Instant InnoDB by Matthew Reid Review

Instant InnoDB by PACKT publishing is 83 page book on getting a basic understanding of InnoDB. Enough of an understanding to know what questions to ask in the future. The book is not for intermediate or advance Innodb users. It has the basics to get you started. Some basics covered, defining ACID, a page on Innodb params for mySQL that run innodb as a few examples.

Overall I think its a good book to get you started. The problem is the book just doesn't flow. There is a section on benchmarking with a blurb about 4 tools. This book could use more meat in explaining what are good numbers or bad-as a result of the benchmark and how they relate to Innodb. Also these section do not explain what Status variables to look at in deriving how well Innodb is performing through these tests. Finally the section on INNODB STATUS, one of the more important monitors for Innodb doesn't have much explanation.  This book gives you a good idea on how to get the information but not enough on what this information means. Overall for a mini-reference, or introduction to Innodb this is a good place to start, its an easy read and you can finish it on four BART rides from Daily City to Montgomery Street in San Francisco. If you are looking for more details on the broad subjects covered you are going to need another reference.