What is MYSQL Partitioning?

Question

I have read the documentation (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/partitioning.html), but I would like, in your own words, what it is and why it is used.

1. Is

Answer 1

It is not really about using different server instances (although that is sometimes a possibility), it is more about dividing your tables in different physical partitions.

It's dividing your tables and indexes into smaller pieces, and even subdivide it into even smaller pieces. Think of it as having several million different magazines of different topics and different years (say 2000-2019) all in one big warehouse (one big table). Partitioning would mean that you would put them organized in different rooms inside that big warehouse. They still belong together inside the one warehouse, but now you group them on a logical level, depending on your database partitioning strategy.

Indexing is actually like keeping a table of which magazine is where in your warehouse, or in your rooms inside your warehouse. As you can see, there is a big difference between database partitioning and indexing, and they can be very well used together.

You can read more about it on my website on this article about Database Partitioning