Storage Engines Overview

An introduction to MariaDB's pluggable storage engine architecture, highlighting key engines like InnoDB, MyISAM, and Aria for different workloads.

Overview

MariaDB features pluggable storage engines to allow per-table workload optimization.

A storage engine is a type of plugin for MariaDB:

• Different storage engines may be optimized for different workloads, such as transactional workloads, analytical workloads, or high throughput workloads.

• Different storage engines may be designed for different use cases, such as federated table access, table sharding, and table archiving in the cloud.

• Different tables on the same server may use different storage engines.

Engine	Target	Optimization	Availability
Aria	Read-Heavy	Reads	ES 10.5+
ColumnStore	Analytics, HTAP	Big Data, Analytical	ES 10.5+
InnoDB	General Purpose	Mixed Read/Write	ES 10.5+
Memory	Cache, Temp	Temporary Data	ES 10.5+
MyISAM	Reads	Reads	ES 10.5+
MyRocks	Write-Heavy	I/O Reduction, SSD	ES 10.5+
S3	Cloud	Read-Only	ES 10.5+
Spider	Federation	Sharding, Interlink	ES 10.5+

Examples

Identify the Default Storage Engine

Identify the server's global default storage engine by using SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES to query the default_storage_engine system variable:

SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES LIKE 'default_storage_engine';

+------------------------+--------+
| Variable_name          | Value  |
+------------------------+--------+
| default_storage_engine | InnoDB |
+------------------------+--------+

Identify the session's default storage engine by using SHOW SESSION VARIABLES:

SHOW SESSION VARIABLES LIKE 'default_storage_engine';

+------------------------+--------+
| Variable_name          | Value  |
+------------------------+--------+
| default_storage_engine | InnoDB |
+------------------------+--------+

Set the Default Storage Engine

Global default storage engine:

SET GLOBAL default_storage_engine='MyRocks';

Session default storage engine supersedes global default during this session:

SET SESSION default_storage_engine='MyRocks';

Configure the Default Storage Engine

[mariadb]
...
default_storage_engine=MyRocks

Identify Available Storage Engines

SHOW ENGINES;

Choose Storage Engine for a New Table

Storage engine is specified at time of table creation using a ENGINE = parameter.

CREATE TABLE accounts.messages (
  id INT PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
  sender_id INT,
  receiver_id INT,
  message TEXT
) ENGINE = MyRocks;

Resources

Engines for System Tables

Standard MariaDB storage engines are used for System Table storage:

• Aria Storage Engine

• MyISAM Storage Engine

FAQ

Can I use more than one storage engine on a server?

• Yes, different tables can use different storage engines on the same server.

• To create a table with a specific storage engine, specify the ENGINE table option to the CREATE TABLE statement.

Can I use more than one storage engine in a single query?

• Yes, a single query can reference tables that use multiple storage engines.

• In some cases, special configuration may be required. For example, ColumnStore requires cross engine joins to be configured.

What storage engine should I use for transactional or OLTP workloads?

• InnoDB is the recommended storage engine for transactional or OLTP workloads.

What storage engine should I use for analytical or OLAP workloads?

• ColumnStore is the recommended storage engine for analytical or OLAP workloads.

What storage engine should I use if my application performs both transactional and analytical queries?

An application that performs both transactional and analytical queries is known as hybrid transactional-analytical processing (HTAP).

HTAP can be implemented with MariaDB by using InnoDB for transactional queries and ColumnStore for analytical queries.

Reference

MariaDB Server Reference

• Plugins.

• Information Schema ENGINES table, which shows available storage engines.

• Information Schema TABLES table, which shows storage engine by table.

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