For MySQL and MariaDB databases, it is recommended to use the InnoDB engine (or XtraDb for MariaDB). It is NOT recommended to use the MyISAM engine.
InnoDB:
- Row-level locking. Having a more fine grained locking-mechanism gives you higher concurrency compared to, for instance, MyISAM.
- Support for transactions (giving you support for the ACID property)
- Foreign key constraints. Allowing you to let the database ensure the integrity of the state of the database, and the relationships between tables.
- InnoDB is more resistant to table corruption than MyISAM.
- Support for large buffer pool for both data and indexes. MyISAM key buffer is only for indexes.
- MyISAM is stagnant; all future enhancements will be in InnoDB
InnoDB Limitations:
- No full text indexing (Below-5.6 mysql version)
- Cannot be compressed for fast, read-only
The InnoDB storage engine in MySQL.
MyISAM:
- Simpler to design and create, thus better for beginners. No worries about the foreign relationships between tables.
- Faster than InnoDB on the whole as a result of the simpler structure thus much less costs of server resources.
- Full-text indexing.
- Especially good for read-intensive (select) tables.
MyISAM Limitations:
- Table-level locking
- No foreign keys and cascading deletes/updates
- No transactional integrity (ACID compliance)
- No rollback abilities
- Row limit of 4,284,867,296 rows (232)
- Maximum of 64 indexes per row
The MyISAM storage engine in MySQL.
Before alter tables is neccessary to dump databases!
# mysqldump -u root -p accounts > accounts.sql
Using following SQL query you can check engine type, in this case Accounts database.
MySQL> show table status from accounts;

Now you can see all tables which have to be altered. You can achieve this goal by following SQL commands.
MySQL> ALTER TABLE accounts.aliases ENGINE=InnoDB; MySQL> ALTER TABLE accounts.domains ENGINE=InnoDB; MySQL> ALTER TABLE accounts.metadata ENGINE=InnoDB; MySQL> ALTER TABLE accounts.useraccess engine=InnoDB; MySQL> ALTER TABLE accounts.users ENGINE=InnoDB;
All tables are now using InnoDB storage engine. You can check it by following SQL query.
MySQL> show table status from accounts;

In case of needed you can change storage engine to InnoDB on other databases such as groupware, anti-spam, directory cache, active sync, webclient cache. Procedure is very similar as on example above.
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