High Performance MySQL

Optimization · Backups · Replication

Our notes on High Performance MySQL: Optimization, Backups, and Replication by Schwartz, Zaitsev and Tkachenko, updated for MySQL 8. The chapter selection follows Sayed Alesawy's reading series on the book.

1. MySQL architecture and history

   Connection handling, the optimizer, and where the storage engine boundary actually sits.

2. Benchmarking MySQL

   What to measure, what to ignore, and why one number is never a benchmark.

3. Profiling server performance

   Finding the slow query before guessing at the fix. Slow log, performance schema, handler counters.

4. Optimizing schema and data types

   Smaller is faster: type choice, NULLs, normalization, and the cost of a wide row.

5. Indexing for high performance

   Leftmost prefixes, column order, clustered and covering indexes, and the rows the engine really reads.

6. Query performance optimization

   Rows examined vs returned, access types, what the optimizer rewrites for you, and how joins execute.

7. Advanced MySQL features

   Partitioned tables, views, triggers, and events: what each one costs and when it pays off.