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MySQL 8.4 Reference Manual  /  The InnoDB Storage Engine  /  Introduction to InnoDB

17.1 Introduction to InnoDB

InnoDB is a general-purpose storage engine that balances high reliability and high performance. In MySQL 8.4, InnoDB is the default MySQL storage engine. Unless you have configured a different default storage engine, issuing a CREATE TABLE statement without an ENGINE clause creates an InnoDB table.

Key Advantages of InnoDB

Table 17.1 InnoDB Storage Engine Features

Feature Support
B-tree indexes Yes
Backup/point-in-time recovery (Implemented in the server, rather than in the storage engine.) Yes
Cluster database support No
Clustered indexes Yes
Compressed data Yes
Data caches Yes
Encrypted data Yes (Implemented in the server via encryption functions; In MySQL 5.7 and later, data-at-rest encryption is supported.)
Foreign key support Yes
Full-text search indexes Yes (Support for FULLTEXT indexes is available in MySQL 5.6 and later.)
Geospatial data type support Yes
Geospatial indexing support Yes (Support for geospatial indexing is available in MySQL 5.7 and later.)
Hash indexes No (InnoDB utilizes hash indexes internally for its Adaptive Hash Index feature.)
Index caches Yes
Locking granularity Row
MVCC Yes
Replication support (Implemented in the server, rather than in the storage engine.) Yes
Storage limits 64TB
T-tree indexes No
Transactions Yes
Update statistics for data dictionary Yes

To compare the features of InnoDB with other storage engines provided with MySQL, see the Storage Engine Features table in Chapter 18, Alternative Storage Engines.

InnoDB Enhancements and New Features

For information about InnoDB enhancements and new features, refer to:

Additional InnoDB Information and Resources