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Setting up MariaDB replication with the help of XtraBackup

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Article from ADMIN 36/2016

By Susanne Holzgraefe

If your database is so important that the content must not be lost between periodic data backups, replication is a possible solution. We describe how to set up replication for MariaDB with the aid of XtraBackup.

Data is valuable, and owners want to protect it against loss. The first choice is usually a backup; however, the disadvantage of the classic periodic backup is that data that has changed after the last backup is lost. A potential solution is replication – that is, transferring all the changes to a storage location that is a copy of the working infrastructure. This approach also supports load balancing if the second system is made available to users for read-only access. To define the terms, I'll conduct a brief tour through the different types of replication (Figure 1).

Figure 1: The different types of standby solutions depend on whether and to what extent the second node can be used.

Variants

In a "standalone" instance, nothing is replicated, and "cold standby" means that the backup system only starts up after its counterpart has failed. Here, too, it is not absolutely necessary to replicate; it is sufficient if the backup system can access a storage medium that it shares with the primary system.

A "warm standby" has a primary machine that handles all the write and read operations, with a secondary machine also running and continuously

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