How to benchmark MySQL or MariaDB server performance

Benchmarking your MySQL or MariaDB server performance is crucial to understanding the current state of your database and identifying potential bottlenecks. By conducting regular performance tests, you can optimize your database's efficiency and ensure that it continues to meet the demands of your applications. This guide will walk you through a step-by-step process for benchmarking MySQL or MariaDB server performance using sysbench, a popular benchmarking tool designed for database systems.

Sysbench is a versatile and open-source benchmarking tool that allows you to measure the performance of various system components, such as CPU, memory, and I/O. It includes a built-in Lua scripting engine, making it highly customizable and extensible. The tool is particularly useful for evaluating the performance of MySQL and MariaDB databases.

In this guide, we will cover the steps to install sysbench, configure it to work with your MySQL or MariaDB server, and run various tests to evaluate your database's performance. By following these steps, you can gather valuable insights into the performance of your database server and make informed decisions about potential optimizations.

1. Install sysbench on your system using the package manager of your choice.

   sudo apt-get install sysbench

2. Ensure that you have a running MySQL or MariaDB server and that you know the credentials for connecting to the database.
3. Create a test database and user for sysbench by executing the following SQL commands in your database server.

   CREATE DATABASE sysbench;
   CREATE USER 'sysbench'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'sysbench_password';
   GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON sysbench.* TO 'sysbench'@'localhost';
   FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

4. Prepare the test data for sysbench by running the following command.

   sysbench oltp_read_write --mysql-host=localhost --mysql-user=sysbench --mysql-password=sysbench_password --mysql-db=sysbench --tables=10 --table-size=10000 prepare

5. Execute the sysbench read-only benchmark with the following command.

   sysbench oltp_read_only --mysql-host=localhost --mysql-user=sysbench --mysql-password=sysbench_password --mysql-db=sysbench --tables=10 --table-size=10000 --time=60 --threads=8 run

6. Evaluate the results of the read-only benchmark by analyzing the output, paying attention to metrics like transactions per second (tps) and query execution times.
7. Execute the sysbench read-write benchmark with the following command.

   sysbench oltp_read_write --mysql-host=localhost --mysql-user=sysbench --mysql-password=sysbench_password --mysql-db=sysbench --tables=10 --table-size=10000 --time=60 --threads=8 run

8. Evaluate the results of the read-write benchmark by analyzing the output, paying attention to metrics like transactions per second (tps) and query execution times.
9. Test the performance of your database under different workloads by adjusting the –threads, –tables, and –table-size parameters in the sysbench commands.
10. Clean up the test data by running the following command.

    sysbench oltp_read_write --mysql-host=localhost --mysql-user=sysbench --mysql-password=sysbench_password --mysql-db=sysbench --tables=10 --table-size=10000 cleanup

11. Based on your benchmark results, identify potential bottlenecks and optimize your MySQL or MariaDB server configuration as needed.