Has anyone looked into making sure the MySQL server is configured optimally? I'm not a MySQL expert, but I was reading over the MySQL documentation and there are a number of parameters that can be adjusted (like cache sizes).

There is also a MySQL command "SHOW STATUS" that might help to shed some light on where the problems are. It reports things like number of cache misses and number of times it had to wait for a table lock.

So, could someone with database access send me the results of running the following two MySQL commands "SHOW STATUS" and "SHOW VARIABLES" (or post the output to the list for everyone if they look interesting). I'll examine them and report my findings.

Here is a link to what SHOW STATUS reports: http://www.mysql.com/documentation/mysql/bychapter/manual_MySQL_Database_Adm...

and some information on MySQL server optimizing: http://www.mysql.com/documentation/mysql/bychapter/manual_MySQL_Optimisation...

As I said, I'm not an expert, but maybe there are some parameters that can be tweaked (if they haven't been already) to improve performance in the short term while a longer-term solution is worked on.

Regards, Steve