Comments on: The ultimate tool for generating optimal my.cnf files for MySQL

By: Tomaz

Tomaz — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:33:04 +0000

I know this is a late reply, however I’m trying to execute script tuning-primer.sh on my server, I have bash installed, but I always get this error:

./tuning-primer.sh: 40: Syntax error: “(” unexpected

Any help would be much appreciated!

By: Petervdb

Petervdb — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:05:05 +0000

What about MySQL Monitor, the Monitoring tool that is part of MySQL Enterprise?
I have installed MySQL Monitor and it gives specific information about parameters which need to be modified.
I agree that also with MySQL Monitor the optimisation of my.cnf is a long term project.
Also as tables grow, or when table are converted from MyISAM to InnoDB and vice versa, parameters in my.cnf should be modified.
Unfortunately modification of certain parameters is not easy in an production environment where downtime should be reduced to the minimum.

By: Major Hayden

Major Hayden — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 01:09:48 +0000

It’s also important to note that there is no end-all solution to a badly performing application that depends on MySQL. You can run a script, hire a DBA, and improve your hardware, but you’ll find new bottlenecks at each step. I’ve talked to many customers who ran scripts and noticed a performance gain. I’ve talked to many that had no change or negative results. The same can be said of other customers who contacted DBA’s and paid large amounts for assistance.

By the way, I write MySQLTuner, and I know the limitations of the script. There’s no way that my script can perfectly tune a server, but I hope that mine helps bring people closer to a higher performance configuration at no cost.

By: Josh

Josh — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:14:32 +0000

This website runs extremely slow, pages just sit there connecting so whatever your using to optimize it i think you should go back to the default conf files because you have botched it buddy.

By: Denis B

Denis B — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:13:48 +0000

Uhm, “less inexperienced” should have been “less experienced”..

By: Denis B

Denis B — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:13:15 +0000

I think this article is way too bombastic.
I understand where the author is coming from, and indeed agree that there can never be a tool which can properly tune everything for everyone. However the tools that you so harshly come down on are hardly meant as such. They are handy tools in a toolkit, and best used with a dose of common sense and understanding that the suggestions they provide are simply that; suggestions.

tuning-primer.sh is a very nice little script which does help less inexperienced DBAs get started with tuning. I would argue that a lot of installations will fare a lot better implementing a few of the suggestions than sticking with the distributed my.cnf..

Denis

By: Mark Callaghan

Mark Callaghan — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:43:57 +0000

@Matthew – I like the idea of tuning-primer.sh but with a different name. I am occasionally asked to diagnose a performance problem on a one-off mysqld that doesn’t have full-time DBA support. For this I want to give them whats-wrong.sh that checks for the obvious problems.

It is great that you did this with a shell script. Amazing things can be done with Bash + Awk.

By: Matthew Montgomery

Matthew Montgomery — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:23:27 +0000

No one ever said tuning-primer.sh was supposed to be the “ultimate” tuning tool. It’s a “primer”, to be get you started looking at certain things and not to be followed blindly. My tuning script started out as basically a check list of things I wanted to make sure were setup always. binlog & slow query log enabled, max_used_connections != max_connection, thread_cache not exhausted, tmp_table_size not greater than max_heap_table_size, etc… Some people have had success with it and have improved performance and visibility of their server.

I’m sure if you’re being called in they’re well beyond the need for my little ‘check-list’ script. However, there are some who are not.

Matt Montgomery

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:09:24 +0000

Apachez: “The ultimate tool for generating an optimal my.cnf is not a tool. It’s a human with many years of experience, deep knowledge of MySQL and the full application stack, and familiarity with your application and your data.”

Baron: Oracle’s auto tuning is super great, but it has its limits. It’s designed for systems with shifting workloads (ie: multiple databases on a single node) running below, say, 80% capacity. Once you cross a given load threshold wherein you’re taxing any element (cpu, disk i/o, network, etc) to the limit, all bets are off. It’ll do a very good job of balancing parameters to best suit the heaviest consumer of the moment, but if you have multiple databases capable of completely tapping the system, it’s time to upgrade or redesign. The same goes for VMWare, or any other service capable of automatic load-balancing of complex systems. As soon as the collective consumption approaches or exceeds the limits of the system, you’re just delaying doom.

By: Peter Bach

Peter Bach — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:21:54 +0000

Not to hijack the thread, but I stumbled across this trying to answer a question.

Is there a way to get per MySQL table I/O physical statistics (reads/writes, etc.) from InnoDB? I have a stored procedure that is reading way too much stuff from the DB. I am using innotop, but since it is an SP, you can’t get an explain plan. iostat -x shows lots of read activity, but I have no way of knowing which table is being accessed.

Besides, the code for the SP is several pages long and quite complicated. I think I’ll go slap the developer that wrote it, but he is not longer with the company!!!

Please help.