Tag: MyISAM
MySQL Performance: Identifying Long Queries
Every MySQL backed application can benefit from a finely tuned database server. The Liquid Web Heroic Support team has encountered numerous situations over the years when some minor adjustments have made a world of difference in website and application performance. In this series of articles, we have outlined some of the more common recommendations that have had the largest impact on performance.
MySQL Performance: MyISAM
MyISAM is a table-locking based engine. Table-locking prevents all other processes from writing data to the target table. This locking behavior encompasses the entire MyISAM table, no matter how minor the data change. This type of locking preserves the integrity of the data but at the cost of performance. The performance penalty for using table-locking based engines like MyISAM become more laborious as the row count in the table grows. Very large tables will see a significant delay in performance when data needs to be written to a MyISAM table.
MySQL Performance: MyISAM vs InnoDB
A major factor in database performance is the storage engine used by the database, and more specifically, its tables. Different storage engines provide better performance in one situation over another. For general use, there are two contenders to be considered. These are MyISAM, which is the default MySQL storage engine, or InnoDB, which is an alternative engine built-in to MySQL intended for high-performance databases. Before we can understand the difference between the two storage engines, we need to understand the term “locking.”
How to Display MySQL Storage Engines
- These instructions are intended for displaying a list of the installed MySQL storage engines.
- I’ll be working from a Liquid Web Core Managed CentOS 6.5 server, and I’ll be logged in as root.
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