A practical checklist for designing, querying, and maintaining fast, reliable MariaDB databases.
Enable the InnoDB engine by default, set innodb_file_per_table=ON
for easier disk management, and size innodb_buffer_pool_size
to about 70-80% of available RAM on dedicated servers.
Normalize until it hurts, then denormalize when reads dominate writes. Use appropriate data types and keep rows narrow to reduce I/O.
Primary keys enforce uniqueness, speed joins, and allow clustered storage.Always choose an immutable, short column or synthetic ID.
Select only needed columns, avoid SELECT *
, filter early with indexed predicates, and limit result sets with LIMIT
.
Wrap multi-step operations in START TRANSACTION
/COMMIT
. Always handle errors with ROLLBACK
to avoid partial writes.
Create composite indexes that match your most common WHERE
+ ORDER BY
patterns.Drop unused indexes to save write overhead.
Schedule ANALYZE TABLE
, monitor slow query logs, rotate binary logs, and test backups with full restores monthly.
.
Yes for most workloads. InnoDB supports transactions, row-level locking, and crash recovery, making it safer and faster under concurrency.
Allocate 70-80% of RAM on dedicated database servers. Monitor hit rate; aim for 99% to keep reads in memory.