Optimize MySQL on a Large Database Server
On a large server which run primarily mysql service only, the first step you should take is to copy the proper config file which is already optimized for large systems:
# mv /etc/my.cnf/my.cnf_OLD
# cp /usr/share/doc/mysql-server-5.0.44/my-huge.cnf /etc/my.cnf
I’m using 5.0.44 version here on a CentOS 5.2 box. You need to adjust path as per your mysql version.