MySQL supports several storage engines that act as handlers for different table types. MySQL storage engines include both those that handle transaction-safe tables and those that handle non-transaction-safe tables.

As of MySQL 5.1, MySQL Server uses a pluggable storage engine architecture that allows storage engines to be loaded into and unloaded from a running MySQL server.

To determine which storage engines your server supports by using the SHOW ENGINES statement. The value in the Support column indicates whether an engine can be used. A value of YES, NO, or DEFAULT indicates that an engine is available, not available, or avaiable and current set as the default storage engine.

mysql> SHOW ENGINES\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
      Engine: FEDERATED
     Support: NO
     Comment: Federated MySQL storage engine
Transactions: NULL
          XA: NULL
  Savepoints: NULL
*************************** 2. row ***************************
      Engine: MRG_MYISAM
     Support: YES
     Comment: Collection of identical MyISAM tables
Transactions: NO
          XA: NO
  Savepoints: NO
*************************** 3. row ***************************
      Engine: MyISAM
     Support: DEFAULT
     Comment: Default engine as of MySQL 3.23 with great performance
Transactions: NO
          XA: NO
  Savepoints: NO
...

This chapter describes each of the MySQL storage engines except for NDBCLUSTER, which is covered in MySQL Cluster NDB 6.X/7.X. It also contains a description of the pluggable storage engine architecture (see Section 13.1, “Overview of MySQL Storage Engine Architecture”).

For answers to some commonly asked questions about MySQL storage engines, see Section A.2, “MySQL 5.1 FAQ — Storage Engines”.