Chapter 11. Storage Engines
The storage engines of MySQL are one of the most unique features of the server. Approximately twenty major storage engines are currently available, and though they allow for the ultimate flexibility when working with your data, this diversity can be intimidating to the beginning or even intermediate level database administrator. Most database administrators regularly work with two storage engines, MyISAM and InnoDB, and may use others in a handful of projects.
Understanding Storage Engines
A storage engine is a subsystem that manages tables. Most database management systems have one subsystem to manage tables; MySQL Server can use different subsystems. Because a storage engine is applied at the table level, it is sometimes called table type. CREATE TABLE and ALTER TABLE statements can use the ENGINE option to set (or change) the storage engine that is associated with the table.
The MySQL pluggable storage engine is an architectural design that separates the code that manages the tables from the database server core code. This core code manages the components such as the query cache, the optimizer, and the connection handler. The storage engine code handles the actual I/O of the table. This separation of code allows for multiple storage engines to be used by the same core server. Once you have the ability to have multiple storage engines at the same time, ...