memcached vs tuning MySql

[Keith Smith]

Hi,

I'm working on a dual quad server with 16GB RAM.  Free says it is using 
about 10GB.

It serves several websites, the main one is a very active Drupal 
website.  As you know Drupal is a resource hog.  This one is even more 
so since there is tons of modules adding to the mix.

I am told I should tune MySql instead of using memcache.

The default max_allowed_packet is 1M.  Druapl requires 16M  I set it at 
32M.  I page load is much faster and this is with memcache loaded and 
configured.  Memcache is currently configured to 64M of RAM for caching. 
  Seems very small.

Drupal uses innoDB and I am reading that increasing the 
innodb_buffer_pool_size will lead to a bust in performance.  I assume 
this will reduce IO and the server load should go down.

There is 4GB of free RAM and the server has not used any swap since it 
was rebooted last night.  The innodb_buffer_pool_size default value is 
128MB. Since I do not know what to expect I am thinking of setting it to 
1GB and see what happens and work up from there.

Any feedback is much appreciated!!

Keith

-- 
Keith Smith