Fast, Reliable, Proven transactional storage for MySQL

InnoDB short introduction

InnoDB is a MySQL storage engine (table type) which offers several
advantages to its users:

  • InnoDB tables are transactional: they provide rollback and commit
    capabilities.
  • InnoDB is the first MySQL storage engine which supports
    foreign key constraints.
  • InnoDB tables are fast, even faster than MyISAM tables in many
    simple benchmarks.
  • InnoDB tables have row level locking: they allow higher
    concurrency than MyISAM tables which use table level locking. High
    concurrency is reflected in high multiuser performance.
  • InnoDB tables provide an Oracle-style consistent read, also known
    as multiversioned concurrency control. SELECT does not
    need to set any locks or interfere with inserts and updates
    to the same table.
  • There is a true hot backup tool available
    for InnoDB, which allows you to make backups of a running database in
    background, without setting any locks or disturbing database operation.
  • Multiversioning also allows you to dump tables from your database
    with SELECT INTO OUTFILE without setting locks on the
    tables: the database can keep working while a backup is made.
  • InnoDB tables have automatic crash recovery. You do not need to
    repair your tables if the operating system or the database server
    crashes, when there is no disk image corruption.
  • InnoDB tables can be any size, also on those operating systems
    where file size is restricted to 2 GiB.

Obtaining MySQL/InnoDB

Please have a look at the download
instructions on how to obtain an executable version of
MySQL/InnoDB or to compile it from source code.

You may also be interested in InnoDB Hot Backup, a product that allows you to backup up running MySQL databases without shutting them down. For more information, see our href="/hot-backup">InnoDB Hot Backup page.