Testing MySQL creatively in a sandbox

Problem: you want to test many different builds of MySQL.
There is a proliferation of MySQL versions and builds. Working as a DBA or as a consultant, you will find large installations of MySQL 5.0 to 5.5, with subtle variations among them. In the same company there may several versions of MySQL 5.1, or you may find a mix of vanilla MySQL and Percona or MariaDB builds. For all these version, you often need to reproduce a problem using the same version being used in production, and often you need to install several test servers in the same host for this purpose.
Then there are the work-in-progress versions that Oracle and other companies are producing. And you want to test them before adopting them.
For all the above needs, there is MySQL Sandbox, a versatile tool that allows you to install multiple servers in the same host, no matter if they are the same version or different ones.
This workshop will explain quickly how MySQL Sandbox works, and then show with practical examples how to test several combinations of servers in a single host quickly and painlessly. It will also show examples of how to use MySQL Sandbox to solve practical administration tasks, such as re-playing binary logs or producing a filtered binlog.