NAME¶

pt-variable-advisor - Analyze MySQL variables and advise on possible problems.

SYNOPSIS¶

Usage: pt-variable-advisor [OPTION...] [DSN] pt-variable-advisor analyzes variables and advises on possible problems. Get SHOW VARIABLES from localhost:

  pt-variable-advisor localhost

Get SHOW VARIABLES output saved in vars.txt:

  pt-variable-advisor --source-of-variables vars.txt

RISKS¶

The following section is included to inform users about the potential risks, whether known or unknown, of using this tool. The two main categories of risks are those created by the nature of the tool (e.g. read-only tools vs. read-write tools) and those created by bugs. pt-variable-advisor reads MySQL's configuration and examines it and is thus very low risk. At the time of this release, we know of no bugs that could cause serious harm to users. The authoritative source for updated information is always the online issue tracking system. Issues that affect this tool will be marked as such. You can see a list of such issues at the following URL: http://www.percona.com/bugs/pt-variable-advisor <http://www.percona.com/bugs/pt-variable-advisor>. See also "BUGS" for more information on filing bugs and getting help.

DESCRIPTION¶

pt-variable-advisor examines "SHOW VARIABLES" for bad values and settings according to the "RULES" described below. It reports on variables that match the rules, so you can find bad settings in your MySQL server. At the time of this release, pt-variable-advisor only examples "SHOW VARIABLES", but other input sources are planned like "SHOW STATUS" and "SHOW SLAVE STATUS".

RULES¶

These are the rules that pt-variable-advisor will apply to SHOW VARIABLES. Each rule has three parts: an ID, a severity, and a description. The rule's ID is a short, unique name for the rule. It usually relates to the variable that the rule examines. If a variable is examined by several rules, then the rules' IDs are numbered like "-1", "-2", "-N". The rule's severity is an indication of how important it is that this rule matched a query. We use NOTE, WARN, and CRIT to denote these levels. The rule's description is a textual, human-readable explanation of what it means when a variable matches this rule. Depending on the verbosity of the report you generate, you will see more of the text in the description. By default, you'll see only the first sentence, which is sort of a terse synopsis of the rule's meaning. At a higher verbosity, you'll see subsequent sentences.

auto_increment

severity: note

 

Are you trying to write to more than one server in a dual-master or ring replication configuration? This is potentially very dangerous and in most cases is a serious mistake. Most people's reasons for doing this are actually not valid at all.

concurrent_insert

severity: note

 

Holes (spaces left by deletes) in MyISAM tables might never be reused.

connect_timeout

severity: note

 

A large value of this setting can create a denial of service vulnerability.

debug

severity: crit

 

Servers built with debugging capability should not be used in production because of the large performance impact.

delay_key_write

severity: warn

 

MyISAM index blocks are never flushed until necessary. If there is a server crash, data corruption on MyISAM tables can be much worse than usual.

flush

severity: warn

 

This option might decrease performance greatly.

flush_time

severity: warn

 

This option might decrease performance greatly.

have_bdb

severity: note

 

The BDB engine is deprecated. If you aren't using it, you should disable it with the skip_bdb option.

init_connect

severity: note

 

The init_connect option is enabled on this server.

init_file

severity: note

 

The init_file option is enabled on this server.

init_slave

severity: note

 

The init_slave option is enabled on this server.

innodb_additional_mem_pool_size

severity: warn

 

This variable generally doesn't need to be larger than 20MB.

innodb_buffer_pool_size

severity: warn

 

The InnoDB buffer pool size is unconfigured. In a production environment it should always be configured explicitly, and the default 10MB size is not good.

innodb_checksums

severity: warn

 

InnoDB checksums are disabled. Your data is not protected from hardware corruption or other errors!

innodb_doublewrite

severity: warn

 

InnoDB doublewrite is disabled. Unless you use a filesystem that protects against partial page writes, your data is not safe!

innodb_fast_shutdown

severity: warn

 

InnoDB's shutdown behavior is not the default. This can lead to poor performance, or the need to perform crash recovery upon startup.

innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit-1

severity: warn

 

InnoDB is not configured in strictly ACID mode. If there is a crash, some transactions can be lost.

innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit-2

severity: warn

 

Setting innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit to 0 has no performance benefits over setting it to 2, and more types of data loss are possible. If you are trying to change it from 1 for performance reasons, you should set it to 2 instead of 0.

innodb_force_recovery

severity: warn

 

InnoDB is in forced recovery mode! This should be used only temporarily when recovering from data corruption or other bugs, not for normal usage.

innodb_lock_wait_timeout

severity: warn

 

This option has an unusually long value, which can cause system overload if locks are not being released.

innodb_log_buffer_size

severity: warn

 

The InnoDB log buffer size generally should not be set larger than 16MB. If you are doing large BLOB operations, InnoDB is not really a good choice of engines anyway.

innodb_log_file_size

severity: warn

 

The InnoDB log file size is set to its default value, which is not usable on production systems.

innodb_max_dirty_pages_pct

severity: note

 

The innodb_max_dirty_pages_pct is lower than the default. This can cause overly aggressive flushing and add load to the I/O system.

flush_time

severity: warn

 

This setting is likely to cause very bad performance every flush_time seconds.

key_buffer_size

severity: warn

 

The key buffer size is unconfigured. In a production environment it should always be configured explicitly, and the default 8MB size is not good.

large_pages

severity: note

 

Large pages are enabled.

locked_in_memory

severity: note

 

The server is locked in memory with --memlock.

log_warnings-1

severity: note

 

Log_warnings is disabled, so unusual events such as statements unsafe for replication and aborted connections will not be logged to the error log.

log_warnings-2

severity: note

 

Log_warnings must be set greater than 1 to log unusual events such as aborted connections.

low_priority_updates

severity: note

 

The server is running with non-default lock priority for updates. This could cause update queries to wait unexpectedly for read queries.

max_binlog_size

severity: note

 

The max_binlog_size is smaller than the default of 1GB.

max_connect_errors

severity: note

 

max_connect_errors should probably be set as large as your platform allows.

max_connections

severity: warn

 

If the server ever really has more than a thousand threads running, then the system is likely to spend more time scheduling threads than really doing useful work. This variable's value should be considered in light of your workload.

myisam_repair_threads

severity: note

 

myisam_repair_threads > 1 enables multi-threaded repair, which is relatively untested and is still listed as beta-quality code in the official documentation.

old_passwords

severity: warn

 

Old-style passwords are insecure. They are sent in plain text across the wire.

optimizer_prune_level

severity: warn

 

The optimizer will use an exhaustive search when planning complex queries, which can cause the planning process to take a long time.

port

severity: note

 

The server is listening on a non-default port.

query_cache_size-1

severity: note

 

The query cache does not scale to large sizes and can cause unstable performance when larger than 128MB, especially on multi-core machines.

query_cache_size-2

severity: warn

 

The query cache can cause severe performance problems when it is larger than 256MB, especially on multi-core machines.

read_buffer_size-1

severity: note

 

The read_buffer_size variable should generally be left at its default unless an expert determines it is necessary to change it.

read_buffer_size-2

severity: warn

 

The read_buffer_size variable should not be larger than 8MB. It should generally be left at its default unless an expert determines it is necessary to change it. Making it larger than 2MB can hurt performance significantly, and can make the server crash, swap to death, or just become extremely unstable.

read_rnd_buffer_size-1

severity: note

 

The read_rnd_buffer_size variable should generally be left at its default unless an expert determines it is necessary to change it.

read_rnd_buffer_size-2

severity: warn

 

The read_rnd_buffer_size variable should not be larger than 4M. It should generally be left at its default unless an expert determines it is necessary to change it.

relay_log_space_limit

severity: warn

 

Setting relay_log_space_limit can cause replicas to stop fetching binary logs from their master immediately. This could increase the risk that your data will be lost if the master crashes. If the replicas have encountered a limit on relay log space, then it is possible that the latest transactions exist only on the master and no replica has retrieved them.

slave_net_timeout

severity: warn

 

This variable is set too high. This is too long to wait before noticing that the connection to the master has failed and retrying. This should probably be set to 60 seconds or less. It is also a good idea to use pt-heartbeat to ensure that the connection does not appear to time out when the master is simply idle.

slave_skip_errors

severity: crit

 

You should not set this option. If replication is having errors, you need to find and resolve the cause of that; it is likely that your slave's data is different from the master. You can find out with pt-table-checksum.

sort_buffer_size-1

severity: note

 

The sort_buffer_size variable should generally be left at its default unless an expert determines it is necessary to change it.

sort_buffer_size-2

severity: note

 

The sort_buffer_size variable should generally be left at its default unless an expert determines it is necessary to change it. Making it larger than a few MB can hurt performance significantly, and can make the server crash, swap to death, or just become extremely unstable.

sql_notes

severity: note

 

This server is configured not to log Note level warnings to the error log.

sync_frm

severity: warn

 

It is best to set sync_frm so that .frm files are flushed safely to disk in case of a server crash.

tx_isolation-1

severity: note

 

This server's transaction isolation level is non-default.

tx_isolation-2

severity: warn

 

Most applications should use the default REPEATABLE-READ transaction isolation level, or in a few cases READ-COMMITTED.

expire_log_days

severity: warn

 

Binary logs are enabled, but automatic purging is not enabled. If you do not purge binary logs, your disk will fill up. If you delete binary logs externally to MySQL, you will cause unwanted behaviors. Always ask MySQL to purge obsolete logs, never delete them externally.

innodb_file_io_threads

severity: note

 

This option is useless except on Windows.

innodb_data_file_path

severity: note

 

Auto-extending InnoDB files can consume a lot of disk space that is very difficult to reclaim later. Some people prefer to set innodb_file_per_table and allocate a fixed-size file for ibdata1.

innodb_flush_method

severity: note

 

Most production database servers that use InnoDB should set innodb_flush_method to O_DIRECT to avoid double-buffering, unless the I/O system is very low performance.

innodb_locks_unsafe_for_binlog

severity: warn

 

This option makes point-in-time recovery from binary logs, and replication, untrustworthy if statement-based logging is used.

innodb_support_xa

severity: warn

 

MySQL's internal XA transaction support between InnoDB and the binary log is disabled. The binary log might not match InnoDB's state after crash recovery, and replication might drift out of sync due to out-of-order statements in the binary log.

log_bin

severity: warn

 

Binary logging is disabled, so point-in-time recovery and replication are not possible.

log_output

severity: warn

 

Directing log output to tables has a high performance impact.

max_relay_log_size

severity: note

 

A custom max_relay_log_size is defined.

myisam_recover_options

severity: warn

 

myisam_recover_options should be set to some value such as BACKUP,FORCE to ensure that table corruption is noticed.

storage_engine

severity: note

 

The server is using a non-standard storage engine as default.

sync_binlog

severity: warn

 

Binary logging is enabled, but sync_binlog isn't configured so that every transaction is flushed to the binary log for durability.

tmp_table_size

severity: note

 

The effective minimum size of in-memory implicit temporary tables used internally during query execution is min(tmp_table_size, max_heap_table_size), so max_heap_table_size should be at least as large as tmp_table_size.

old mysql version

severity: warn

 

These are the recommended minimum version for each major release: 3.23, 4.1.20, 5.0.37, 5.1.30.

end-of-life mysql version

severity: note

 

Every release older than 5.1 is now officially end-of-life.

OPTIONS¶

This tool accepts additional command-line arguments. Refer to the "SYNOPSIS" and usage information for details.

--ask-pass

Prompt for a password when connecting to MySQL.

--charset

short form: -A; type: string

 

Default character set. If the value is utf8, sets Perl's binmode on STDOUT to utf8, passes the mysql_enable_utf8 option to DBD::mysql, and runs SET NAMES UTF8 after connecting to MySQL. Any other value sets binmode on STDOUT without the utf8 layer, and runs SET NAMES after connecting to MySQL.

--config

type: Array

 

Read this comma-separated list of config files; if specified, this must be the first option on the command line.

--daemonize

Fork to the background and detach from the shell. POSIX operating systems only.

--defaults-file

short form: -F; type: string

 

Only read mysql options from the given file. You must give an absolute pathname.

--help

Show help and exit.

--host

short form: -h; type: string

 

Connect to host.

--ignore-rules

type: hash

 

Ignore these rule IDs.

 

Specify a comma-separated list of rule IDs (e.g. LIT.001,RES.002,etc.) to ignore.

--password

short form: -p; type: string

 

Password to use when connecting.

--pid

type: string

 

Create the given PID file when daemonized. The file contains the process ID of the daemonized instance. The PID file is removed when the daemonized instance exits. The program checks for the existence of the PID file when starting; if it exists and the process with the matching PID exists, the program exits.

--port

short form: -P; type: int

 

Port number to use for connection.

--set-vars

type: string; default: wait_timeout=10000

 

Set these MySQL variables. Immediately after connecting to MySQL, this string will be appended to SET and executed.

--socket

short form: -S; type: string

 

Socket file to use for connection.

--source-of-variables

type: string; default: mysql

 

Read "SHOW VARIABLES" from this source. Possible values are "mysql", "none" or a file name. If "mysql" is specified then you must also specify a DSN on the command line.

--user

short form: -u; type: string

 

User for login if not current user.

--verbose

short form: -v; cumulative: yes; default: 1

 

Increase verbosity of output. At the default level of verbosity, the program prints only the first sentence of each rule's description. At higher levels, the program prints more of the description.

--version

Show version and exit.

DSN OPTIONS¶

These DSN options are used to create a DSN. Each option is given like "option=value". The options are case-sensitive, so P and p are not the same option. There cannot be whitespace before or after the "=" and if the value contains whitespace it must be quoted. DSN options are comma-separated. See the percona-toolkit manpage for full details.

•

A

 

dsn: charset; copy: yes

 

Default character set.

•

D

 

dsn: database; copy: yes

 

Default database.

•

F

 

dsn: mysql_read_default_file; copy: yes

 

Only read default options from the given file

•

h

 

dsn: host; copy: yes

 

Connect to host.

•

p

 

dsn: password; copy: yes

 

Password to use when connecting.

•

P

 

dsn: port; copy: yes

 

Port number to use for connection.

•

S

 

dsn: mysql_socket; copy: yes

 

Socket file to use for connection.

•

u

 

dsn: user; copy: yes

 

User for login if not current user.

ENVIRONMENT¶

The environment variable "PTDEBUG" enables verbose debugging output to STDERR. To enable debugging and capture all output to a file, run the tool like:

   PTDEBUG=1 pt-variable-advisor ... > FILE 2>&1

Be careful: debugging output is voluminous and can generate several megabytes of output.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS¶

You need Perl, DBI, DBD::mysql, and some core packages that ought to be installed in any reasonably new version of Perl.

BUGS¶

For a list of known bugs, see http://www.percona.com/bugs/pt-variable-advisor <http://www.percona.com/bugs/pt-variable-advisor>. Please report bugs at https://bugs.launchpad.net/percona-toolkit <https://bugs.launchpad.net/percona-toolkit>. Include the following information in your bug report:

•

Complete command-line used to run the tool

•

Tool "--version"

•

MySQL version of all servers involved

•

Output from the tool including STDERR

•

Input files (log/dump/config files, etc.)

If possible, include debugging output by running the tool with "PTDEBUG"; see "ENVIRONMENT".

DOWNLOADING¶

Visit http://www.percona.com/software/percona-toolkit/ <http://www.percona.com/software/percona-toolkit/> to download the latest release of Percona Toolkit. Or, get the latest release from the command line:

   wget percona.com/get/percona-toolkit.tar.gz
   wget percona.com/get/percona-toolkit.rpm
   wget percona.com/get/percona-toolkit.deb

You can also get individual tools from the latest release:

   wget percona.com/get/TOOL

Replace "TOOL" with the name of any tool.

AUTHORS¶

Baron Schwartz and Daniel Nichter

ABOUT PERCONA TOOLKIT¶

This tool is part of Percona Toolkit, a collection of advanced command-line tools developed by Percona for MySQL support and consulting. Percona Toolkit was forked from two projects in June, 2011: Maatkit and Aspersa. Those projects were created by Baron Schwartz and developed primarily by him and Daniel Nichter, both of whom are employed by Percona. Visit <http://www.percona.com/software/> for more software developed by Percona.

COPYRIGHT, LICENSE, AND WARRANTY¶

This program is copyright 2010-2012 Percona Inc. Feedback and improvements are welcome. THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, version 2; OR the Perl Artistic License. On UNIX and similar systems, you can issue `man perlgpl' or `man perlartistic' to read these licenses. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA.

VERSION¶

pt-variable-advisor 2.1.2