MySQL 5.5 Windows Performance Improvements - MySQL
Oracle, the parent company of MySQL through their Sun Microsystems purchase, has announced the release-ready update for MySQL 5.5. This release promises performance gains of up to 360% for read/write on Linux platforms and over 600% on Windows Servers. Read on for a list of the new MySQL features for both Windows and Linux in the GA release.
Remember how you'd have to write a script in C# or PHP if you wanted toload a file of data and transform it into XML if you were going to dealwith your MySQL data imports and exports? No mas! MySQL now nativelyloads in XML data through a nifty construct of XML that is simple andeasy to use.
Date conversion from microseconds is insane for any developer,especially since local time on machines can be out of sync if not usingNTP. Also, not a problem anymore. MySQL 5.5 has added in the to_seconds() function that will give you back epoch time to work with no matter howthe data is stored, leaving it up to the application-layer to convertthe date into something meaningful.
Windows Performance
OK we've covered the linux side of the house, but what about Windows MySQL users? Well, you are going to love MySQL 5.5 now...they have a 500% improvement in performance on Windows. Granted, performance before was pretty sad at times, but you are now on-par it seems with the linux flavor of MySQL.
When you look at these charts of performance of MySQL 5.1 compared to 5.5, there is no comparison. The problems for Windows 2003 server appears to be the same throughout the MySQL product family, the mutex locks. Now that it is solved, you will be able to enjoy all the perks of Open Source!
The MySQL 5.5 Windows build also touts a different way of processing Windows API calls natively now inside of MySQL's I/O. This removes the additional translation layers and resources associated.
Overall Impression
We recommend waiting to see if any patches come out in the next 2 weeks, but plan for a 2011 filled with MySQL 5.5 upgrades regardless of your system running on Linux or Windows. The gains of this year-in-waiting release really outweigh any risks once you have given the release community some time to bang on the GA. We're happy that Oracle has kept it's side of the bargain and continued development on MySQL; a critical DB platform on a large percentage of websites around the world.
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