MySQL configuration that allows for locking many tables?

Question

I need to do a MySQLDump on a DB with ~700 tables and when I try with my current configuration, I get an error:

mysqldump: Got error: 1016: Can't open file: './my_db/content_node_field_instance.frm' (errno: 24) when using LOCK TABLES

Searching around I've found that this happens because it tries to lock all tables and fails because they are "too many". I know I can try lock-tables=no and get a dump, but this way my DB might be in an inconsistent state.

So, does anyone know what is the MySQL configuration setting I need to change in order to be able to do the locking I need? I'm running 5.1.37-1ubuntu5.1 with MyISAM.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I'm not well experienced with MyISAM, but it looks like table-granularity locking is going to be an issue for backups.

It looks like there might be some aid in the MySQL hotcopy for ISAM. Good luck.