What is Percona Server ?

Percona Server is based on the original MySQL code, but functions as a drop-in that replaces MySQL .Like MySQL, Percona Server is open-source, so it is free and it benefits from additions from the community. Percona Inc. takes these and other improvements and makes them available as a package to the general public.

What are the advantages of using Percona Server ?

•  Percona Server will be faster and more consistent for your database queries.
• Percona Server is backward-compatible with MySQL, So your developers donâ$™t need to change code or rewrite queries.
• Percona Server takes advantage of the advances in multi-core CPUs, multithreading and solid-state drives.
• Percona Server contains optimized algorithms for background processing, and enhancements to buffers and caches.
• Percona Server need only less time in tuning and administering.
• Percona Server can be easily troubleshoot without guesswork.There are more status counters available for monitoring than in MySQL, So you can get a clear picture of what is happening with your database server.
• Percona Server will save money on hardware upgrades.

How can you replace MySQL with Percona Server in cPanel installed systems ?

Moving from MySQL to Percona Server is relatively straightforward.But this setup is considered to be unsupported by the cPanel/WHM team.So you may need to manage and maintain any updates and maintenance on the database software by your self.

You can do it by following the steps provided here:

Step 1:

Please make full database backup(including system tables) before switching to Percona. This action will prevent data losing in case if something goes wrong.This is the most time consuming section of this process.

# mysqldump --all-databases --routines --triggers > /home/db_dump/alldb.sql
# service mysql stop
# cp -r /var/lib/mysql/mysql /home/db_dump/
# service mysql start

Step 2:

Move your existing mysql configuration file ( /etc/my.cnf ).Your original MySQL my.cnf file should work fine for Percona but to reduce risk factor,I suggest you to move your existing mysql configuration file:

# mv /etc/my.cnf /etc/my.cnf.old

Step 3:

Disable the targets so cPanel no longer handles MySQL updates:

The following will mark the versions of MySQL distribute as uninstalled so they are no longer maintained by cPanel/WHM.

# /scripts/update_local_rpm_versions --edit target_settings.MySQL50 uninstalled
# /scripts/update_local_rpm_versions --edit target_settings.MySQL51 uninstalled
# /scripts/update_local_rpm_versions --edit target_settings.MySQL55 uninstalled

Step 4:

Remove existing MySQL RPMs so there’s a clean slate for Percona.

# /scripts/check_cpanel_rpms --fix --targets=MySQL50,MySQL51,MySQL55

Step 5:

Create a yum repository for Percona:

nano /etc/yum.repos.d/percona.repo

[percona]
name = CentOS $releasever - Percona
baseurl=http://repo.percona.com/centos/$releasever/os/$basearch/
enabled = 1
gpgkey = http://www.percona.com/redir/downloads/percona-release/RPM-GPG-KEY-percona
gpgcheck = 1

Step 6:

Remove php from the exclude section of /etc/yum.conf file then run the following commands to install Percona Server.

# yum install Percona-Server-client-55 Percona-Server-server-55 Percona-Server-devel-55
# /etc/init.d/mysql start
# mysql_upgrade
# /etc/init.d/mysql restart

Please make sure to add PHP back to exclude section of /etc/yum.conf file.

Step 7:

Compile PHP with newly installed MySQL libraries using :

# /scripts/easyapache --build

Make sure every websites work fine with new Percona Server.

References:

http://blog.cpanel.net
http://www.percona.com/software/percona-server