my.cnf optimizing MySQL

[lowtide]

Just wondering if anybody has a suggestion for tweaking the my.cnf file to reflect my server set-up.

I'm running Dual pentium III 550, 1G Ram, mirrored 8G SCSI HD.

Connections to the server are all through PHP about 90% SELECTS and 10% INSERTS/UPDATES.
It is a college sports site so I get some pretty heavy traffic on game days the rest of the time it's moderate to semi-heavy.

Currently I'm using the default settings but get major slow downs on game days.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
lowtide

 

[skiflyer]

All of the settings in the .cnf files are explained here...

http://www.mysql.com/information/presentations/presentation-oscon2000-20000719/

As well as lots of advice about how to split your data and programs on different disks so you're not wasting seeks, killing your swap for increased performance... using Linux instead of Windows (they benchmarked a 32.2% speedup on a 2million row select, and 46% on a smaller insert data set.)... how to use indexes well... how to use explain to optimize your queries.

As a side note, are you sure the slowdown is from the database, I would guess it's from the pipe.. but I'd be guessing. Is the webserver the SQL server? Also the kind of thing that's a hassle on high traffic sites, or so I hear, can't say I've had to deal with one yet.

-Rob