Chapter 21 InnoDB Cluster

This chapter covers MySQL InnoDB cluster, which combines MySQL technologies to enable you to create highly available clusters of MySQL server instances.

21.1 Introducing InnoDB Cluster

MySQL InnoDB cluster provides a complete high availability solution for MySQL. MySQL Shell includes AdminAPI which enables you to easily configure and administer a group of at least three MySQL server instances to function as an InnoDB cluster. Each MySQL server instance runs MySQL Group Replication, which provides the mechanism to replicate data within InnoDB clusters, with built-in failover. AdminAPI removes the need to work directly with Group Replication in InnoDB clusters, but for more information see Chapter 18, Group Replication which explains the details. MySQL Router can automatically configure itself based on the cluster you deploy, connecting client applications transparently to the server instances. In the event of an unexpected failure of a server instance the cluster reconfigures automatically. In the default single-primary mode, an InnoDB cluster has a single read-write server instance - the primary. Multiple secondary server instances are replicas of the primary. If the primary fails, a secondary is automatically promoted to the role of primary. MySQL Router detects this and forwards client applications to the new primary. Advanced users can also configure a cluster to have multiple-primaries.

Important

InnoDB cluster does not provide support for MySQL NDB Cluster. NDB Cluster depends on the NDB storage engine as well as a number of programs specific to NDB Cluster which are not furnished with MySQL Server 8.0; NDB is available only as part of the MySQL NDB Cluster distribution. In addition, the MySQL server binary (mysqld) that is supplied with MySQL Server 8.0 cannot be used with NDB Cluster. For more information about MySQL NDB Cluster, see Chapter 22, MySQL NDB Cluster 8.0. Section 22.1.6, “MySQL Server Using InnoDB Compared with NDB Cluster”, provides information about the differences between the InnoDB and NDB storage engines.

The following diagram shows an overview of how these technologies work together:

Figure 21.1 InnoDB cluster overview

Three MySQL servers are grouped together as a high availability cluster. One of the servers is the read/write primary instance, and the other two are read-only secondary instances. Group Replication is used to replicate data from the primary instance to the secondary instances. MySQL Router connects client applications (in this example, a MySQL Connector) to the primary instance.

Using AdminAPI

MySQL Shell includes the AdminAPI, which is accessed through the dba global variable and its associated methods. The dba variable's methods enable you to deploy, configure, and administer InnoDB clusters. For example, use the dba.createCluster() method to create an InnoDB cluster.

Important

MySQL Shell enables you to connect to servers over a socket connection, but AdminAPI requires TCP connections to a server instance. Socket based connections are not supported in AdminAPI.

MySQL Shell provides online help for the AdminAPI. To list all available dba commands, use the dba.help() method. For online help on a specific method, use the general format object.help('methodname'). For example:

mysql-js> dba.help('getCluster')

Retrieves a cluster from the Metadata Store.

SYNTAX

  dba.getCluster([name][, options])

WHERE

  name: Parameter to specify the name of the cluster to be returned.
  options: Dictionary with additional options.

RETURNS

  The cluster object identified by the given name or the default cluster.

DESCRIPTION

If name is not specified or is null, the default cluster will be returned.

If name is specified, and no cluster with the indicated name is found, an error
will be raised.

The options dictionary accepts the connectToPrimary option,which defaults to
true and indicates the shell to automatically connect to the primary member of
the cluster.

EXCEPTIONS

  MetadataError in the following scenarios:

   - If the Metadata is inaccessible.
   - If the Metadata update operation failed.

  ArgumentError in the following scenarios:

   - If the Cluster name is empty.
   - If the Cluster name is invalid.
   - If the Cluster does not exist.

  RuntimeError in the following scenarios:

   - If the current connection cannot be used for Group Replication.

MySQL Shell can optionally log the SQL statements used by AdminAPI operations (with the exception of sandbox operations), and can also display them in the terminal as they are executed. To configure MySQL Shell to do this, see Logging AdminAPI Operations.

Specifying Instances

One of the core concepts of administering InnoDB cluster is understanding connections to the MySQL instances which make up your cluster. The requirements for connections to the instances when administering your InnoDB cluster, and for the connections between the instances themselves, are:

  • only TCP/IP connections are supported, using Unix sockets or named pipes is not supported. InnoDB cluster is intended to be used in a local area network, running a cluster of instances connected over a wide area network is not recommended.

  • only MySQL Classic protocol connections are supported, X Protocol is not supported.

    Tip

    Your applications can use X Protocol, this requirement is for AdminAPI.

MySQL Shell enables you to work with various APIs, and supports specifying connections as explained in Section 4.2.5, “Connecting to the Server Using URI-Like Strings or Key-Value Pairs”. The Additional Connection parameters are not supported by InnoDB cluster. You can specify connections using either URI-type strings, or key-value pairs. This documentation demonstrates AdminAPI using URI-type connection strings. For example, to connect as the user myuser to the MySQL server instance at www.example.com, on port 3306 use the connection string:

myuser@www.example.com:3306

To use this connection string with an AdminAPI operation such as dba.configureInstance(), you need to ensure the connection string is interpreted as a string, for example by surrounding the connection string with either single (') or double (") quote marks. If you are using the JavaScript implementation of AdminAPI issue:

MySQL JS > dba.configureInstance('myuser@www.example.com:3306')

Assuming you are running MySQL Shell in the default interactive mode, you are prompted for your password. AdminAPI supports MySQL Shell's Pluggable Password Store, and once you store the password you used to connect to the instance you are no longer prompted for it.

21.2 Creating an InnoDB Cluster

This section explains the different ways you can create an InnoDB cluster, the requirements for server instances and the software you need to install to deploy a cluster.

21.2.1 Deployment Scenarios

InnoDB cluster supports the following deployment scenarios:

  • Production deployment: if you want to use InnoDB cluster in a full production environment you need to configure the required number of machines and then deploy your server instances to the machines. A production deployment enables you to exploit the high availability features of InnoDB cluster to their full potential. See Section 21.2.4, “Production Deployment of InnoDB Cluster” for instructions.

  • Sandbox deployment: if you want to test out InnoDB cluster before committing to a full production deployment, the provided sandbox feature enables you to quickly set up a cluster on your local machine. Sandbox server instances are created with the required configuration and you can experiment with InnoDB cluster to become familiar with the technologies employed. See Section 21.2.6, “Sandbox Deployment of InnoDB Cluster” for instructions.

    Important

    A sandbox deployment is not suitable for use in a full production environment.

21.2.2 InnoDB Cluster Requirements

Before installing a production deployment of InnoDB cluster, ensure that the server instances you intend to use meet the following requirements.

  • InnoDB cluster uses Group Replication and therefore your server instances must meet the same requirements. See Section 18.9.1, “Group Replication Requirements”. AdminAPI provides the dba.checkInstanceConfiguration() method to verify that an instance meets the Group Replication requirements, and the dba.configureInstance() method to configure an instance to meet the requirements.

    Note

    When using a sandbox deployment the instances are configured to meet these requirements automatically.

  • Group Replication members can contain tables using a storage engine other than InnoDB, for example MyISAM. Such tables cannot be written to by Group Replication, and therefore when using InnoDB cluster. To be able to write to such tables with InnoDB cluster, convert all such tables to InnoDB before using the instance in a InnoDB cluster.

  • The Performance Schema must be enabled on any instance which you want to use with InnoDB cluster.

  • The provisioning scripts that MySQL Shell uses to configure servers for use in InnoDB cluster require access to Python version 2.7. For a sandbox deployment Python is required on the single machine used for the deployment, production deployments require Python on each server instance which should run MySQL Shell locally, see Persisting Settings.

    On Windows MySQL Shell includes Python and no user configuration is required. On Unix Python must be found as part of the shell environment. To check that your system has Python configured correctly issue:

    $ /usr/bin/env python

    If a Python interpreter starts, no further action is required. If the previous command fails, create a soft link between /usr/bin/python and your chosen Python binary.

  • From version 8.0.17, instances must use a unique server_id within a InnoDB cluster. When you use the Cluster.addInstance(instance) operation, if the server_id of instance is already used by an instance in the cluster then the operation fails with an error.

21.2.3 Methods of Installing

The method you use to install InnoDB cluster depends on the type of deployment you intend to use. For a sandbox deployment install the components of InnoDB cluster to a single machine. A sandbox deployment is local to a single machine, therefore the install needs to only be done once on the local machine. For a production deployment install the components to each machine that you intend to add to your cluster. A production deployment uses multiple remote host machines running MySQL server instances, so you need to connect to each machine using a tool such as SSH or Windows remote desktop to carry out tasks such as installing components. The following methods of installing InnoDB cluster are available:

Once you have installed the software required by InnoDB cluster choose to follow either Section 21.2.6, “Sandbox Deployment of InnoDB Cluster” or Section 21.2.4, “Production Deployment of InnoDB Cluster”.

21.2.4 Production Deployment of InnoDB Cluster

When working in a production environment, the MySQL server instances which make up an InnoDB cluster run on multiple host machines as part of a network rather than on single machine as described in Section 21.2.6, “Sandbox Deployment of InnoDB Cluster”. Before proceeding with these instructions you must install the required software to each machine that you intend to add as a server instance to your cluster, see Section 21.2.3, “Methods of Installing”.

The following diagram illustrates the scenario you work with in this section:

Figure 21.2 Production Deployment

Three MySQL servers are grouped together as a production InnoDB cluster. One of the servers is the primary instance, and the other two are secondary instances. The IP address for the primary server is 139.59.177.10, and the IP addresses for the two secondary instances are 139.59.177.11 and 139.59.177.12. MySQL Router connects a client application to the primary instance. The admin capability in MySQL Shell interacts directly with the production InnoDB cluster.

Important

Unlike a sandbox deployment, where all instances are deployed locally to one machine which AdminAPI has local file access to and can persist configuration changes, for a production deployment you must persist any configuration changes on the instance. How you do this depends on the version of MySQL running on the instance, see Persisting Settings.

To pass a server's connection information to AdminAPI, use URI-like connection strings or a data dictionary; see Section 4.2.5, “Connecting to the Server Using URI-Like Strings or Key-Value Pairs”. In this documentation, URI-like strings are shown.

The following sections describe how to deploy a production InnoDB cluster.

User Privileges

The user account used to administer an instance does not have to be the root account, however the user needs to be assigned full read and write privileges on the InnoDB cluster metadata tables in addition to full MySQL administrator privileges (SUPER, GRANT OPTION, CREATE, DROP and so on). The preferred method to create users to administer the cluster is using the clusterAdmin option with the dba.configureInstance(), and Cluster.addInstance() operations. In this procedure the user ic is shown in examples.

Tip

The clusterAdmin user name and password must be the same on all instances that belong to a cluster.

If only read operations are needed (such as for monitoring purposes), an account with more restricted privileges can be used. See Configuring Users for InnoDB Cluster.

User Accounts Created by InnoDB Cluster

As part of using Group Replication, InnoDB cluster creates internal users which enable replication between the servers in the cluster. These users are internal to the cluster, and the user name of the generated users follows a naming scheme of mysql_innodb_cluster_r[10_numbers]. The hostname used for the internal users depends on whether the ipWhitelist option has been configured. If ipWhitelist is not configured, it defaults to AUTOMATIC and the internal users are created using both the wildcard % character and localhost for the hostname value. When ipWhitelist has been configured, for each address in the ipWhitelist list an internal user is created. For more information, see Creating a Whitelist of Servers.

Each internal user has a randomly generated password. The randomly generated users are given the following grants:

GRANT REPLICATION SLAVE ON *.* to internal_user;

The internal user accounts are created on the seed instance and then replicated to the other instances in the cluster. The internal users are:

  • generated when creating a new cluster by issuing dba.createCluster()

  • generated when adding a new instance to the cluster by issuing Cluster.addInstance().

In addition, the Cluster.rejoinInstance() operation can also result in a new internal user being generated when the ipWhitelist option is used to specify a hostname. For example by issuing:

Cluster.rejoinInstance({ipWhitelist: "192.168.1.1/22"});

all previously existing internal users are removed and a new internal user is created, taking into account the ipWhitelist value used.

For more information on the internal users required by Group Replication, see Section 18.2.1.3, “User Credentials”.

Configuring Hostname

The production instances which make up a cluster run on separate machines, therefore each machine must have a unique host name and be able to resolve the host names of the other machines which run server instances in the cluster. If this is not the case, you can:

  • configure each machine to map the IP of each other machine to a hostname. See your operating system documentation for details. This is the recommended solution.

  • set up a DNS service

  • configure the report_host variable in the MySQL configuration of each instance to a suitable externally reachable address

InnoDB cluster supports using IP addresses instead of host names. From MySQL Shell 8.0.18, AdminAPI supports IPv6 addresses if the target MySQL Server version is higher than 8.0.13. When using MySQL Shell 8.0.18 or higher, if all cluster instances are running 8.0.14 or higher then you can use an IPv6 or hostname that resolves to an IPv6 address for instance connection strings and with options such as localAddress, groupSeeds and ipWhitelist. For more information on using IPv6 see Section 18.4.5, “Support For IPv6 And For Mixed IPv6 And IPv4 Groups”. Previous versions support IPv4 addresses only.

In this procedure the host name ic-number is used in examples.

To verify whether the hostname of a MySQL server is correctly configured, execute the following query to see how the instance reports its own address to other servers and try to connect to that MySQL server from other hosts using the returned address:

SELECT coalesce(@@report_host, @@hostname);

Configuring Ports

Instances that belong to a cluster have a localAddress, which is the group_replication_local_address, and this address is used for internal connections between the instances in the cluster and is not for use by clients. When you create a cluster or add instances to a cluster, by default the localAddress port is calculated by multiplying the target instance's port value by 10 and then adding one to the result. For example, when the port of the target instance is the default value of 3306, the calculated localAddress port is 33061. You should ensure that port numbers used by your cluster instances are compatible with the way localAddress is calculated. For example, if the server instance being used to create a cluster has a port number higher than 6553, the dba.createCluster() operation fails because the calculated localAddress port number exceeds the maximum valid port which is 65535. To avoid this situation either use a lower port value on the instances you use for InnoDB cluster, or manually assign the localAddress value, for example:

mysql-js> dba.createCluster('testCluster', {'localAddress':'icadmin@ic-1:33061'}

Persisting Settings

The AdminAPI commands you use to work with a cluster and its server instances modify the configuration of the instances. Depending on the way MySQL Shell is connected to an instance and the version of MySQL installed on the instance, these configuration changes can be persisted to the instance automatically. Persisting settings to the instance ensures that configuration changes are retained after the instance restarts, for background information see SET PERSIST. This is essential for reliable cluster usage, for example if settings are not persisted then an instance which has been added to a cluster does not rejoin the cluster after a restart because configuration changes are lost. Persisting changes is required after the following operations:

  • dba.configureInstance()

  • dba.createCluster()

  • Cluster.addInstance()

  • Cluster.removeInstance()

  • Cluster.rejoinInstance()

Instances which meet the following requirements support persisting configuration changes automatically:

Instances which do not meet these requirements do not support persisting configuration changes automatically, when AdminAPI operations result in changes to the instance's settings to be persisted you receive warnings such as:

	
WARNING: On instance 'localhost:3320' membership change cannot be persisted since MySQL version 5.7.21 
does not support the SET PERSIST command (MySQL version >= 8.0.5 required). Please use the 
<Dba>.configureLocalInstance command locally to persist the changes.

When AdminAPI commands are issued against the MySQL instance which MySQL Shell is currently running on, in other words the local instance, MySQL Shell persists configuration changes directly to the instance. On local instances which support persisting configuration changes automatically, configuration changes are persisted to the instance's mysqld-auto.cnf file and the configuration change does not require any further steps. On local instances which do not support persisting configuration changes automatically, you need to make the changes locally, see Configuring Instances with dba.configureLocalInstance().

When run against a remote instance, in other words an instance other than the one which MySQL Shell is currently running on, if the instance supports persisting configuration changes automatically, the AdminAPI commands persist configuration changes to the instance's mysql-auto.conf option file. If a remote instance does not support persisting configuration changes automatically, the AdminAPI commands can not automatically configure the instance's option file. This means that AdminAPI commands can read information from the instance, for example to display the current configuration, but changes to the configuration cannot be persisted to the instance's option file. In this case, you need to persist the changes locally, see Configuring Instances with dba.configureLocalInstance().

Verbose Logging

When working with a production deployment it can be useful to configure verbose logging for MySQL Shell, the information in the log can help you to find and resolve any issues that might occur when you are preparing server instances to work as part of InnoDB cluster. To start MySQL Shell with a verbose logging level use the --log-level option:

shell> mysqlsh --log-level=DEBUG3

The DEBUG3 is recommended, see --log-level for more information. When DEBUG3 is set the MySQL Shell log file contains lines such as Debug: execute_sql( ... ) which contain the SQL queries that are executed as part of each AdminAPI call. The log file generated by MySQL Shell is located in ~/.mysqlsh/mysqlsh.log for Unix-based systems; on Microsoft Windows systems it is located in %APPDATA%\MySQL\mysqlsh\mysqlsh.log. See MySQL Shell Logging and Debug for more information.

In addition to enabling the MySQL Shell log level, you can configure the amount of output AdminAPI provides in MySQL Shell after issuing each command. To enable the amount of AdminAPI output, in MySQL Shell issue:

mysql-js> dba.verbose=2

This enables the maximum output from AdminAPI calls. The available levels of output are:

  • 0 or OFF is the default. This provides minimal output and is the recommended level when not troubleshooting.

  • 1 or ON adds verbose output from each call to the AdminAPI.

  • 2 adds debug output to the verbose output providing full information about what each call to AdminAPI executes.

Configuring Production Instances

AdminAPI provides the dba.configureInstance() function that checks if an instance is suitably configured for InnoDB cluster usage, and configures the instance if it finds any settings which are not compatible with InnoDB cluster. You run the dba.configureInstance() command against an instance and it checks all of the settings required to enable the instance to be used for InnoDB cluster usage. If the instance does not require configuration changes, there is no need to modify the configuration of the instance, and the dba.configureInstance() command output confirms that the instance is ready for InnoDB cluster usage. If any changes are required to make the instance compatible with InnoDB cluster, a report of the incompatible settings is displayed, and you can choose to let the command make the changes to the instance's option file. Depending on the way MySQL Shell is connected to the instance, and the version of MySQL running on the instance, you can make these changes permanent by persisting them to a remote instance's option file, see Persisting Settings. Instances which do not support persisting configuration changes automatically require that you configure the instance locally, see Configuring Instances with dba.configureLocalInstance(). Alternatively you can make the changes to the instance's option file manually, see Section 4.2.2.2, “Using Option Files” for more information. Regardless of the way you make the configuration changes, you might have to restart MySQL to ensure the configuration changes are detected.

The syntax of the dba.configureInstance() command is:

dba.configureInstance([instance][, options])

where instance is an instance definition, and options is a data dictionary with additional options to configure the operation. The command returns a descriptive text message about the operation's result.

The instance definition is the connection data for the instance, see Section 4.2.5, “Connecting to the Server Using URI-Like Strings or Key-Value Pairs”. If the target instance already belongs to an InnoDB cluster an error is generated and the process fails.

The options dictionary can contain the following:

  • mycnfPath - the path to the MySQL option file of the instance.

  • outputMycnfPath - alternative output path to write the MySQL option file of the instance.

  • password - the password to be used by the connection.

  • clusterAdmin - the name of an InnoDB cluster administrator user to be created. The supported format is the standard MySQL account name format. Supports identifiers or strings for the user name and host name. By default if unquoted it assumes input is a string.

  • clusterAdminPassword - the password for the InnoDB cluster administrator account being created using clusterAdmin. Although you can specify using this option, this is a potential security risk. If you do not specify this option, but do specify the clusterAdmin option, you are prompted for the password at the interactive prompt.

  • clearReadOnly - a boolean value used to confirm that super_read_only should be set to off, see Super Read-only and Instances.

  • interactive - a boolean value used to disable the interactive wizards in the command execution, so that prompts are not provided to the user and confirmation prompts are not shown.

  • restart - a boolean value used to indicate that a remote restart of the target instance should be performed to finalize the operation.

Although the connection password can be contained in the instance definition, this is insecure and not recommended. Use the MySQL Shell Pluggable Password Store to store instace passwords securely.

Once dba.configureInstance() is issued against an instance, the command checks if the instance's settings are suitable for InnoDB cluster usage. A report is displayed which shows the settings required by InnoDB cluster . If the instance does not require any changes to its settings you can use it in an InnoDB cluster, and can proceed to Creating the Cluster. If the instance's settings are not valid for InnoDB cluster usage the dba.configureInstance() command displays the settings which require modification. Before configuring the instance you are prompted to confirm the changes shown in a table with the following information:

  • Variable - the invalid configuration variable.

  • Current Value - the current value for the invalid configuration variable.

  • Required Value - the required value for the configuration variable.

How you proceed depends on whether the instance supports persisting settings, see Persisting Settings. When dba.configureInstance() is issued against the MySQL instance which MySQL Shell is currently running on, in other words the local instance, it attempts to automatically configure the instance. When dba.configureInstance() is issued against a remote instance, if the instance supports persisting configuration changes automatically, you can choose to do this. If a remote instance does not support persisting the changes to configure it for InnoDB cluster usage, you have to configure the instance locally. See Configuring Instances with dba.configureLocalInstance().

In general, a restart of the instance is not required after dba.configureInstance() configures the option file, but for some specific settings a restart might be required. This information is shown in the report generated after issuing dba.configureInstance(). If the instance supports the RESTART statement, MySQL Shell can shutdown and then start the instance. This ensures that the changes made to the instance's option file are detected by mysqld. For more information see RESTART.

Note

After executing a RESTART statement, the current connection to the instance is lost. If auto-reconnect is enabled, the connection is reestablished after the server restarts. Otherwise, the connection must be reestablished manually.

The dba.configureInstance() method verifies that a suitable user is available for cluster usage, which is used for connections between members of the cluster, see User Privileges. The recommended way to add a suitable user is to use the clusterAdmin option, which enables you to configure the cluster user and password when calling the operation. For example:

mysql-js> dba.configureInstance('root@ic-1:3306', \ 
{clusterAdmin: "'icadmin'@'ic-1%'"});

The interactive prompt requests the password required by the specified user. This option should be used with a connection based on a user which has the privileges to create users with suitable privileges, in this example the root user is used. The created clusterAdmin user is granted the privileges to be able to administer the cluster. See Configuring Users for InnoDB Cluster for more information. The format of the user names accepted by the clusterAdmin option follows the standard MySQL account name format, see Section 6.2.4, “Specifying Account Names”. In this procedure the name icadmin is used, and that name is required for further operations such as adding instances to the cluster.

If you do not specify a user to administer the cluster, in interactive mode a wizard enables you to choose one of the following options:

  • enable remote connections for the root user

  • create a new user, the equivalent of specifying the clusterAdmin option

  • no automatic configuration, in which case you need to manually create the user

The following example demonstrates the option to create a new user for cluster usage.

	
mysql-js> dba.configureLocalInstance('root@localhost:3306')

Please provide the password for 'root@localhost:3306':

Please specify the path to the MySQL configuration file: /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf
Validating instance...

The configuration has been updated but it is required to restart the server.
{
  "config_errors": [
    {
      "action": "restart",
      "current": "OFF",
      "option": "enforce_gtid_consistency",
      "required": "ON"
    },
    {
      "action": "restart",
      "current": "OFF",
      "option": "gtid_mode",
      "required": "ON"
      },
    {
      "action": "restart",
      "current": "0",
      "option": "log_bin",
      "required": "1"
    },
    {
      "action": "restart",
      "current": "0",
      "option": "log_slave_updates",
      "required": "ON"
    },
    {
      "action": "restart",
      "current": "FILE",
      "option": "master_info_repository",
      "required": "TABLE"
    },
    {
      "action": "restart",
      "current": "FILE",
      "option": "relay_log_info_repository",
      "required": "TABLE"
    },
    {
      "action": "restart",
      "current": "OFF",
      "option": "transaction_write_set_extraction",
      "required": "XXHASH64"
    }
  ],
  "errors": [],
  "restart_required": true,
  "status": "error"
}
mysql-js>
Tip

If the instance has super_read_only=ON then you might need to confirm that AdminAPI can set super_read_only=OFF. See Super Read-only and Instances for more information.

Creating the Cluster

Once you have prepared your instances, use the dba.createCluster() function to create the cluster, using the instance which MySQL Shell is connected to as the seed instance for the cluster. The seed instance is replicated to the other instances that you add to the cluster, making them replicas of the seed instance. In this procedure the ic-1 instance is used as the seed. When you issue dba.createCluster(name) MySQL Shell creates a MySQL protocol session to the server instance connected to the MySQL Shell's current global session. For example, to create a cluster called testCluster and assign the returned cluster to a variable called cluster:

      
mysql-js> var cluster = dba.createCluster('testCluster')

Validating instance at icadmin@ic-1:3306...

This instance reports its own address as ic-1

Instance configuration is suitable.
Creating InnoDB cluster 'testCluster' on 'icadmin@ic-1:3306'...

Adding Seed Instance...
Cluster successfully created. Use Cluster.addInstance() to add MySQL instances.
At least 3 instances are needed for the cluster to be able to withstand up to
one server failure.

This pattern of assigning the returned cluster to a variable enables you to then execute further operations against the cluster using the Cluster object's methods. The returned Cluster object uses a new session, independent from the MySQL Shell's global session. This ensures that if you change the MySQL Shell global session, the Cluster object maintains its session to the instance.

The dba.createCluster() operation supports MySQL Shell's interactive option. When interactive is on, prompts appear in the following situations:

  • when run on an instance that belongs to a cluster and the adoptFromGr option is false, you are asked if you want to adopt an existing cluster

  • when the force option is not used (not set to true), you are asked to confirm the creation of a multi-primary cluster

Note

If you encounter an error related to metadata being inaccessible you might have the loopback network interface configured. For correct InnoDB cluster usage disable the loopback interface.

To check the cluster has been created, use the cluster instance's status() function. See Checking a cluster's Status with Cluster.status().

Tip

Once server instances belong to a cluster it is important to only administer them using MySQL Shell and AdminAPI. Attempting to manually change the configuration of Group Replication on an instance once it has been added to a cluster is not supported. Similarly, modifying server variables critical to InnoDB cluster, such as server_uuid, after an instance is configured using AdminAPI is not supported.

When you create a cluster using MySQL Shell 8.0.14 and later, you can set the timeout before instances are expelled from the cluster, for example when they become unreachable. Pass the expelTimeout option to the dba.createCluster() operation, which configures the group_replication_member_expel_timeout variable on the seed instance. The expelTimeout option can take an integer value in the range of 0 to 3600. All instances running MySQL server 8.0.13 and later which are added to a cluster with expelTimeout configured are automatically configured to have the same expelTimeout value as configured on the seed instance.

For information on the other options which you can pass to dba.createCluster(), see Section 21.5, “Working with InnoDB Cluster”.

Adding Instances to a Cluster

Use the Cluster.addInstance(instance) function to add more instances to the cluster, where instance is connection information to a configured instance, see Configuring Production Instances. From version 8.0.17, Group Replication implements compatibility policies which consider the patch version of the instances, and the Cluster.addInstance() operation detects this and in the event of an incompatibility the operation terminates with an error. See Checking the MySQL Version on Instances and Section 18.7.1, “Combining Different Member Versions in a Group”

You need a minimum of three instances in the cluster to make it tolerant to the failure of one instance. Adding further instances increases the tolerance to failure of an instance. To add an instance to the cluster issue:

mysql-js> cluster.addInstance('icadmin@ic-2:3306')
A new instance will be added to the InnoDB cluster. Depending on the amount of
data on the cluster this might take from a few seconds to several hours.

Please provide the password for 'icadmin@ic-2:3306': ********
Adding instance to the cluster ...

Validating instance at ic-2:3306...

This instance reports its own address as ic-2

Instance configuration is suitable.

The instance 'icadmin@ic-2:3306' was successfully added to the cluster.

If you are using MySQL 8.0.17 or later you can choose how the instance recovers the transactions it requires to synchronize with the cluster. Only when the joining instance has recovered all of the transactions previously processed by the cluster can it then join as an online instance and begin processing transactions. For more information, see Section 21.2.5, “Using MySQL Clone with InnoDB cluster”.

Also in 8.0.17 and later, you can configure how Cluster.addInstance() behaves, letting recovery operations proceed in the background or monitoring different levels of progress in MySQL Shell.

Depending on which option you chose to recover the instance from the cluster, you see different output in MySQL Shell. Suppose that you are adding the instance ic-2 to the cluster, and ic-1 is the seed or donor.

  • When you use MySQL Clone to recover an instance from the cluster, the output looks like:

    Validating instance at ic-2:3306...
    
    This instance reports its own address as ic-2:3306
    
    Instance configuration is suitable.
    A new instance will be added to the InnoDB cluster. Depending on the amount of
    data on the cluster this might take from a few seconds to several hours.
    
    Adding instance to the cluster...
    
    Monitoring recovery process of the new cluster member. Press ^C to stop monitoring and let it continue in background.
    Clone based state recovery is now in progress.
    
    NOTE: A server restart is expected to happen as part of the clone process. If the
    server does not support the RESTART command or does not come back after a
    while, you may need to manually start it back.
    
    * Waiting for clone to finish...
    NOTE: ic-2:3306 is being cloned from ic-1:3306
    ** Stage DROP DATA: Completed
    ** Clone Transfer  
        FILE COPY  ############################################################  100%  Completed
        PAGE COPY  ############################################################  100%  Completed
        REDO COPY  ############################################################  100%  Completed
    
    NOTE: ic-2:3306 is shutting down...
    
    * Waiting for server restart... ready
    * ic-2:3306 has restarted, waiting for clone to finish...
    ** Stage RESTART: Completed
    * Clone process has finished: 2.18 GB transferred in 7 sec (311.26 MB/s)
    
    State recovery already finished for 'ic-2:3306'
    
    The instance 'ic-2:3306' was successfully added to the cluster.

    The warnings about server restart should be observed, you might have to manually restart an instance. See Section 13.7.8.8, “RESTART Statement”.

  • When you use incremental recovery to recover an instance from the cluster, the output looks like:

    Incremental distributed state recovery is now in progress.
    
    * Waiting for incremental recovery to finish...
    NOTE: 'ic-2:3306' is being recovered from 'ic-1:3306'
    * Distributed recovery has finished

To cancel the monitoring of the recovery phase, issue CONTROL+C. This stops the monitoring but the recovery process continues in the background. The waitRecovery integer option can be used with the Cluster.addInstance() operation to control the behavior of the command regarding the recovery phase. The following values are accepted:

  • 0: do not wait and let the recovery process finish in the background;

  • 1: wait for the recovery process to finish;

  • 2: wait for the recovery process to finish; and show detailed static progress information;

  • 3: wait for the recovery process to finish; and show detailed dynamic progress information (progress bars);

By default, if the standard output which MySQL Shell is running on refers to a terminal, the waitRecovery option defaults to 3. Otherwise, it defaults to 2. See Monitoring Recovery Operations.

To verify the instance has been added, use the cluster instance's status() function. For example this is the status output of a sandbox cluster after adding a second instance:

mysql-js> cluster.status()
{
    "clusterName": "testCluster", 
    "defaultReplicaSet": {
        "name": "default", 
        "primary": "ic-1:3306", 
        "ssl": "REQUIRED", 
        "status": "OK_NO_TOLERANCE", 
        "statusText": "Cluster is NOT tolerant to any failures.", 
        "topology": {
            "ic-1:3306": {
                "address": "ic-1:3306", 
                "mode": "R/W", 
                "readReplicas": {}, 
                "role": "HA", 
                "status": "ONLINE"
            }, 
            "ic-2:3306": {
                "address": "ic-2:3306", 
                "mode": "R/O", 
                "readReplicas": {}, 
                "role": "HA", 
                "status": "ONLINE"
            }
        }
    }, 
    "groupInformationSourceMember": "mysql://icadmin@ic-1:3306"
}

How you proceed depends on whether the instance is local or remote to the instance MySQL Shell is running on, and whether the instance supports persisting configuration changes automatically, see Persisting Settings. If the instance supports persisting configuration changes automatically, you do not need to persist the settings manually and can either add more instances or continue to the next step. If the instance does not support persisting configuration changes automatically, you have to configure the instance locally. See Configuring Instances with dba.configureLocalInstance(). This is essential to ensure that instances rejoin the cluster in the event of leaving the cluster.

Tip

If the instance has super_read_only=ON then you might need to confirm that AdminAPI can set super_read_only=OFF. See Super Read-only and Instances for more information.

Once you have your cluster deployed you can configure MySQL Router to provide high availability, see Section 21.4, “Using MySQL Router with InnoDB Cluster”.

21.2.5 Using MySQL Clone with InnoDB cluster

In MySQL 8.0.17, InnoDB cluster integrates the MySQL Clone plugin to provide automatic provisioning of joining instances. The process of retrieving the cluster's data so that the instance can synchronize with the cluster is called distributed recovery. When an instance needs to recover a cluster's transactions we distinguish between the donor, which is the cluster instance that provides the data, and the receiver, which is the instance that receives the data from the donor. In previous versions, Group Replication provided only asynchronous replication to recover the transactions required for the joining instance to synchronize with the cluster so that it could join the cluster. For a cluster with a large amount of previously processed transactions it could take a long time for the new instance to recover all of the transactions before being able to join the cluster. Or a cluster which had purged GTIDs, for example as part of regular maintenance, could be missing some of the transactions required to recover the new instance. In such cases the only alternative was to manually provision the instance using tools such as MySQL Enterprise Backup, as shown in Section 18.4.6, “Using MySQL Enterprise Backup with Group Replication”.

MySQL Clone provides an alternative way for an instance to recover the transactions required to synchronize with a cluster. Instead of relying on asynchronous replication to recover the transactions, MySQL Clone takes a snapshot of the data on the donor instance and then transfers the snapshot to the receiver.

Warning

All previous data in the receiver is destroyed during a clone operation. All MySQL settings not stored in tables are however maintained.

Once a clone operation has transferred the snapshot to the receiver, if the cluster has processed transactions while the snapshot was being transferred, asynchronous replication is used to recover any required data for the receiver to be synchronized with the cluster. This can be much more efficient than the instance recovering all of the transactions using asynchronous replication, and avoids any issues caused by purged GTIDs, enabling you to quickly provision new instances for InnoDB cluster. For more information, see Section 5.6.7, “The Clone Plugin” and Section 18.4.3.1, “Cloning for Distributed Recovery”

In contrast to using MySQL Clone, incremental recovery is the process where an instance joining a cluster uses only asynchronous replication to recover an instance from the cluster. When an InnoDB cluster is configured to use MySQL Clone, instances which join the cluster use either MySQL Clone or incremental recovery to recover the cluster's transactions. By default, the cluster automatically chooses the most suitable method, but you can optionally configure this behavior, for example to force cloning, which replaces any transactions already processed by the joining instance. When you are using MySQL Shell in interactive mode, the default, if the cluster is not sure it can proceed with recovery it provides an interactive prompt. This section describes the different options you are offered, and the different scenarios which influence which of the options you can choose.

In addition, the output of Cluster.status() for members in RECOVERING state includes recovery progress information to enable you to easily monitor recovery operations, whether they are using MySQL Clone or incremental recovery. InnoDB cluster provides additional information about instances using MySQL Clone in the output of Cluster.status().

21.2.5.1 Working with a Cluster that uses MySQL Clone

A InnoDB cluster that uses MySQL Clone provides the following additional behavior.

dba.createCluster() and MySQL Clone

From version 8.0.17, by default when a new cluster is created on an instance where the MySQL Clone plugin is available then it is automatically installed and the cluster is configured to support cloning. The InnoDB cluster recovery accounts are created with the required BACKUP_ADMIN privilege.

Set the disableClone Boolean option to true to disable MySQL Clone for the cluster. In this case a metadata entry is added for this configuration and the MySQL Clone plugin is uninstalled if it is installed. You can set the disableClone option when you issue dba.createCluster(), or at any time when the cluster is running using Cluster.setOption().

Cluster.addInstance(instance) and MySQL Clone

MySQL Clone can be used for a joining instance if the new instance is running MySQL 8.0.17 or later, and there is at least one donor in the cluster (included in the group_replication_group_seeds list) running MySQL 8.0.17 or later. A cluster using MySQL Clone follows the behavior documented at Adding Instances to a Cluster, with the addition of a possible choice of how to transfer the data required to recover the instance from the cluster. How Cluster.addInstance(instance) behaves depends on the following factors:

  • Whether MySQL Clone is supported.

  • Whether incremental recovery is possible or not, which depends on the availability of binary logs. For example, if a donor instance has all binary logs required (GTID_PURGED is empty) then incremental recovery is possible. If no cluster instance has all binary logs required then incremental recovery is not possible.

  • Whether incremental recovery is appropriate or not. Even though incremental recovery might be possible, because it has the potential to clash with data already on the instance, the GTID sets on the donor and receiver are checked to make sure that incremental recovery is appropriate. The following are possible results of the comparison:

    • New: the receiver has an empty GTID_EXECUTED GTID set

    • Identical: the receiver has a GTID set identical to the donor’s GTID set

    • Recoverable: the receiver has a GTID set that is missing transactions but these can be recovered from the donor

    • Irrecoverable: the donor has a GTID set that is missing transactions, possibly they have been purged

    • Diverged: the GTID sets of the donor and receiver have diverged

    When the result of the comparison is determined to be Identical or Recoverable, incremental recovery is considered appropriate. When the result of the comparison is determined to be Irrecoverable or Diverged, incremental recovery is not considered appropriate.

    For an instance considered New, incremental recovery cannot be considered appropriate because it is impossible to determine if the binary logs have been purged, or even if the GTID_PURGED and GTID_EXECUTED variables were reset. Alternatively, it could be that the server had already processed transactions before binary logs and GTIDs were enabled. Therefore in interactive mode, you have to confirm that you want to use incremental recovery.

  • The state of the gtidSetIsComplete option. If you are sure a cluster has been created with a complete GTID set, and therefore instances with empty GTID sets can be added to it without extra confirmations, set the cluster level gtidSetIsComplete Boolean option to true.

    Warning

    Setting the gtidSetIsComplete option to true means that joining servers are recovered regardless of any data they contain, use with caution. If you try to add an instance which has applied transactions you risk data corruption.

The combination of these factors influence how instances join the cluster when you issue Cluster.addInstance(). The recoveryMethod option is set to auto by default, which means that in MySQL Shell's interactive mode, the cluster selects the best way to recover the instance from the cluster, and the prompts advise you how to proceed. In other words the cluster recommends using MySQL Clone or incremental recovery based on the best approach and what the server supports. If you are not using interactive mode and are scripting MySQL Shell, you must set recoveryMethod to the type of recovery you want to use - either clone or incremental. This section explains the different possible scenarios.

When you are using MySQL Shell in interactive mode, the main prompt with all of the possible options for adding the instance is:

Please select a recovery method [C]lone/[I]ncremental recovery/[A]bort (default Clone):

Depending on the factors mentioned, you might not be offered all of these options. The scenarios described later in this section explain which options you are offered. The options offered by this prompt are:

  • Clone: choose this option to clone the donor to the instance which you are adding to the cluster, deleting any transactions the instance contains. The MySQL Clone plugin is automatically installed. The InnoDB cluster recovery accounts are created with the required BACKUP_ADMIN privilege. Assuming you are adding an instance which is either empty (has not processed any transactions) or which contains transactions you do not want to retain, select the Clone option. The cluster then uses MySQL Clone to completely overwrite the joining instance with a snapshot from an donor cluster member. To use this method by default and disable this prompt, set the cluster's recoveryMethod option to clone.

  • Incremental recovery choose this option to use incremental recovery to recover all transactions processed by the cluster to the joining instance using asynchronous replication. Incremental recovery is appropriate if you are sure all updates ever processed by the cluster were done with GTIDs enabled, there are no purged transactions and the new instance contains the same GTID set as the cluster or a subset of it. To use this method by default, set the recoveryMethod option to incremental.

The combination of factors mentioned influences which of these options is available at the prompt as follows:

Note

If the group_replication_clone_threshold system variable has been manually changed outside of AdminAPI, then the cluster might decide to use Clone recovery instead of following these scenarios.

  • In a scenario where

    • incremental recovery is possible

    • incremental recovery is not appropriate

    • Clone is supported

    you can choose between any of the options. It is recommended that you use MySQL Clone, the default.

  • In a scenario where

    • incremental recovery is possible

    • incremental recovery is appropriate

    you are not provided with the prompt, and incremental recovery is used.

  • In a scenario where

    • incremental recovery is possible

    • incremental recovery is not appropriate

    • Clone is not supported or is disabled

    you cannot use MySQL Clone to add the instance to the cluster. You are provided with the prompt, and the recommended option is to proceed with incremental recovery.

  • In a scenario where

    • incremental recovery is not possible

    • Clone is not supported or is disabled

    you cannot add the instance to the cluster and an ERROR: The target instance must be either cloned or fully provisioned before it can be added to the target cluster. Cluster.addInstance: Instance provisioning required (RuntimeError) is shown. This could be the result of binary logs being purged from all cluster instances. It is recommended to use MySQL Clone, by either upgrading the cluster or setting the disableClone option to false.

  • In a scenario where

    • incremental recovery is not possible

    • Clone is supported

    you can only use MySQL Clone to add the instance to the cluster. This could be the result of the cluster missing binary logs, for example when they have been purged.

Once you select an option from the prompt, by default the progress of the instance recovering the transactions from the cluster is displayed. This monitoring enables you to check the recovery phase is working and also how long it should take for the instance to join the cluster and come online. To cancel the monitoring of the recovery phase, issue CONTROL+C.

Cluster.checkInstanceState() and MySQL Clone

When the Cluster.checkInstanceState() operation is run to verify an instance against a cluster that is using MySQL Clone, if the instance does not have the binary logs, for example because they were purged but Clone is available and not disabled (disableClone is false) the operation provides a warning that the Clone can be used. For example:

The cluster transactions cannot be recovered on the instance, however,
Clone is available and can be used when adding it to a cluster.

{
"reason": "all_purged", 
"state": "warning"
}

Similarly, on an instance where Clone is either not available or has been disabled and the binary logs are not available, for example because they were purged, then the output includes:

The cluster transactions cannot be recovered on the instance.

{
"reason": "all_purged", 
"state": "warning"
}
dba.checkInstanceConfiguration() and MySQL Clone

When the dba.checkInstanceConfiguration() operation is run against an instance that has MySQL Clone available but it is disabled, a warning is displayed.

21.2.6 Sandbox Deployment of InnoDB Cluster

This section explains how to set up a sandbox InnoDB cluster deployment. You create and administer your InnoDB clusters using MySQL Shell with the included AdminAPI. This section assumes familiarity with MySQL Shell, see MySQL Shell 8.0 (part of MySQL 8.0) for further information.

Initially deploying and using local sandbox instances of MySQL is a good way to start your exploration of InnoDB cluster. You can fully test out InnoDB cluster locally, prior to deployment on your production servers. MySQL Shell has built-in functionality for creating sandbox instances that are correctly configured to work with Group Replication in a locally deployed scenario.

Important

Sandbox instances are only suitable for deploying and running on your local machine for testing purposes. In a production environment the MySQL Server instances are deployed to various host machines on the network. See Section 21.2.4, “Production Deployment of InnoDB Cluster” for more information.

This tutorial shows how to use MySQL Shell to create an InnoDB cluster consisting of three MySQL server instances. It consists of the following steps:

Deploying Sandbox Instances

MySQL Shell includes the AdminAPI that adds the dba global variable, which provides functions for administration of sandbox instances. In this example setup, you create three sandbox instances using dba.deploySandboxInstance().

Start MySQL Shell from a command prompt by issuing the command:

shell> mysqlsh

MySQL Shell provides two scripting language modes, JavaScript and Python, in addition to a native SQL mode. Throughout this guide MySQL Shell is used primarily in JavaScript mode . When MySQL Shell starts it is in JavaScript mode by default. Switch modes by issuing \js for JavaScript mode, \py for Python mode, and \sql for SQL mode. Ensure you are in JavaScript mode by issuing the \js command, then execute:

mysql-js> dba.deploySandboxInstance(3310)
Note

Terminating commands with a semi-colon is not required in JavaScript and Python modes.

The argument passed to deploySandboxInstance() is the TCP port number where the MySQL Server instance listens for connections. By default the sandbox is created in a directory named $HOME/mysql-sandboxes/port on Unix systems. For Microsoft Windows systems the directory is %userprofile%\MySQL\mysql-sandboxes\port.

The root user's password for the instance is prompted for.

Important

Each sandbox instance uses the root user and password. This is not recommended in production, see Configuring Production Instances for information about the clusterAdmin option.

To deploy another sandbox server instance, repeat the steps followed for the sandbox instance at port 3310, choosing different port numbers for each instance. For each additional sandbox instance issue:

mysql-js> dba.deploySandboxInstance(port_number)
Tip

The clusterAdmin user name and password must be the same on all instances that belong to a cluster. In the case of a sandbox deployment, the root user name and password must be the same on all instances.

To follow this tutorial, use port numbers 3310, 3320 and 3330 for the three sandbox server instances. Issue:

mysql-js> dba.deploySandboxInstance(3320)
mysql-js> dba.deploySandboxInstance(3330)

To change the directory which sandboxes are stored in, for example to run multiple sandboxes on one host for testing purposes, use the MySQL Shell sandboxDir option. For example to use a sandbox in the /home/user/sandbox1 directory, issue:

mysql-js> shell.options.sandboxDir='/home/user/sandbox1'

All subsequent sandbox related operations are then executed against the instances found at /home/user/sandbox1.

Creating the Sandbox InnoDB Cluster

The next step is to create the InnoDB cluster while connected to the seed MySQL Server instance. The seed instance contains the data that you want to replicate to the other instances. In this example the sandbox instances are blank, therefore we can choose any instance. Sandboxes also use MySQL Clone, see Section 21.2.5, “Using MySQL Clone with InnoDB cluster”.

Connect MySQL Shell to the seed instance, in this case the one at port 3310:

mysql-js> \connect root@localhost:3310

The \connect MySQL Shell command is a shortcut for the shell.connect() method:

mysql-js> shell.connect('root@localhost:3310')

Once you have connected, AdminAPI can write to the local instance's option file. This is different to working with a production deployment, where you would need to connect to the remote instance and run the MySQL Shell application locally on the instance before AdminAPI can write to the instance's option file.

Use the dba.createCluster() method to create the InnoDB cluster with the currently connected instance as the seed:

mysql-js> var cluster = dba.createCluster('testCluster')

The createCluster() method deploys the InnoDB cluster metadata to the selected instance, and adds the instance you are currently connected to as the seed instance. The createCluster() method returns the created cluster, in the example above this is assigned to the cluster variable. The parameter passed to the createCluster() method is a symbolic name given to this InnoDB cluster, in this case testCluster.

Tip

If the instance has super_read_only=ON then you might need to confirm that AdminAPI can set super_read_only=OFF. See Super Read-only and Instances for more information.

Adding Instances to an InnoDB Cluster

The next step is to add more instances to the InnoDB cluster. Any transactions that were executed by the seed instance are re-executed by each secondary instance as it is added. This tutorial uses the sandbox instances that were created earlier at ports 3320 and 3330.

The seed instance in this example was recently created, so it is nearly empty. Therefore, there is little data that needs to be replicated from the seed instance to the secondary instances. In a production environment, where you have an existing database on the seed instance, you could use a tool such as MySQL Enterprise Backup to ensure that the secondaries have matching data before replication starts. This avoids the possibility of lengthy delays while data replicates from the primary to the secondaries. See Section 18.4.6, “Using MySQL Enterprise Backup with Group Replication”.

Add the second instance to the InnoDB cluster:

mysql-js> cluster.addInstance('root@localhost:3320')

The root user's password is prompted for. The specified instance is recovered from the seed instance. In other words the transactions from the seed are copied to the instance joining the cluster.

Add the third instance in the same way:

mysql-js> cluster.addInstance('root@localhost:3330')

The root user's password is prompted for.

At this point you have created a cluster with three instances: a primary, and two secondaries.

Tip

You can only specify localhost in addInstance() if the instance is a sandbox instance. This also applies to the implicit addInstance() after issuing createCluster().

Persisting the Sandbox Configuration

Once the sandbox instances have been added to the cluster, the configuration required for InnoDB cluster must be persisted to each of the instance's option files. How you proceed depends on whether the instance supports persisting configuration changes automatically, see Persisting Settings. When the MySQL instance which you are using supports persisting configuration changes automatically, adding the instance automatically configures the instance. When the MySQL instance which you are using does not support persisting configuration changes automatically, you have to configure the instance locally. See Configuring Instances with dba.configureLocalInstance().

To check the cluster has been created, use the cluster instance's status() function. See Checking a cluster's Status with Cluster.status().

Once you have your cluster deployed you can configure MySQL Router to provide high availability, see Section 21.4, “Using MySQL Router with InnoDB Cluster”.

21.2.7 Adopting a Group Replication Deployment

If you have an existing deployment of Group Replication and you want to use it to create a cluster, pass the adoptFromGR option to the dba.createCluster() function. The created InnoDB cluster matches whether the replication group is running as single-primary or multi-primary.

To adopt an existing Group Replication group, connect to a group member using MySQL Shell. In the following example a single-primary group is adopted. We connect to gr-member-2, a secondary instance, while gr-member-1 is functioning as the group's primary. Create a cluster using dba.createCluster(), passing in the adoptFromGR option. For example:

  
mysql-js> var cluster = dba.createCluster('prodCluster', {adoptFromGR: true});

A new InnoDB cluster will be created on instance 'root@gr-member-2:3306'.

Creating InnoDB cluster 'prodCluster' on 'root@gr-member-2:3306'...
Adding Seed Instance...

Cluster successfully created. Use cluster.addInstance() to add MySQL instances.
At least 3 instances are needed for the cluster to be able to withstand up to
one server failure.
Tip

If the instance has super_read_only=ON then you might need to confirm that AdminAPI can set super_read_only=OFF. See Super Read-only and Instances for more information.

The new cluster matches the mode of the group. If the adopted group was running in single-primary mode then a single-primary cluster is created. If the adopted group was running in multi-primary mode then a multi-primary cluster is created.

21.3 Upgrading an InnoDB cluster

This section explains how to upgrade your cluster. Much of the process of upgrading an InnoDB cluster consists of upgrading the instances in the same way as documented at Section 18.7, “Upgrading Group Replication”. This section focuses on the additional considerations for upgrading InnoDB cluster. Before starting an upgrade, you can use the MySQL Shell Upgrade Checker Utility to verify instances are ready for the upgrade.

21.3.1 Rolling Upgrades

When upgrading the metadata schema of clusters deployed by MySQL Shell versions before 8.0.19, a rolling upgrade of existing MySQL Router instances is required. This process minimizes disruption to applications during the upgrade. The rolling upgrade process must be performed in the following order:

  1. Run the latest MySQL Shell version, connect the global session to the cluster and issue dba.upgradeMetadata(). The upgrade function stops if an outdated MySQL Router instance is detected, at which point you can stop the upgrade process in MySQL Shell to resume later.

  2. Upgrade any detected out of date MySQL Router instances to the latest version. It is recommended to use the same MySQL Router version as MySQL Shell version.

  3. Continue or restart the dba.upgradeMetadata() operation to complete the metadata upgrade.

21.3.2 Upgrading InnoDB cluster Metadata

As AdminAPI evolves, some releases might require you to upgrade the metadata of existing clusters to ensure they are compatible with newer versions of MySQL Shell. For example, the addition of InnoDB ReplicaSet in version 8.0.19 means that the metadata schema has been upgraded to version 2.0. Regardless of whether you plan to use InnoDB ReplicaSet or not, to use MySQL Shell 8.0.19 or later with a cluster deployed using an earlier version of MySQL Shell, you must upgrade the metadata of your cluster.

Warning

Without upgrading the metadata you cannot use MySQL Shell 8.0.19 to change the configuration of a cluster created with earlier versions. For example, you can only perform read operations against the cluster such as Cluster.status(), Cluster.describe(), and Cluster.options().

This dba.upgradeMetadata() operation compares the version of the metadata schema found on the cluster MySQL Shell is currently connected to with the version of the metadata schema supported by this MySQL Shell version. If the installed metadata version is lower, an upgrade process is started. The dba.upgradeMetadata() operation then upgrades any automatically created MySQL Router users to have the correct privileges. Manually created MySQL Router users with a name not starting with mysql_router_ are not automatically upgraded. This is an important step in upgrading your cluster, only then can the MySQL Router application be upgraded. To get information on which of the MySQL Router instances registered with a cluster require the metadata upgrade, issue:

cluster.listRouters({'onlyUpgradeRequired':'true'})
{
    "clusterName": "mycluster", 
    "routers": {
        "example.com::": {
            "hostname": "example.com", 
            "lastCheckIn": "2019-11-26 10:10:37", 
            "roPort": 6447, 
            "roXPort": 64470, 
            "rwPort": 6446, 
            "rwXPort": 64460, 
            "version": "8.0.18"
        }
    }
}
Warning

A cluster which is using the new metadata cannot be administered by earlier MySQL Shell versions, for example once you upgrade to version 8.0.19 you can no longer use version 8.0.18 or earlier to administer the cluster.

To upgrade a cluster's metadata, connect MySQL Shell's global session to your cluster and use the dba.upgradeMetadata() operation to upgrade the cluster's metadata to the new metadata. For example:

mysql-js> \connect user@example.com:3306

mysql-js> dba.upgradeMetadata()
InnoDB Cluster Metadata Upgrade

The cluster you are connected to is using an outdated metadata schema version
1.0.1 and needs to be upgraded to 2.0.0.

Without doing this upgrade, no AdminAPI calls except read only operations will
be allowed.

The grants for the MySQL Router accounts that were created automatically when
bootstrapping need to be updated to match the new metadata version's
requirements.
Updating router accounts...
NOTE: 2 router accounts have been updated.

WARNING: If MySQL Routers have been bootstrapped using custom accounts, their
grants can not be updated during the metadata upgrade, they have to be updated
using the setup_router_account function. 

Upgrading metadata at 'example.com:3306' from version 1.0.1 to version 2.0.0.
Creating backup of the metadata schema...
Step 1 of 1: upgrading from 1.0.1 to 2.0.0...
Removing metadata backup...
Upgrade process successfully finished, metadata schema is now on version 2.0.0

If you encounter an error related to the clusterAdmin user missing privileges, follow the instructions for granting the correct privileges.

21.3.3 Troubleshooting InnoDB cluster Upgrades

This section covers trouble shooting the upgrade process.

Handling Host Name Changes

MySQL Shell uses the host value of the provided connection parameters as the target hostname used for AdminAPI operations, namely to register the instance in the metadata (for the dba.createCluster() and Cluster.addInstance() operations). However, the actual host used for the connection parameters might not match the hostname that is used or reported by Group Replication, which uses the value of the report_host system variable when it is defined (in other words it is not NULL), otherwise the value of hostname is used. Therefore, AdminAPI now follows the same logic to register the target instance in the metadata and as the default value for the group_replication_local_address variable on instances, instead of using the host value from the instance connection parameters. When the report_host variable is set to empty, Group Replication uses an empty value for the host but AdminAPI (for example in commands such as dba.checkInstanceConfiguration(), dba.configureInstance(), dba.createCluster(), and so on) reports the hostname as the value used which is inconsistent with the value reported by Group Replication. If an empty value is set for the report_host system variable, an error is generated. (Bug #28285389)

For a cluster created using a MySQL Shell version earlier than 8.0.16, an attempt to reboot the cluster from a complete outage performed using version 8.0.16 or higher results in this error. This is caused by a mismatch of the Metadata values with the report_host or hostname values reported by the instances. The workaround is to:

  1. Identify which of the instances is the seed, in other words the one with the most recent GTID set. The dba.rebootClusterFromCompleteOutage() operation detects whether the instance is a seed and the operation generates an error if the current session is not connected to the most up-to-date instance.

  2. Set the report_host system variable to the value that is stored in the Metadata schema for the target instance. This value is the hostname:port pair used in the instance definition upon cluster creation. The value can be consulted by querying the mysql_innodb_cluster_metadata.instances table.

    For example, suppose a cluster was created using the following sequence of commands:

    mysql-js> \c clusterAdmin@localhost:3306
    mysql-js> dba.createCluster("myCluster")
    

    Therefore the hostname value stored in the metadata is localhost and for that reason, report_host must be set to localhost on the seed.

  3. Reboot the cluster using only the seed instance. At the interactive prompts do not add the remaining instances to the cluster.

  4. Use Cluster.rescan() to add the other instances back to the cluster.

  5. Remove the seed instance from the cluster

  6. Stop mysqld on the seed instance and either remove the forced report_host setting (step 2), or replace it with the value previously stored in the Metadata value.

  7. Restart the seed instance and add it back to the cluster using Cluster.addInstance()

This allows a smooth and complete upgrade of the cluster to the latest MySQL Shell version. Another possibility, that depends on the use-case, is to simply set the value of report_host on all cluster members to match what has been registered in the Metadata schema upon cluster creation.

21.4 Using MySQL Router with InnoDB Cluster

This section describes how to use MySQL Router with InnoDB cluster to achieve high availability. Regardless of whether you have deployed a sandbox or production cluster, MySQL Router can configure itself based on the InnoDB cluster's metadata using the --bootstrap option. This configures MySQL Router automatically to route connections to the cluster's server instances. Client applications connect to the ports MySQL Router provides, without any need to be aware of the InnoDB cluster topology. In the event of a unexpected failure, the InnoDB cluster adjusts itself automatically and MySQL Router detects the change. This removes the need for your client application to handle failover. For more information, see Routing for MySQL InnoDB cluster.

Note

Do not attempt to configure MySQL Router manually to redirect to the ports of an InnoDB cluster. Always use the --bootstrap option as this ensures that MySQL Router takes its configuration from the InnoDB cluster's metadata. See Cluster Metadata and State.

The recommended deployment of MySQL Router is on the same host as the application. When using a sandbox deployment, everything is running on a single host, therefore you deploy MySQL Router to the same host. When using a production deployment, we recommend deploying one MySQL Router instance to each machine used to host one of your client applications. It is also possible to deploy MySQL Router to a common machine through which your application instances connect.

Assuming MySQL Router is already installed (see Installing MySQL Router), use the --bootstrap option to provide the location of a server instance that belongs to the InnoDB cluster. MySQL Router uses the included metadata cache plugin to retrieve the InnoDB cluster's metadata, consisting of a list of server instance addresses which make up the InnoDB cluster and their role in the cluster. You pass the URI-like connection string of the server that MySQL Router should retrieve the InnoDB cluster metadata from. For example:

shell> mysqlrouter --bootstrap icadmin@ic-1:3306 --user=mysqlrouter 

You are prompted for the instance password and encryption key for MySQL Router to use. This encryption key is used to encrypt the instance password used by MySQL Router to connect to the cluster. The ports you can use to connect to the InnoDB cluster are also displayed. The MySQL Router bootstrap process creates a mysqlrouter.conf file, with the settings based on the cluster metadata retrieved from the address passed to the --bootstrap option, in the above example icadmin@ic-1:3306. Based on the InnoDB cluster metadata retrieved, MySQL Router automatically configures the mysqlrouter.conf file, including a metadata_cache section. If you are using MySQL Router 8.0.14 and later, the --bootstrap option automatically configures MySQL Router to track and store active MySQL InnoDB cluster Metadata server addresses at the path configured by dynamic_state. This ensures that when MySQL Router is restarted it knows which MySQL InnoDB cluster Metadata server addresses are current. For more information see the dynamic_state documentation.

In earlier MySQL Router versions, metadata server information was defined during Router's initial bootstrap operation and stored statically as bootstrap_server_addresses in the configuration file, which contained the addresses for all server instances in the cluster. For example:

[metadata_cache:prodCluster]
router_id=1
bootstrap_server_addresses=mysql://icadmin@ic-1:3306,mysql://icadmin@ic-2:3306,mysql://icadmin@ic-3:3306
user=mysql_router1_jy95yozko3k2
metadata_cluster=prodCluster
ttl=300
Tip

If using MySQL Router 8.0.13 or earlier, when you change the topology of a cluster by adding another server instance after you have bootstrapped MySQL Router, you need to update bootstrap_server_addresses based on the updated metadata. Either restart MySQL Router using the --bootstrap option, or manually edit the bootstrap_server_addresses section of the mysqlrouter.conf file and restart MySQL Router.

The generated MySQL Router configuration creates TCP ports which you use to connect to the cluster. Ports for communicating with the cluster using both Classic MySQL protocol and X Protocol are created. To use X Protocol the server instances must have X Plugin installed and configured. For a sandbox deployment, instances have X Plugin set up automatically. For a production deployment, if you want to use X Protocol you need to install and configure X Plugin on each instance, see Setting Up MySQL as a Document Store. The default available TCP ports are:

  • 6446 - for Classic MySQL protocol read-write sessions, which MySQL Router redirects incoming connections to primary server instances.

  • 6447 - for Classic MySQL protocol read-only sessions, which MySQL Router redirects incoming connections to one of the secondary server instances.

  • 64460 - for X Protocol read-write sessions, which MySQL Router redirects incoming connections to primary server instances.

  • 64470 - for X Protocol read-only sessions, which MySQL Router redirects incoming connections to one of the secondary server instances.

Depending on your MySQL Router configuration the port numbers might be different to the above. For example if you use the --conf-base-port option, or the group_replication_single_primary_mode variable. The exact ports are listed when you start MySQL Router.

The way incoming connections are redirected depends on the type of cluster being used. When using a single-primary cluster, by default MySQL Router publishes a X Protocol and a classic protocol port, which clients connect to for read-write sessions and which are redirected to the cluster's single primary. With a multi-primary cluster read-write sessions are redirected to one of the primary instances in a round-robin fashion. For example, this means that the first connection to port 6446 would be redirected to the ic-1 instance, the second connection to port 6446 would be redirected to the ic-2 instance, and so on. For incoming read-only connections MySQL Router redirects connections to one of the secondary instances, also in a round-robin fashion. To modify this behavior see the routing_strategy option.

Once bootstrapped and configured, start MySQL Router. If you used a system wide install with the --bootstrap option then issue:

shell> mysqlrouter &

If you installed MySQL Router to a directory using the --directory option, use the start.sh script found in the directory you installed to. Alternatively set up a service to start MySQL Router automatically when the system boots, see Starting MySQL Router. You can now connect a MySQL client, such as MySQL Shell to one of the incoming MySQL Router ports as described above and see how the client gets transparently connected to one of the InnoDB cluster instances.

shell> mysqlsh --uri root@localhost:6442

To verify which instance you are actually connected to, simply issue an SQL query against the port status variable.

mysql-js> \sql
Switching to SQL mode... Commands end with ;
mysql-sql> select @@port;
+--------+
| @@port |
+--------+
|   3310 |
+--------+

Testing High Availability

To test if high availability works, simulate an unexpected halt by killing an instance. The cluster detects the fact that the instance left the cluster and reconfigures itself. Exactly how the cluster reconfigures itself depends on whether you are using a single-primary or multi-primary cluster, and the role the instance serves within the cluster.

In single-primary mode:

  • If the current primary leaves the cluster, one of the secondary instances is elected as the new primary, with instances prioritized by the lowest server_uuid. MySQL Router redirects read-write connections to the newly elected primary.

  • If a current secondary leaves the cluster, MySQL Router stops redirecting read-only connections to the instance.

For more information see Section 18.1.3.1, “Single-Primary Mode”.

In multi-primary mode:

  • If a current "R/W" instance leaves the cluster, MySQL Router redirects read-write connections to other primaries. If the instance which left was the last primary in the cluster then the cluster is completely gone and you cannot connect to any MySQL Router port.

For more information see Section 18.1.3.2, “Multi-Primary Mode”.

There are various ways to simulate an instance leaving a cluster, for example you can forcibly stop the MySQL server on an instance, or use the AdminAPI dba.killSandboxInstance() if testing a sandbox deployment. In this example assume there is a single-primary sandbox cluster deployment with three server instances and the instance listening at port 3310 is the current primary. Simulate the instance leaving the cluster unexpectedly:

mysql-js> dba.killSandboxInstance(3310)

The cluster detects the change and elects a new primary automatically. Assuming your session is connected to port 6446, the default read-write classic MySQL protocol port, MySQL Router should detect the change to the cluster's topology and redirect your session to the newly elected primary. To verify this, switch to SQL mode in MySQL Shell using the \sql command and select the instance's port variable to check which instance your session has been redirected to. Notice that the first SELECT statement fails as the connection to the original primary was lost. This means the current session has been closed, MySQL Shell automatically reconnects for you and when you issue the command again the new port is confirmed.

mysql-js> \sql
Switching to SQL mode... Commands end with ;
mysql-sql> SELECT @@port;
ERROR: 2013 (HY000): Lost connection to MySQL server during query
The global session got disconnected.
Attempting to reconnect to 'root@localhost:6446'...
The global session was successfully reconnected.
mysql-sql> SELECT @@port;
+--------+
| @@port |
+--------+
|   3330 |
+--------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

In this example, the instance at port 3330 has been elected as the new primary. This shows that the InnoDB cluster provided us with automatic failover, that MySQL Router has automatically reconnected us to the new primary instance, and that we have high availability.

MySQL Router and Metadata Servers

When MySQL Router is bootstrapped against a cluster, it records the server instance's addresses in its configuration file. If any additional instances are added to the cluster after bootstrapping the MySQL Router, they are not automatically detected and therefore are not used for connection routing.

To ensure that newly added instances are routed to correctly you must bootstrap MySQL Router against the cluster to read the updated metadata. This means that you must restart MySQL Router and include the --bootstrap option.

Working with a Cluster's Routers

You can bootstrap multiple instances of MySQL Router against a cluster or replica set. From version 8.0.19, to show a list of all registered MySQL Router instances, issue:

Cluster.listRouters()

The result provides information about each registered MySQL Router instance, such as its name in the metadata, the hostname, ports, and so on. For example, issue:

mysql-js> Cluster.listRouters()
{
    "clusterName": "example", 
    "routers": {
        "ic-1:3306": {
            "hostname": "ic-1:3306", 
            "lastCheckIn": "2020-01-16 11:43:45", 
            "roPort": 6447, 
            "roXPort": 64470, 
            "rwPort": 6446, 
            "rwXPort": 64460, 
            "version": "8.0.19"
        }
    }
}

The returned information shows:

  • The name of the MySQL Router instance.

  • Last check-in timestamp, which is generated by a periodic ping from the MySQL Router stored in the metadata

  • Hostname where the MySQL Router instance is running

  • Read-Only and Read-Write ports which the MySQL Router publishes for MySQL classic protocol connections

  • Read-Only and Read-Write ports which the MySQL Router publishes for X Protocol connections

  • Version of this MySQL Router instance. The support for returning version was added in 8.0.19. If this operation is run against an earlier version of MySQL Router, the version field is null.

Additionally, the Cluster.listRouters() operation can show a list of instances that do not support the metadata version supported by MySQL Shell. Use the onlyUpgradeRequired option, for example by issuing Cluster.listRouters({'onlyUpgradeRequired':'true'}). The returned list shows only the MySQL Router instances registered with the Cluster which require an upgrade of their metadata. See Section 21.3.2, “Upgrading InnoDB cluster Metadata”.

MySQL Router instances are not automatically removed from the metadata, so for example as you bootstrap more instances the InnoDB cluster metadata contains a growing number of references to instances. To remove a registered MySQL Router instance from a cluster's metadata, use the Cluster.removeRouterMetadata(router) operation, added in version 8.0.19. Use the Cluster.listRouters() operation to get the name of the MySQL Router instance you want to remove, and pass it in as router. For example suppose your MySQL Router instances registered with a cluster were:

mysql-js> Cluster.listRouters(){

    "clusterName": "testCluster",
    "routers": {
        "myRouter1": {
            "hostname": "example1.com",
            "lastCheckIn": null,
            "routerId": "1",
            "roPort": "6447",
            "rwPort": "6446"
            "version": null
        },
        "myRouter2": {
            "hostname": "example2.com",
            "lastCheckIn": "2019-11-27 16:25:00",
            "routerId": "3",
            "roPort": "6447",
            "rwPort": "6446"
            "version": "8.0.19"
        }
    }
}

Based on the fact that the instance named myRouter1 has null for lastCheckIn and version, we decide to remove this old instance from the metadata by issuing:

mysql-js> cluster.removeRouterMetadata('myRouter1')

The MySQL Router instance specified is unregistered from the cluster by removing it from the InnoDB cluster metadata.

21.5 Working with InnoDB Cluster

This section explains how to work with InnoDB cluster, and how to handle common administration tasks.

Using dba.checkInstanceConfiguration()

Before creating a production deployment from server instances you need to check that MySQL on each instance is correctly configured. In addition to dba.configureInstance(), which checks the configuration as part of configuring an instance, you can use the dba.checkInstanceConfiguration() function. This ensures that the instance satisfies the Section 21.2.2, “InnoDB Cluster Requirements” without changing any configuration on the instance. This does not check any data that is on the instance, see Checking Instance State for more information. The following demonstrates issuing this in a running MySQL Shell:

mysql-js> dba.checkInstanceConfiguration('icadmin@ic-1:3306')
Please provide the password for 'icadmin@ic-1:3306': ***
Validating MySQL instance at ic-1:3306 for use in an InnoDB cluster...

This instance reports its own address as ic-1
Clients and other cluster members will communicate with it through this address by default.
If this is not correct, the report_host MySQL system variable should be changed.

Checking whether existing tables comply with Group Replication requirements...
No incompatible tables detected

Checking instance configuration...

Some configuration options need to be fixed:
+--------------------------+---------------+----------------+--------------------------------------------------+
| Variable                 | Current Value | Required Value | Note                                             |
+--------------------------+---------------+----------------+--------------------------------------------------+
| binlog_checksum          | CRC32         | NONE           | Update the server variable                       |
| enforce_gtid_consistency | OFF           | ON             | Update read-only variable and restart the server |
| gtid_mode                | OFF           | ON             | Update read-only variable and restart the server |
| server_id                | 1             |                | Update read-only variable and restart the server |
+--------------------------+---------------+----------------+--------------------------------------------------+

Please use the dba.configureInstance() command to repair these issues.

{
    "config_errors": [
        {
            "action": "server_update",
            "current": "CRC32",
            "option": "binlog_checksum",
            "required": "NONE"
        },
        {
            "action": "restart",
            "current": "OFF",
            "option": "enforce_gtid_consistency",
            "required": "ON"
        },
        {
            "action": "restart",
            "current": "OFF",
            "option": "gtid_mode",
            "required": "ON"
        },
        {
            "action": "restart",
            "current": "1",
            "option": "server_id",
            "required": ""
        }
    ],
    "status": "error"
}

Repeat this process for each server instance that you plan to use as part of your cluster. The report generated after running dba.checkInstanceConfiguration() provides information about any configuration changes required before you can proceed. The action field in the config_error section of the report tells you whether MySQL on the instance requires a restart to detect any change made to the configuration file.

Configuring Instances with dba.configureLocalInstance()

Instances which do not support persisting configuration changes automatically (see Persisting Settings) require you to connect to the server, run MySQL Shell, connect to the instance locally and issue dba.configureLocalInstance(). This enables MySQL Shell to modify the instance's option file after running the following commands against a remote instance:

  • dba.configureInstance()

  • dba.createCluster()

  • Cluster.addInstance()

  • Cluster.removeInstance()

  • Cluster.rejoinInstance()

Important

Failing to persist configuration changes to an instance's option file can result in the instance not rejoining the cluster after the next restart.

The recommended method is to log in to the remote machine, for example using SSH, run MySQL Shell as the root user and then connect to the local MySQL server. For example, use the --uri option to connect to the local instance:

shell> sudo -i mysqlsh --uri=instance

Alternatively use the \connect command to log in to the local instance. Then issue dba.configureInstance(instance), where instance is the connection information to the local instance, to persist any changes made to the local instance's option file.

mysql-js> dba.configureLocalInstance('icadmin@ic-2:3306')
	

Repeat this process for each instance in the cluster which does not support persisting configuration changes automatically. For example if you add 2 instances to a cluster which do not support persisting configuration changes automatically, you must connect to each server and persist the configuration changes required for InnoDB cluster before the instance restarts. Similarly if you modify the cluster structure, for example changing the number of instances, you need to repeat this process for each server instance to update the InnoDB cluster metadata accordingly for each instance in the cluster.

Retrieving an InnoDB cluster with dba.getCluster()

When you create a cluster using dba.createCluster(), the operation returns a Cluster object which can be assigned to a variable. You use this object to work with the cluster, for example to add instances or check the cluster's status. If you want to retrieve a cluster again at a later date, for example after restarting MySQL Shell, use the dba.getCluster([name],[options]) function. For example:

mysql-js> var cluster1 = dba.getCluster()

If you do not specify a cluster name then the default cluster is returned. By default MySQL Shell attempts to connect to the primary instance of the cluster when you use dba.getCluster(). Set the connectToPrimary option to configure this behavior. If connectToPrimary is true and the active global MySQL Shell session is not to a primary instance, the cluster is queried for the primary member and the cluster object connects to it. If there is no quorum in the cluster, the operation fails. If connectToPrimary is false, the cluster object uses the active session, in other words the same instance as the MySQL Shell's current global session. If connectToPrimary is not specified, MySQL Shell treats connectToPrimary as true, and falls back to connectToPrimary being false.

To force connecting to a secondary when getting a cluster, establish a connection to the secondary member of the cluster and use the connectToPrimary option by issuing:

mysql-js> shell.connect(secondary_member)
mysql-js> var cluster1 = dba.getCluster(testCluster, {connectToPrimary:false})
Tip

Remember that secondary instances have super_read_only=ON, so you cannot write changes to them.

Using cluster.describe()

To get information about the structure of the InnoDB cluster itself, use the Cluster.describe() function:

mysql-js> cluster.describe();
{
    "clusterName": "testCluster",
    "defaultReplicaSet": {
        "name": "default",
        "topology": [
            {
                "address": "ic-1:3306",
                "label": "ic-1:3306",
                "role": "HA"
            },
            {
                "address": "ic-2:3306",
                "label": "ic-2:3306",
                "role": "HA"
            },
            {
                "address": "ic-3:3306",
                "label": "ic-3:3306",
                "role": "HA"
            }
        ]
    }
}

The output from this function shows the structure of the InnoDB cluster including all of its configuration information, and so on. The address, label and role values match those described at Checking a cluster's Status with Cluster.status() .

Checking a cluster's Status with Cluster.status()

Cluster objects provide the status() method that enables you to check how a cluster is running. Before you can check the status of the InnoDB cluster, you need to get a reference to the InnoDB cluster object by connecting to any of its instances. However, if you want to make changes to the configuration of the cluster, you must connect to a "R/W" instance. Issuing status() retrieves the status of the cluster based on the view of the cluster which the server instance you are connected to is aware of and outputs a status report.

Important

The instance's state in the cluster directly influences the information provided in the status report. Therefore ensure the instance you are connected to has a status of ONLINE.

For information about how the InnoDB cluster is running, use the cluster's status() method:

mysql-js> var cluster = dba.getCluster()
mysql-js> cluster.status()
{
    "clusterName": "testcluster", 
    "defaultReplicaSet": {
        "name": "default", 
        "primary": "ic-1:3306", 
        "ssl": "REQUIRED", 
        "status": "OK", 
        "statusText": "Cluster is ONLINE and can tolerate up to ONE failure.", 
        "topology": {
            "ic-1:3306": {
                "address": "ic-1:3306", 
                "mode": "R/W", 
                "readReplicas": {}, 
                "role": "HA", 
                "status": "ONLINE"
            }, 
            "ic-2:3306": {
                "address": "ic-2:3306", 
                "mode": "R/O", 
                "readReplicas": {}, 
                "role": "HA", 
                "status": "ONLINE"
            }, 
            "ic-3:3306": {
                "address": "ic-3:3306", 
                "mode": "R/O", 
                "readReplicas": {}, 
                "role": "HA", 
                "status": "ONLINE"
            }
        }
    }, 
    "groupInformationSourceMember": "mysql://icadmin@ic-1:3306"
}

The output of Cluster.status() provides the following information:

  • clusterName: name assigned to this cluster during dba.createCluster().

  • defaultReplicaSet: the server instances which belong to an InnoDB cluster and contain the data set.

  • primary: displayed when the cluster is operating in single-primary mode only. Shows the address of the current primary instance. If this field is not displayed, the cluster is operating in multi-primary mode.

  • ssl: whether secure connections are used by the cluster or not. Shows values of REQUIRED or DISABLED, depending on how the memberSslMode option was configured during either createCluster() or addInstance(). The value returned by this parameter corresponds to the value of the group_replication_ssl_mode server variable on the instance. See Securing your Cluster.

  • status: The status of this element of the cluster. For the overall cluster this describes the high availability provided by this cluster. The status is one of the following:

    • ONLINE: The instance is online and participating in the cluster.

    • OFFLINE: The instance has lost connection to the other instances.

    • RECOVERING: The instance is attempting to synchronize with the cluster by retrieving transactions it needs before it can become an ONLINE member.

    • UNREACHABLE: The instance has lost communication with the cluster.

    • ERROR: The instance has encountered an error during the recovery phase or while applying a transaction.

      Important

      Once an instance enters ERROR state, the super_read_only option is set to ON. To leave the ERROR state you must manually configure the instance with super_read_only=OFF.

    • (MISSING): The state of an instance which is part of the configured cluster, but is currently unavailable.

      Note

      The MISSING state is specific to InnoDB cluster, it is not a state generated by Group Replication. MySQL Shell uses this state to indicate instances that are registered in the metadata, but cannot be found in the live cluster view.

  • topology: The instances which have been added to the cluster.

  • Host name of instance: The host name of an instance, for example localhost:3310.

  • role: what function this instance provides in the cluster. Currently only HA, for high availability.

  • mode: whether the server is read-write ("R/W") or read-only ("R/O"). From version 8.0.17, this is derived from the current state of the super_read_only variable on the instance, and whether the cluster has quorum. In previous versions the value of mode was derived from whether the instance was serving as a primary or secondary instance. Usually if the instance is a primary, then the mode is "R/W", and if the instance is a secondary the mode is "R/O". Any instances in a cluster that have no visible quorum are marked as "R/O", regardless of the state of the super_read_only variable.

  • groupInformationSourceMember: the internal connection used to get information about the cluster, shown as a URI-like connection string. Usually the connection initially used to create the cluster.

To display more information about the cluster use the extended option. From version 8.0.17, the extended option supports integer or Boolean values. To configure the additional information that Cluster.status({'extended':value}) provides, use the following values:

  • 0: disables the additional information, the default

  • 1: includes information about the Group Replication Protocol Version, Group name, cluster member UUIDs, cluster member roles and states as reported by Group Replication, and the list of fenced system variables

  • 2: includes information about transactions processed by connection and applier

  • 3: includes more detailed statistics about the replication performed by each cluster member.

Setting extended using Boolean values is the equivalent of setting the integer values 0 and 1. In versions prior to 8.0.17, the extended option was only Boolean. Similarly prior versions used the queryMembers Boolean option to provide more information about the instances in the cluster, which is the equivalent of setting extended to 3. The queryMembers option is deprecated and scheduled to be removed in a future release.

When you issue Cluster.status({'extended':1}), or the extended option is set to true, the output includes:

  • the following additional attributes for the defaultReplicaSet object:

    • GRProtocolVersion is the Group Replication Protocol Version being used in the cluster.

      Tip

      InnoDB cluster manages the Group Replication Protocol version being used automatically, see InnoDB cluster and Group Replication Protocol for more information.

    • groupName is the group's name, a UUID.

  • the following additional attributes for each object of the topology object:

    • fenceSysVars a list containing the name of the fenced system variables which are enabled. Currently the fenced system variables considered are read_only, super_read_only and offline_mode.

    • memberId Each cluster member UUID.

    • memberRole the Member Role as reported by the Group Replication plugin, see the MEMBER_ROLE column of the replication_group_members table.

    • memberState the Member State as reported by the Group Replication plugin, see the MEMBER_STATE column of the replication_group_members table.

To see information about recovery and regular transaction I/O, applier worker thread statistics and any lags; applier coordinator statistics, if parallel apply is enabled; error, and other information from I/O and applier threads issue use the values 2 and 3. A value of 3 is the equivalent of setting the deprecated queryMembers option to true. When you use these values, a connection to each instance in the cluster is opened so that additional instance specific statistics can be queried. The exact statistics that are included in the output depend on the state and configuration of the instance and the server version. This information matches that shown in the replication_group_member_stats table, see the descriptions of the matching columns for more information. Instances which are ONLINE have a transactions section included in the output. Instances which are RECOVERING have a recovery section included in the output. When you set extended to 2, in either case, these sections can contain the following:

  • appliedCount: see COUNT_TRANSACTIONS_REMOTE_APPLIED

  • checkedCount: see COUNT_TRANSACTIONS_CHECKED

  • committedAllMembers: see TRANSACTIONS_COMMITTED_ALL_MEMBERS

  • conflictsDetectedCount: see COUNT_CONFLICTS_DETECTED

  • inApplierQueueCount: see COUNT_TRANSACTIONS_REMOTE_IN_APPLIER_QUEUE

  • inQueueCount: see COUNT_TRANSACTIONS_IN_QUEUE

  • lastConflictFree: see LAST_CONFLICT_FREE_TRANSACTION

  • proposedCount: see COUNT_TRANSACTIONS_LOCAL_PROPOSED

  • rollbackCount: see COUNT_TRANSACTIONS_LOCAL_ROLLBACK

When you set extended to 3, the connection section shows information from the replication_connection_status table. The connection section can contain the following:

The currentlyQueueing section has information about the transactions currently queued:

  • immediateCommitTimestamp: see QUEUEING_TRANSACTION_IMMEDIATE_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP

  • immediateCommitToNowTime: see QUEUEING_TRANSACTION_IMMEDIATE_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP minus NOW()

  • originalCommitTimestamp: see QUEUEING_TRANSACTION_ORIGINAL_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP

  • originalCommitToNowTime: see QUEUEING_TRANSACTION_ORIGINAL_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP minus NOW()

  • startTimestamp: see QUEUEING_TRANSACTION_START_QUEUE_TIMESTAMP

  • transaction: see QUEUEING_TRANSACTION

  • lastHeartbeatTimestamp: see LAST_HEARTBEAT_TIMESTAMP

The lastQueued section has information about the most recently queued transaction:

  • endTimestamp: see LAST_QUEUED_TRANSACTION_END_QUEUE_TIMESTAMP

  • immediateCommitTimestamp: see LAST_QUEUED_TRANSACTION_IMMEDIATE_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP

  • immediateCommitToEndTime: LAST_QUEUED_TRANSACTION_IMMEDIATE_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP minus NOW()

  • originalCommitTimestamp: see LAST_QUEUED_TRANSACTION_ORIGINAL_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP

  • originalCommitToEndTime: LAST_QUEUED_TRANSACTION_ORIGINAL_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP minus NOW()

  • queueTime: LAST_QUEUED_TRANSACTION_END_QUEUE_TIMESTAMP minus LAST_QUEUED_TRANSACTION_START_QUEUE_TIMESTAMP

  • startTimestamp: see LAST_QUEUED_TRANSACTION_START_QUEUE_TIMESTAMP

  • transaction: see LAST_QUEUED_TRANSACTION

  • receivedHeartbeats: see COUNT_RECEIVED_HEARTBEATS

  • receivedTransactionSet: see RECEIVED_TRANSACTION_SET

  • threadId: see THREAD_ID

Instances which are using a multithreaded slave have a workers section which contains information about the worker threads, and matches the information shown by the replication_applier_status_by_worker table.

The lastApplied section shows the following information about the last transaction applied by the worker:

  • applyTime: see LAST_APPLIED_TRANSACTION_END_APPLY_TIMESTAMP minus LAST_APPLIED_TRANSACTION_START_APPLY_TIMESTAMP

  • endTimestamp: see LAST_APPLIED_TRANSACTION_END_APPLY_TIMESTAMP

  • immediateCommitTimestamp: see LAST_APPLIED_TRANSACTION_IMMEDIATE_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP

  • immediateCommitToEndTime: see LAST_APPLIED_TRANSACTION_IMMEDIATE_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP minus NOW()

  • originalCommitTimestamp: see LAST_APPLIED_TRANSACTION_ORIGINAL_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP

  • originalCommitToEndTime: see LAST_APPLIED_TRANSACTION_ORIGINAL_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP minus NOW()

  • startTimestamp: see LAST_APPLIED_TRANSACTION_START_APPLY_TIMESTAMP

  • transaction: see LAST_APPLIED_TRANSACTION

The currentlyApplying section shows the following information about the transaction currently being applied by the worker:

  • immediateCommitTimestamp: see APPLYING_TRANSACTION_IMMEDIATE_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP

  • immediateCommitToNowTime: see APPLYING_TRANSACTION_IMMEDIATE_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP minus NOW()

  • originalCommitTimestamp: see APPLYING_TRANSACTION_ORIGINAL_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP

  • originalCommitToNowTime: see APPLYING_TRANSACTION_ORIGINAL_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP minus NOW()

  • startTimestamp: see APPLYING_TRANSACTION_START_APPLY_TIMESTAMP

  • transaction: see APPLYING_TRANSACTION

The lastProcessed section has the following information about the last transaction processed by the worker:

  • bufferTime: LAST_PROCESSED_TRANSACTION_END_BUFFER_TIMESTAMP minus LAST_PROCESSED_TRANSACTION_START_BUFFER_TIMESTAMP

  • endTimestamp: see LAST_PROCESSED_TRANSACTION_END_BUFFER_TIMESTAMP

  • immediateCommitTimestamp: see LAST_PROCESSED_TRANSACTION_IMMEDIATE_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP

  • immediateCommitToEndTime: LAST_PROCESSED_TRANSACTION_IMMEDIATE_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP minus LAST_PROCESSED_TRANSACTION_END_BUFFER_TIMESTAMP

  • originalCommitTimestamp: see LAST_PROCESSED_TRANSACTION_ORIGINAL_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP

  • originalCommitToEndTime: LAST_PROCESSED_TRANSACTION_ORIGINAL_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP minus LAST_PROCESSED_TRANSACTION_END_BUFFER_TIMESTAMP

  • startTimestamp: see LAST_PROCESSED_TRANSACTION_START_BUFFER_TIMESTAMP

  • transaction: see LAST_PROCESSED_TRANSACTION

If parallel applier workers are enabled, then the number of objects in the workers array in transactions or recovery matches the number of configured workers and an additional coordinator object is included. The information shown matches the information in the replication_applier_status_by_coordinator table. The object can contain:

The currentlyProcessing section has the following information about the transaction being processed by the worker:

  • immediateCommitTimestamp: see PROCESSING_TRANSACTION_IMMEDIATE_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP

  • immediateCommitToNowTime: PROCESSING_TRANSACTION_IMMEDIATE_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP minus NOW()

  • originalCommitTimestamp: see PROCESSING_TRANSACTION_ORIGINAL_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP

  • originalCommitToNowTime: PROCESSING_TRANSACTION_ORIGINAL_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP minus NOW()

  • startTimestamp: see PROCESSING_TRANSACTION_START_BUFFER_TIMESTAMP

  • transaction: see PROCESSING_TRANSACTION

worker objects have the following information if an error was detected in the replication_applier_status_by_worker table:

  • lastErrno: see LAST_ERROR_NUMBER

  • lastError: see LAST_ERROR_MESSAGE

  • lastErrorTimestamp: see LAST_ERROR_TIMESTAMP

connection objects have the following information if an error was detected in the replication_connection_status table:

  • lastErrno: see LAST_ERROR_NUMBER

  • lastError: see LAST_ERROR_MESSAGE

  • lastErrorTimestamp: see LAST_ERROR_TIMESTAMP

coordinator objects have the following information if an error was detected in the replication_applier_status_by_coordinator table:

  • lastErrno: see LAST_ERROR_NUMBER

  • lastError: see LAST_ERROR_MESSAGE

  • lastErrorTimestamp: see LAST_ERROR_TIMESTAMP

Monitoring Recovery Operations

The output of Cluster.status() shows information about the progress of recovery operations for instances in RECOVERING state. Information is shown for instances recovering using either MySQL Clone, or incremental recovery. Monitor these fields:

  • The recoveryStatusText field includes information about the type of recovery being used. When MySQL Clone is working the field shows Cloning in progress. When incremental recovery is working the field shows Distributed recovery in progress.

  • When MySQL Clone is being used, the recovery field includes a dictionary with the following fields:

    • cloneStartTime: The timestamp of the start of the clone process

    • cloneState: The state of the clone progress

    • currentStage: The current stage which the clone process has reached

    • currentStageProgress: The current stage progress as a percentage of completion

    • currentStageState: The current stage state

    Example Cluster.status() output, trimmed for brevity:

                        ...
                        "recovery": {
                        "cloneStartTime": "2019-07-15 12:50:22.730", 
                        "cloneState": "In Progress", 
                        "currentStage": "FILE COPY", 
                        "currentStageProgress": 61.726837675213865, 
                        "currentStageState": "In Progress"
                        }, 
                        "recoveryStatusText": "Cloning in progress", 
                        ...
                    
  • When incremental recovery is being used, the recovery field includes a dictionary with the following field:

    • state: The state of the group_replication_recovery channel

    Example output Cluster.status(), trimmed for brevity:

                        ...
                        "recovery": {
                        "state": "ON"
                        }, 
                        ...
    

InnoDB cluster and Group Replication Protocol

From MySQL 8.0.16, Group Replication has the concept of a communication protocol for the group, see Section 18.4.1.4, “Setting a Group's Communication Protocol Version” for background information. The Group Replication communication protocol version usually has to be managed explicitly, and set to accommodate the oldest MySQL Server version that you want the group to support. However, InnoDB cluster automatically and transparently manages the communication protocol versions of its members, whenever the cluster topology is changed using AdminAPI operations. A cluster always uses the most recent communication protocol version that is supported by all the instances that are currently part of the cluster or joining it.

  • When an instance is added to, removed from, or rejoins the cluster, or a rescan or reboot operation is carried out on the cluster, the communication protocol version is automatically set to a version supported by the instance that is now at the earliest MySQL Server version.

  • When you carry out a rolling upgrade by removing instances from the cluster, upgrading them, and adding them back into the cluster, the communication protocol version is automatically upgraded when the last remaining instance at the old MySQL Server version is removed from the cluster prior to its upgrade.

To see the communication protocol version being used in a cluster, use the Cluster.status() function with the extended option enabled. The communication protocol version is returned in the GRProtocolVersion field, provided that the cluster has quorum and no cluster members are unreachable.

Checking the MySQL Version on Instances

The following operations can report information about the MySQL Server version running on the instance:

  • Cluster.status()

  • Cluster.describe()

  • Cluster.rescan()

The behavior varies depending on the MySQL Server version of the Cluster object session.

  • Cluster.status()

    If either of the following requirements are met, a version string attribute is returned for each instance JSON object of the topology object:

    • The Cluster object's current session is version 8.0.11 or later.

    • The Cluster object's current session is running a version earlier than version 8.0.11 but the extended option is set to 3 (or the deprecated queryMembers is true).

    For example on an instance running version 8.0.16:

    "topology": {
        "ic-1:3306": {
            "address": "ic-1:3306",
            "mode": "R/W",
            "readReplicas": {},
            "role": "HA",
            "status": "ONLINE",
            "version": "8.0.16"
    }

    For example on an instance running version 5.7.24:

    "topology": {
        "ic-1:3306": {
            "address": "ic-1:3306",
            "mode": "R/W",
            "readReplicas": {},
            "role": "HA",
            "status": "ONLINE",
            "version": "5.7.24"
    }
  • Cluster.describe()

    If the Cluster object's current session is version 8.0.11 or later, a version string attribute is returned for each instance JSON object of the topology object

    For example on an instance running version 8.0.16:

    "topology": [
        {
            "address": "ic-1:3306",
            "label": "ic-1:3306",
            "role": "HA",
            "version": "8.0.16"
        }
    ]
  • Cluster.rescan()

    If the Cluster object's current session is version 8.0.11 or later, and the Cluster.rescan() operation detects instances which do not belong to the cluster, a version string attribute is returned for each instance JSON object of the newlyDiscoveredInstance object.

    For example on an instance running version 8.0.16:

    "newlyDiscoveredInstances": [
        {
            "host": "ic-4:3306",
            "member_id": "82a67a06-2ba3-11e9-8cfc-3c6aa7197deb",
            "name": null,
            "version": "8.0.16"
        }
    ]	

Super Read-only and Instances

Whenever Group Replication stops, the super_read_only variable is set to ON to ensure no writes are made to the instance. When you try to use such an instance with the following AdminAPI commands you are given the choice to set super_read_only=OFF on the instance:

  • dba.configureInstance()

  • dba.configureLocalInstance()

  • dba.dropMetadataSchema()

When AdminAPI encounters an instance which has super_read_only=ON, in interactive mode you are given the choice to set super_read_only=OFF. For example:

mysql-js> var myCluster = dba.dropMetadataSchema()
Are you sure you want to remove the Metadata? [y/N]: y
The MySQL instance at 'localhost:3310' currently has the super_read_only system
variable set to protect it from inadvertent updates from applications. You must
first unset it to be able to perform any changes to this instance.
For more information see:
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/en/server-system-variables.html#sysvar_super_read_only.

Do you want to disable super_read_only and continue? [y/N]: y

Metadata Schema successfully removed. 

The number of current active sessions to the instance is shown. You must ensure that no applications can write to the instance inadvertently. By answering y you confirm that AdminAPI can write to the instance. If there is more than one open session to the instance listed, exercise caution before permitting AdminAPI to set super_read_only=OFF.

To force the function to set super_read_only=OFF in a script, pass the clearReadOnly option set to true. For example dba.configureInstance(instance, {clearReadOnly: true}).

Configuring Users for InnoDB Cluster

The recommended way to create a user which can administer an InnoDB cluster is to use the clusterAdmin option with the dba.configureInstance() or dba.configureLocalInstance() operations. If you want to manually configure a user which can administer an InnoDB cluster that user requires the following privileges, all with GRANT OPTION:

If only read operations are needed, for example to create a user for monitoring purposes, an account with more restricted privileges can be used. To give the user your_user the privileges needed to monitor InnoDB cluster issue:

GRANT SELECT ON mysql_innodb_cluster_metadata.* TO your_user@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON performance_schema.global_status TO your_user@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON performance_schema.replication_applier_configuration TO your_user@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON performance_schema.replication_applier_status TO your_user@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON performance_schema.replication_applier_status_by_coordinator TO your_user@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON performance_schema.replication_applier_status_by_worker TO your_user@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON performance_schema.replication_connection_configuration TO your_user@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON performance_schema.replication_connection_status TO your_user@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON performance_schema.replication_group_member_stats TO your_user@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON performance_schema.replication_group_members TO your_user@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON performance_schema.threads TO your_user@'%' WITH GRANT OPTION; 

For more information, see Section 13.7.1, “Account Management Statements”.

Configuring Automatic Rejoin of Instances

Instances running MySQL 8.0.16 and later support the Group Replication automatic rejoin functionality, which enables you to configure instances to automatically rejoin the cluster after being expelled. See Section 18.6.6, “Responses to Failure Detection and Network Partitioning” for background information. AdminAPI provides the autoRejoinTries option to configure the number of tries instances make to rejoin the cluster after being expelled. By default instances do not automatically rejoin the cluster. You can configure the autoRejoinTries option at either the cluster level or for an individual instance using the following commands:

  • dba.createCluster()

  • Cluster.addInstance()

  • Cluster.setOption()

  • Cluster.setInstanceOption()

The autoRejoinTries option accepts positive integer values between 0 and 2016 and the default value is 0, which means that instances do not try to automatically rejoin. When you are using the automatic rejoin functionality, your cluster is more tolerant to faults, especially temporary ones such as unreliable networks. But if quorum has been lost, you should not expect members to automatically rejoin the cluster, because majority is required to rejoin instances.

Instances running MySQL version 8.0.12 and later have the group_replication_exit_state_action variable, which you can configure using the AdminAPI exitStateAction option. This controls what instances do in the event of leaving the cluster unexpectedly. By default the exitStateAction option is READ_ONLY, which means that instances which leave the cluster unexpectedly become read-only. If exitStateAction is set to OFFLINE_MODE (available from MySQL 8.0.18), instances which leave the cluster unexpectedly become read-only and also enter offline mode, where they disconnect existing clients and do not accept new connections (except from clients with administrator privileges). If exitStateAction is set to ABORT_SERVER then in the event of leaving the cluster unexpectedly, the instance shuts down MySQL, and it has to be started again before it can rejoin the cluster. Note that when you are using the automatic rejoin functionality, the action configured by the exitStateAction option only happens in the event that all attempts to rejoin the cluster fail.

There is a chance you might connect to an instance and try to configure it using the AdminAPI, but at that moment the instance could be rejoining the cluster. This could happen whenever you use any of these operations:

  • Cluster.status()

  • dba.getCluster()

  • Cluster.rejoinInstance()

  • Cluster.addInstance()

  • Cluster.removeInstance()

  • Cluster.rescan()

  • Cluster.checkInstanceState()

These operations might provide extra information while the instance is automatically rejoining the cluster. In addition, when you are using Cluster.removeInstance(), if the target instance is automatically rejoining the cluster the operation aborts unless you pass in force:true.

Managing Sandbox Instances

Once a sandbox instance is running, it is possible to change its status at any time using the following:

  • To stop a sandbox instance use dba.stopSandboxInstance(instance). This stops the instance gracefully, unlike dba.killSandboxInstance(instance).

  • To start a sandbox instance use dba.startSandboxInstance(instance).

  • To kill a sandbox instance use dba.killSandboxInstance(instance). This stops the instance without gracefully stopping it and is useful in simulating unexpected halts.

  • To delete a sandbox instance use dba.deleteSandboxInstance(instance). This completely removes the sandbox instance from your file system.

Removing Instances from the InnoDB Cluster

You can remove an instance from a cluster at any time should you wish to do so. This can be done with the Cluster.removeInstance(instance) method, as in the following example:

mysql-js> cluster.removeInstance('root@localhost:3310')

The instance will be removed from the InnoDB cluster. Depending on the instance
being the Seed or not, the Metadata session might become invalid. If so, please
start a new session to the Metadata Storage R/W instance.

Attempting to leave from the Group Replication group...

The instance 'localhost:3310' was successfully removed from the cluster.

You can optionally pass in the interactive option to control whether you are prompted to confirm the removal of the instance from the cluster. In interactive mode, you are prompted to continue with the removal of the instance (or not) in case it is not reachable. The cluster.removeInstance() operation ensures that the instance is removed from the metadata of all the cluster members which are ONLINE, and the instance itself.

When the instance being removed has transactions which still need to be applied, AdminAPI waits for up to the number of seconds configured by the MySQL Shell dba.gtidWaitTimeout option for transactions (GTIDs) to be applied. The MySQL Shell dba.gtidWaitTimeout option has a default value of 60 seconds, see Configuring MySQL Shell Options for information on changing the default. If the timeout value defined by dba.gtidWaitTimeout is reached when waiting for transactions to be applied and the force option is false (or not defined) then an error is issued and the remove operation is aborted. If the timeout value defined by dba.gtidWaitTimeout is reached when waiting for transactions to be applied and the force option is set to true then the operation continues without an error and removes the instance from the cluster.

Important

The force option should only be used with Cluster.removeInstance(instance) when you want to ignore any errors, for example unprocessed transactions or an instance being UNREACHABLE, and do not plan to reuse the instance with the cluster. Ignoring errors when removing an instance from the cluster could result in an instance which is not in synchrony with the cluster, preventing it from rejoining the cluster at a later time. Only use the force option when you plan to no longer use the instance with the cluster, in all other cases you should always try to recover the instance and only remove it when it is available and healthy, in other words with the status ONLINE.

Customizing InnoDB clusters

When you create a cluster and add instances to it, values such as the group name, the local address, and the seed instances are configured automatically by AdminAPI. These default values are recommended for most deployments, but advanced users can override the defaults by passing the following options to the dba.createCluster() and Cluster.addInstance().

To customize the name of the replication group created by InnoDB cluster, pass the groupName option to the dba.createCluster() command. This sets the group_replication_group_name system variable. The name must be a valid UUID.

To customize the address which an instance provides for connections from other instances, pass the localAddress option to the dba.createCluster() and cluster.addInstance() commands. Specify the address in the format host:port. This sets the group_replication_local_address system variable on the instance. The address must be accessible to all instances in the cluster, and must be reserved for internal cluster communication only. In other words do not use this address for communication with the instance.

To customize the instances used as seeds when an instance joins the cluster, pass the groupSeeds option to the dba.createCluster() and cluster.addInstance() commands. Seed instances are contacted when a new instance joins a cluster and used to provide data to the new instance. The addresses are specified as a comma separated list such as host1:port1,host2:port2. This configures the group_replication_group_seeds system variable.

For more information see the documentation of the system variables configured by these AdminAPI options.

Rejoining a Cluster

If an instance leaves the cluster, for example because it lost connection, and for some reason it could not automatically rejoin the cluster, it might be necessary to rejoin it to the cluster at a later stage. To rejoin an instance to a cluster issue Cluster.rejoinInstance(instance).

Tip

If the instance has super_read_only=ON then you might need to confirm that AdminAPI can set super_read_only=OFF. See Super Read-only and Instances for more information.

In the case where an instance has not had it's configuration persisted (see Persisting Settings), upon restart the instance does not rejoin the cluster automatically. The solution is to issue cluster.rejoinInstance() so that the instance is added to the cluster again and ensure the changes are persisted. Once the InnoDB cluster configuration is persisted to the instance's option file it rejoins the cluster automatically.

If you are rejoining an instance which has changed in some way then you might have to modify the instance to make the rejoin process work correctly. For example, when you restore a MySQL Enterprise Backup backup, the server_uuid changes. Attempting to rejoin such an instance fails because InnoDB cluster instances are identified by the server_uuid variable. In such a situation, information about the instance's old server_uuid must be removed from the InnoDB cluster metadata and then a Cluster.rescan() must be executed to add the instance to the metadata using it's new server_uuid. For example:

cluster.removeInstance("root@instanceWithOldUUID:3306", {force: true})

cluster.rescan()

In this case you must pass the force option to the Cluster.removeInstance() method because the instance is unreachable from the cluster's perspective and we want to remove it from the InnoDB cluster metadata anyway.

Restoring a Cluster from Quorum Loss

If an instance (or instances) fail, then a cluster can lose its quorum, which is the ability to vote in a new primary. This can happen when a there is a failure of enough instances that there is no longer a majority of the instances which make up the cluster to vote on Group Replication operations. When a cluster loses quorum you can no longer process write transactions with the cluster, or change the cluster's topology, for example by adding, rejoining, or removing instances. However if you have an instance online which contains the InnoDB cluster metadata, it is possible to restore a cluster with quorum. This assumes you can connect to an instance that contains the InnoDB cluster metadata, and that instance can contact the other instances you want to use to restore the cluster.

Important

This operation is potentially dangerous because it can create a split-brain scenario if incorrectly used and should be considered a last resort. Make absolutely sure that there are no partitions of this group that are still operating somewhere in the network, but not accessible from your location.

Connect to an instance which contains the cluster's metadata, then use the Cluster.forceQuorumUsingPartitionOf(instance) operation, which restores the cluster based on the metadata on instance, and then all the instances that are ONLINE from the point of view of the given instance definition are added to the restored cluster.

mysql-js> cluster.forceQuorumUsingPartitionOf("icadmin@ic-1:3306")

  Restoring replicaset 'default' from loss of quorum, by using the partition composed of [icadmin@ic-1:3306]

  Please provide the password for 'icadmin@ic-1:3306': ******
  Restoring the InnoDB cluster ...

  The InnoDB cluster was successfully restored using the partition from the instance 'icadmin@ic-1:3306'.

  WARNING: To avoid a split-brain scenario, ensure that all other members of the replicaset
  are removed or joined back to the group that was restored.

In the event that an instance is not automatically added to the cluster, for example if its settings were not persisted, use Cluster.rejoinInstance() to manually add the instance back to the cluster.

The restored cluster might not, and does not have to, consist of all of the original instances which made up the cluster. For example, if the original cluster consisted of the following five instances:

  • ic-1

  • ic-2

  • ic-3

  • ic-4

  • ic-5

and the cluster experiences a split-brain scenario, with ic-1, ic-2, and ic-3 forming one partition while ic-4 and ic-5 form another partition. If you connect to ic-1 and issue Cluster.forceQuorumUsingPartitionOf('icadmin@ic-1:3306') to restore the cluster the reulting cluster would consist of these three instances:

  • ic-1

  • ic-2

  • ic-3

because ic-1 sees ic-2 and ic-3 as ONLINE and does not see ic-4 and ic-5.

Rebooting a Cluster from a Major Outage

If your cluster suffers from a complete outage, you can ensure it is reconfigured correctly using dba.rebootClusterFromCompleteOutage(). This operation takes the instance which MySQL Shell is currently connected to and uses its metadata to recover the cluster. In the event that a cluster's instances have completely stopped, the instances must be started and only then can the cluster be started. For example if the machine a sandbox cluster was running on has been restarted, and the instances were at ports 3310, 3320 and 3330, issue:

mysql-js> dba.startSandboxInstance(3310)
mysql-js> dba.startSandboxInstance(3320)
mysql-js> dba.startSandboxInstance(3330)
    

This ensures the sandbox instances are running. In the case of a production deployment you would have to start the instances outside of MySQL Shell. Once the instances have started, you need to connect to an instance with the GTID superset, which means the instance which had applied the most transaction before the outage. If you are unsure which instance contains the GTID superset, connect to any instance and follow the interactive messages from the dba.rebootClusterFromCompleteOutage(), which detects if the instance you are connected to contains the GTID superset. Reboot the cluster by issuing:

mysql-js> var cluster = dba.rebootClusterFromCompleteOutage();

The dba.rebootClusterFromCompleteOutage() operation then follows these steps to ensure the cluster is correctly reconfigured:

  • The InnoDB cluster metadata found on the instance which MySQL Shell is currently connected to is checked to see if it contains the GTID superset, in other words the transactions applied by the cluster. If the currently connected instance does not contain the GTID superset, the operation aborts with that information. See the subsequent paragraphs for more information.

  • If the instance contains the GTID superset, the cluster is recovered based on the metadata of the instance.

  • Assuming you are running MySQL Shell in interactive mode, a wizard is run that checks which instances of the cluster are currently reachable and asks if you want to rejoin any discovered instances to the rebooted cluster.

  • Similarly, in interactive mode the wizard also detects instances which are currently not reachable and asks if you would like to remove such instances from the rebooted cluster.

If you are not using MySQL Shell's interactive mode, you can use the rejoinInstances and removeInstances options to manually configure instances which should be joined or removed during the reboot of the cluster.

If you encounter an error such as The active session instance isn't the most updated in comparison with the ONLINE instances of the Cluster's metadata. then the instance you are connected to does not have the GTID superset of transactions applied by the cluster. In this situation, connect MySQL Shell to the instance suggested in the error message and issue dba.rebootClusterFromCompleteOutage() from that instance.

Tip

To manually detect which instance has the GTID superset rather than using the interactive wizard, check the gtid_executed variable on each instance. For example issue:

mysql-sql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'gtid_executed';

The instance which has applied the largest GTID set of transactions contains the GTID superset.

If this process fails, and the cluster metadata has become badly corrupted, you might need to drop the metadata and create the cluster again from scratch. You can drop the cluster metadata using dba.dropMetadataSchema().

Warning

The dba.dropMetadataSchema() method should only be used as a last resort, when it is not possible to restore the cluster. It cannot be undone.

Rescanning a Cluster

If you make configuration changes to a cluster outside of the AdminAPI commands, for example by changing an instance's configuration manually to resolve configuration issues or after the loss of an instance, you need to update the InnoDB cluster metadata so that it matches the current configuration of instances. In these cases, use the Cluster.rescan() operation, which enables you to update the InnoDB cluster metadata either manually or using an interactive wizard. The Cluster.rescan() operation can detect new active instances that are not registered in the metadata and add them, or obsolete instances (no longer active) still registered in the metadata, and remove them. You can automatically update the metadata depending on the instances found by the command, or you can specify a list of instance addresses to either add to the metadata or remove from the metadata. You can also update the topology mode stored in the metadata, for example after changing from single-primary mode to multi-primary mode outside of AdminAPI.

The syntax of the command is Cluster.rescan([options]). The options dictionary supports the following:

  • interactive: boolean value used to disable or enable the wizards in the command execution. Controls whether prompts and confirmations are provided. The default value is equal to MySQL Shell wizard mode, specified by shell.options.useWizards.

  • addInstances: list with the connection data of the new active instances to add to the metadata, or auto to automatically add missing instances to the metadata. The value auto is case-insensitive.

    • Instances specified in the list are added to the metadata, without prompting for confirmation

    • In interactive mode, you are prompted to confirm the addition of newly discovered instances that are not included in the addInstances option

    • In non-interactive mode, newly discovered instances that are not included in the addInstances option are reported in the output, but you are not prompted to add them

  • removeInstances: list with the connection data of the obsolete instances to remove from the metadata, or auto to automatically remove obsolete instances from the metadata.

    • Instances specified in the list are removed from the metadata, without prompting for confirmation

    • In interactive mode, you are prompted to confirm the removal of obsolete instances that are not included in the removeInstances option

    • In non-interactive mode, obsolete instances that are not included in the removeInstances option are reported in the output but you are not prompted to remove them

  • updateTopologyMode: boolean value used to indicate if the topology mode (single-primary or multi-primary) in the metadata should be updated (true) or not (false) to match the one being used by the cluster. By default, the metadata is not updated (false).

    • If the value is true then the InnoDB cluster metadata is compared to the current mode being used by Group Replication, and the metadata is updated if necessary. Use this option to update the metadata after making changes to the topology mode of your cluster outside of AdminAPI.

    • If the value is false then InnoDB cluster metadata about the cluster's topology mode is not updated even if it is different from the topology used by the cluster's Group Replication group

    • If the option is not specified and the topology mode in the metadata is different from the topology used by the cluster's Group Replication group, then:

      • In interactive mode, you are prompted to confirm the update of the topology mode in the metadata

      • In non-interactive mode, if there is a difference between the topology used by the cluster's Group Replication group and the InnoDB cluster metadata, it is reported and no changes are made to the metadata

    • When the metadata topology mode is updated to match the Group Replication mode, the auto-increment settings on all instances are updated as described at InnoDB cluster and Auto-increment.

Checking Instance State

The cluster.checkInstanceState() function can be used to verify the existing data on an instance does not prevent it from joining a cluster. This process works by validating the instance's global transaction identifier (GTID) state compared to the GTIDs already processed by the cluster. For more information on GTIDs see Section 17.1.3.1, “GTID Format and Storage”. This check enables you to determine if an instance which has processed transactions can be added to the cluster.

The following demonstrates issuing this in a running MySQL Shell:

mysql-js> cluster.checkInstanceState('icadmin@ic-4:3306')

The output of this function can be one of the following:

  • OK new: the instance has not executed any GTID transactions, therefore it cannot conflict with the GTIDs executed by the cluster

  • OK recoverable: the instance has executed GTIDs which do not conflict with the executed GTIDs of the cluster seed instances

  • ERROR diverged: the instance has executed GTIDs which diverge with the executed GTIDs of the cluster seed instances

  • ERROR lost_transactions: the instance has more executed GTIDs than the executed GTIDs of the cluster seed instances

Instances with an OK status can be added to the cluster because any data on the instance is consistent with the cluster. In other words the instance being checked has not executed any transactions which conflict with the GTIDs executed by the cluster, and can be recovered to the same state as the rest of the cluster instances.

Dissolving an InnoDB Cluster

To dissolve an InnoDB cluster you connect to a read-write instance, for example the primary in a single-primary cluster, and use the Cluster.dissolve() command. This removes all metadata and configuration associated with the cluster, and disables Group Replication on the instances. Any data that was replicated between the instances is not removed.

Important

There is no way to undo the dissolving of a cluster. To create it again use dba.createCluster().

The Cluster.dissolve() operation can only configure instances which are ONLINE or reachable. If members of a cluster cannot be reached by the member where you issued the Cluster.dissolve() command you have to decide how the dissolve operation should proceed. If there is any chance you want to rejoin any instances that are identified as missing from the cluster, it is strongly recommended to cancel the dissolve operation and first bring the missing instances back online, before proceeding with a dissolve operation. This ensures that all instances can have their metadata updated correctly, and that there is no chance of a split-brain situation. However, if the instances from the cluster which cannot be reached have permanently left the cluster there could be no choice but to force the dissolve operation, which means that the missing instances are ignored and only online instances are affected by the operation.

Warning

Forcing the dissolve operation to ignore cluster instances can result in instances which could not be reached during the dissolve operation continuing to operate, creating the risk of a split-brain situation. Only ever force a dissolve operation to ignore missing instances if you are sure there is no chance of the instance coming online again.

In interactive mode, if members of a cluster are not reachable during a dissolve operation then an interactive prompt is displayed, for example:

mysql-js> Cluster.dissolve()
The cluster still has the following registered instances:
{
    "clusterName": "testCluster", 
    "defaultReplicaSet": {
        "name": "default", 
        "topology": [
            {
                "address": "ic-1:3306", 
                "label": "ic-1:3306", 
                "role": "HA"
            }, 
            {
                "address": "ic-2:3306", 
                "label": "ic-2:3306", 
                "role": "HA"
            }, 
            {
                "address": "ic-3:3306", 
                "label": "ic-3:3306", 
                "role": "HA"
            }
        ]
    }
}
WARNING: You are about to dissolve the whole cluster and lose the high
availability features provided by it. This operation cannot be reverted. All
members will be removed from the cluster and replication will be stopped,
internal recovery user accounts and the cluster metadata will be dropped. User
data will be maintained intact in all instances.

Are you sure you want to dissolve the cluster? [y/N]: y

ERROR: The instance 'ic-2:3306' cannot be removed because it is on a '(MISSING)'
state. Please bring the instance back ONLINE and try to dissolve the cluster
again. If the instance is permanently not reachable, then you can choose to
proceed with the operation and only remove the instance from the Cluster
Metadata.

Do you want to continue anyway (only the instance metadata will be removed)?
[y/N]: y

Instance 'ic-3:3306' is attempting to leave the cluster...  Instance 'ic-1:3306'
is attempting to leave the cluster...

WARNING: The cluster was successfully dissolved, but the following instance was
skipped: 'ic-2:3306'. Please make sure this instance is permanently unavailable
or take any necessary manual action to ensure the cluster is fully dissolved.

In this example, the cluster consisted of three instances, one of which was offline when dissolve was issued. The error is caught, and you are given the choice how to proceed. In this case the missing ic-2 instance is ignored and the reachable members have their metadata updated.

When MySQL Shell is running in non-interactive mode, for example when running a batch file, you can configure the behavior of the Cluster.dissolve() operation using the force option. To force the dissolve operation to ignore any instances which are unreachable, issue:

mysql-js> Cluster.dissolve({force: true})

Any instances which can be reached are removed from the cluster, and any unreachable instances are ignored. The warnings in this section about forcing the removal of missing instances from a cluster apply equally to this technique of forcing the dissolve operation.

You can also use the interactive option with the Cluster.dissolve() operation to override the mode which MySQL Shell is running in, for example to make the interactive prompt appear when running a batch script. For example:

mysql-js> Cluster.dissolve({interactive: true})

The dba.gtidWaitTimeout MySQL Shell option configures how long the Cluster.dissolve() operation waits for cluster transactions to be applied before removing a target instance from the cluster, but only if the target instance is ONLINE. An error is issued if the timeout is reached when waiting for cluster transactions to be applied on any of the instances being removed, except if force: true is used, which skips the error in that case.

Note

After issuing cluster.dissolve(), any variable assigned to the Cluster object is no longer valid.

Securing your Cluster

Server instances can be configured to use secure connections. For general information on using SSL with MySQL see Section 6.3, “Using Encrypted Connections”. This section explains how to configure a cluster to use SSL. An additional security possibility is to configure which servers can access the cluster, see Creating a Whitelist of Servers.

Important

Once you have configured a cluster to use SSL you must add the servers to the ipWhitelist.

When using dba.createCluster() to set up a cluster, if the server instance provides SSL encryption then it is automatically enabled on the seed instance. Pass the memberSslMode option to the dba.createCluster() method to specify a different SSL mode. The SSL mode of a cluster can only be set at the time of creation. The memberSslMode option is a string that configures the SSL mode to be used, it defaults to AUTO. The permitted values are DISABLED, REQUIRED, and AUTO. These modes are defined as:

  • Setting createCluster({memberSslMode:'DISABLED'}) ensures SSL encryption is disabled for the seed instance in the cluster.

  • Setting createCluster({memberSslMode:'REQUIRED'}) then SSL encryption is enabled for the seed instance in the cluster. If it cannot be enabled an error is raised.

  • Setting createCluster({memberSslMode:'AUTO'}) (the default) then SSL encryption is automatically enabled if the server instance supports it, or disabled if the server does not support it.

Note

When using the commercial version of MySQL, SSL is enabled by default and you might need to configure the whitelist for all instances. See Creating a Whitelist of Servers.

When you issue the cluster.addInstance() and cluster.rejoinInstance() commands, SSL encryption on the instance is enabled or disabled based on the setting found for the seed instance.

When using createCluster() with the adoptFromGR option to adopt an existing Group Replication group, no SSL settings are changed on the adopted cluster:

  • memberSslMode cannot be used with adoptFromGR.

  • If the SSL settings of the adopted cluster are different from the ones supported by the MySQL Shell, in other words SSL for Group Replication recovery and Group Communication, both settings are not modified. This means you are not be able to add new instances to the cluster, unless you change the settings manually for the adopted cluster.

MySQL Shell always enables or disables SSL for the cluster for both Group Replication recovery and Group Communication, see Section 18.5.2, “Group Replication Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Support”. A verification is performed and an error issued in case those settings are different for the seed instance (for example as the result of a dba.createCluster() using adoptFromGR) when adding a new instance to the cluster. SSL encryption must be enabled or disabled for all instances in the cluster. Verifications are performed to ensure that this invariant holds when adding a new instance to the cluster.

The deploySandboxInstance() command attempts to deploy sandbox instances with SSL encryption support by default. If it is not possible, the server instance is deployed without SSL support. Use the ignoreSslError option set to false to ensure that sandbox instances are deployed with SSL support, issuing an error if SSL support cannot be provided. When ignoreSslError is true, which is the default, no error is issued during the operation if the SSL support cannot be provided and the server instance is deployed without SSL support.

Creating a Whitelist of Servers

When using a cluster's createCluster(), addInstance(), and rejoinInstance() methods you can optionally specify a list of approved servers that belong to the cluster, referred to as a whitelist. By specifying the whitelist explicitly in this way you can increase the security of your cluster because only servers in the whitelist can connect to the cluster. Using the ipWhitelist option configures the group_replication_ip_whitelist system variable on the instance. By default, if not specified explicitly, the whitelist is automatically set to the private network addresses that the server has network interfaces on. To configure the whitelist, specify the servers to add with the ipWhitelist option when using the method. IP addresses must be specified in IPv4 format. Pass the servers as a comma separated list, surrounded by quotes. For example:

mysql-js> cluster.addInstance("icadmin@ic-3:3306", {ipWhitelist: "203.0.113.0/24, 198.51.100.110"})

This configures the instance to only accept connections from servers at addresses 203.0.113.0/24 and 198.51.100.110. The whitelist can also include host names, which are resolved only when a connection request is made by another server.

Warning

Host names are inherently less secure than IP addresses in a whitelist. MySQL carries out FCrDNS verification, which provides a good level of protection, but can be compromised by certain types of attack. Specify host names in your whitelist only when strictly necessary, and ensure that all components used for name resolution, such as DNS servers, are maintained under your control. You can also implement name resolution locally using the hosts file, to avoid the use of external components.

Scripting AdminAPI

You can automate cluster configuration with scripts, which can be run using MySQL Shell. For example:

shell> mysqlsh -f setup-innodb-cluster.js
Note

Any command line options specified after the script file name are passed to the script and not to MySQL Shell. You can access those options using the os.argv array in JavaScript, or the sys.argv array in Python. In both cases, the first option picked up in the array is the script name.

The contents of an example script file is shown here:

print('InnoDB cluster sandbox set up\n');
print('==================================\n');
print('Setting up a MySQL InnoDB cluster with 3 MySQL Server sandbox instances.\n');
print('The instances will be installed in ~/mysql-sandboxes.\n');
print('They will run on ports 3310, 3320 and 3330.\n\n');

var dbPass = shell.prompt('Please enter a password for the MySQL root account: ', {type:"password"});

try {
   print('\nDeploying the sandbox instances.');
   dba.deploySandboxInstance(3310, {password: dbPass});
   print('.');
   dba.deploySandboxInstance(3320, {password: dbPass});
   print('.');
   dba.deploySandboxInstance(3330, {password: dbPass});
   print('.\nSandbox instances deployed successfully.\n\n');

   print('Setting up InnoDB cluster...\n');
   shell.connect('root@localhost:3310', dbPass);

   var cluster = dba.createCluster("prodCluster");

   print('Adding instances to the cluster.');
   cluster.addInstance({user: "root", host: "localhost", port: 3320, password: dbPass});
   print('.');
   cluster.addInstance({user: "root", host: "localhost", port: 3330, password: dbPass});
   print('.\nInstances successfully added to the cluster.');

   print('\nInnoDB cluster deployed successfully.\n');
} catch(e) {
   print('\nThe InnoDB cluster could not be created.\n\nError: ' +
   + e.message + '\n');
}

Configuring the Election Process

You can optionally configure how a single-primary cluster elects a new primary, for example to prefer one instance as the new primary to fail over to. Use the memberWeight option and pass it to the dba.createCluster() and Cluster.addInstance() methods when creating your cluster. The memberWeight option accepts an integer value between 0 and 100, which is a percentage weight for automatic primary election on failover. When an instance has a higher precentage number set by memberWeight, it is more likely to be elected as primary in a single-primary cluster. When a primary election takes place, if multiple instances have the same memberWeight value, the instances are then prioritized based on their server UUID in lexicographical order (the lowest) and by picking the first one.

Setting the value of memberWeight configures the group_replication_member_weight system variable on the instance. Group Replication limits the value range from 0 to 100, automatically adjusting it if a higher or lower value is provided. Group Replication uses a default value of 50 if no value is provided. See Section 18.1.3.1, “Single-Primary Mode” for more information.

For example to configure a cluster where ic-3 is the preferred instance to fail over to in the event that ic-1, the current primary, leaves the cluster unexpectedly use memberWeight as follows:

dba.createCluster('cluster1', {memberWeight:35})
var mycluster = dba.getCluster()
mycluster.addInstance('icadmin@ic2', {memberWeight:25})
mycluster.addInstance('icadmin@ic3', {memberWeight:50})

Configuring Failover Consistency

Group Replication provides the ability to specify the failover guarantees (eventual or read your writes) if a primary failover happens in single-primary mode (see Section 18.4.2.2, “Configuring Transaction Consistency Guarantees”). You can configure the failover guarantees of an InnoDB cluster at creation by passing the consistency option (prior to version 8.0.16 this option was the failoverConsistency option, which is now deprecated) to the dba.createCluster() operation, which configures the group_replication_consistency system variable on the seed instance. This option defines the behavior of a new fencing mechanism used when a new primary is elected in a single-primary group. The fencing restricts connections from writing and reading from the new primary until it has applied any pending backlog of changes that came from the old primary (sometimes referred to as read your writes). While the fencing mechanism is in place, applications effectively do not see time going backward for a short period of time while any backlog is applied. This ensures that applications do not read stale information from the newly elected primary.

The consistency option is only supported if the target MySQL server version is 8.0.14 or later, and instances added to a cluster which has been configured with the consistency option are automatically configured to have group_replication_consistency the same on all cluster members that have support for the option. The variable default value is controlled by Group Replication and is EVENTUAL, change the consistency option to BEFORE_ON_PRIMARY_FAILOVER to enable the fencing mechanism. Alternatively use consistency=0 for EVENTUAL and consistency=1 for BEFORE_ON_PRIMARY_FAILOVER.

Note

Using the consistency option on a multi-primary InnoDB cluster has no effect but is allowed because the cluster can later be changed into single-primary mode with the Cluster.switchToSinglePrimaryMode() operation.

Changing a Cluster's Topology

By default, an InnoDB cluster runs in single-primary mode, where the cluster has one primary server that accepts read and write queries (R/W), and all of the remaining instances in the cluster accept only read queries (R/O). When you configure a cluster to run in multi-primary mode, all of the instances in the cluster are primaries, which means that they accept both read and write queries (R/W). If a cluster has all of its instances running MySQL server version 8.0.15 or later, you can make changes to the topology of the cluster while the cluster is online. In previous versions it was necessary to completely dissolve and re-create the cluster to make the configuration changes. This uses the group action coordinator exposed through the UDFs described at Section 18.4.1, “Configuring an Online Group”, and as such you should observe the rules for configuring online groups.

Note

multi-primary mode is considered an advanced mode

Usually a single-primary cluster elects a new primary when the current primary leaves the cluster unexpectedly, for example due to an unexpected halt. The election process is normally used to choose which of the current secondaries becomes the new primary. To override the election process and force a specific server to become the new primary, use the Cluster.setPrimaryInstance(instance) function, where instance specifies the connection to the instance which should become the new primary. This enables you to configure the underlying Group Replication group to choose a specific instance as the new primary, bypassing the election process.

You can change the mode (sometimes described as the topology) which a cluster is running in between single-primary and multi-primary using the following operations:

  • Cluster.switchToMultiPrimaryMode(), which switches the cluster to multi-primary mode. All instances become primaries.

  • Cluster.switchToSinglePrimaryMode([instance]), which switches the cluster to single-primary mode. If instance is specified, it becomes the primary and all the other instances become secondaries. If instance is not specified, the new primary is the instance with the highest member weight (and the lowest UUID in case of a tie on member weight).

Setting Options for InnoDB cluster

You can check and modify the settings in place for an InnoDB cluster while the instances are online. To check the current settings of a cluster, use the following operation:

  • Cluster.options(), which lists the configuration options for the cluster and its instances. A boolean option all can also be specified to include information about all Group Replication system variables in the output.

You can configure the options of an InnoDB cluster at a cluster level or instance level, while instances remain online. This avoids the need to remove, reconfigure and then again add the instance to change InnoDB cluster options. Use the following operations:

  • Cluster.setOption(option, value) to change the settings of all cluster instances globally or cluster global settings such as clusterName.

  • Cluster.setInstanceOption(instance, option, value) to change the settings of individual cluster instances

The way which you use InnoDB cluster options with the operations listed depends on whether the option can be changed to be the same on all instances or not. These options are changeable at both the cluster (all instances) and per instance level:

  • exitStateAction

  • memberWeight

This option is changeable at the per instance level only:

  • label

These options are changeable at the cluster level only:

  • consistency

  • expelTimeout

  • clusterName

InnoDB cluster and Auto-increment

When you are using an instance as part of an InnoDB cluster, the auto_increment_increment and auto_increment_offset variables are configured to avoid the possibility of auto increment collisions for multi-primary clusters up to a size of 9 (the maximum supported size of a Group Replication group). The logic used to configure these variables can be summarized as:

21.6 InnoDB ReplicaSet

This section documents InnoDB ReplicaSet, added in version 8.0.19.

21.6.1 InnoDB ReplicaSet Introduction

The AdminAPI includes support for InnoDB ReplicaSet, that enables you to administer a set of MySQL instances running asynchronous GTID-based replication in a similar way to InnoDB cluster. A InnoDB ReplicaSet consists of a single primary and multiple secondaries (traditionally referred to as the MySQL replication master and slaves). You administer your replica sets using a ReplicaSet object and the AdminAPI operations, for example to check the status of the InnoDB ReplicaSet, and manually failover to a new primary in the event of a failure. Similar to InnoDB cluster, MySQL Router supports bootstrapping against InnoDB ReplicaSet, which means you can automatically configure MySQL Router to use your InnoDB ReplicaSet without having to manually configure files. This makes InnoDB ReplicaSet a quick and easy way to get MySQL replication and MySQL Router up and running, making it well suited to scaling out reads, and provides manual failover capabilities in use cases that do not require the high availability offered by InnoDB cluster.

In addition to deploying an InnoDB ReplicaSet using AdminAPI, you can adopt an existing replication setup. AdminAPI configures the InnoDB ReplicaSet based on the topology of the replication setup. Once the replication setup has been adopted, you administer it in the same way as an InnoDB ReplicaSet deployed from scratch. This enables you to take advantage of AdminAPI and MySQL Router without the need to create a new replica set. For more information see Section 21.6.4, “Adopting an Existing Replication Set Up”.

InnoDB ReplicaSet Limitations

An InnoDB ReplicaSet has several limitations compared to a InnoDB cluster and thus, it is recommended that you deploy InnoDB cluster wherever possible. Generally, a InnoDB ReplicaSet on its own does not provide high availability. Among the limitations of InnoDB ReplicaSet are:

  • No automatic failover. In events where the primary becomes unavailable, a failover needs to be triggered manually using AdminAPI before any changes are possible again. However, secondary instances remain available for reads.

  • No protection from partial data loss due to an unexpected halt or unavailability. Transactions that have not yet been applied by the time of the halt could become lost.

  • No protection against inconsistencies after a crash or unavailability. If a failover promotes a secondary while the former primary is still available (for example due to a network partition), inconsistencies could be introduced because of the split-brain.

21.6.2 Deploying InnoDB ReplicaSet

You deploy InnoDB ReplicaSet in a similar way to InnoDB cluster. First you configure some MySQL server instances, the minimum is two instances. One functions as the primary, in this tutorial rs-1; the other instance functions as the secondary, in this tutorial rs-2; which replicates the transactions applied by the primary. This is the equivalent of the master and slave known from asynchronous MySQL replication. Then you connect to one of the instances using MySQL Shell, and create a replica set. Once the replica set has been created, you can add instances to it.

InnoDB ReplicaSet is compatible with sandbox instances, which you can use to deploy locally, for example for testing purposes. See Deploying Sandbox Instances for instructions. However, this tutorial assumes you are deploying a production InnoDB ReplicaSet, where each instance is running on a different host.

InnoDB ReplicaSet Prerequisites

To use InnoDB ReplicaSet you should be aware of the following prerequisites:

  • Only instances running MySQL version 8.0 and later are supported

  • GTID-based replication is only supported, binary log file position replication is not compatible with InnoDB ReplicaSet

  • Only Row Based Replication (RBR) is supported, Statement Based Replication (SBR) is unsupported

  • Replication filters are not supported

  • Unmanaged replication channels are not allowed in any instance

  • A replica set consists of maximum one primary instance, and one or multiple secondaries are supported. Although there is no limit to the number of secondaries you can add to a replica set, each MySQL Router connected to a replica set monitors each instance. Therefore, the more instances that are added to a replica set, the more monitoring has to be done.

  • The replica set must be entirely managed by MySQL Shell. For example, the replication account is created and managed by MySQL Shell. Making configuration changes to the instance outside of MySQL Shell, for example using SQL statements directly to change the primary, is not supported. Always use MySQL Shell to work with InnoDB ReplicaSet.

AdminAPI and InnoDB ReplicaSet enable you to work with MySQL replication without a deep understanding of the underlying concepts. However, for background information see Chapter 17, Replication.

Configuring InnoDB Replica Set Instances

Use dba.configureReplicaSetInstance(instance) to configure each instance you want to use in your replica set. MySQL Shell can either connect to an instance and then configure it, or you can pass in instance to configure a specific remote instance. How you proceed depends on whether the instance supports persisting settings, see Persisting Settings. For example, on an instance which does not support persisting settings, connect with a user with suitable privileges to configure the instance:

mysql-js> \connect root@example1.com:3306

The dba.configureReplicaSetInstance() function can optionally create an administrator account, if the clusterAdmin option is provided. The account is created with the correct set of privileges required to manage InnoDB cluster and InnoDB ReplicaSet. The preferred method to create users to administer a replica set is using the clusterAdmin option.

Tip

The administrator account must have the same user name and password across all instances of the same cluster or replica set.

To configure the instance at rs-1:3306, with a cluster administrator named rsadmin issue:

mysql-js> dba.configureReplicaSetInstance('root@rs-1:3306', \ 
{clusterAdmin: "'rsadmin'@'rs-1%'"});

The interactive prompt requests the password required by the specified user. To configure the instance MySQL Shell is currently connected to, you can specify a null instance definition. For example issue:

mysql-js> dba.configureReplicaSetInstance('', {clusterAdmin: "'rsadmin'@'rs-1%'"});

The interactive prompt requests the password required by the specified user. This checks the instance which MySQL Shell is currently connected to is valid for use in a InnoDB ReplicaSet. Settings which are not compatible with InnoDB ReplicaSet are configured if possible. The cluster administrator account is created with the privileges required for InnoDB ReplicaSet.

Creating an InnoDB Replica Set

Once you have configured your instances, connect to an instance and use dba.createReplicaSet() to create a managed replica set that uses MySQL asynchronous replication, as opposed to MySQL Group Replication used by InnoDB cluster. The MySQL instance which MySQL Shell is currently connected to is used as the initial primary of the replica set. Only TCP/IP connections are supported for this operation.

The dba.createReplicaSet() operation performs several checks to ensure that the instance state and configuration are compatible with a managed replica set and if so, a metadata schema is initialized on the instance. If you want to check the operation but not actually make any changes to the instances, use the dryRun option. This shows what actions the MySQL Shell would take to create the replica set. If the replica set is created successfully, a ReplicaSet object is returned. Therefore it is best practice to assign the returned ReplicaSet to a variable. This enables you to work with the replica set, for example by calling the ReplicaSet.status() operation. To create a replica set named example on instance rs-1 and assign it to the rs variable, issue:

mysql-js> \connect root@rs-1:3306
...
mysql-js> var rs = dba.createReplicaSet("example")
A new replicaset with instance 'rs-1:3306' will be created.

* Checking MySQL instance at rs-1:3306

This instance reports its own address as rs-1:3306
rs-1:3306: Instance configuration is suitable.

* Updating metadata...

ReplicaSet object successfully created for rs-1:3306.
Use rs.add_instance() to add more asynchronously replicated instances to this replicaset
and rs.status() to check its status.

To verify that the operation was successful, you work with the returned ReplicaSet object. For example this provides the ReplicaSet.status() operation, which displays information about the replica set. We already assigned the returned ReplicaSet to the variable rs, so issue:

mysql-js> rs.status()
{
    "replicaSet": {
        "name": "example", 
        "primary": "rs-1:3306", 
        "status": "AVAILABLE", 
        "statusText": "All instances available.", 
        "topology": {
            "rs-1:3306": {
                "address": "rs-1:3306", 
                "instanceRole": "PRIMARY", 
                "mode": "R/W", 
                "status": "ONLINE"
            }
        }, 
        "type": "ASYNC"
    }
}

This output shows that the replica set named example has been created, and that the primary is rs-1. Currently there is only one instance, and the next task is to add more instances to the replica set.

21.6.3 Adding Instances to a Replica Set

When you have created a replica set you can use the ReplicaSet.addInstance() operation to add an instance as a read-only secondary replica of the current primary of the replica set. Therefore, the primary of the replica set must be reachable and available during this operation. MySQL Replication is configured between the added instance and the primary, using an automatically created MySQL account with a random password. Once the instance is added to the replica set, the operation waits for the newly added instance to apply all pending transactions. This process is called distributed recovery, and MySQL Shell supports different methods which you configure with the recoveryMethod option.

MySQL Shell connects to the target instance using the same user name and password used to obtain the ReplicaSet handle object. All instances of the replica set are expected to have the same administrator account with the same grants and passwords. A custom administrator account with the required grants can be created while an instance is configured with dba.configureReplicaSetInstance(). See Configuring InnoDB Replica Set Instances.

When an instance is joining a replica set, distributed recovery is used in much the same way that it is in InnoDB cluster. This means that you can choose between MySQL Clone and incremental recovery. For more information, see Section 21.2.5, “Using MySQL Clone with InnoDB cluster”. This section covers the differences when using adding instances to a replica set.

Prerequisites

For an instance to be able to join a replica set, the following prerequisites must be satisfied. They are automatically checked by ReplicaSet.addInstance(), and the operation fails if any issues are found.

  • binary log and replication related options must have been at least validated and also possibly configured by dba.configureReplicaSetInstance()

If the selected recovery method is incremental:

  • the transaction set on the instance being added must not contain transactions that do not exist on the primary

  • the transaction set on the instance being added must not be missing

  • transactions that have been purged from the binary log of the primary

If MySQL Clone is available on both the primary and the instance you want to add to the replica set, the prerequisites listed above can be overcome by using clone as the recovery method.

Adding Instances to a ReplicaSet

Once you have created a replica set and assigned it to a variable, use the ReplicaSet.addInstance(instance) operation to add secondary instances to the replica set. You specify the instance as a URI-like connection string, see Section 4.2.5, “Connecting to the Server Using URI-Like Strings or Key-Value Pairs”. The user you specify must have the privileges required and must be the same on all instances in the replica set, see Configuring InnoDB Replica Set Instances. If you want to check the operation but not actually make any changes, use the dryRun option. This shows what actions the MySQL Shell would take to add the instance to the replica set.

For example to add the instance at rs-2 with user rsadmin, issue:

mysql-js> rs.addInstance('rsadmin@rs-2')

Adding instance to the replicaset...

* Performing validation checks

This instance reports its own address as rsadmin@rs-2
rsadmin@rs-2: Instance configuration is suitable.

* Checking async replication topology...

* Checking transaction state of the instance...

NOTE: The target instance 'rsadmin@rs-2' has not been pre-provisioned (GTID set
is empty). The Shell is unable to decide whether replication can completely
recover its state.  The safest and most convenient way to provision a new
instance is through automatic clone provisioning, which will completely
overwrite the state of 'rsadmin@rs-2' with a physical snapshot from an existing
replicaset member. To use this method by default, set the 'recoveryMethod'
option to 'clone'.

WARNING: It should be safe to rely on replication to incrementally recover the
state of the new instance if you are sure all updates ever executed in the
replicaset were done with GTIDs enabled, there are no purged transactions and
the new instance contains the same GTID set as the replicaset or a subset of it.
To use this method by default, set the 'recoveryMethod' option to 'incremental'.
Please select a recovery method [C]lone/[I]ncremental recovery/[A]bort (default Clone):

In this case we did not specify the recovery method, so the operation advises you on how to best proceed. In this example we choose the clone option because we do not have any existing transactions on the instance joining the replica set. Therefore there is no risk of deleting data from the joining instance.

Please select a recovery method [C]lone/[I]ncremental recovery/[A]bort (default Clone): C
* Updating topology
Waiting for clone process of the new member to complete. Press ^C to abort the operation.
* Waiting for clone to finish...
NOTE: rsadmin@rs-2 is being cloned from rsadmin@rs-1
** Stage DROP DATA: Completed
** Clone Transfer  
FILE COPY  ############################################################  100%  Completed
PAGE COPY  ############################################################  100%  Completed
REDO COPY  ############################################################  100%  Completed
** Stage RECOVERY: \
NOTE: rsadmin@rs-2 is shutting down...

* Waiting for server restart... ready
* rsadmin@rs-2 has restarted, waiting for clone to finish...
* Clone process has finished: 59.63 MB transferred in about 1 second (~1.00 B/s)

** Configuring rsadmin@rs-2 to replicate from rsadmin@rs-1
** Waiting for new instance to synchronize with PRIMARY...

The instance 'rsadmin@rs-2' was added to the replicaset and is replicating from rsadmin@rs-1.

Assuming the instance is valid for InnoDB ReplicaSet usage, distributed recovery proceeds. In this case the newly joining instance uses MySQL Clone to copy all of the transactions it has not yet applied from the primary, then it joins the replica set as an online instance. To verify, use the ReplicaSet.status() operation:

mysql-js> rs.status()
{    
    "replicaSet": {
        "name": "example", 
        "primary": "rs-1:3306", 
        "status": "AVAILABLE", 
        "statusText": "All instances available.", 
        "topology": {
            "rs-1:3306": {
                "address": "rs-1:3306", 
                "instanceRole": "PRIMARY", 
                "mode": "R/W", 
                "status": "ONLINE"
            }, 
            "rs-2:3306": {
                "address": "rs-2:3306", 
                "instanceRole": "SECONDARY", 
                "mode": "R/O", 
                "replication": {
                    "applierStatus": "APPLIED_ALL", 
                    "applierThreadState": "Slave has read all relay log; waiting for more updates", 
                    "receiverStatus": "ON", 
                    "receiverThreadState": "Waiting for master to send event", 
                    "replicationLag": null
                }, 
                "status": "ONLINE"
            }
        }, 
        "type": "ASYNC"
    }
}

This output shows that the replica set named example now consists of two MySQL instances, and that the primary is rs-1. Currently there is one secondary instance at rs-2, which is a replica of the primary. The replica set is online, which means that the primary and secondary are in synchrony. At this point the replica set is ready to process transactions.

If you want to override the interactive MySQL Shell mode trying to choose the most suitable recovery method, use the recoveryMethod option to configure how the instance recovers the data required to be able to join the replica set. For more information, see Section 21.2.5, “Using MySQL Clone with InnoDB cluster”.

21.6.4 Adopting an Existing Replication Set Up

As an alternative to creating a new InnoDB ReplicaSet, you can also adopt an existing replication setup using the adoptFromAR option with dba.createReplicaSet(). The replication setup is scanned, and if it is compatible with the InnoDB ReplicaSet prerequisites, AdminAPI creates the necessary metadata. Once the replication setup has been adopted, you can only use AdminAPI to administer the InnoDB ReplicaSet.

To convert an existing replication setup to a InnoDB ReplicaSet connect to the primary, also referred to as the master. The replication topology is automatically scanned and validated, starting from the instance MySQL Shell's global session is connected to. The configuration of all instances is checked during adoption, to ensure they are compatible with InnoDB ReplicaSet usage. All replication channels must be active and their transaction sets as verified through GTID sets must be consistent. The data set of all instances are expected to be identical, but is not verified. All instances that are part of the topology are automatically added to the replica set. The only changes made by this operation to an adopted replica set are the creation of the metadata schema. Existing replication channels are not changed during adoption, although they could be changed during subsequent primary switch operations.

For example, to adopt a replication topology consisting of the MySQL server instances on example1 and example2 to an InnoDB ReplicaSet, connect to the primary at example1 and issue:

mysql-js> rs = dba.createReplicaSet('testadopt', {'adoptFromAR':1})
A new replicaset with the topology visible from 'example1:3306' will be created.

* Scanning replication topology...
** Scanning state of instance example1:3306
** Scanning state of instance example2:3306

* Discovering async replication topology starting with example1:3306
Discovered topology:
- example1:3306: uuid=00371d66-3c45-11ea-804b-080027337932 read_only=no
- example2:3306: uuid=59e4f26e-3c3c-11ea-8b65-080027337932 read_only=no
    - replicates from example1:3306
	source="localhost:3310" channel= status=ON receiver=ON applier=ON

* Checking configuration of discovered instances...

This instance reports its own address as example1:3306
example1:3306: Instance configuration is suitable.

This instance reports its own address as example2:3306
example2:3306: Instance configuration is suitable.

* Checking discovered replication topology...
example1:3306 detected as the PRIMARY.
Replication state of example2:3306 is OK.

Validations completed successfully.

* Updating metadata...

ReplicaSet object successfully created for example1:3306.
Use rs.add_instance() to add more asynchronously replicated instances to
this replicaset and rs.status() to check its status.

Once the InnoDB ReplicaSet has been adopted, you can use it in the same way that you would use a replica set which was created from scratch. From this point you must administer the InnoDB ReplicaSet using only AdminAPI.

21.6.5 Working with InnoDB ReplicaSet

You work with an InnoDB ReplicaSet in much the same way as you would work with an InnoDB cluster. For example as seen in Adding Instances to a ReplicaSet, you assign a ReplicaSet object to a variable and call operations that administer the replica set, such as ReplicaSet.addInstance() to add instances, which is the equivalent of Cluster.addInstance() in InnoDB cluster. Thus, much of the documentation at Section 21.5, “Working with InnoDB Cluster” also applies to InnoDB ReplicaSet. The following operations are supported by ReplicaSet objects:

  • You get online help for ReplicaSet objects, and the AdminAPI, using \help ReplicaSet or ReplicaSet.help() and \help dba or dba.help(). See Using AdminAPI.

  • You can quickly check the name of a ReplicaSet object using either name or ReplicaSet.getName(). For example the following are equivalent:

    mysql-js> rs.name
    example
    mysql-js> rs.getName()
    example
    
  • You check information about a replica set using the ReplicaSet.status() operation, which supports the extended option to get different levels of detail. For example:

    • the default for extended is 0, a regular level of details. Only basic information about the status of the instance and replication is included, in addition to non-default or unexpected replication settings and status.

    • setting extended to 1 includes Metadata Version, server UUID and the raw information used to derive the status of the instance, size of the applier queue, value of system variables that protect against unexpected writes and so on.

    • setting extended to 2 includes important replication related configuration settings, such as SSL, worker threads, replication delay and heartbeat delay.

    See Checking a cluster's Status with Cluster.status().

  • You change the instances being used for a replica set using the ReplicaSet.addInstance() and ReplicaSet.removeInstance() operations. See Adding Instances to a ReplicaSet, and Removing Instances from the InnoDB Cluster.

  • In the event of an instance leaving the replica set, for example due to an unexpected halt, use the ReplicaSet.rejoinInstance() operation. See Rejoining a Cluster.

  • You work with the MySQL Router instances which have been bootstrapped against a replica set in exactly the same way as with InnoDB cluster. See Working with a Cluster's Routers for information on ReplicaSet.listRouters() and ReplicaSet.removeRouterMetadata(). For specific information on using MySQL Router with InnoDB ReplicaSet see Section 21.6.6, “Using Replica Sets with MySQL Router”.

For more information, see the linked InnoDB cluster sections.

The following operations are specific to InnoDB ReplicaSet and can only be called against a ReplicaSet object:

Planned Changes of the Replica Set Primary

Use the ReplicaSet.setPrimaryInstance() operation to safely perform a change of the primary of a replica set to another instance. The current primary is demoted to a secondary and made read-only, while the promoted instance becomes the new primary and is made read-write. All other secondary instances are updated to replicate from the new primary. MySQL Router instances which have been bootstrapped against the replica set automatically start redirecting read-write clients to the new primary.

For a safe change of the primary to be possible, all replica set instances must be reachable by MySQL Shell and have consistent GTID_EXECUTED sets. If the primary is not available, and there is no way to restore it, a forced failover might be the only option instead, see Forcing the Primary Instance in a Replica Set.

During a change of primary, the promoted instance is synchronized with the old primary, ensuring that all transactions present on the primary are applied before the topology change is committed. If this synchronization step takes too long or is not possible on any of the secondary instances, the operation is aborted. In such a situation, these problematic secondary instances must be either repaired or removed from the replica set for the fail over to be possible.

Forcing the Primary Instance in a Replica Set

Unlike InnoDB cluster, which supports automatic failover in the event of an unexpected failure of the primary, InnoDB ReplicaSet does not have automatic failure detection or a consensus based protocol such as that provided by Group Replication. If the primary is not available, a manual failover is required. An InnoDB ReplicaSet which has lost its primary is effectively read-only, and for any write changes to be possible a new primary must be chosen. In the event that you cannot connect to the primary, and you cannot use ReplicaSet.setPrimaryInstance() to safely perform a switchover to a new primary as described at Planned Changes of the Replica Set Primary, use the ReplicaSet.forcePrimaryInstance() operation to perform a forced failover of the primary. This is a last resort operation that must only be used in a disaster type scenario where the current primary is unavailable and cannot be restored in any way.

Warning

A forced failover is a potentially destructive action and must be used with caution.

If a target instance is not given (or is null), the most up-to-date instance is automatically selected and promoted to be the new primary. If a target instance is provided, it is promoted to a primary, while other reachable secondary instances are switched to replicate from the new primary. The target instance must have the most up-to-date GTID_EXECUTED set among reachable instances, otherwise the operation fails.

A failover is different from a planned primary change because it promotes a secondary instance without synchronizing with or updating the old primary. That has the following major consequences:

  • Any transactions that had not yet been applied by a secondary primary to a secondary at the time the old primary failed are lost.

  • If the old primary is actually still running and processing transactions, there is a split-brain and the datasets of the old and new primaries diverge.

If the last known primary is still reachable, the ReplicaSet.forcePrimary() operation fails, to reduce the risk of split-brain situations. But it is the administrator's responsibility to ensure that the old primary it is not reachable by the other instances to prevent or minimize such scenarios.

After a forced failover, the old primary is considered invalid by the new primary and can no longer be part of the replica set. If at a later date you find a way to recover the instance, it must be removed from the replica set and re-added as a new instance. If there were any secondary instances that could not be switched to the new primary during the failover, they are also considered invalid.

Data loss is possible after a failover, because the old primary might have had transactions that were not yet replicated to the secondary being promoted. Moreover, if the instance that was presumed to have failed is still able to process transactions, for example because the network where it is located is still functioning but unreachable from MySQL Shell, it continues diverging from the promoted instances. Recovering once transaction sets on instances have diverged requires manual intervention and could not be possible in some situations, even if the failed instances can be recovered. In many cases, the fastest and simplest way to recover from a disaster that required a forced failover is by discarding such diverged transactions and re-provisioning a new instance from the newly promoted primary.

21.6.6 Using Replica Sets with MySQL Router

You can use MySQL Router 8.0.19 and later to bootstrap against a replica set, in the same way that InnoDB cluster can be bootstrapped. See Section 21.4, “Using MySQL Router with InnoDB Cluster”. The only difference in the generated MySQL Router configuration file is the addition of the cluster_type option. When MySQL Router is bootstrapped against a replica set, the generated configuration file includes:

cluster_type=rs

When you use MySQL Router with a replica set, be aware that:

  • The read-write port of MySQL Router directs client connections to the primary instance of the replica set

  • The read-only port of MySQL Router direct client connections to a secondary instance of the replica set, although it could also direct them to the primary

  • MySQL Router obtains information about the replica set's topology from the primary instance

  • MySQL Router automatically recovers when the primary instance becomes unavailable and a different instance is promoted

You work with the MySQL Router instances which have been bootstrapped against a replica set in exactly the same way as with InnoDB cluster. See Working with a Cluster's Routers for information on ReplicaSet.listRouters() and ReplicaSet.removeRouterMetadata().

21.7 Known Limitations

This section describes the known limitations of InnoDB cluster. As InnoDB cluster uses Group Replication, you should also be aware of its limitations, see Section 18.9.2, “Group Replication Limitations”.

  • If a session type is not specified when creating the global session, MySQL Shell provides automatic protocol detection which attempts to first create a NodeSession and if that fails it tries to create a ClassicSession. With an InnoDB cluster that consists of three server instances, where there is one read-write port and two read-only ports, this can cause MySQL Shell to only connect to one of the read-only instances. Therefore it is recommended to always specify the session type when creating the global session.

  • When adding non-sandbox server instances (instances which you have configured manually rather than using dba.deploySandboxInstance()) to a cluster, MySQL Shell is not able to persist any configuration changes in the instance's configuration file. This leads to one or both of the following scenarios:

    1. The Group Replication configuration is not persisted in the instance's configuration file and upon restart the instance does not rejoin the cluster.

    2. The instance is not valid for cluster usage. Although the instance can be verified with dba.checkInstanceConfiguration(), and MySQL Shell makes the required configuration changes in order to make the instance ready for cluster usage, those changes are not persisted in the configuration file and so are lost once a restart happens.

    If only a happens, the instance does not rejoin the cluster after a restart.

    If b also happens, and you observe that the instance did not rejoin the cluster after a restart, you cannot use the recommended dba.rebootClusterFromCompleteOutage() in this situation to get the cluster back online. This is because the instance loses any configuration changes made by MySQL Shell, and because they were not persisted, the instance reverts to the previous state before being configured for the cluster. This causes Group Replication to stop responding, and eventually the command times out.

    To avoid this problem it is strongly recommended to use dba.configureInstance() before adding instances to a cluster in order to persist the configuration changes.

  • The use of the --defaults-extra-file option to specify an option file is not supported by InnoDB cluster server instances. InnoDB cluster only supports a single option file on instances and no extra option files are supported. Therefore for any operation working with the instance's option file the main one should be specified. If you want to use multiple option files you have to configure the files manually and make sure they are updated correctly considering the precedence rules of the use of multiple option files and ensuring that the desired settings are not incorrectly overwritten by options in an extra unrecognized option file.

  • Attempting to use instances with a host name that resolves to an IP address which does not match a real network interface fails with an error that This instance reports its own address as the hostname. This is not supported by the Group Replication communication layer. On Debian based instances this means instances cannot use addresses such as user@localhost because localhost resolves to a non-existent IP (such as 127.0.1.1). This impacts on using a sandbox deployment, which usually uses local instances on a single machine.

    A workaround is to configure the report_host system variable on each instance to use the actual IP address of your machine. Retrieve the IP of your machine and add report_host=IP of your machine to the my.cnf file of each instance. You need to ensure the instances are then restarted to make the change.