Create table, drop database, much slower on better server

[Martijn Meijers]

Problem
Server A runs MySQL 5.5.19 and InnoDB. When creating a database or a table and even an issuing a select takes much longer than exact the same statements on Server B. Server B runs MySQL 5.5.22. As our application creates and drops a lot of tables, it is an urgent performance issue.

Server A
CPU Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5550 @ 2.67GHz
CPU/Cores 2 CPU / 8 Cores = 16
32/64-bits 64
RAM 24 GB

OS Linux
Versie Oracle
Release 6.1
32/64-bits 64

Server B
CPU Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5520 @ 2.27GHz
CPU/Cores 1 CPU / 1 Cores = 8
32/64-bits 64
RAM 8GB
OS Linux
Versie Ubuntu
Release 11.10
32/64-bits 64

The statements:
1. CREATE TABLE `TEST_1` (`TEST_1` INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT '0' );
2. CREATE TABLE `TEST_2` AS SELECT * FROM Table;
3. CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE `TEST_3` AS SELECT * FROM Table;
4. DROP TABLE `TEST_1`;
5. DROP TABLE `TEST_2`;

Table contains 1 million rows.

The results in seconds:
Server A Server B
1. 0.31 0.01
2. 57.6 13.6
3. ? 12.4
4. 0.10 0.07
5. 0.34 0

After re-installing Server A with Ubuntu 12.04 performance improved somewhat, but it is still significantly slower:

Server A
1. 0.23
2. 26.5
3. 18.5
4. 0,18
5. 0.12

Actions:
• Iozone test shows better read and write performance for Server A.
• Sysbench cpu test, mysql oltp tests on small and large tables shows better results for Server A.
• Server B’s my.cnf is used on Server A.
• Ubuntu 12.04 is installed.
• MySQL 5.5.19 is freshly installed.
• MySQL 5.5.19 is upgraded to 5.5.30.
• Server A has a twin that shows the same performance drop, unlikely that this is a hardware failure.

Why is the more powerful Server A slower than B? Has anyone an idea?