When executing an ALTER TABLE, InnoDB (and XtraDB) will create two InnoDB transactions: One transaction is created when the table being ALTERed is locked by the server. This will show up as something like “TABLE LOCK table `schema`.`table_name` trx id XXXX lock mode S” in SHOW ENGINE INNODB STATUS. Another is created when adding or [...]
Multiple purge threads in Percona Server 5.1.56 and MySQL 5.6.2
Part of the InnoDB duties, being an MVCC-implementing storage engine, is to get rid of–purge–the old versions of the records as they become obsolete. In MySQL 5.1 this is done by the master InnoDB thread. Since then, InnoDB has been moving towards the parallelized purge: in MySQL 5.5 there is an option to have a [...]
Percona is hiring a consultant
We’re hiring. We are looking for the following qualifications: Expert knowledge of MySQL. Not just “certified” — years of production experience with it. You need to know server internals, for example. You need to be able to do anything from optimizing difficult queries to moving high-volume services between data centers without interruption. Expert knowledge of [...]
Paul McCullagh answers your questions about PBXT
Following on from our earlier announcement, Paul McCullagh has responded with the answers to your questions – as well as a few I gathered from other Percona folks, and attendees of OpenSQL Camp. Thank you Paul! What’s the “ideal” use case for the PBXT engine, and how does it compare in performance?  When would I [...]
Announcing Percona XtraDB Storage Engine: a Drop-in Replacement for Standard InnoDB
Today we officially announce our new storage engine, “Percona XtraDB“, which is based on the InnoDB storage engine. It’s 100% backwards-compatible with standard InnoDB, so you can use it as a drop-in replacement in your current environment. It is designed to scale better on modern hardware, and includes a variety of other features useful in [...]
Monty unviels Maria and starts Blogging
This weekend we’re hearing great news from Michael “Monty” Widenius – one of the Fathers of MySQL. Monty finally found a time to create his own blog with very descriptive name Monty Says. At the same time Monty finally announces Maria – the MyISAM successor storage engine he has been working for last few years. [...]
MVCC: Transaction IDs, Log Sequence numbers and Snapshots
MySQL Storage Engines implementing Multi Version Concurrency Control have several internal identifiers related to MVCC. I see a lot of people being confused what they are and why they are needed so I decided to take a time to explain it a bit. This is general explanation, it does not corresponds to Innodb in particular [...]

