MariaDB and MySQL performance boost using noatime

MariaDB and MySQL performance boost using noatime. Take a peek at your filesystem mount file on your Linux Box /etc/fstab

/dev/VolGroup01/LogVol01 /data ext3 defaults 0 0

In many cases just like the above you'll see that MySQL data location is mounted with "defaults" options - in our case MySQL data files are located in /data partition.

What does it mean? It means that you are taking a performance hit every time the file is accessed (read or write) on your file system. There is a record created i.e. physically written to the file system, that is besides MySQL access.

The issue is that if you do not explicitly specify "noatime" mount option for your ext3 file system the default "atime" will be used. This option is constantly writing to the disk bogging down your io performance. Unless you have a specific need for "atime" you are wasting io resources especially if you are using database system.

Now to the "noatime", "noatime" writes to the disk every time a particular file was modified, i.e. unlike "atime" the file must be physically modifies in order for "noatime" to generate a physical white to the disk, thus dramatically reducing your io and boosting performance.

So how do you take advantage of this performance boosting option - very simple. Dismount your filesystem using umount - umount /data, modify the mounting option by adding noatime and mount the filesystem back. By far the easiest performance gain in one line modification. Of course be sure to shut down your MariaDB prior to the unmout/mount. Once completed your /etc/fstab will look like this:

/dev/VolGroup01/LogVol01 /data ext3 noatime, defaults 0 0