Since MySQL 5.7.5, we have been able to resize dynamically the InnoDB Buffer Pool. This new feature also introduced a new variable — innodb_buffer_pool_chunk_size — which defines the chunk size by which the buffer pool is enlarged or reduced. This variable is not dynamic and if it is incorrectly configured, could lead to undesired situations.

Let’s see first how innodb_buffer_pool_size , innodb_buffer_pool_instances  and innodb_buffer_pool_chunk_size interact:

The buffer pool can hold several instances and each instance is divided into chunks. There is some information that we need to take into account: the number of instances can go from 1 to 64 and the total amount of chunks should not exceed 1000.

So, for a server with 3GB RAM, a buffer pool of 2GB with 8 instances and chunks at default value (128MB) we are going to get 2 chunks per instance:

This means that there will be 16 chunks.

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What is an InnoDB Buffer Pool?

InnoDB buffer pool is the memory space that holds many in-memory data structures of InnoDB, buffers, caches, indexes and even row-data. innodb_buffer_pool_size is the MySQL configuration parameter that specifies the amount of memory allocated to the InnoDB buffer pool by MySQL. This is one of the most important settings in the MySQL configuration and should be configured based on the available system RAM.

In this post, we’ll walk you through two approaches of setting your InnoDB buffer pool size value, examine the pros and cons of those practices, and also propose a unique method to arrive at an optimum value based on the size of …