title: How to make MySQL use less memory?
body: <p>I'm trying to make a database update with Drush to a Drupal 7 site with just a few nodes and 85 modules... As the update dies almost every time is clear that, for a VPS with 512MB with it's containerized services (mysql, nginx, php-fpm, etc.), there isn't enough memory... </p>
  
  <p>Everytime MySQL gets killed by the kernel as far I can understand from the logs:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Out of memory: Kill process 4310 (mysqld)</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>My question is, how can I configure MySQL service to avoid it's "assassination"? What are the parameters in the MySQL configuration file to lower the memory consumption of the mysqld process? </p>
  
  <p>I'm in DEV so I don't mind if the process becomes slow. I just want to know what parameters I have to tweak to survive the update process without increasing the memory.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks for your help.</p>