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.

Plugging in a Storage Engine

Before a storage engine can be used, the storage engine plugin shared library must be loaded into MySQL using the INSTALL PLUGIN statement. For example, if the EXAMPLE engine plugin is named ha_example and the shared library is named ha_example.so, you load it with the following statement:

mysql> INSTALL PLUGIN ha_example SONAME 'ha_example.so';

To install a pluggable storage engine, the plugin file must be located in the MySQL plugin directory, and the user issuing the INSTALL PLUGIN statement must have INSERT privilege for the mysql.plugin table.

The shared library must be located in the MySQL server plugin directory, the location of which is given by the plugin_dir system variable.

Unplugging a Storage Engine

To unplug a storage engine, use the UNINSTALL PLUGIN statement:

mysql> UNINSTALL PLUGIN ha_example;

If you unplug a storage engine that is needed by existing tables, those tables become inaccessible, but will still be present on disk (where applicable). Ensure that there are no tables using a storage engine before you unplug the storage engine.