Re: Load Balanced Server and MySQL

[Ingo Strüwing]

Hi,

this is not a MyISAM question. Be prepared to get insufficient help in this forum.

It makes no difference for a MySQL server (mysqld) if it receives multiple connections from one server or multiple servers.

TCP/IP connections could be slightly slower than local connections, but in most cases it should be below the precision of measurements.

If you one day find that a single MySQL server cannot deal with the full load, you can use a master-slave replication with one (updating) master and several (reading-only) slaves to extend the load balance into the database. Multi-master replication is also possible, but much less used (and tested) as far as I know.

The only possible problem I see could perhaps be the upgrade. We had some bugs in the past that crashed the database in certain (though seldom) circumstances. So please make good backups before upgrading. If you have the time and the resources, set up a test system and try everything on it before taking a new version into production. Also it might not be a good idea to change all parts of a system at the same time. I suggest to upgrade to MySQL 4.1 and use it a while before starting the load balance. (You can do it vice versa, but you will not get much help if there are any issues with 3.x.) On the other hand, please be also aware that you might not be able get back from 4.1 to 3.x if you change anything on the table definitions in 4.1.

Regards

Ingo Strüwing, Senior Software Developer - Storage Engines
MySQL AB, www.mysql.com