This document discusses solving performance problems in MySQL databases without denormalizing the data. It describes how joining large tables can become a bottleneck and two common manifestations of this problem. Traditional approaches to this problem like denormalizing and materialized views are described along with their pros and cons. The document then introduces the concept of renormalizing data using Table-Groups in Akiban, which allows joins to be performed for free, improving performance significantly without changing applications or schemas. Object retrieval and creation can also be performed in a single query with this approach.

1. Solving Performance Problems in MySQL Without Denormalization
RENORMALIZE
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary

2. Problem Statement
Schemas scale out
Data volume grows
Joins become a real bottleneck
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 2

3. Two Common Manifestations
SQL Joins
Queries become slower as more tables are
joined.
Application Object Creations
Constructing an object is as expensive as
SELECTing the sum of its parts
Denormalize. Problem solved.
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 3

4. Application Growing Pains
Web Cache
Server Server
V6 Release
V5
V4
V3
V1
V2
Rip & ReplaceDB
Shard Database
Add Customers!
Get Caching
Replicate DB
De-normalize
Complexity & Cost
Customers
MySQL
Rip & Replace Database Architecture
MySQL MySQL
Slaves
MySQL Sharding
?
MySQL
Time
4

5. De·nor·mal·ize
[de-nawr-muh-lahyze]
verb, -ized, -iz·ing.
–verb (used with object)
1. the process of attempting to optimize the read
performance of a database by adding redundant
data or by grouping data wikipedia
2. Denormalize means to allow redundancy in a
table so that the table can remain flat UCSD Blink
3. The process of restructuring a normalized data
model to accommodate operational constraints or
system limitations celiang.tongji.edu.cn
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 5

6. Materialized Views
Persistent database object
Contains the results of a query
Store summary and pre-joined tables
Require maintenance/refresh for dynamic data
SELECT
DISTINCT(n.nid),n.sticky,n.title,n.created
FROM node n
INNER JOIN term_node tn0
ON n.vid = tn0.vid
WHERE n.status = 1
AND tn0.tid IN (77)
ORDER BY n.sticky DESC, n.created DESC
LIMIT 0, 25;
Result: using where, using filesort
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 6

7. Drupal Materialized View Project
CREATE TABLE `mv_drupalorg_node_by_term` (
`entity_type` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
`entity_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0’,
`term_tid` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
`node_sticky` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
`last_node_activity` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
`node_created` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
`node_title` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '’,
PRIMARY KEY (`entity_type`,`entity_id`,`term_tid`),
KEY `activity`
(`term_tid`,`node_sticky`,`last_node_activity`,`node_created`),
KEY `creation` (`term_tid`,`node_sticky`,`node_created`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8
SELECT DISTINCT entity_id AS nid, node_sticky AS sticky, node_title
AS title,
node_created AS created
FROM mv_drupalorg_node_by_term
WHERE term_tid IN (77)
ORDER BY node_sticky DESC, node_created DESC
LIMIT 0, 25;
Result: using where, using temporary table
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 7

8. Denormalization Technique Listing
Technique Pros Cons
Materialized views Faster queries (no joins) Data explosion
Manually keep synched
Store object as Blob Fast object get No modeling, or querying
Denormalize 1NF: Folding Data in one row limited # of child rows
parent-child into parent table Hard to query (UNION hell)
Denormalize 2NF to 1NF: repeat Avoid join Data explosion
columns from 1 table in M table Manually keep synched
(Double writing)
Adding derived columns Avoid joins, aggregation Manually keep synched
Property bag (RDF) Schema flexibility Manage schema in app
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary Hard to index or perform 8

9. Renormalization
Join for free
- Improved performance. 10-100x!
- Retrieve an object in one request
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 9

10. Introduction to Table-Groups
Traditional SQL
Schema à Table à Column
Akiban newSQL
Schema à GROUP à Table à Column
Table-Groups are first class citizens
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 10

11. Typical Relational DB Schema
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 11

12. Typical Schema: Grouped
Block
Group
User
Group
Node Group 12

13. Table-Groups Eliminate Joins
Logical
Physical
Users Users_Roles Sessions
Artist Table-group
uid name pass
id rid
id sid timestamp
1 rriegel *** 1 1 1 19390 2011-10-01-06:02.00
2 twegner *** 1 2 2 22828 2011-10-04-22:32.10
2 1 1 49377 2011-10-04-16:07.30
Table Group
Table Table
bTree bTree bTree
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 13

14. Benefits of Table-grouping
SQL join operations are fast
- Table Group access is equivalent to a
single table access. Joins are free!
- Performance increases 10-100x
Applications do not change
- Maintain the same tables and SQL
- Objects (e.g. ORM) fetched in one request
- Akiban uses standard MySQL replication
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 14

15. Design Partner Sample Query
SELECT t1.id , t3.c1,
t3.c2, t3.c3, t3.c4
FROM t1
INNER JOIN t2 on t2.id = t1.id
LEFT JOIN t3 ON t1.id = t3.id
WHERE t2.region in (1297789)
AND t1.c1 = '0'
ORDER BY t1.latestLogin DESC
LIMIT 500
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 15

16. Typical MySQL EXPLAIN Plan
10 Project Results
Sort 9
Temp Table 8
2 Joins 7
4 6 2 Table Accesses
2 3 5
1 3 Index Accesses
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary

17. Efficiency for Speed and Scale
No Joins,
Project Results 3 Temp Tables or
Sorts!
1 Group Access 2
1 Group Index Access Typical MySQL EXPLAIN Project Results
Sort
Temp Table
1
2 Joins
2 Table Accesses
3 Index Accesses
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary

18. Design Partner Acceleration: 27x
Concurrent Connections
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 18

19. Object Creation Query Stream
SELECT * FROM t1 Where u.uid=1387
SELECT * FROM t2 Where as.uid=1387
SELECT * FROM t3 Where os.uid=1387
SELECT * FROM t4 Where pm.uid=1387
SELECT * FROM t5 Where pl.uid=1387
SELECT * FROM t6 Where pa.uid=1387
...
...
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 19

20. Becomes Single ORM Request
SELECT * ,
(SELECT * FROM t2 where as.uid=u.uid),
(SELECT * FROM t3 where as.uid=u.uid),
...
FROM t1 Where u.uid=1387;
Or simply:
get my_schema:t1:uid=1387
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 20

21. Object Access in One Request
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 21

22. Application Integration
Data replicated to Akiban Fully independent server
HA Redirect Enabled
MySQL Master Akiban Server
MySQL adapter
Replication
MyISAM / InnoDB
Storage
Write Operations Problem Queries
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 22

23. Akiban is looking for Design Partners!
Do you have
• Slow multi-join read queries?
• User concurrency or data volume challenges?
http://www.akiban.com/design-partner-program
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 23

24. Ah, so you’re…
Denormalizing…no.
- Schema doesn’t change
- Data is stored once, more efficiently
Materializing Views…no.
- No triggers or post-processing
- No 2ndary logical objects
Introducing Write Latency…no.
- Previous design partner showed 2x write
improvement
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 24

25. Table-Grouping: A Closer Look
Artist Each table maintains its own bTree
id name gender
Indexes add their own bTrees
1 Lennon M
• Covering index
2 Joplin F
• Index on frequently joined columns
Covering
• Index on common sort order
Index
Join Cols
Index Sort
Order
Index
How many indexes do you maintain?
• Slow updates == reduced concurrency
Table • More resources == more overhead
bTree
• Ongoing maintenance == high TCO
Akiban Technologies, Inc. Confidential & Proprietary 25