My Vbulletin is using INNODB and MyISAM at the same time. Is this normal ?
 

Hi,

I just checked to see what database engine my tables are using. To my suprise, not all tables were powered by INNODB, some of them are using MyISAM. Why would VBulletin use both database engines at the same time ?

Note: There also seems to be another type of database-engine called "MEMORY". Most likely, this means that the tables of this type are kept in memory at all times. See the attached image.

Is there a problem with my setup ?

Regards,
Razvan

Yes it's normal.

InnoDB is the new default, but MyISAM is used for FULLTEXT searching.

The session table is stored in memory so it is fast - it is accessed the most.

Thanks. It's good to know that everything is OK.

FULLTEXT searching can only be used with MyISAM ? I thought that INNODB is a more advanced db engine (more advanced than MyISAM).

the session tables explicitly uses memory
all others use the default table format.

yes, only MyISAM has FULLTEXT
InnoDB is more advanced in many ways, it's more SQL92 and supports various other extra features. FULLTEXT is a MySQL hack, and they only added it to their own table type.

None of our tables are INNODB. I asked about converting some of them for performance reasons (we are experiencing occasionally locking-related slowdowns) and was told by support:
I have seen InnoDB tables cause a lot of problems with vB, so I strongly suggest that you do not make that change.


So which is correct? INNODB or not?

Chuck

vBulletin check if your MySQL server can handle these types properly -- on installation ... so maybe you will need to check with your webmaster which type is better if you want to convert them...

Our server has supported INNODB for years. That should not be the issue.

The real question is: why does vbulletin recommend against using INNODB? What are the problems they've seen? Have any of you who have converted seen them as well?

Chuck

The best people to answer that would be the developers, you may be better off asking on vBulletin.com with questions regarding default functionality.

Did vBulletin switch to using InnoDB as the default now because I swear older versions used MyISAM as the default engine for almost all tables.

the system is not switched to it... the installer detect your database and flip some tables for the best interest of performances... that's all...

Well I'm the installer and I never flipped any tables around. :confused:

Lol, the installer program that installs vbulletin to your server.

Oh hahaha. Well let me ask you this then. I just did a fresh install of vb 3.7.2 and about 98% of the tables are all InnoDB. Now as time passes how did they get changed? From upgrades or something? Which is better to run MyISAM or InnoDB?

There has been no change AFAIK in the recommended storage engine. Unless i missed something we still do recommend MyIsam as storage engine.

Tabes will be created by vBulletin using the default storage engine as set for the database. A few tables that need a specific storage type (some HEAP/In memory tables, and some forced to MyIsam) and will always be created using that storage engine, regardless of the database default.

PS The only thing that changed is that newer MySQL versions (on some Ooperting Systems) now use InnoDB as default for a database unless specified otherwise.

When you install vbulletin doesn't it specify which engine each table is supposed to use? So when I install a fresh copy of vb it is specifying to use InnoDB and not MyISAM

It specifies MyISAM for post content tables.
It specifies MEMORY for the session table.

The rest use your database's default storage engine.

Excellent, thank you for clearing that up :)

And that was exactly the same as what i have posted. ;)

And what I wrote in post #2. It's fine though - It can be confusing.