7.4.6.3. Midpoint Insertion Strategy
By default, the key cache management system uses the LRU
strategy for choosing key cache blocks to be evicted, but it
also supports a more sophisticated method called the
midpoint insertion strategy.
When using the midpoint insertion strategy, the LRU chain is
divided into two parts: a hot sub-chain and a warm sub-chain.
The division point between two parts is not fixed, but the key
cache management system takes care that the warm part is not
“too short,” always containing at least
key_cache_division_limit percent of the key
cache blocks. key_cache_division_limit is a
component of structured key cache variables, so its value is a
parameter that can be set per cache.
When an index block is read from a table into the key cache,
it is placed at the end of the warm sub-chain. After a certain
number of hits (accesses of the block), it is promoted to the
hot sub-chain. At present, the number of hits required to
promote a block (3) is the same for all index blocks.
A block promoted into the hot sub-chain is placed at the end
of the chain. The block then circulates within this sub-chain.
If the block stays at the beginning of the sub-chain for a
long enough time, it is demoted to the warm chain. This time
is determined by the value of the
key_cache_age_threshold component of the
key cache.
The threshold value prescribes that, for a key cache
containing N blocks, the block at
the beginning of the hot sub-chain not accessed within the
last N ×
key_cache_age_threshold / 100
The midpoint insertion strategy allows you to keep more-valued
blocks always in the cache. If you prefer to use the plain LRU
strategy, leave the
key_cache_division_limit value set to its
default of 100.
The midpoint insertion strategy helps to improve performance
when execution of a query that requires an index scan
effectively pushes out of the cache all the index blocks
corresponding to valuable high-level B-tree nodes. To avoid
this, you must use a midpoint insertion strategy with the
key_cache_division_limit set to much less
than 100. Then valuable frequently hit nodes are preserved in
the hot sub-chain during an index scan operation as well.
