When I update a particularly large table, the update times out because the table is locked while the indexes rebuild. Is there any way to rebuild the index ONLINE (i.e. Oracle) so the update does not timeout?
A:
Simple answer: No, there is no way.
More complex answer: You can emulate online index addition by using statement-based replication and adding the index to the slave first, then making it the master. This is why people use packages like http://mysql-mmm.org/.
Morgan Tocker
2010-06-16 16:31:47