Recently our MySQL server has been "going away" (ie. the client connection drops out). After weeks of trying different things (like adjusting packet size), we've discovered that it's our Veeam imaging backups which use the VMWare API to snapshot and copy the vmdks etc. We are using ESXi 5 with a Centos 6.4 guest, running (pretty much) only MySQL 5.1.69-log. The change which seemed to initiate this problem was increasing the physical disk size to 300GB, from about 100, and resizing the guest filesystem to use most of the new capacity. Ever since the disk was increased, we've been getting these problems during backups - presumably due to the increase time it takes to perform snapshot related functions. The new disks are 2x300GB Gen8 15k SAS in RAID1. The old disks would have been similar only smaller. The target of the Veeam process is a ReadyNAS over a 1Gb dedicated ethernet (i.e. separated from general office traffic). The host is an HP DL380P tower: ==server spec...