PT-INDEX-USAGE(1)

NAME
pt-index-usage - Read queries from a log and analyze how they use indexes.

SYNOPSIS
Usage: pt-index-usage [OPTIONS] [FILES]

pt-index-usage reads queries from logs and analyzes how they use indexes.

Analyze queries in slow.log and print reports:

  pt-index-usage /path/to/slow.log --host localhost

Disable reports and save results to percona database for later analysis:

  pt-index-usage slow.log --no-report --save-results-database percona

RISKS
Percona Toolkit is mature, proven in the real world, and well tested, but all database tools can pose a risk to the system and the database server. Before using this tool, please:

•   Read the tool's documentation

•   Review the tool's known "BUGS"

•   Test the tool on a non-production server

•   Backup your production server and verify the backups

DESCRIPTION
This tool connects to a MySQL database server, reads through a query log, and uses EXPLAIN to ask MySQL how it will use each query. When it is finished, it prints out a report on indexes that the queries didn't use.

The query log needs to be in MySQL's slow query log format. If you need to input a different format, you can use pt-query-digest to translate the formats. If you don't specify a filename, the tool reads from STDIN.

The tool runs two stages. In the first stage, the tool takes inventory of all the tables and indexes in your database, so it can compare the existing indexes to those that were actually used by the queries in the log. In the second stage, it runs EXPLAIN on each query in the query log. It uses separate database connections to inventory the tables and run EXPLAIN, so it opens two connections to the database.

If a query is not a SELECT, it tries to transform it to a roughly equivalent SELECT query so it can be EXPLAINed. This is not a perfect process, but it is good enough to be useful.

The tool skips the EXPLAIN step for queries that are exact duplicates of those seen before. It assumes that the same query will generate the same EXPLAIN plan as it did previously (usually a safe assumption, and generally good for performance), and simply increments the count of times that the indexes were used. However, queries that have the same fingerprint but different checksums will be re-EXPLAINed. Queries that have different literal constants can have different execution plans, and this is important to measure.

After EXPLAIN-ing the query, it is necessary to try to map aliases in the query back to the original table names. For example, consider the EXPLAIN plan for the following query:

  SELECT * FROM tbl1 AS foo;

The EXPLAIN output will show access to table "foo", and that must be translated back to "tbl1". This process involves complex parsing. It is generally very accurate, but there is some chance that it might not work right. If you find cases where it fails, submit a bug report and a reproducible test case.

Queries that cannot be EXPLAINed will cause all subsequent queries with the same fingerprint to be blacklisted. This is to reduce the work they cause, and prevent them from continuing to print error messages.

OUTPUT
After it reads all the events in the log, the tool prints out DROP statements for every index that was not used. It skips indexes for tables that were never accessed by any queries in the log, to avoid false-positive results.

If you don't specify "--quiet", the tool also outputs warnings about statements that cannot be EXPLAINed and similar. These go to standard error.

Progress reports are enabled by default (see "--progress"). These also go to standard error.

OPTIONS
This tool accepts additional command-line arguments. Refer to the "SYNOPSIS" and usage information for details.

--ask-pass
    Prompt for a password when connecting to MySQL.

--[no]buffer-stdout
    default: yes

    Enables STDOUT buffering. Disable this option if you want to see live progress when using output post-processing tools such as "tee" or "kubectl logs".

--charset
    short form: -A; type: string

    Default character set. If the value is utf8, sets Perl's binmode on STDOUT to utf8, passes the mysql_enable_utf8 option to DBD::mysql, and runs SET NAMES UTF8 after connecting to MySQL. Any other value sets binmode on STDOUT without the utf8 layer, and runs SET NAMES after connecting to MySQL.

--config
    type: Array

    Read this comma-separated list of config files; if specified, this must be the first option on the command line.

--create-save-results-database
    Create the "--save-results-database" if it does not exist.

    If the "--save-results-database" already exists and this option is specified, the database is used and the necessary tables are created if they do not already exist.

--[no]create-views
    Create views for "--save-results-database" example queries.

    Several example queries are given for querying the tables in the "--save-results-database". These example queries are, by default, created as views. Specifying "--no-create-views" prevents these views from being created.

--database
    short form: -D; type: string

    The database to use for the connection.

--databases
    short form: -d; type: hash

    Only get tables and indexes from this comma-separated list of databases.

--databases-regex
    type: string

    Only get tables and indexes from database whose names match this Perl regex.

--defaults-file
    short form: -F; type: string

    Only read mysql options from the given file. You must give an absolute pathname.

--drop
    type: Hash; default: non-unique

    Suggest dropping only these types of unused indexes.

    By default pt-index-usage will only suggest to drop unused secondary indexes, not primary or unique indexes. You can specify which types of unused indexes the tool suggests to drop: primary, unique, non-unique, all.

    A separate "ALTER TABLE" statement for each type is printed. So if you specify "--drop all" and there is a primary key and a non-unique index, the "ALTER TABLE ... DROP" for each will be printed on separate lines.

--empty-save-results-tables
    Drop and re-create all pre-existing tables in the "--save-results-database". This allows information from previous runs to be removed before the current run.

--help
    Show help and exit.

--host
    short form: -h; type: string

    Connect to host.

--ignore-databases
    type: Hash

    Ignore this comma-separated list of databases.

--ignore-databases-regex
    type: string

    Ignore databases whose names match this Perl regex.

--ignore-tables
    type: Hash

    Ignore this comma-separated list of table names.

    Table names may be qualified with the database name.

--ignore-tables-regex
    type: string

    Ignore tables whose names match the Perl regex.

--mysql_ssl
    short form: -s; type: int

    Create SSL MySQL connection.

--password
    short form: -p; type: string

    Password to use when connecting. If password contains commas they must be escaped with a backslash: "exam\,ple"

--port
    short form: -P; type: int

    Port number to use for connection.

--progress
    type: array; default: time,30

    Print progress reports to STDERR. The value is a comma-separated list with two parts. The first part can be percentage, time, or iterations; the second part specifies how often an update should be printed, in percentage, seconds, or number of iterations.

--quiet
    short form: -q

    Do not print any warnings. Also disables "--progress".

--[no]report
    default: yes

    Print the reports for "--report-format".

    You may want to disable the reports by specifying "--no-report" if, for example, you also specify "--save-results-database" and you only want to query the results tables later.

--report-format
    type: Array; default: drop_unused_indexes

    Right now there is only one report: drop_unused_indexes. This report prints SQL statements for dropping any unused indexes. See also "--drop".

    See also "--[no]report".

--save-results-database
    type: DSN

    Save results to tables in this database. Information about indexes, queries, tables and their usage is stored in several tables in the specified database. The tables are auto-created if they do not exist. If the database doesn't exist, it can be auto-created with "--create-save-results-database". In this case the connection is initially created with no default database, then after the database is created, it is USE'ed.

    pt-index-usage executes INSERT statements to save the results. Therefore, you should be careful if you use this feature on a production server. It might increase load, or cause trouble if you don't want the server to be written to, or so on.

    After a run, you can query the usage tables to answer various questions about index usage. The tables have the following CREATE TABLE definitions:

    MAGIC_create_indexes:

      CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS indexes (
        db           VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,
        tbl          VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,
        idx          VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,
        cnt          BIGINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
        PRIMARY KEY  (db, tbl, idx)
      )

    MAGIC_create_queries:

      CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS queries (
        query_id     CHAR(32) NOT NULL,
        fingerprint  TEXT NOT NULL,
        sample       TEXT NOT NULL,
        PRIMARY KEY  (query_id)
      )

    MAGIC_create_tables:

      CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS tables (
        db           VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,
        tbl          VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,
        cnt          BIGINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
        PRIMARY KEY  (db, tbl)
      )

    MAGIC_create_index_usage:

      CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS index_usage (
        query_id      CHAR(32) NOT NULL,
        db            VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,
        tbl           VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,
        idx           VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,
        cnt           BIGINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 1,
        UNIQUE INDEX  (query_id, db, tbl, idx)
      )

    MAGIC_create_index_alternatives:

      CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS index_alternatives (
        query_id      CHAR(32) NOT NULL,        -- This query used
        db            VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,     -- this index, but...
        tbl           VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,     --
        idx           VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,     --
        alt_idx       VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,     -- was an alternative
        cnt           BIGINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 1,
        UNIQUE INDEX  (query_id, db, tbl, idx, alt_idx),
        INDEX         (db, tbl, idx),
        INDEX         (db, tbl, alt_idx)
      )

    The following are some queries you can run against these tables to answer common questions you might have. Each query is also created as a view (with MySQL v5.0 and newer) if "--[no]create-views" is true (it is by default). The view names are the strings after the "MAGIC_view_" prefix.

    Question: which queries sometimes use different indexes, and what fraction of the time is each index chosen? MAGIC_view_query_uses_several_indexes:

     SELECT iu.query_id, CONCAT_WS('.', iu.db, iu.tbl, iu.idx) AS idx,
        variations, iu.cnt, iu.cnt / total_cnt * 100 AS pct
     FROM index_usage AS iu
        INNER JOIN (
           SELECT query_id, db, tbl, SUM(cnt) AS total_cnt,
             COUNT(*) AS variations
           FROM index_usage
           GROUP BY query_id, db, tbl
           HAVING COUNT(*) > 1
        ) AS qv USING(query_id, db, tbl);

    Question: which indexes have lots of alternatives, i.e. are chosen instead of other indexes, and for what queries? MAGIC_view_index_has_alternates:

     SELECT CONCAT_WS('.', db, tbl, idx) AS idx_chosen,
        GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT alt_idx) AS alternatives,
        GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT query_id) AS queries, SUM(cnt) AS cnt
     FROM index_alternatives
     GROUP BY db, tbl, idx
     HAVING COUNT(*) > 1;

    Question: which indexes are considered as alternates for other indexes, and for what queries? MAGIC_view_index_alternates:

     SELECT CONCAT_WS('.', db, tbl, alt_idx) AS idx_considered,
        GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT idx) AS alternative_to,
        GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT query_id) AS queries, SUM(cnt) AS cnt
     FROM index_alternatives
     GROUP BY db, tbl, alt_idx
     HAVING COUNT(*) > 1;

    Question: which of those are never chosen by any queries, and are therefore superfluous? MAGIC_view_unused_index_alternates:

     SELECT CONCAT_WS('.', i.db, i.tbl, i.idx) AS idx,
        alt.alternative_to, alt.queries, alt.cnt
     FROM indexes AS i
        INNER JOIN (
           SELECT db, tbl, alt_idx, GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT idx) AS alternative_to,
              GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT query_id) AS queries, SUM(cnt) AS cnt
           FROM index_alternatives
           GROUP BY db, tbl, alt_idx
           HAVING COUNT(*) > 1
        ) AS alt ON i.db = alt.db AND i.tbl = alt.tbl
          AND i.idx = alt.alt_idx
     WHERE i.cnt = 0;

    Question: given a table, which indexes were used, by how many queries, with how many distinct fingerprints? Were there alternatives? Which indexes were not used? You can edit the following query's SELECT list to also see the query IDs in question. MAGIC_view_index_usage:

     SELECT i.idx, iu.usage_cnt, iu.usage_total,
        ia.alt_cnt, ia.alt_total
     FROM indexes AS i
        LEFT OUTER JOIN (
           SELECT db, tbl, idx, COUNT(*) AS usage_cnt,
              SUM(cnt) AS usage_total, GROUP_CONCAT(query_id) AS used_by
           FROM index_usage
           GROUP BY db, tbl, idx
        ) AS iu ON i.db=iu.db AND i.tbl=iu.tbl AND i.idx = iu.idx
        LEFT OUTER JOIN (
           SELECT db, tbl, idx, COUNT(*) AS alt_cnt,
              SUM(cnt) AS alt_total,
              GROUP_CONCAT(query_id) AS alt_queries
           FROM index_alternatives
           GROUP BY db, tbl, idx
        ) AS ia ON i.db=ia.db AND i.tbl=ia.tbl AND i.idx = ia.idx;

    Question: which indexes on a given table are vital for at least one query (there is no alternative)? MAGIC_view_required_indexes:

       SELECT i.db, i.tbl, i.idx, no_alt.queries
       FROM indexes AS i
          INNER JOIN (
             SELECT iu.db, iu.tbl, iu.idx,
                GROUP_CONCAT(iu.query_id) AS queries
             FROM index_usage AS iu
                LEFT OUTER JOIN index_alternatives AS ia
                   USING(db, tbl, idx)
             WHERE ia.db IS NULL
             GROUP BY iu.db, iu.tbl, iu.idx
          ) AS no_alt ON no_alt.db = i.db AND no_alt.tbl = i.tbl
             AND no_alt.idx = i.idx
       ORDER BY i.db, i.tbl, i.idx, no_alt.queries;

--set-vars
    type: Array

    Set the MySQL variables in this comma-separated list of "variable=value" pairs.

    By default, the tool sets:

       wait_timeout=10000

    Variables specified on the command line override these defaults. For example, specifying "--set-vars wait_timeout=500" overrides the defaultvalue of 10000.

    The tool prints a warning and continues if a variable cannot be set.

--socket
    short form: -S; type: string

    Socket file to use for connection.

--tables
    short form: -t; type: hash

    Only get indexes from this comma-separated list of tables.

--tables-regex
    type: string

    Only get indexes from tables whose names match this Perl regex.

--user
    short form: -u; type: string

    User for login if not current user.

--version
    Show version and exit.

--[no]version-check
    default: yes

    Check for the latest version of Percona Toolkit, MySQL, and other programs.

    This is a standard "check for updates automatically" feature, with two additional features. First, the tool checks its own version and also the versions of the following software: operating system, Percona Monitoring and Management (PMM), MySQL, Perl, MySQL driver for Perl (DBD::mysql), and Percona Toolkit. Second, it checks for and warns about versions with known problems. For example, MySQL 5.5.25 had a critical bug and was re-released as 5.5.25a.

    A secure connection to Percona’s Version Check database server is done to perform these checks. Each request is logged by the server, including software version numbers and unique ID of the checked system. The ID is generated by the Percona Toolkit installation script or when the Version Check database call is done for the first time.

    Any updates or known problems are printed to STDOUT before the tool's normal output. This feature should never interfere with the normal operation of the tool.

    For more information, visit <https://www.percona.com/doc/percona-toolkit/LATEST/version-check.html>.

DSN OPTIONS
These DSN options are used to create a DSN. Each option is given like "option=value". The options are case-sensitive, so P and p are not the same option. There cannot be whitespace before or after the "=" and if the value contains whitespace it must be quoted. DSN options are comma-separated. See the percona-toolkit manpage for full details.

•   A

    dsn: charset; copy: yes

    Default character set.

•   D

    dsn: database; copy: yes

    Database to connect to.

•   F

    dsn: mysql_read_default_file; copy: yes

    Only read default options from the given file

•   h

    dsn: host; copy: yes

    Connect to host.

•   p

    dsn: password; copy: yes

    Password to use when connecting. If password contains commas they must be escaped with a backslash: "exam\,ple"

•   P

    dsn: port; copy: yes

    Port number to use for connection.

•   S

    dsn: mysql_socket; copy: yes

    Socket file to use for connection.

•   u

    dsn: user; copy: yes

    User for login if not current user.

•   s

    dsn: mysql_ssl; copy: yes

    Create SSL connection

ENVIRONMENT
The environment variable "PTDEBUG" enables verbose debugging output to STDERR. To enable debugging and capture all output to a file, run the tool like:

   PTDEBUG=1 pt-index-usage ... > FILE 2>&1

Be careful: debugging output is voluminous and can generate several megabytes of output.

ATTENTION
Using <PTDEBUG> might expose passwords. When debug is enabled, all command line parameters are shown in the output.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
You need Perl, DBI, DBD::mysql, and some core packages that ought to be installed in any reasonably new version of Perl.

BUGS
For a list of known bugs, see <https://jira.percona.com/projects/PT/issues>.

Please report bugs at <https://jira.percona.com/projects/PT>. Include the following information in your bug report:

•   Complete command-line used to run the tool

•   Tool "--version"

•   MySQL version of all servers involved

•   Output from the tool including STDERR

•   Input files (log/dump/config files, etc.)

If possible, include debugging output by running the tool with "PTDEBUG"; see "ENVIRONMENT".

DOWNLOADING
Visit <http://www.percona.com/software/percona-toolkit/> to download the latest release of Percona Toolkit. Or, get the latest release from the command line:

   wget percona.com/get/percona-toolkit.tar.gz

   wget percona.com/get/percona-toolkit.rpm

   wget percona.com/get/percona-toolkit.deb

You can also get individual tools from the latest release:

   wget percona.com/get/TOOL

Replace "TOOL" with the name of any tool.

AUTHORS
Baron Schwartz and Daniel Nichter

ABOUT PERCONA TOOLKIT
This tool is part of Percona Toolkit, a collection of advanced command-line tools for MySQL developed by Percona. Percona Toolkit was forked from two projects in June, 2011: Maatkit and Aspersa. Those projects were created by Baron Schwartz and primarily developed by him and Daniel Nichter. Visit <http://www.percona.com/software/> to learn about other free, open-source software from Percona.

COPYRIGHT, LICENSE, AND WARRANTY
This program is copyright 2011-2026 Percona LLC and/or its affiliates, 2010-2011 Baron Schwartz.

THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, version 2; OR the Perl Artistic License. On UNIX and similar systems, you can issue `man perlgpl' or `man perlartistic' to read these licenses.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License, version 2 along with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

VERSION
pt-index-usage 3.7.1-4

POD ERRORS
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