Database servers are tricky. Before jumping to the conclusion that more hardware is needed, make sure you’re getting the most out of the hardware you already have. Hiring a DBA is definitely the right way to go. They’ll quickly be able to point out where the pain points are in your configuration. If you can’t afford a DBA, you can use this quick guide to get a starting point on what might need adjustment.

At the system level, start by checking over the following items.

• Does the machine have sufficient RAM?
• How much idle CPU time is available?
• Is the hard disk okay?
• Is the networking speed sufficient?
• Are there services that should run somewhere else?

Next investigate the application itself.

• Is the RDBMS allowed to use all of the RAM available?
• Are the tables indexed; properly?
• Are the indexes up to date?
• Are the statistics up to date?
• Are there queries that can be offloaded; refactored; eliminated?

This, at minimum, will save time when your thinking about sticking more power in-front of the database. If you still decide to make the move, make sure you check over these values as soon as you are done or you may find your performance decreases when it should have increased.

Tags: database, MySQL, performance, sql server, tuning

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 4:47 pm and is filed under applications, mssql, mysql, sql, technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.