8.12.1 System Factors

Some system-level factors can affect performance in a major way:

• If you have enough RAM, you could remove all swap devices. Some operating systems use a swap device in some contexts even if you have free memory.

• Avoid external locking for MyISAM tables. The default is for external locking to be disabled. The --external-locking and --skip-external-locking options explicitly enable and disable external locking.

  Disabling external locking does not affect MySQL's functionality as long as you run only one server. Just remember to take down the server (or lock and flush the relevant tables) before you run myisamchk. On some systems it is mandatory to disable external locking because it does not work, anyway.

  The only case in which you cannot disable external locking is when you run multiple MySQL servers (not clients) on the same data, or if you run myisamchk to check (not repair) a table without telling the server to flush and lock the tables first. Note that using multiple MySQL servers to access the same data concurrently is generally not recommended, except when using NDB Cluster.

  The LOCK TABLES and UNLOCK TABLES statements use internal locking, so you can use them even if external locking is disabled.