What max_connection should I set for MySQL?

Question

I am using MySQL 5.1.35 database on Linux Centos.

The Linux server has 2GB RAM with 14GB of disk space.

I have

Answer 1

You need to calculate the memory required by your MySQL engine. See manual here

If you are using MYISAM tables then you can calculate memory requirement using following formula:

key_buffer_size + (read_buffer_size + sort_buffer_size) * max_connections = K bytes of memory 

Ideally this should not exceed 2 GB in your case.

Configuration parameters depends on type of your application and querys, but standard values for you could be:

key_buffer_size = 1024MB + (read_buffer_size = 1MB + sort_buffer_size = 4MB) * 200 ~= 2GB

key_buffer_size is a global variables whereas read_buffer_size and sort_buffer_size are session level parameters.