Optimizing MySQL: Queries and Indexes

Thursday, November 15. 2007

Optimizing MySQL: Queries and Indexes

You know the scene. The database is just too slow. Queries are queuing up, backlogs growing, users being refused connection. Management is ready to spend millions on "upgrading" to some other system, when the problem is really that MySQL is simply not being used properly. Badly defined or non-existent indexes are one of the primary reasons for poor performance, and fixing these can often lead to phenomenal improvements. This guide explains the problems with slow MySQL queries and indexes, and how to optimize them to run more efficiently.