Change MySQL innodb_buffer_pool_size at runtime?

Question

This may be a dumb question, but is it possible to change the MySQL configuration options such as innodb_buffer_pool_size at runtime?

Or, equivalently, is there a way to reload MySQL without closing existing connections or refusing new connections (like you can do with Apache)?

Linux_32 (2.6.26) + MySQL 5.0.24a

Answer 1

According to this MySQL forum post, it is not possible to set innodb_buffer_pool_size at runtime.

So the question remains: is it possible to change the MySQL configuration and reload the daemon transparently to its users?

Answer 2

Yes, you can (depending on your server version).

The innodb_buffer_pool_size is a dynamic variable since 5.7.5 as this manual entry says.

Here is some further information about the server's behaviour when changing the size.