MariaDB Enterprise Server InnoDB Schema Changes with the NOCOPY Algorithm

Overview

Changes in enterprise databases and applications are inevitable. Schema changes often block other workloads, incur unique production situations that cannot be fully simulated for testing, and may have unpredictable execution times.

MariaDB Enterprise Server includes the No-copy ALTER functionality for the InnoDB storage engine, such that:

  • When possible, schema change operations are performed NOCOPY, minimizing impact on other workloads.

  • When the alter_algorithm system variable is set to NOCOPY, schema change operations will not run unless they can be performed NOCOPY, minimizing the risk of unpredictable behavior.

Information on this topic may be found in the MariaDB Public KB.