Ross S. W. Walker wrote:
>
> Yes, IO starvation can occur under heavy load.
But it should stall the process needing to write, not everything.
> Don't put database temp tables on system disks (or data tables for that matter).
>
> How much memory do you have in this box and how big does the temp directory
> usage get?
>
> Why I ask is you could create a tempfs and have mysql use that, just make sure
> you have enough memory that you can spare X (whatever your temp table usage is)
> for a cache filesystem.
>
> You would also notice a dramatic speed increase in MySQL.
I'm not sure the needed temp table space is predictable. I've seen
mysql be pretty dumb about how it does a select that joins several tables.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell at gmail.com