horsepower.) To ensure safe handling of the accounting data, use the InnoDB
table type so that you can use transactions and referential integrity.

> Things that scare me are lack of referential integrity, lack of
> transactions, backup and recovery.

InnoDB will handle all of this for you just fine. You probably don't need
their fancy backup utility either. What volume of data are you dealing with?
Something like this might be useful:
--> http://jeremy.zawodny.com/mysql/mysqlsnapshot/

David