Companies can increase MySQL performance by 3 times by using the new Linux Atomic Write and NVM compression extensions in a Server SAN configuration, attaching flash storage either through PCIe or DIMM and eliminating SCSI code designed to support slow spinning disks, writes Wikibon Co-founder and CTO David Floyer in “MySQL receives over 3X Boost in Performance from PCIe Flash“.

This huge performance boost comes without the tradeoffs of the traditional strategies for improving MySQL performance:

• Turning off compression, which doubles performance but also doubles the required storage space and bandwidth for reading and writing data to storage.

• Turning off DoubleWrites, which improves performance by 70% at the expense of compromising atomicity and data integrity.

The three MySQL distributors – MariaDB, Oracle and Pecona – all support the extensions, which make MySQL flash-aware. The Server SAN architecture, in which flash storage is directly attached to the server through PCIe or DIMM, takes full advantage of the order-of-magnitude search and read/write speed differential between flash and spinning disk.

As a result, Floyer said in a recent conversation in theCUBE (see video below), “People who are running large-scale databases on MySQL will really benefit from these enhancements. If you can get three times the throughput you essentially have three times the lifetime for these databases.”

As with all Wikibon research, this Professional Alert is available without charge on the Wikibon Web site. IT professionals are invited to register for free membership in the Wikibon community, which allows them to participate in Wikibon research and post questions, comments and research for the community.

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