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Make backups in replication environments

There are options specific to back up from a replication replica.

The --slave-info option

This option is useful when backing up a replication replica server. It prints the binary log position and name of the source server. It also writes this information to the xtrabackup_slave_info file as a CHANGE MASTER statement.

This option is useful for setting up a new replica for this source. You can start a replica server with this backup and issue the statement saved in the xtrabackup_slave_info file. More details of this procedure can be found in How to setup a replica for replication in 6 simple steps with Percona XtraBackup.

The --safe-slave-backup option

In order to assure a consistent replication state, this option stops the replication SQL thread and waits to start backing up until Slave_open_temp_tables in SHOW STATUS is zero. If there are no open temporary tables, the backup will take place, otherwise the SQL thread will be started and stopped until there are no open temporary tables. The backup will fail if Slave_open_temp_tables does not become zero after --safe-slave-backup-timeout seconds (defaults to 300 seconds). The replication SQL thread will be restarted when the backup finishes.

Note

Using a safe-slave-backup option stops the SQL replica thread before copying the InnoDB files.

Using this option is always recommended when taking backups from a replica server.

Warning

Make sure your replica is a true replica of the source before using it as a source for backup. A good tool to validate a replica is pt-table-checksum.

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