MySQL configuration variables are a set of server system variables used to configure the operation and behavior of the server. In this blog post, we will explain the differences in managing the configuration variables between MySQL 5.7 and MySQL 8.0. We will explain three different ways for setting the configuration variables based on your use-case. […]

AWS is the #1 cloud provider for open-source database hosting, and the go-to cloud for MySQL deployments. As organizations continue to migrate to the cloud, it’s important to get in front of performance issues, such as high latency, low throughput, and replication lag with higher distances between your users and cloud infrastructure. While many AWS users default to their managed database solution, Amazon RDS, there are alternatives available that can improve your MySQL performance on AWS through advanced customization options and unlimited EC2 instance type support. ScaleGrid offers a compelling alternative to hosting MySQL on AWS that offers better performance, more control, and no cloud vendor lock-in and the same price as Amazon RDS. In this post, we compare the performance of MySQL Amazon RDS …

Introduction

This is the final installment of a five part blog series to explore InnoDB internals by looking at the related tunable system variables. In this section we’re going to cover variables that relate to enforcing data consistency, and how index statistics are handled and stored.

Just like previous sections, I would like to emphasize something that was written in part one of this blog post series.

“I should note that while tuning recommendations are provided, this objective of this blog post series was NOT meant to be a tuning primer, but instead to explore the mechanics that each variable interacts with. As such I would like to advise against reading this guide and trying to fine tune all of the available InnoDB variables. System variable tuning is an exercise in diminishing returns, the most benefit you’ll get out of tuning your MySQL server will occur within the first 15 minutes of configuration. In …

Introduction

This is part four of a five part blog series to explore InnoDB internals by looking at the related tunable system variables. In this section we’re going to explore the mechanics that impact CPU resourcing and how InnoDB handles concurrent threads. You’ll notice that a lot of the variables covered in section relate to features that are now disabled but were a lot more prevalent in previous versions of MySQL, particularly those that were released at a time where system context switching had a greater cost than it does today. These variables are still worth discussing as you may run into older systems that utilize these mechanics, and there are even modern systems I’ve worked with that have implemented these features to tune performance to its highest potential.

Just like previous sections, I would like to emphasize something that was written in part one of this blog post series.

“I should note that …

Introduction

This is part three of a five part blog series to explore InnoDB internals by looking at the related tunable system variables. In part 2 we covered variables that had the greatest impact on the file structure of InnoDB as well as how data is written to logs. In this section we will continue looking at I/O but more specifically looking at the mechanics on how data gets written to table files as well as how background threads read from them.

Just like in part two, I would like to emphasize something that was written in part one of this blog post series.

“I should note that while tuning recommendations are provided, this objective of this blog post series was NOT meant to be a tuning primer, but instead to explore the mechanics that each variable interacts with. As such I would …

Introduction

A couple of months ago I decided to give myself a refresher on the mechanics of InnoDB. Having a high level understanding of what’s going on under the hood can help provide the context needed in order to resolve issues you may encounter as well as assist you in ensuring that your MySQL instance is running efficiently. Everyone can stand to go back to basics every now and then, as it can help you pick up concepts that you may have missed the last time you researched the topic.

This time around I decided to give myself a refresher by re-reading the MySQL 5.6 reference manual, chapter 14, which covers the InnoDB engine. Despite having a wealth of documented knowledge and insights, I found that a lot of the points in the documentations were unclear, leading me to do more research and experimentation in order to get a bit of clarity on some of the specifics that I felt were missing. In order to help make the information …

I’m pleased to announce that my first book, the InnoDB Quick Reference Guide, is now available from Packt Publishing and you can download it by clicking here. It covers the most common topics of InnoDB usage in the enterprise, including: general overview of its use and benefits, detailed explanation of seventeen static variables and seven dynamic variables, load testing methodology, maintenance and monitoring, as well as troubleshooting and useful analytics for the engine. The current version of MySQL ships with InnoDB as the default table engine, so whether you program your MySQL enabled applications with PHP, Python, Perl or otherwise, you’ll likely benefit from this concise but comprehensive reference guide for InnoDB databases.

Here are the chapter overviews …

As part of my upcoming FREE my.cnf check advice I first need to ask people to provide the current MySQL configuration file commonly found as a file named my.cnf

If only that question was easy to answer!

Use of configuration files

MySQL will by default use at least one configuration file from the following defaults. MySQL also uses a cascade approach for configuration files. When you have multiple files in the appropriate paths you can see unexpected behavior when you override certain values in different files.

You can however for example specify –no-defaults to use no configuration file, or add options to your command line execution, so even looking at all configuration files is no guarantee of your operating configuration.

However for most environments, these complexities do not exist.

…

Today, while on IRC in #pentaho I came across a discussion and a published my.cnf. In this configuration I found some grossly incorrect values for per session buffers (see below).

It doesn’t take a MySQL expert to spot the issues, however there is plenty of bad information available on the Internet and developers not knowing MySQL well can easily be mislead. This has spurred me to create a program to rid the world of bad MySQL configuration. While my task is potential infinite, it will enable me to give back and hopefully do a small amount of good. You never know, saving those CPU cycles may save energy and help the planet.

Stay tuned for more details of my program.

[mysqld]
...
sort_buffer_size = 6144K
myisam_sort_buffer_size = 1G
join_buffer_size = 1G
bulk_insert_buffer_size = 1G
read_buffer_size     = 6144K
read_rnd_buffer_size = 6144K
key_buffer_size         = 1024M
max_allowed_packet      = 32M
thread_stack            = …

There is a lot of buzz lately around retaining comments in MySQL’s logs and MySQL Stored procedures (Routines). When analyzing a MySQL query, it’s nice to have a comment inside the query (or procedure) that can provide us with more info about the query. For example, When analyzing MySQL’s logs (like Slow Query Log or […]