MySQL 5.6 supports Online DDL. Most operations are online, you can see a list at: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/innodb-create-index-overview.html http

MySQL 5.6 supports Online DDL. Most operations are online, you can see a list at: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/innodb-create-index-overview.html http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/innodb-create-index-o... (The table 14.5 column "Allows Concurrent DML?" is the interesting one.)