Now that master-slave internal replication is available starting in 3.23.15,
this is the recommended way. However, it is still possible to replicate a database by
using the update
log. See section 21.3 The update log. This requires one database that acts as a master
(to which data changes are made) and one or more other databases that act
as slaves. To update a slave, just run mysql < update_log
.
Supply host, user and password options that are appropriate for the slave
database, and use the update log from the master database as input.
If you never delete anything from a table, you can use a TIMESTAMP
column to find out which rows have been inserted or changed in the table
since the last replication (by comparing to the time when you did the
replication last time) and only copy these rows to the mirror.
It is possible to make a two-way updating system using both the update log (for deletes) and timestamps (on both sides). But in that case you must be able to handle conflicts when the same data have been changed in both ends. You probably want to keep the old version to help with deciding what has been updated.
Because replication in this case is done with SQL statements, you should not use the following functions in statements that update the database; they may not return the same value as in the original database:
DATABASE()
GET_LOCK()
and RELEASE_LOCK()
RAND()
USER()
, SYSTEM_USER()
or SESSION_USER()
VERSION()
, CONNECT_ID()
All time functions are safe to use, as the timestamp is sent to the
mirror if needed. LAST_INSERT_ID()
is also safe to use.
Because MySQL tables are stored as files, it is easy to do a
backup. To get a consistent backup, do a LOCK TABLES
on the
relevant tables. See section 7.27 LOCK TABLES/UNLOCK TABLES
syntax. You only need a
read lock; this allows other threads to continue to query the tables while
you are making a copy of the files in the database directory. If you want to
make a SQL level backup of a table, you can use SELECT INTO OUTFILE
.
Another way to backup a database is to use the mysqldump
program:
See section 14.4 Dumping the structure and data from MySQL databases and tables.
shell> mysqldump --tab=/path/to/some/dir --opt --fullYou can also simply copy all table files (`*.frm', `*.MYD' and `*.MYI' files), as long as the server isn't updating anything. The script
mysqlhotcopy
does use this method.
mysqld
if it's running, then start it with the
--log-update[=file_name]
option. See section 21.3 The update log. The update
log file(s) provide you with the information you need to replicate
changes to the database that are made subsequent to the point at which
you executed mysqldump
.
If you have to restore something, try to recover your tables using
myisamchk -r
first. That should work in 99.9% of all cases. If
myisamchk
fails, try the following procedure:
(This will only work if you have started MySQL with
--log-update
. See section 21.3 The update log.)
mysqldump
backup.
shell> ls -1 -t -r hostname.[0-9]* | xargs cat | mysql
ls
is used to get all the update log files in the right order.
You can also do selective backups with SELECT * INTO OUTFILE 'file_name'
FROM tbl_name
and restore with LOAD DATA INFILE 'file_name' REPLACE
...
To avoid duplicate records, you need a PRIMARY KEY
or a
UNIQUE
key in the table. The REPLACE
keyword causes old records
to be replaced with new ones when a new record duplicates an old record on
a unique key value.
When started with the --log-update[=file_name]
option,
mysqld
writes a log file containing all SQL commands that update
data. If no file name is given, it defaults to the name of the host
machine, If file name is given, but it doesn't contain a path the file
is written in the data directory. If file_name doesn't have an
extension, mysqld
will create log file names of type
file_name.#
, where #
is a number that is incremented each
time you execute mysqladmin refresh
or mysqladmin
flush-logs
, the FLUSH LOGS
statement, or restart the server.
Note: For the above scheme to work, you should NOT create own files with the same file name as the update log + some extensions that may be regarded as a number, in the directory used by the update log!
If you use the --log
or -l
options, mysqld
writes a
general log with a filename of `hostname.log', and restarts and
refreshes do not cause a new log file to be generated (although it is closed
and reopened). In this case you can copy it (on Unix) by doing:
mv hostname.log hostname-old.log mysqladmin flush-logs cp hostname-old.log to-backup-directory rm hostname-old.log
By default, the mysql.server
script starts the MySQL
server with the -l
option. If you need better performance when
you start using MySQL in a production environment, you can
remove the -l
option from mysql.server
or change it to
--log-update
.
Update logging is smart because it logs only statements that really update
data. So an UPDATE
or a DELETE
with a WHERE
that finds no
rows is not written to the log. It even skips UPDATE
statements that
set a column to the value it already has.
If you want to update a database from update log files, you could do the following (assuming your update logs have names of the form `file_name.###'):
shell> ls -1 -t -r file_name.[0-9]* | xargs cat | mysql
ls
is used to get all the log files in the right order.
This can be useful if you have to revert to backup files after a crash and you want to redo the updates that occurred between the time of the backup and the crash.
You can also use the update logs when you have a mirrored database on another host and you want to replicate the changes that have been made to the master database. See section 21.1 Database replication with update log.
There are circumstances when you might want to run multiple servers on the same machine. For example, you might want to test a new MySQL release while leaving your existing production setup undisturbed. Or you might be an Internet service provider that wants to provide independent MySQL installations for different customers.
If you want to run multiple servers, the easiest way is to compile the servers with different TCP/IP ports and socket files so they are not both listening to the same TCP/IP port or socket file.
Assume an existing server is configured for the default port number and
socket file. Then configure the new server with a configure
command
something like this:
shell> ./configure --with-tcp-port=port_number --with-unix-socket=file_name --prefix=/usr/local/mysql-3.22.9
Here port_number
and file_name
should be different than the
default port number and socket file pathname, and the --prefix
value
should specify an installation directory different than the one under which
the existing MySQL installation is located.
You can check the socket and port used by any currently-executing MySQL server with this command:
shell> mysqladmin -h hostname --port=port_number variables
If you have a MySQL server running on the port you used, you will get a list of some of the most important configurable variables in MySQL, including the socket name.
You should also edit the initialization script for your machine (probably
`mysql.server') to start and kill multiple mysqld
servers.
You don't have to recompile a new MySQL server just to start with
a different port and socket. You can change the port and socket to be used
by specifying them at runtime as options to safe_mysqld
:
shell> /path/to/safe_mysqld --socket=file_name --port=port_number
If you run the new server on the same database directory as another server
with logging enabled, you should also specify the name of the log files
to safe_mysqld
with --log
and --log-update
. Otherwise,
both servers may be trying to write to the same log file.
Warning: Normally you should never have two servers that update data in the same database! If your OS doesn't support fault-free system locking, this may lead to unpleasant surprises!
If you want to use another database directory for the second server, you
can use the --datadir=path
option to safe_mysqld
.
When you want to connect to a MySQL server that is running with a different port than the port that is compiled into your client, you can use one of the following methods:
--host 'hostname' --port=port_numer
or
[--host localhost] --socket=file_name
.
MYSQL_UNIX_PORT
and MYSQL_TCP_PORT
environment variables
to point to the Unix socket and TCP/IP port before you start your clients.
If you normally use a specific socket or port, you should place commands
to set these environment variables in your `.login' file.
See section A Environment variables. See section 14.1 Overview of the different MySQL programs.
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