Database Performance Archives - Page 2 of 3

Optimizing MySQL Stored Routines

Stored routines are one of the newer additions to MySQL and, as such, are significantly less optimized than other components of the server. As a result, it’s generally not advisable for your application to rely entirely on stored routines, as doing so will likely degrade performance significantly. That said, stored routines do have a role […]

Optimize MySQL Transaction Performance: Avoiding Deadlocks

In Part 1 of this article series on optimizing transactional performance of MySQL databases, we explored the importance of keeping transactions small, and in part 2, we discussed selecting appropriate isolation levels. No discussion of transactional performance is complete without a brief look at deadlocks. If you’re familiar with OS programming, you might already know […]

Optimize MySQL Transaction Performance: Select Appropriate Isolation Level

In Part 1 of this article, we looked at the importance of using small transactions in a transactional MySQL database. As you move from the carefree READ UNCOMMITTED isolation level to the more secure SERIALIZABLE level, the performance of the RDBMS is affected as well. The reason for this is fairly simple: The greater the […]

Optimize MySQL Transaction Performance: Using Small Transactions

Because a database that supports transactions has to work a lot harder than a nontransactional database at keeping different user sessions isolated from each other, it’s natural for this to be reflected in the system’s performance. Compliance with the other ACID rules, specifically the ones related to maintaining the integrity of the database in the […]

Solving Performance Problems in Oracle Databases

Solving the performance problems in each of nine web application process steps requires different approaches, depending upon the location of the problem. Solving Client Machine Performance Problems (Steps 1 and 9) Performance degradations in the client machine are usually caused by page bloat burdening the client with rich UI components that could be eliminated. Determine […]

Is the Problem Really in the Oracle Database?

When performance issues arise in a web application, you should first validate that the problem is actually in the database before you start to tune the server code. Starting from the outermost round trip, you should add timers to code that will run in the client and on the application server. However, you should be […]

Accelerating Large Queries with Storage Offload in Oracle Exadata

Storage offload is a key performance optimization found only in Exadata. The Exadata storage server software understands Oracle database file layouts, so you can use smart scans to perform part of the work database servers normally do. By doing data processing closer to the storage, Exadata storage servers reduce the amount of data transferred to […]

Performance Costs of Oracle Database Denormalization

Throughout the history of relational databases, the issue of denormalization has never been settled. Theoreticians still continue to argue about it, but from the practical point of view, most database systems are denormalized to some extent. For example, about 99.9 percent of address records in the United States have the ZIP code, city, and state […]

Slow is still slow: database performance matters even in the cloud

Lately, the big IT buzzword is cloud solutions. In fact, if you believe all of the hype, most companies are moving en masse from on-premise solutions to cloud-based architectures. On the surface, the cloud-based solution certainly seems to be a more affordable solution that not only reduces the complexities of on-premise build-outs and maintenance, but […]