Tuning and optimizing MariaDB, and the applications that connect to it, for maximum performance is a subject worthy of a book in itself. We won't go into the details of specific strategies here because it's generally not necessary when we're just getting started with MariaDB. But it is useful to know a little about the subject, which is the purpose of this section.
The basic process of tuning and optimizing MariaDB starts with identifying the choke points: that is, the places that are causing unnecessary slowdowns. Using the slow query log discussed previously in this chapter, to identify these choke points is a good place to start.
Once a problem query, or set of queries, has been identified, the next step is to implement a fix of some sort. This could be as simple as rewriting the query to be more efficient, or the query could be sped up by adding an index to the table.
We can also gather and examine user and table statistics to identify patterns of usage that we can potentially optimize. Or we can examine our table definitions to see if there are any tweaks that can be made there to make things faster or more efficient. The list of ways to squeeze more performance out of MariaDB is nearly endless.
If the query and our database are as optimized as we can make them, there are still things that we can do. Hardware, for example, can be a limitation. A busy database that needs to respond quickly needs to be on fast hardware. Fast disks, lots of memory, and a fast processor are all important ways we can improve MariaDB's performance without changing anything in the database itself.
More information on optimizing and tuning MariaDB can be found at the following location: