At what point does MySQL INNODB fine tuning become a requirement?

Question

I had a look at this:
http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2009/01/12/should-you-move-from-myisam-to-innodb/
and:
http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2007/11/01/innodb-performance-optimization-basics/

These answer a lot of my questions regarding INNODB vs MyISAM. There is no doubt in my mind that INNODB is the way I should go. However, I am working on my own and for development I have created a LAMP (ubuntu 10.10 x64) VM server. At present the server has 2 GB memory and a single SATA 20GB drive. I can increase both of these amounts without too much trouble to about 3-3.5 GB memory and a 200GB drive.

The reasons I hesitate to switch over to INNODB is:
A) The above articles mention that INNODB will vastly increase the size of the tables, and he recommends much larger amounts of RAM and drive space. While in a production environment I don't mind this increase, in a development environment, I fear I can not accommodate.
B) I don't really see any point in fine tuning the INNODB engine on my VM. This is likely something I will not even be allowed to do in my production environment. The articles make it sound like INNODB is doomed to fail without fine tuning.

My question is this. At what point is INNODB viable? How much RAM would I need to run INNODB on my server (with just my data for testing. This server is not open to anyone but me)? and also is it safe for me to assume that a production environment that will not allow me to fine tune the DB has likely already fine tuned it themselves?

Also, am I overthinking/overworrying about things?

Answer 1

IMHO, it becomes a requirement when you have tens of thousands of rows, or when you can forecast the rate of growth for data.

You need to focus on tuning the innodb buffer pool and the log file size. Also, make sure you have innodb_file_per_table enabled.

To get an idea of how big to make the innodb buffer pool in KB, run this query:

SELECT SUM(data_length+index_length)/power(1024,1) IBPSize_KB
FROM information_schema.tables WHERE engine='InnoDB';

Here it is in MB

SELECT SUM(data_length+index_length)/power(1024,2) IBPSize_MB
FROM information_schema.tables WHERE engine='InnoDB';

Here it is in GB

SELECT SUM(data_length+index_length)/power(1024,3) IBPSize_GB
FROM information_schema.tables WHERE engine='InnoDB';

I wrote articles about this kind of tuning

• First Article
• Second Article
• Third Article
• Fourth Article

IF you are limited by the amount of RAM on your server, do not surpass more than 25% of the installed for the sake of the OS.

Answer 2

I think you may be over thinking things. Its true that INNODB loves ram but if your database is small I don't think you'll have many problems. The only issue I have had with MYSQL or any other database is that as the data grows so do the requirements for accessing it quickly. You can also use compression on the tables to keep them smaller but INNODB is vastly better than MYISAM at data integrity.

I also wouldn't worry about tuning your application until you run into a bottleneck. Writing efficient queries and database design seems to be more important than memory unless you're working with very large data sets.