[TriLUG] MySQL Runaway

[Brian McCullough]

Folks,

I am having occasional issues with a web site that is running against a
MySQL database.

When this issue occurs, Top shows the mysqld process at around 800% CPU
load, and the overall system load goes through the roof, too.

The system has 8 Gig of physical RAM, 4 Gig of Swap, so my first
response was to change the my.cnf from the default copy to the "huge"
example.  

This seemed to help a bit, but we still get these storms, and I have no
idea of how to diagnose what is going on and how to prevent it.

"I am not a DBA, I just play one on TV."


I inherited this system, like a lot of the work that I do, so I suspect
that I am attacking a long-standing issue, and we are only really seeing
it because we are now monitoring the system more carefully.


AdvTHANKSance,
Brian