New temporary table behavior in Aurora MySQL version 3 - Amazon Aurora
Storage engine for internal (implicit) temporary tablesLimiting the size of internal, in-memory temporary tablesMitigating fullness issues for internal temporary tables on Aurora ReplicasOptimizing the temptable_max_mmap parameter on Aurora MySQL DB instancesUser-created (explicit) temporary tables on reader DB instancesTemporary table creation errors and mitigation

New temporary table behavior in Aurora MySQL version 3

Aurora MySQL version 3 handles temporary tables differently from earlier Aurora MySQL versions. This new behavior is inherited from MySQL 8.0 Community Edition. There are two types of temporary tables that can be created with Aurora MySQL version 3:

  • Internal (or implicit) temporary tables – Created by the Aurora MySQL engine to handle operations such as sorting aggregation, derived tables, or common table expressions (CTEs).

  • User-created (or explicit) temporary tables – Created by the Aurora MySQL engine when you use the CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE statement.

There are additional considerations for both internal and user-created temporary tables on Aurora reader DB instances. We discuss these changes in the following sections.

Storage engine for internal (implicit) temporary tables

When generating intermediate result sets, Aurora MySQL initially attempts to write to in-memory temporary tables. This might be unsuccessful, because of either incompatible data types or configured limits. If so, the temporary table is converted to an on-disk temporary table rather than being held in memory. More information on this can be found in the Internal Temporary Table Use in MySQL in the MySQL documentation.

In Aurora MySQL version 3, the way internal temporary tables work is different from earlier Aurora MySQL versions. Instead of choosing between the InnoDB and MyISAM storage engines for such temporary tables, now you choose between the TempTable and MEMORY storage engines.

With the TempTable storage engine, you can make an additional choice for how to handle certain data. The data affected overflows the memory pool that holds all the internal temporary tables for the DB instance.

Those choices can influence the performance for queries that generate high volumes of temporary data, for example while performing aggregations such as GROUP BY on large tables.

Tip

If your workload includes queries that generate internal temporary tables, confirm how your application performs with this change by running benchmarks and monitoring performance-related metrics.

In some cases, the amount of temporary data fits within the TempTable memory pool or only overflows the memory pool by a small amount. In these cases, we recommend using the TempTable setting for internal temporary tables and memory-mapped files to hold any overflow data. This setting is the default.

The TempTable storage engine is the default. TempTable uses a common memory pool for all temporary tables that use this engine, instead of a maximum memory limit per table. The size of this memory pool is specified by the temptable_max_ram parameter. It defaults to 1 GiB on DB instances with 16 or more GiB of memory, and 16 MB on DB instances with less than 16 GiB of memory. The size of the memory pool influences session-level memory consumption.

In some cases when you use the TempTable storage engine, the temporary data might exceed the size of the memory pool. If so, Aurora MySQL stores the overflow data using a secondary mechanism.

You can set the temptable_max_mmap parameter to choose whether the data overflows to memory-mapped temporary files or to InnoDB internal temporary tables on disk. The different data formats and overflow criteria of these overflow mechanisms can affect query performance. They do so by influencing the amount of data written to disk and the demand on disk storage throughput.

Aurora MySQL version 3 stores the overflow data in the following way:

  • On the writer DB instance, data that overflows to InnoDB internal temporary tables or memory-mapped temporary files resides in local storage on the instance.

  • On reader DB instances, overflow data always resides in memory-mapped temporary files in local storage.

    Read-only instances can't store any data on the Aurora cluster volume.

The configuration parameters related to internal temporary tables apply differently to the writer and reader instances in your cluster:

  • On reader instances, Aurora MySQL always uses the TempTable storage engine.

  • The size for temptable_max_mmap defaults to 1 GiB for both writer and reader instances, regardless of the DB instance memory size. You can adjust this value on both writer and reader instances.

  • Setting temptable_max_mmap to 0 turns off the use of memory-mapped temporary files on writer instances.

  • You can't set temptable_max_mmap to 0 on reader instances.

Note

We don't recommend using the temptable_use_mmap parameter. It has been deprecated, and support for it is expected to be removed in a future MySQL release.

Limiting the size of internal, in-memory temporary tables

As discussed in Storage engine for internal (implicit) temporary tables, you can control temporary table resources globally by using the temptable_max_ram and temptable_max_mmap settings.

You can also limit the size of any individual internal, in-memory temporary table by using the tmp_table_size DB parameter. This limit is intended to prevent individual queries from consuming an inordinate amount of global temporary table resources, which can affect the performance of concurrent queries that require these resources.

The tmp_table_size parameter defines the maximum size of temporary tables created by the MEMORY storage engine in Aurora MySQL version 3.

In Aurora MySQL version 3.04 and higher, tmp_table_size also defines the maximum size of temporary tables created by the TempTable storage engine when the aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit DB parameter is set to ON. This behavior is disabled by default (OFF), which is the same behavior as in Aurora MySQL version 3.03 and lower versions.

  • When aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit is OFF, tmp_table_size isn't considered for internal, in-memory temporary tables created by the TempTable storage engine.

    However, the global TempTable resources limit still applies. Aurora MySQL has the following behavior when the global TempTable resources limit is reached:

    • Writer DB instances – Aurora MySQL automatically converts the in-memory temporary table to an InnoDB on-disk temporary table.

    • Reader DB instances – The query ends with an error.

      ERROR 1114 (HY000): The table '/rdsdbdata/tmp/#sqlxx_xxx' is full

  • When aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit is ON, Aurora MySQL has the following behavior when the tmp_table_size limit is reached:

    • Writer DB instances – Aurora MySQL automatically converts the in-memory temporary table to an InnoDB on-disk temporary table.

    • Reader DB instances – The query ends with an error.

      ERROR 1114 (HY000): The table '/rdsdbdata/tmp/#sqlxx_xxx' is full

      Both the global TempTable resources limit and the per-table limit apply in this case.

Note

The aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit parameter has no effect when internal_tmp_mem_storage_engine is set to MEMORY. In this case, the maximum size of an in-memory temporary table is defined by the tmp_table_size or max_heap_table_size value, whichever is smaller.

The following examples show the behavior of the aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit parameter for writer and reader DB instances.

Example of writer DB instance with aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit set to OFF

The in-memory temporary table isn't converted to an InnoDB on-disk temporary table.

mysql> set aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit=0;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select @@innodb_read_only,@@aurora_version,@@aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit,@@temptable_max_ram,@@temptable_max_mmap;
+--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------+---------------------+----------------------+
| @@innodb_read_only | @@aurora_version | @@aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit | @@temptable_max_ram | @@temptable_max_mmap |
+--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------+---------------------+----------------------+
|                  0 | 3.04.0           |                                        0 |          1073741824 |           1073741824 |
+--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------+---------------------+----------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> show status like '%created_tmp_disk%';
+-------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name           | Value |
+-------------------------+-------+
| Created_tmp_disk_tables | 0     |
+-------------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> set cte_max_recursion_depth=4294967295;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> WITH RECURSIVE cte (n) AS (SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT n + 1 FROM cte WHERE n < 60000000) SELECT max(n) FROM cte;
+----------+
| max(n)   |
+----------+
| 60000000 |
+----------+
1 row in set (13.99 sec)

mysql> show status like '%created_tmp_disk%';
+-------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name           | Value |
+-------------------------+-------+
| Created_tmp_disk_tables | 0     |
+-------------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
Example of writer DB instance with aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit set to ON

The in-memory temporary table is converted to an InnoDB on-disk temporary table.

mysql> set aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit=1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select @@innodb_read_only,@@aurora_version,@@aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit,@@tmp_table_size;
+--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------+------------------+
| @@innodb_read_only | @@aurora_version | @@aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit | @@tmp_table_size |
+--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------+------------------+
|                  0 | 3.04.0           |                                        1 |         16777216 |
+--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------+------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> set cte_max_recursion_depth=4294967295;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> show status like '%created_tmp_disk%';
+-------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name           | Value |
+-------------------------+-------+
| Created_tmp_disk_tables | 0     |
+-------------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> WITH RECURSIVE cte (n) AS (SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT n + 1 FROM cte WHERE n < 6000000) SELECT max(n) FROM cte;
+---------+
| max(n)  |
+---------+
| 6000000 |
+---------+
1 row in set (4.10 sec)

mysql> show status like '%created_tmp_disk%';
+-------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name           | Value |
+-------------------------+-------+
| Created_tmp_disk_tables | 1     |
+-------------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
Example of reader DB instance with aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit set to OFF

The query finishes without an error because tmp_table_size doesn't apply, and the global TempTable resources limit hasn't been reached.

mysql> set aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit=0;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select @@innodb_read_only,@@aurora_version,@@aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit,@@temptable_max_ram,@@temptable_max_mmap;
+--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------+---------------------+----------------------+
| @@innodb_read_only | @@aurora_version | @@aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit | @@temptable_max_ram | @@temptable_max_mmap |
+--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------+---------------------+----------------------+
|                  1 | 3.04.0           |                                        0 |          1073741824 |           1073741824 |
+--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------+---------------------+----------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> set cte_max_recursion_depth=4294967295;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> WITH RECURSIVE cte (n) AS (SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT n + 1 FROM cte WHERE n < 60000000) SELECT max(n) FROM cte;
+----------+
| max(n)   |
+----------+
| 60000000 |
+----------+
1 row in set (14.05 sec)
Example of reader DB instance with aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit set to OFF

This query reaches the global TempTable resources limit with aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit set to OFF. The query ends with an error on reader instances.

mysql> set aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit=0;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select @@innodb_read_only,@@aurora_version,@@aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit,@@temptable_max_ram,@@temptable_max_mmap;
+--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------+---------------------+----------------------+
| @@innodb_read_only | @@aurora_version | @@aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit | @@temptable_max_ram | @@temptable_max_mmap |
+--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------+---------------------+----------------------+
|                  1 | 3.04.0           |                                        0 |          1073741824 |           1073741824 |
+--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------+---------------------+----------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> set cte_max_recursion_depth=4294967295;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

mysql> WITH RECURSIVE cte (n) AS (SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT n + 1 FROM cte WHERE n < 120000000) SELECT max(n) FROM cte;
ERROR 1114 (HY000): The table '/rdsdbdata/tmp/#sqlfd_1586_2' is full
Example of reader DB instance with aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit set to ON

The query ends with an error when the tmp_table_size limit is reached.

mysql> set aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit=1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select @@innodb_read_only,@@aurora_version,@@aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit,@@tmp_table_size;
+--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------+------------------+
| @@innodb_read_only | @@aurora_version | @@aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit | @@tmp_table_size |
+--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------+------------------+
|                  1 | 3.04.0           |                                        1 |         16777216 |
+--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------+------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> set cte_max_recursion_depth=4294967295;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> WITH RECURSIVE cte (n) AS (SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT n + 1 FROM cte WHERE n < 6000000) SELECT max(n) FROM cte;
ERROR 1114 (HY000): The table '/rdsdbdata/tmp/#sqlfd_8_2' is full

Mitigating fullness issues for internal temporary tables on Aurora Replicas

To avoid size limitation issues for temporary tables, set the temptable_max_ram and temptable_max_mmap parameters to a combined value that can fit the requirements of your workload.

Be careful when setting the value of the temptable_max_ram parameter. Setting the value too high reduces the available memory on the database instance, which can cause an out-of-memory condition. Monitor the average freeable memory on the DB instance. Then determine an appropriate value for temptable_max_ram so that you will still have a reasonable amount of free memory left on the instance. For more information, see Freeable memory issues in Amazon Aurora.

It is also important to monitor the size of the local storage and the temporary table space consumption. You can monitor the temporary storage available for a specific DB instance with the FreeLocalStorage Amazon CloudWatch metric, described in Amazon CloudWatch metrics for Amazon Aurora.

Note

This procedure doesn't work when the aurora_tmptable_enable_per_table_limit parameter is set to ON. For more information, see Limiting the size of internal, in-memory temporary tables.

Example 1

You know that your temporary tables grow to a cumulative size of 20 GiB. You want to set in-memory temporary tables to 2 GiB and to grow to a maximum of 20 GiB on disk.

Set temptable_max_ram to 2,147,483,648 and temptable_max_mmap to 21,474,836,480. These values are in bytes.

These parameter settings make sure that your temporary tables can grow to a cumulative total of 22 GiB.

Example 2

Your current instance size is 16xlarge or larger. You don't know the total size of the temporary tables that you might need. You want to be able to use up to 4 GiB in memory and up to the maximum available storage size on disk.

Set temptable_max_ram to 4,294,967,296 and temptable_max_mmap to 1,099,511,627,776. These values are in bytes.

Here you're setting temptable_max_mmap to 1 TiB, which is less than the maximum local storage of 1.2 TiB on a 16xlarge Aurora DB instance.

On a smaller instance size, adjust the value of temptable_max_mmap so that it doesn't fill up the available local storage. For example, a 2xlarge instance has only 160 GiB of local storage available. Hence, we recommend setting the value to less than 160 GiB. For more information on the available local storage for DB instance sizes, see Temporary storage limits for Aurora MySQL.

Optimizing the temptable_max_mmap parameter on Aurora MySQL DB instances

The temptable_max_mmap parameter in Aurora MySQL controls the maximum amount of local disk space that can be used by memory mapped files before overflowing to the on-disk InnoDB temporary tables (on writer DB instances) or causing an error (on reader DB instances). Setting this DB instance parameter properly can help optimize the performance of your DB instances.

Prerequisites

  1. Make sure that the Performance Schema is enabled. You can verify this by running the following SQL command:

    SELECT @@performance_schema;

    An output value of 1 indicates that it's enabled.

  2. Confirm that the temporary table memory instrumentation is enabled. You can verify this by running the following SQL command:

    SELECT name, enabled FROM performance_schema.setup_instruments WHERE name LIKE '%memory%temptable%';

    The enabled column shows YES for the relevant temporary table memory instrumentation entries.

Monitoring temporary table usage

When setting the initial value for temptable_max_mmap, we recommend that you start with 80% of the local storage size for the DB instance class that you're using. This ensures that the temporary tables have enough disk space to operate efficiently, while leaving room for other disk usage on the instance.

To find the local storage size for your DB instance class, see Temporary storage limits for Aurora MySQL.

For example, if you're using the db.r5.large DB instance class, the local storage size is 32 GiB. In this case, you would initially set the temptable_max_mmap parameter to 80% of 32 GiB, which is 25.6 GiB.

After setting the initial temptable_max_mmap value, run your peak workload on the Aurora MySQL instances. Monitor the current and high temporary table disk usage using the following SQL query:

SELECT event_name, current_count, current_alloc, current_avg_alloc, high_count, high_alloc, high_avg_alloc
FROM sys.memory_global_by_current_bytes WHERE event_name LIKE 'memory/temptable/%';

This query retrieves the following information:

  • event_name – The name of the temporary table memory or disk usage event.

  • current_count – The current number of allocated temporary table memory or disk blocks.

  • current_alloc – The current amount of memory or disk allocated for temporary tables.

  • current_avg_alloc – The current average size of temporary table memory or disk blocks.

  • high_count – The highest number of allocated temporary table memory or disk blocks.

  • high_alloc – The highest amount of memory or disk allocated for temporary tables.

  • high_avg_alloc – The highest average size of temporary table memory or disk blocks.

If your queries fail with a Table is full error using this setting, it indicates that your workload requires more disk space for temporary table operations. In this case, consider increasing your DB instance size to one with more local storage space.

Setting the optimal temptable_max_mmap value

Use the following procedure to monitor and set the right size for the temptable_max_mmap parameter.

  1. Review the output of the previous query, and identify the peak temporary table disk usage, as indicated by the high_alloc column.

  2. Based on the peak temporary table disk usage, adjust the temptable_max_mmap parameter in the DB parameter group for your Aurora MySQL DB instances.

    Set the value to be slightly higher than the peak temporary table disk usage to accommodate future growth.

  3. Apply the parameter group changes to your DB instances.

  4. Monitor the temporary table disk usage again during your peak workload to make sure that the new temptable_max_mmap value is appropriate.

  5. Repeat the previous steps as needed to fine tune the temptable_max_mmap parameter.

User-created (explicit) temporary tables on reader DB instances

You can create explicit temporary tables using the TEMPORARY keyword in your CREATE TABLE statement. Explicit temporary tables are supported on the writer DB instance in an Aurora DB cluster. You can also use explicit temporary tables on reader DB instances, but the tables can't enforce the use of the InnoDB storage engine.

To avoid errors while creating explicit temporary tables on Aurora MySQL reader DB instances, make sure that you run all CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE statements in either or both of the following ways:

  • Don't specify the ENGINE=InnoDB clause.

  • Don't set the SQL mode to NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION.

Temporary table creation errors and mitigation

The error that you receive is different depending on whether you use a plain CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE statement or the variation CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE AS SELECT. The following examples show the different kinds of errors.

This temporary table behavior only applies to read-only instances. This first example confirms that's the kind of instance the session is connected to.

mysql> select @@innodb_read_only;
+--------------------+
| @@innodb_read_only |
+--------------------+
|                  1 |
+--------------------+

For plain CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE statements, the statement fails when the NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION SQL mode is turned on. When NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION is turned off (default), the appropriate engine substitution is made, and the temporary table creation succeeds.

mysql> set sql_mode = 'NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION';

mysql>  CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE tt2 (id int) ENGINE=InnoDB;
ERROR 3161 (HY000): Storage engine InnoDB is disabled (Table creation is disallowed).

mysql> SET sql_mode = '';

mysql> CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE tt4 (id int) ENGINE=InnoDB;

mysql> SHOW CREATE TABLE tt4\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
       Table: tt4
Create Table: CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE `tt4` (
  `id` int DEFAULT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci

For CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE AS SELECT statements, the statement fails when the NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION SQL mode is turned on. When NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION is turned off (default), the appropriate engine substitution is made, and the temporary table creation succeeds.

mysql> set sql_mode = 'NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION';

mysql> CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE tt1 ENGINE=InnoDB AS SELECT * FROM t1;
ERROR 3161 (HY000): Storage engine InnoDB is disabled (Table creation is disallowed).

mysql> SET sql_mode = '';

mysql> show create table tt3;
+-------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Table | Create Table                                             |
+-------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| tt3   | CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE `tt3` (
  `id` int DEFAULT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci |
+-------+----------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

For more information about the storage aspects and performance implications of temporary tables in Aurora MySQL version 3, see the blog post Use the TempTable storage engine on Amazon RDS for MySQL and Amazon Aurora MySQL.