Hello,

I was hoping to get some assistance with a memory problem on a new mysql server.


System info:
Windows 2008 Standard
in VMware ESX 3.5 environment
CPU: Quad core
RAM allocated: 6 GB (will have 18GB allocated later)
64-bit system
Mysql version: community 5.1.34
innoDB database


We have migrated some of our database from a 32-bit Win2003 system running MySQL community version 5.0 to this 64-bit system Windows system. We used mySQL Administrator backup and Restore. So we have changed the version of MySQL, the OS and to 64-bit...


We have allocated 6 GB to the server in a VMWare environment. The previous 32-bit system was ALSO in a VMware environment. We did not experience this problem on the 32-bit windows 2003 system.


When I perform a query on a large table using the MySQL Query Browser:
select * from archivetable
(archivetable has 11,000,000 rows and has 9.9 GB data, 1.3GB index)


I get the following error popup:
Glib-ERROR **:gmem.c:173: Failed to allocate 29280000 bytes aborting...

and the Query browser closes.

Also, Memory usage on the system ramps up to about 80% until the program closes.
If i use the MySQL command line the memory usage incrases to 99% usage and no results are returned!


Obviously this is a memory issue but I am not sure what settings to change in my.ini


Any advice is welcome.

Show Variables:

Variable_name = Value
auto_increment_increment = 1
auto_increment_offset = 1
autocommit = ON
automatic_sp_privileges = ON
back_log = 50
basedir = C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\
big_tables = OFF
binlog_cache_size = 32768
binlog_format = STATEMENT
bulk_insert_buffer_size = 8388608
character_set_client = utf8
character_set_connection = utf8
character_set_database = latin1
character_set_filesystem = binary
character_set_results = utf8
character_set_server = latin1
character_set_system = utf8
character_sets_dir = C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\share\charsets\
collation_connection = utf8_general_ci
collation_database = latin1_swedish_ci
collation_server = latin1_swedish_ci
completion_type = 0
concurrent_insert = 1
connect_timeout = 10
datadir = D:\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\Data\
date_format = %Y-%m-%d
datetime_format = %Y-%m-%d %H:%i:%s
default_week_format = 0
delay_key_write = ON
delayed_insert_limit = 100
delayed_insert_timeout = 300
delayed_queue_size = 1000
div_precision_increment = 4
engine_condition_pushdown = ON
error_count = 0
event_scheduler = OFF
expire_logs_days = 0
flush = OFF
flush_time = 1800
foreign_key_checks = ON
ft_boolean_syntax = + -><()~*:&|
ft_max_word_len = 84
ft_min_word_len = 4
ft_query_expansion_limit = 20
ft_stopword_file = (built-in)
general_log = OFF
general_log_file = D:\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\Data\OurDatabase.log
group_concat_max_len = 1024
have_community_features = YES
have_compress = YES
have_crypt = NO
have_csv = YES
have_dynamic_loading = YES
have_geometry = YES
have_innodb = YES
have_ndbcluster = NO
have_openssl = DISABLED
have_partitioning = YES
have_query_cache = YES
have_rtree_keys = YES
have_ssl = DISABLED
have_symlink = YES
hostname = OurDatabase
identity = 0
ignore_builtin_innodb = OFF
init_connect =
init_file =
init_slave =
innodb_adaptive_hash_index = ON
innodb_additional_mem_pool_size = 33554432
innodb_autoextend_increment = 8
innodb_autoinc_lock_mode = 1
innodb_buffer_pool_size = 4194304000
innodb_checksums = ON
innodb_commit_concurrency = 0
innodb_concurrency_tickets = 500
innodb_data_file_path = ibdata1:10M:autoextend
innodb_data_home_dir = D:\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\data\
innodb_doublewrite = ON
innodb_fast_shutdown = 1
innodb_file_io_threads = 4
innodb_file_per_table = ON
innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit = 2
innodb_flush_method =
innodb_force_recovery = 0
innodb_lock_wait_timeout = 50
innodb_locks_unsafe_for_binlog = OFF
innodb_log_buffer_size = 16777216
innodb_log_file_size = 426770432
innodb_log_files_in_group = 2
innodb_log_group_home_dir = .\
innodb_max_dirty_pages_pct = 90
innodb_max_purge_lag = 0
innodb_mirrored_log_groups = 1
innodb_open_files = 300
innodb_rollback_on_timeout = OFF
innodb_stats_on_metadata = ON
innodb_support_xa = ON
innodb_sync_spin_loops = 20
innodb_table_locks = ON
innodb_thread_concurrency = 8
innodb_thread_sleep_delay = 10000
insert_id = 0
interactive_timeout = 28800
join_buffer_size = 131072
keep_files_on_create = OFF
key_buffer_size = 57671680
key_cache_age_threshold = 300
key_cache_block_size = 1024
key_cache_division_limit = 100
language = C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\share\english\
large_files_support = ON
large_page_size = 0
large_pages = OFF
last_insert_id = 0
lc_time_names = en_US
license = GPL
local_infile = ON
log = OFF
log_bin = OFF
log_bin_trust_function_creators = OFF
log_bin_trust_routine_creators = OFF
log_error = D:\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\Data\OurDatabase.err
log_output = FILE
log_queries_not_using_indexes = OFF
log_slave_updates = OFF
log_slow_queries = ON
log_warnings = 1
long_query_time = 2.000000
low_priority_updates = OFF
lower_case_file_system = ON
lower_case_table_names = 1
max_allowed_packet = 1048576
max_binlog_cache_size = 4294963200
max_binlog_size = 1073741824
max_connect_errors = 10
max_connections = 800
max_delayed_threads = 20
max_error_count = 64
max_heap_table_size = 16777216
max_insert_delayed_threads = 20
max_join_size = 18446744073709551615
max_length_for_sort_data = 1024
max_prepared_stmt_count = 16382
max_relay_log_size = 0
max_seeks_for_key = 4294967295
max_sort_length = 1024
max_sp_recursion_depth = 0
max_tmp_tables = 32
max_user_connections = 0
max_write_lock_count = 4294967295
min_examined_row_limit = 0
multi_range_count = 256
myisam_data_pointer_size = 6
myisam_max_sort_file_size = 107374182400
myisam_recover_options = OFF
myisam_repair_threads = 1
myisam_sort_buffer_size = 131072000
myisam_stats_method = nulls_unequal
myisam_use_mmap = OFF
named_pipe = OFF
net_buffer_length = 16384
net_read_timeout = 30
net_retry_count = 10
net_write_timeout = 60
new = OFF
old = OFF
old_alter_table = OFF
old_passwords = OFF
open_files_limit = 2048
optimizer_prune_level = 1
optimizer_search_depth = 62
optimizer_switch = index_merge=on,index_merge_union=on,index_merge_so rt_union=on,index_merge_intersection=on
pid_file = D:\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\Data\OurDatabase.pid
plugin_dir = C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\lib/plugin
port = 3306
preload_buffer_size = 32768
profiling = OFF
profiling_history_size = 15
protocol_version = 10
pseudo_thread_id = 6
query_alloc_block_size = 8192
query_cache_limit = 1048576
query_cache_min_res_unit = 4096
query_cache_size = 367001600
query_cache_type = ON
query_cache_wlock_invalidate = OFF
query_prealloc_size = 8192
rand_seed1 =
rand_seed2 =
range_alloc_block_size = 4096
read_buffer_size = 65536
read_only = OFF
read_rnd_buffer_size = 262144
relay_log =
relay_log_index =
relay_log_info_file = relay-log.info
relay_log_purge = ON
relay_log_space_limit = 0
report_host =
report_password =
report_port = 3306
report_user =
rpl_recovery_rank = 0
secure_auth = OFF
secure_file_priv =
server_id = 0
shared_memory = OFF
shared_memory_base_name = MYSQL
skip_external_locking = ON
skip_networking = OFF
skip_show_database = OFF
slave_compressed_protocol = OFF
slave_exec_mode = STRICT
slave_load_tmpdir = C:\Windows\TEMP
slave_net_timeout = 3600
slave_skip_errors =
slave_transaction_retries = 10
slow_launch_time = 2
slow_query_log = ON
slow_query_log_file =
sort_buffer_size = 262144
sql_auto_is_null = ON
sql_big_selects = ON
sql_big_tables = OFF
sql_buffer_result = OFF
sql_log_bin = ON
sql_log_off = OFF
sql_log_update = ON
sql_low_priority_updates = OFF
sql_max_join_size = 18446744073709551615
sql_mode = STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER,NO_ENGINE_ SUBSTITUTION
sql_notes = ON
sql_quote_show_create = ON
sql_safe_updates = OFF
sql_select_limit = 18446744073709551615
sql_slave_skip_counter =
sql_warnings = OFF
ssl_ca =
ssl_capath =
ssl_cert =
ssl_cipher =
ssl_key =
storage_engine = InnoDB
sync_binlog = 0
sync_frm = ON
system_time_zone = AUS Eastern Standard Time
table_definition_cache = 256
table_lock_wait_timeout = 50
table_open_cache = 619
table_type = InnoDB
thread_cache_size = 38
thread_handling = one-thread-per-connection
thread_stack = 262144
time_format = %H:%i:%s
time_zone = SYSTEM
timed_mutexes = OFF
timestamp = 1244083897
tmp_table_size = 131072000
tmpdir = C:\Windows\TEMP
transaction_alloc_block_size = 8192
transaction_prealloc_size = 4096
tx_isolation = REPEATABLE-READ
unique_checks = ON
updatable_views_with_limit = YES
version = 5.1.34-community-log
version_comment = MySQL Community Server (GPL)
version_compile_machine = unknown
version_compile_os = Win64
wait_timeout = 28800
warning_count = 0


thanks for any assistance!

ok, seems this is a MySQL browser feature that halts a query that is too large.
I have never seen this occur on our 32-bit system. perhaps becuase the system would never allocate all of the memory to the query...or perhaps because I never let the query run long enough.

so, assuming this is not a "problem" then the real problem may be that MySQL queries can consume all of the physical memory on the system.

when the memory is consumed I notice that the windows system is unresponsive.
Is there a way to stop that all of the physcial memory being used by MySQL processes/queries?

sorry that I am so vague but I have never had this happen before, for one reason or another.

thanks for any assistance.

Is this really an issue? Does your application actually need to pull 11m rows from your database at one time?

hey, thanks for the reply.
you are absolutely correct- I do not think it is an issue anymore (see below) and really, we will not be pulling 11million rows in a real-life query.

it was simply my misunderstanding about some basics, i think, that generated my enquiry.

i ran some tests with MySQL Query Browser and the mysql command line, together with different innodb_buffer settings and different amounts of allocated RAM to the VM , and from that gained more of an understanding about the way memory is/may be handled.

i still have some questions about RAM/paging etc. in the context of MySQL but may run some more tests firsts.

i will also run some "real-life" web queries against the DB and see how it performs.

thanks again!