Questions

Questions and Answers

B.2.1: Where can I obtain complete documentation for MySQL storage engines?

See Chapter 14, Storage Engines. That chapter contains information about all MySQL storage engines except for the NDB storage engine used for MySQL Cluster; NDB is covered in Chapter 17, MySQL Cluster NDB 7.3.

B.2.2: Are there any new storage engines in MySQL 5.6?

The features from the optional InnoDB Plugin from MySQL 5.1 are folded into the built-in InnoDB storage engine, so you can take advantage of features such as the Barracuda file format, InnoDB table compression, and the new configuration options for performance. See Section 14.2, "The InnoDB Storage Engine" for details. InnoDB also becomes the default storage engine for new tables. See Section 14.2.1.1, "InnoDB as the Default MySQL Storage Engine" for details.

B.2.3: Have any storage engines been removed in MySQL 5.6?

No.

B.2.4: What are the unique benefits of the ARCHIVE storage engine?

The ARCHIVE storage engine is ideally suited for storing large amounts of data without indexes; it has a very small footprint, and performs selects using table scans. See Section 14.6, "The ARCHIVE Storage Engine", for details.

B.2.5: Do the new features in MySQL 5.6 apply to all storage engines?

The general new features such as views, stored procedures, triggers, INFORMATION_SCHEMA, precision math (DECIMAL column type), and the BIT column type, apply to all storage engines. There are also additions and changes for specific storage engines.