title: methods of scaling mysql inserts
body: <p>I've got a php-cli script which makes +2 million mysql queries(1/2 select statements using indexes, 1/2 row inserts of a couple varchar(25), int(5) columns ) on an amazon server's crontab. The script itself takes hours to run. I'd like to get it down to ~5 minutes. </p>
  
  <p>I'm wondering how I might scale up the row inserts to cut the time?(The script is essentially a foreach loop over some api data, so I'm also looking into ways of forking the script per iteration ((as a separate issue))</p>
  
  <p>I've been looking at mysql cluster but know nothing about data warehousing, etc. Does anyone know if this would even be the right place to start looking? Would something like Hive/Hadoop be more appropriate?</p>
  
  <p>--edit
  I'm on an ec2 micro-instance for context. I expect that migration to heavier duty instances will be required, but am wondering if there's any mysql-like alternative to plain old mysql daemon that might help</p>