MySQL Server Tuning Question

I ran across this job posting the other day on elance.com or odesk.com.

The person/company was looking for a "mySQL server tuning expert." Not a major concern but by seeing MySQL spelled mySQL, it gives a good idea that they are serious and do need help.

The post continued to say how they want help beyond just table or index changes to speed up their queries. It currently takes 5 -10 minutes to return anything on their "8-core 8GB RAM dedicated server with a 27m record database."

I will give them credit though, they did mention a good resource:
"need someone to just make a few changes, things like this:
http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2006/09/29/what-to-tune-in-mysql-server-after-installation/"

It sounds to me like the company does not put enough value on their data. They are looking for a cheap solution to help to solve, what sounds like a serious performance concern with their database. If they found the mysqlperformanceblog.com website could they not have found:

• http://www.percona.com/products/mysql-remote-dba
• http://www.skysql.com/mysql/services/remotedba
• http://www.pythian.com/
• http://www.bluegecko.net/remote-dba-services/mysql/
• http://www.fromdual.com/remote-dba
• http://www.mysql.com/support/
• Google Search
• http://mysqlremotedba.com/
• http://www.dbadirect.com/remote-dba-services/mysql-dba

Regardless it is true that Peter's post is a very valuable resource, and shows that the concern around MySQL performance is not a new one.
First of all though, someone should look into the database logs and determine the true problem with this server, configuration, query optimization or both?

"...takes 5 -10 minutes to return anything..." Really? Every query takes that long, or more realistically,  just the few important queries that might be written poorly? I would suggest another blog post to review: Baron's post.

Have you checked out the MySQL Tuner as a starting point for the server performance?

• https://github.com/rackerhacker/MySQLTuner-perl#readme
• https://raw.github.com/rackerhacker/MySQLTuner-perl/master/mysqltuner.pl
• http://groups.google.com/group/mysqltuner-talk

Additional tools/information are available:

• http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2013/03/13/mysql-backup-tools-used-by-percona-remote-dba-for-mysql/ 
• http://www.mysql.com/why-mysql/performance/index.html

What version are they on? Big performance improvements have happened over the recent years.

So what should they do next?

Well this inspired me to create this current blog as well as a couple more to make small blog post series:

• MySQL Server Tuning Question
• How to Identify MySQL Slow Queries and related concerns
• How to tune the MySQL Server