MySQL Indexing - Best practices for MySQL 5.6
72 likes20,219 views
This document provides an overview of MySQL indexing best practices. It discusses the types of indexes in MySQL, how indexes work, and how to optimize queries through proper index selection and configuration. The presentation emphasizes understanding how MySQL utilizes indexes to speed up queries through techniques like lookups, sorting, avoiding full table scans, and join optimizations. It also covers new capabilities in MySQL 5.6 like index condition pushdown that provide more flexible index usage.
MySQL Indexing - Best practices for MySQL 5.6
- 1. MySQL Indexing Best Practices for MySQL 5.6 Peter Zaitsev CEO, Percona MySQL Connect Sep 22, 2013 San Francisco,CA
- 2. For those who Does not Know Us… • Percona – Helping Businesses to be Successful with MySQL – Support, Consulting, RemoteDBA, Training • Creators of Open Source Software for MySQL – Percona Server, Percona XtraBackup, Percona Toolkit, Percona XtraDB Cluster • MySQL Ecosystem Educators – MySQLPerformanceBlog, Books, Webinars, Meetu ps, Conferences www.percona.com
- 3. You’ve Made a Great Choice ! • Understanding indexing is crucial both for Developers and DBAs • Poor index choices are responsible for large portion of production problems • Indexing is not a rocket science www.percona.com
- 4. MySQL Indexing: Agenda • Understanding Indexing • Setting up best indexes for your applications • Working around common MySQL limitations www.percona.com
- 5. Indexing in the Nutshell • What are indexes for ? – Speed up access in the database – Help to enforce constraints (UNIQUE, FOREIGN KEY) – Queries can be ran without any indexes • But it can take a really long time www.percona.com
- 6. Types of Indexes you might heard about • BTREE Indexes – Majority of indexes you deal in MySQL is this type • RTREE Indexes – MyISAM only, for GIS • HASH Indexes – MEMORY, NDB • FULLTEXT Indexes – MyISAM, Innodb starting 5.6 www.percona.com
- 7. Family of BTREE like Indexes • A lot of different implementations – Share same properties in what operations they can speed up – Memory vs Disk is life changer • B+ Trees are typically used for Disk storage – Data stored in leaf nodes www.percona.com
- 8. B+Tree Example Branch/Root Node Less than 3 Data Pointers Leaf Node www.percona.com
- 9. Indexes in MyISAM vs Innodb • In MyISAM data pointers point to physical offset in the data file – All indexes are essentially equivalent • In Innodb – PRIMARY KEY (Explicit or Implicit) - stores data in the leaf pages of the index, not pointer – Secondary Indexes – store primary key as data pointer www.percona.com
- 10. What Operations can BTREE Index do ? • • • • Find all rows with KEY=5 (point lookup) Find all rows with KEY>5 (open range) Find all rows with 5<KEY<10 (closed range) NOT find all rows with last digit of the KEY is Zero – This can’t be defined as a “range” operation www.percona.com
- 11. String Indexes • There is no difference… really – Sort order is defined for strings (collation) • “AAAA” < “AAAB” • Prefix LIKE is a special type of Range – LIKE “ABC%” means • “ABC*LOWEST+”<KEY<“ABC*HIGHEST+” – LIKE “%ABC” can’t be optimized by use of the index www.percona.com
- 12. Multiple Column Indexes • Sort Order is defined, comparing leading column, then second etc – KEY(col1,col2,col3) – (1,2,3) < (1,3,1) • It is still one BTREE Index; not a separate BTREE index for each level www.percona.com
- 13. Overhead of The Indexing • Indexes are costly; Do not add more than you need – In most cases extending index is better than adding new one • Writes - Updating indexes is often major cost of database writes • Reads - Wasted space on disk and in memory; additional overhead during query optimization www.percona.com
- 14. Impact on Cost of Indexing • Long PRIMARY KEY for Innodb – Make all Secondary keys longer and slower • “Random” PRIMARY KEY for Innodb – Insertion causes a lot of page splits • Longer indexes are generally slower • Index with insertion in random order – SHA1(‘password’) • Low selectivity index cheap for insert – Index on gender • Correlated indexes are less expensive – insert_time is correlated with auto_increment id www.percona.com
- 15. Indexing Innodb Tables • Data is clustered by Primary Key – Pick PRIMARY KEY what suites you best – For comments – (POST_ID,COMMENT_ID) can be good PRIMARY KEY storing all comments for single post close together • Alternatively “pack” to single BIGINT • PRIMARY KEY is implicitly appended to all indexes – KEY (A) is really KEY (A,ID) internally – Useful for sorting, Covering Index. www.percona.com
- 16. How MySQL Uses Indexes • • • • Data Lookups Sorting Avoiding reading “data” Special Optimizations www.percona.com
- 17. Using Indexes for Data Lookups • SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEES WHERE LAST_NAME=“Smith” – The classical use of index on (LAST_NAME) • Can use Multiple column indexes – SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEES WHERE LAST_NAME=“Smith” AND DEPT=“Accounting” – Will use index on (DEPT,LAST_NAME) www.percona.com
- 18. It Gets Tricky With Multiple Columns • Index (A,B,C) - order of columns matters • Will use Index for lookup (all listed keyparts) – – – – A>5 A=5 AND B>6 A=5 AND B=6 AND C=7 A=5 AND B IN (2,3) AND C>5 • Will NOT use Index – B>5 – Leading column is not referenced – B=6 AND C=7 - Leading column is not referenced • Will use Part of the index – A>5 AND B=2 - range on first column; only use this key part – A=5 AND B>6 AND C=2 - range on second column, use 2 parts www.percona.com
- 19. The First Rule of MySQL Optimizer • MySQL will stop using key parts in multi part index as soon as it met the real range (<,>, BETWEEN), it however is able to continue using key parts further to the right if IN(…) range is used www.percona.com
- 20. Using Index for Sorting • SELECT * FROM PLAYERS ORDER BY SCORE DESC LIMIT 10 – Will use index on SCORE column – Without index MySQL will do “filesort” (external sort) which is very expensive • Often Combined with using Index for lookup – SELECT * FROM PLAYERS WHERE COUNTRY=“US” ORDER BY SCORE DESC LIMIT 10 • Best served by Index on (COUNTRY,SCORE) www.percona.com
- 21. Multi Column indexes for efficient sorting • It becomes even more restricted! • KEY(A,B) • Will use Index for Sorting – – – – ORDER BY A - sorting by leading column A=5 ORDER BY B - EQ filtering by 1st and sorting by 2nd ORDER BY A DESC, B DESC - Sorting by 2 columns in same order A>5 ORDER BY A - Range on the column, sorting on the same • Will NOT use Index for Sorting – – – – ORDER BY B - Sorting by second column in the index A>5 ORDER BY B – Range on first column, sorting by second A IN(1,2) ORDER BY B - In-Range on first column ORDER BY A ASC, B DESC - Sorting in the different order www.percona.com
- 22. MySQL Using Index for Sorting Rules • You can’t sort in different order by 2 columns • You can only have Equality comparison (=) for columns which are not part of ORDER BY – Not even IN() works in this case www.percona.com
- 23. Avoiding Reading The data • “Covering Index” – Applies to index use for specific query, not type of index. • Reading Index ONLY and not accessing the “data” • SELECT STATUS FROM ORDERS WHERE CUSTOMER_ID=123 – KEY(CUSTOMER_ID,STATUS) • Index is typically smaller than data • Access is a lot more sequential – Access through data pointers is often quite “random” www.percona.com
- 24. Min/Max Optimizations • Index help MIN()/MAX() aggregate functions – But only these • SELECT MAX(ID) FROM TBL; • SELECT MAX(SALARY) FROM EMPLOYEE GROUP BY DEPT_ID – Will benefit from (DEPT_ID,SALARY) index – “Using index for group-by” www.percona.com
- 25. Indexes and Joins • MySQL Performs Joins as “Nested Loops” – SELECT * FROM POSTS,COMMENTS WHERE AUTHOR=“Peter” AND COMMENTS.POST_ID=POSTS.ID • Scan table POSTS finding all posts which have Peter as an Author • For every such post go to COMMENTS table to fetch all comments • Very important to have all JOINs Indexed • Index is only needed on table which is being looked up – The index on POSTS.ID is not needed for this query performance • Re-Design JOIN queries which can’t be well indexed www.percona.com
- 26. Using Multiple Indexes for the table • MySQL Can use More than one index – “Index Merge” • SELECT * FROM TBL WHERE A=5 AND B=6 – Can often use Indexes on (A) and (B) separately – Index on (A,B) is much better • SELECT * FROM TBL WHERE A=5 OR B=6 – 2 separate indexes is as good as it gets – Index (A,B) can’t be used for this query www.percona.com
- 27. Prefix Indexes • You can build Index on the leftmost prefix of the column – ALTER TABLE TITLE ADD KEY(TITLE(20)); – Needed to index BLOB/TEXT columns – Can be significantly smaller – Can’t be used as covering index – Choosing prefix length becomes the question www.percona.com
- 28. Choosing Prefix Length • Prefix should be “Selective enough” – Check number of distinct prefixes vs number of total distinct values mysql> select count(distinct(title)) total, count(distinct(left(title,10))) p10, count(distinct(left(title,20))) p20 from title; +--------+--------+--------+ | total | p10 | p20 | +--------+--------+--------+ | 998335 | 624949 | 960894 | +--------+--------+--------+ 1 row in set (44.19 sec) www.percona.com
- 29. Choosing Prefix Length • Check for Outliers – Ensure there are not too many rows sharing the same prefix Most common Titles mysql> select count(*) cnt, title tl from title group by tl order by cnt desc limit 3; +-----+-----------------+ | cnt | tl | +-----+-----------------+ | 136 | The Wedding | | 129 | Lost and Found | | 112 | Horror Marathon | +-----+-----------------+ 3 rows in set (27.49 sec) Most Common Title Prefixes mysql> select count(*) cnt, left(title,20) tl from title group by tl order by cnt desc limit 3; +-----+----------------------+ | cnt | tl | +-----+----------------------+ | 184 | Wetten, dass..? aus | | 136 | The Wedding | | 129 | Lost and Found | +-----+----------------------+ 3 rows in set (33.23 sec) www.percona.com
- 30. What is new with MySQL 5.6 ? • Many Optimizer improvements – Most of them will make your queries better automatically – join_buffer_size variable has whole new meaning • Values if 32MB+ can make sense • Focus on Index Design Practices for this presentation – Most important one: ICP (Index Condition Pushdown) www.percona.com
- 31. Understanding ICP • Push where clause “Conditions” for Storage engine to filter – Think name like “%ill%” (will not convert to range) • “Much more flexible covering Index” – Plus filtering done on the engine level – efficient • Before MySQL 5.5 – All or none. All is resolved through the index or “row” is read if within range www.percona.com
- 32. ICP Examples • SELECT A … WHERE B=2 AND C LIKE “%ill%’ – MySQL 5.5 and below • Index (B) – traditional. Using index for range only • Index (B,C,A) - covering. All involved columns included – MySQL 5.6 • Index (B,C) – Range access by B; Filter clause on C only read full row if match • More cases – SELECT * … – WHERE A=5 and C=6 ; Index (A,B,C) • Will scan all index entries with A=5 not all rows www.percona.com
- 33. How MySQL Picks which Index to Use ? • Performs dynamic picking for every query execution – The constants in query texts matter a lot • Estimates number of rows it needs to access for given index by doing “dive” in the table • Uses “Cardinality” statistics if impossible – This is what ANALYZE TABLE updates www.percona.com
- 34. More on Picking the Index • Not Just minimizing number of scanned rows • Lots of other heuristics and hacks – – – – PRIMARY Key is special for Innodb Covering Index benefits Full table scan is faster, all being equal Can we also use index for Sorting • Things to know – Verify plan MySQL is actually using – Note it can change dynamically based on constants and data www.percona.com
- 35. Use EXPLAIN • EXPLAIN is a great tool to see how MySQL plans to execute the query – http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/usingexplain.html – Remember real execution might be different mysql> explain select max(season_nr) from title group by production_year; +----+-------------+-------+-------+---------------+-----------------+---------+------+------+--------------------------+ | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra | +----+-------------+-------+-------+---------------+-----------------+---------+------+------+--------------------------+ | 1 | SIMPLE | title | range | NULL | production_year | 5 | NULL | 201 | Using index for group-by | +----+-------------+-------+-------+---------------+-----------------+---------+------+------+--------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.01 sec) www.percona.com
- 36. Indexing Strategy • Build indexes for set of your performance critical queries – Look at them together not just one by one • Best if all WHERE clause and JOIN clauses are using indexes for lookups – At least most selective parts are • Generally extend index if you can, instead of creating new indexes • Validate performance impact as you’re doing changes www.percona.com
- 37. Indexing Strategy Example • Build Index order which benefits more queries – SELECT * FROM TBL WHERE A=5 AND B=6 – SELECT * FROM TBL WHERE A>5 AND B=6 – KEY (B,A) Is better for such query mix • All being equal put more selective key part first • Do not add indexes for non performance critical queries – Many indexes slow system down www.percona.com
- 38. Trick #1: Enumerating Ranges • KEY (A,B) • SELECT * FROM TBL WHERE A BETWEEN 2 AND 4 AND B=5 – Will only use first key part of the index • SELECT * FROM TBL WHERE A IN (2,3,4) AND B=5 – Will use both key parts www.percona.com
- 39. Trick #2: Adding Fake Filter • KEY (GENDER,CITY) • SELECT * FROM PEOPLE WHERE CITY=“NEW YORK” – Will not be able to use the index at all • SELECT * FROM PEOPLE WHERE GENDER IN (“M”,”F”) AND CITY=“NEW YORK” – Will be able to use the index • The trick works best with low selectivity columns. – Gender, Status, Boolean Types etc www.percona.com
- 40. Trick #3: Unionizing Filesort • KEY(A,B) • SELECT * FROM TBL WHERE A IN (1,2) ORDER BY B LIMIT 5; – Will not be able to use index for SORTING • (SELECT * FROM TBL WHERE A=1 ORDER BY B LIMIT 5) UNION ALL (SELECT * FROM TBL WHERE A=2 ORDER BY B LIMIT 5) ORDER BY B LIMIT 5; – Will use the index for Sorting. “filesort” will be needed only to sort over 10 rows. www.percona.com
- 41. Thank You ! • [email protected] • http://www.percona.com • @percona at Twitter • http://www.facebook.com/Percona www.percona.com