I've got 2 dedicated servers, each with a slave, all run 32gig 15k rpm raid 5 on u320 perc raid cards, dell 4600's with single channel backplanes (new ones will have dual channel)

All have 2 gig of ram, but I've never seen mysql use more than 300mb of ram.

The servers handle huge loads, each day there are 30 1-2 gig files loaded into large tables, total mysql data size is 96 gig, the large tables are 2-6 gig.

Inserts are done on dupe key ignore, this takes hours on the large files, it barely keeps up with input files.

At the bottom of this post I've got the mysql.ini config lines, any sugestions are welcome, I'm already beyond the mysql "huge" sample they used to include in the program.

Sample table that I load is as follows.

each day I get 40 % new records on the text file, the input file is normally 20mb, once a week I get one that's 1-2 gig, these take all day to load.

I need more multiple column indexes, as some querys return millions of rows that must be scanned, but the index size already exceeds the table size, and the combinations I need would result in an myi that's 5x larger than the data itself.

Here's an example of the speed problem, the index was corrupt so I dropped all and recreated, rather than a myisam repair. I think 3 days is a little excessive for a table that's only 3.428 gig, index is 2.729 gig.

mysql> alter table hood_stat add primary key (dic,niin,fr_ric,don,suf,dte_txn,sta) , add index `don` (`don`), add index `niin` (`niin`), add index `stor` (`stor`), add index `dic` (`dic`), add index `ctasc` (`ctasc`);

Query OK, 45449534 rows affected (3 days 19 hours 6 min 34.94 seconds
Records: 45449534 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0


CREATE TABLE `hood_stat` (
`dic` char(3) NOT NULL default '',
`fr_ric` char(3) NOT NULL default '',
`niin` char(11) NOT NULL default '',
`ui` char(2) NOT NULL default '',
`qty` char(5) NOT NULL default '',
`don` char(14) NOT NULL default '',
`suf` char(1) NOT NULL default '',
`dte_txn` char(5) NOT NULL default '',
`ship_to` char(3) NOT NULL default '',
`sta` char(2) NOT NULL default '',
`lst_sos` char(3) NOT NULL default '',
`esd` char(4) NOT NULL default '',
`stor` char(3) NOT NULL default '',
`d_t` char(4) NOT NULL default '',
`ctasc` char(10) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (`dic`,`niin`,`fr_ric`,`don`,`suf`,`dte_txn`,`sta` ),
KEY `don` (`don`),
KEY `niin` (`niin`),
KEY `stor` (`stor`),
KEY `dic` (`dic`),
KEY `ctasc` (`ctasc`)
) TYPE=MyISAM MAX_ROWS=1000000000 PACK_KEYS=1

skip-locking
set-variable= key_buffer=512M
set-variable=join_buffer=512M
set-variable= max_allowed_packet=256M
set-variable= table_cache=512
set-variable= sort_buffer=256M
set-variable=tmp_table_size=400M
set-variable= record_buffer=256M
set-variable= thread_cache=8
set-variable=myisam_sort_buffer_size=256M
myisam-recover=BACKUP,FORCE
set-variable=read_buffer_size=2M
set-variable=interactive_timeout=7200
set-variable=wait_timeout=7200
log-bin
server-id=1
replicate-do-db=finlog
set-variable=open-files-limit=500
set-variable=table-cache=400

PS, all run 4.0.16 on windows 2000

What syntax are you using to load data in to the hood_syntax table? How come you are using so many primary keys?

There is only one primary key, the fields used are what's required to keep duplicates out of the system.

The create index command shouldnt take 3 days, mysql's performance is terrible with these large files

Loading files into a temp table is fast

I then do a delayed insert ignore into the main table, this is slow, very slow

but not as slow as creating the keys, 3 days, that's pathetic, it's only a 3 gig table, that's nothing

Bumped up a few settings

delay_key_write=ALL
key_buffer_size=1000M
read_buffer_size=512M
record_buffer=512M

seems to help a little, but not much

I cant tell if it's mysql that's the problem, or the hardware, Here's a screenshot of the disk IO, if I copy a file while mysql is doing the build index, the io shoots way up, which tells me, mysql is NOT maxing out the drives, and it's also not maxing out the memory.

Unless it's doing lots and lots of seeks on the drive, which is harder to test using perfmon

Disk IO screenshot

I am probably 100% wrong but if your database design and syntax is solid then you might be experiencing disk fragmenation.

http://osr5doc.ca.sco.com:457/OSAdmi....diskfrag.html

I defragged our test server, and reran, no improvement

it seems like it's a bug with large primary keys, I dont know of any other way to keep duplicates out of the database

Nobody else knows?

I'm thinking mysql just is not good for a large table environment, where users are allowed to query on whatever columns they need to.

Querys are slow, loading data is slow

I'm thinking going back to oracle is my only option at this point

I am not sure if it is helpful:
to specify an index name in your query to force sql query analyzer using the right index like following:
select * from table_a,table_b with (index(ix_index_1)) where ...
I have a 4 G table, use this table hint can speed up execution.

What is your website?