Looking for backup strategy for write-intensive mysql database

June 13, 2017 2.5k views
MySQL Backups Ubuntu
xymanek
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xymanek

Right now the setup consists of $10 droplet with an attached volume with MySQL datadir on the volume (following this guide). The reason for this is to be able to scale storage and cpu/ram separately with little downtime (using the flexible resizing for droplet). All tables are using InnoDB.

That said I’m looking for how to backup this properly. I have set up mysqldump and automysqlbackup (which uses mysqldump, if I remember correctly) before but (if I remember correctly) both of them lock the database while doing the backup which isn’t acceptable for write-intensive scenario (monitoring type of thing).

After some googling I found percona hot backup but I didn’t really understand how to automate it (looking to save backups to S3). Also I wasn’t sure if it’s what I’m looking for.

Googling “write-intensive mysql backups” unfortunately doesn’t really give anything. Looking for any ideas on how to do this so I can rely on it if/when something happens

2 comments
  • DigitalCarrot June 13, 2017

    Are your tables MyISAM or InnoDB?

    If InnoDB can you use the single-transaction or skip-lock-tables flag in mysqldump to prevent the tables being locked?

  • xymanek June 15, 2017

    @DigitalCarrot tables are InnoDB. I didn’t know about the skip table lock option, I will definitely check it out. Thanks!

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1 Answer
hansen June 13, 2017

Hi @xymanek

Just so everyone else might learn a little - here’s how to setup hot backup:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-create-hot-backups-of-mysql-databases-with-percona-xtrabackup-on-ubuntu-14-04
In case you’re using MariaDB 10.1+: https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb-backup/

So you’re looking for a S3 backup tool? There are several tools out here, but have a look at these:
https://github.com/bloomreach/s4cmd
http://s3tools.org/s3cmd

You would then create a little script, where you would run the backup and then the S3 backup.

Out of interest, when you say write-intensive:
How many queries per second? How many rows added per day? How much storage are you currently using?

How To Create Hot Backups of MySQL Databases with Percona XtraBackup on Ubuntu 14.04
by Mitchell Anicas
This tutorial will show you how to perform a full hot backup of your MySQL or MariaDB databases using Percona XtraBackup on Ubuntu 14.04. The resulting database backup can then be copied to a remote server with a traditional file backup system, like Bacula. The process of restoring the database from a backup is also covered.
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  • xymanek June 15, 2017

    Thanks for the reply! We are still in development + testing stage so I don’t really know what values we will see in production but based on what we see in testing so far I can predict the following:

    • 5 - 10 inserts/second with some updates flying around
    • About 50-100 MiB added every 5 days

    Of course these values will grow over time, but for starters this should be more or less accurate. Also, when I said “write-intensive” I was more thinking about the fact that it’s not acceptable to stop writes for minute or two (which was OK for backups of blogs using mysqldump)

    About percona hot backup: I read that guide but due to fact that taking a backup has multiple steps I’m a bit confused on how to script it. Also that guide ends with “After that, you will want to look into … creating incremental backups (with XtraBackup)”. Should I look into them or taking full backups is better in my case?

    Also, since @DigitalCarrot mentioned that mysqldump can be used without locking tables, would you recommend using percona hot backup or mysqldump without table lock?

    • hansen June 15, 2017

      @xymanek

      I prefer the mysqldump, since I got the data in a readable format - but it would be slow to restore.
      But I wouldn’t say one solution excludes the other - I would probably run both.
      You can never have enough backup solutions.

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