You are reading the first segment of this multi-part series. In this part we will first present the importance of benchmarking and then discuss a few techniques for benchmarking MySQL servers. It is important to understand the basics that lie behind benchmarking and stress testing, the distinctions between each, and when we should use which. Ultimately, I will present the tools necessary for accomplishing these tasks. 

The upcoming three segments of this series are going to cover in great detail the tools you need for benchmarking, the various database performance optimization strategies, and MySQL server tuning strategies, respectively. Right now, we should focus only on benchmarking because we need to grasp these "metrics" to be able to analytically see the results of our optimizations later on. The beauty of benchmarks is that they give us numerical feedback.

Therefore, during this series we assume that the reader is somewhat familiar with the "inner mechanism" of relational databases, has a basic understanding of MySQL servers, and ultimately knows his or her way around as far as accomplishing administrative tasks in the operating system of choice is concerned (e.g.; chosen Linux distro or Windows).

Having said this, let's begin. Please bookmark and/or save these articles for further reading because throughout the upcoming parts we will often refer to earlier articles and therefore take for granted that you are familiar with the concepts discussed in previous parts.