[wp-hackers] InnoDB

[Jeremy Clarke]

So far I haven't found issues with InnoDB. I've found that you can even do
the conversion on a live DB without any serious issues, PHPMyAdmin lets you
do it at the per-table level, so if it's just one site that's an easy method
(Sequel Pro on mac, a better PHPMyAdmin alterniative, also lets you do it
that way.).

The main thing to watch out for is the special system variables MySQL uses
to control resources for InnoDB. If you've been tuning a dedicated server
for MyISAM (key_buffer_size and friends) then the default InnoDB values
might be way too low, leading to atrocious performance until you up the
values to reflect the actual amount of ram available to you. Specifically
I'd read about and assess your server's values for:

innodb_buffer_pool_size • The most important value, if you are only using
InnoDB then almost all your ram should be available to the innodb buffer
pool.

innodb_log_buffer_size • Affects the historical memory of InnoDB in case of
failure, larger values mean slower recovery time (Percona recommends 4mb)

So far I've had excellent experiences with the switch to InnoDB, if you have
even a moderate amount of writing to the database InnoDB saves you a lot of
headaches from queued up queries due to MyISAM's table-level locking.


-- 
Jeremy Clarke • http://jeremyclarke.org
Code and Design • http://globalvoicesonline.org