One of the key system variables you have to deal with MySQL is innodb_buffer_pool_size, the size of the buffer pool, the memory area where InnoDB caches table and index data. You try to learn how to set a sensible value and you usually hope you do not need to change it too often.

One day you start to play with serverless databases and everything changes: you can see the value of innodb_buffer_pool_size changing real time, every few seconds. According to the load of your database cluster.

Last week I discussed at DevOpsCon London some of the advantages and disadvantages of running managed MySQL services, including the preview of Aurora Serverless v2.

Next month I will dig deeper at Percona Live: looking at a direct correlation in the metrics between the capacity, the value of innodb_buffer_pool_size and the load of the database is just an interesting start.

Here are the slides of my talk at DevOpsCon and my InfoQ news article about the preview of Aurora Serverless v2.