[MikeDVB]

We will be installing a MySQL Governor and Statistics system so that we can more easily track which MySQL databases are causing issues for the server for us to ensure overall stability and performance. This installation should be seamless with the only MySQL downtime being up to 5 minutes while the MySQL server is restarted. We will update this thread once the installation is completed or if any unexpected issues arise.

[MikeDVB]

The MySQL Stats and Governor has been installed and MySQL is back online without issue.

[Brad]

Very nice Mike. What sort of issues do client MySQL databases cause on a server and how will you use the tool to ensure stability? I always thought that databases were relatively static and that the applications that reference databases were culprits of instability. It's interesting to learn that db's themselves can be culprits too.

[MikeDVB]

It allows us to watch statistics on which databases are accessed when, how much CPU is used in doing so, how many rows were requested, how many were updated, etc. It's quite in-depth.

At the end of the day - if MySQL is having issues it will allow us to more easily identify the source of the trouble so that we can ensure a higher level of service and reliability.

[MikeDVB]

For those who may be curious, it allows us to see statistics such as these:

Statistics for ONE MySQL User on a shared server over 15 minutes:
Table: wp_adrotate_tracker
>> Rows Read: 88,199,361 (97,999 rows per second)

Table: wp_adrotate_stats_tracker
>> Rows Read: 10,771,198 (11,968 rows per second)

Total: Rows Read: 98,970,559 (109,967 per second)

[fshagan]

Very nice; that will allow you to see what specific table is causing an issue.

Is there much overhead to running the stats program?

[MikeDVB]

There is some overhead to it but it's not significant. We only have it enabled when running a report so it's not running all the time.

[Adam]

Have you ever given thought to running the Percona release of MySQL? It's said to be significantly faster than the Oracle releases, and it's a drop-in replacement... kind of like Apache and LiteSpeed (except that Percona is free). I might have mentioned this to you, but I don't recall it.

[MikeDVB]

We have considered it but see no way to switch to it that won't require a full rebuild of PHP (i.e. MySQL connectivity downtime for around 30 minutes).