failover Fast Index Creation fast shutdown file format file-per-table fill factor  The ability to automatically switch to a standby server in the event of a failure. In the MySQL context, failover involves a standby database server. Often supported within  J2EE  environments by the application server or framework. See Also Connector/J, J2EE.  A capability first introduced in the InnoDB Plugin, now part of MySQL in 5.5 and higher, that speeds up creation of  InnoDB secondary indexes  by avoiding the need to completely rewrite the associated table. The speedup applies to dropping secondary indexes also. Because index maintenance can add performance overhead to many data transfer operations, consider doing operations such as  ALTER TABLE ... ENGINE=INNODB  or  INSERT INTO ... SELECT * FROM ... without any secondary indexes in place, and creating the indexes afterward. In MySQL 5.6, this feature becomes more general. You can read and write to tables while an index is being created, and many more kinds of  ALTER TABLE  operations can be performed without copying the table, without blocking  DML  operations, or both. Thus in MySQL 5.6 and higher, this set of features is referred to as  online DDL rather than Fast Index Creation. For related information, see Section 15.12, “InnoDB and Online DDL” . See Also DML, index, online DDL, secondary index.  The default  shutdown  procedure for  InnoDB , based on the configuration setting  innodb_fast_shutdown=1 . To save time, certain  flush  operations are skipped. This type of shutdown is safe during normal usage, because the flush operations are performed during the next startup, using the same mechanism as in  crash recovery . In cases where the database is being shut down for an upgrade or downgrade, do a  slow shutdown  instead to ensure that all relevant changes are applied to the  data files  during the shutdown. See Also crash recovery, data files, flush, shutdown, slow shutdown.  The file format for  InnoDB  tables. See Also file-per-table, .ibd file, ibdata file, row format.  A general name for the setting controlled by the  innodb_file_per_table  option, which is an important configuration option that affects aspects of  InnoDB  file storage, availability of features, and I/O characteristics. As of MySQL 5.6.7,  innodb_file_per_table  is enabled by default. With the  innodb_file_per_table  option enabled, you can create a table in its own  .ibd file  rather than in the shared  ibdata files  of the  system tablespace . When table data is stored in an individual  .ibd file , you have more flexibility to choose  row formats  required for features such as data  compression . The  TRUNCATE TABLE  operation is also faster, and reclaimed space can be used by the operating system rather than remaining reserved for  InnoDB . The  MySQL Enterprise Backup  product is more flexible for tables that are in their own files. For example, tables can be excluded from a backup, but only if they are in separate files. Thus, this setting is suitable for tables that are backed up less frequently or on a different schedule. See Also compressed row format, compression, file format, .ibd file, ibdata file, innodb_file_per_table, MySQL Enterprise Backup, row format, system tablespace.  In an  InnoDB index , the proportion of a  page  that is taken up by index data before the page is split. The unused space when index data is first divided between pages allows for rows to be updated with longer string 6151