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Replicate Data Between Primary and Secondary Clusters

This document describes how to configure a TiDB primary (upstream) cluster and a TiDB or MySQL secondary (downstream) cluster, and replicate incremental data from the primary cluster to the secondary cluster. The process includes the following steps:

Configure a TiDB primary cluster and a TiDB or MySQL secondary cluster.
Replicate incremental data from the primary cluster to the secondary cluster.
Recover data consistently by using Redo log when the primary cluster is down.

To replicate incremental data from a running TiDB cluster to its secondary cluster, you can use Backup & Restore BR and TiCDC.

Step 1. Set up the environment

Deploy TiDB clusters.
Deploy two TiDB clusters, one upstream and the other downstream by using TiUP Playground. For production environments, deploy the clusters by referring to Deploy and Maintain an Online TiDB Cluster Using TiUP.
In this document, we deploy the two clusters on two machines:
- Node A: 172.16.6.123, for deploying the upstream TiDB cluster
- Node B: 172.16.6.124, for deploying the downstream TiDB cluster
```
# Create an upstream cluster on Node A
tiup --tag upstream playground --host 0.0.0.0 --db 1 --pd 1 --kv 1 --tiflash 0 --ticdc 1
# Create a downstream cluster on Node B
tiup --tag downstream playground --host 0.0.0.0 --db 1 --pd 1 --kv 1 --tiflash 0 --ticdc 0
# View cluster status
tiup status
```

Initialize data.

By default, test databases are created in the newly deployed clusters. Therefore, you can use sysbench to generate test data and simulate data in real scenarios.

sysbench oltp_write_only --config-file=./tidb-config --tables=10 --table-size=10000 prepare

In this document, we use sysbench to run the oltp_write_only script. This script generates 10 tables in the upstream database, each with 10,000 rows. The tidb-config is as follows:

mysql-host=172.16.6.122 # Replace it with the IP address of your upstream cluster
mysql-port=4000
mysql-user=root
mysql-password=
db-driver=mysql         # Set database driver to MySQL
mysql-db=test           # Set the database as a test database
report-interval=10      # Set data collection period to 10s
threads=10              # Set the number of worker threads to 10
time=0                  # Set the time required for executing the script. O indicates time unlimited
rate=100                # Set average TPS to 100

Simulate service workload.
In real scenarios, service data is continuously written to the upstream cluster. In this document, we use sysbench to simulate this workload. Specifically, run the following command to enable 10 workers to continuously write data to three tables, sbtest1, sbtest2, and sbtest3, with a total TPS not exceeding 100.
```
sysbench oltp_write_only --config-file=./tidb-config --tables=3 run
```

Prepare external storage.

In full data backup, both the upstream and downstream clusters need to access backup files. It is recommended that you use External storage to store backup files. In this example, Minio is used to simulate an S3-compatible storage service.

wget https://dl.min.io/server/minio/release/linux-amd64/minio
chmod +x minio
# Configure access-key access-screct-id to access minio
export HOST_IP='172.16.6.123' # Replace it with the IP address of your upstream cluster
export MINIO_ROOT_USER='minio'
export MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD='miniostorage'
# Create the redo and backup directories. `backup` and `redo` are bucket names.
mkdir -p data/redo
mkdir -p data/backup
# Start minio at port 6060
nohup ./minio server ./data --address :6060 &

The preceding command starts a minio server on one node to simulate S3 services. Parameters in the command are configured as follows:

Endpoint: http://${HOST_IP}:6060/
Access-key: minio
Secret-access-key: miniostorage
Bucket: redo

The link is as follows:

s3://backup?access-key=minio&secret-access-key=miniostorage&endpoint=http://${HOST_IP}:6060&force-path-style=true

Step 2. Migrate full data

After setting up the environment, you can use the backup and restore functions of BR to migrate full data. BR can be started in three ways. In this document, we use the SQL statements, BACKUP and RESTORE.

Note

BACKUP and RESTORE SQL statements are experimental. It is not recommended that you use them in the production environment. They might be changed or removed without prior notice. If you find a bug, you can report an issue on GitHub.
In production clusters, performing a backup with GC disabled might affect cluster performance. It is recommended that you back up data in off-peak hours, and set RATE_LIMIT to a proper value to avoid performance degradation.
If the versions of the upstream and downstream clusters are different, you should check BR compatibility. In this document, we assume that the upstream and downstream clusters are the same version.

Disable GC.
To ensure that newly written data is not deleted during incremental migration, you should disable GC for the upstream cluster before backup. In this way, history data is not deleted.
Run the following command to disable GC:
```
MySQL [test]> SET GLOBAL tidb_gc_enable=FALSE;
```
```
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
```
To verify that the change takes effect, query the value of tidb_gc_enable:
```
MySQL [test]> SELECT @@global.tidb_gc_enable;
```
```
+-------------------------+
| @@global.tidb_gc_enable |
+-------------------------+
|                       0 |
+-------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
```

Back up data.

Run the BACKUP statement in the upstream cluster to back up data:

MySQL [(none)]> BACKUP DATABASE * TO 's3://backup?access-key=minio&secret-access-key=miniostorage&endpoint=http://${HOST_IP}:6060&force-path-style=true' RATE_LIMIT = 120 MB/SECOND;

+----------------------+----------+--------------------+---------------------+---------------------+
| Destination          | Size     | BackupTS           | Queue Time          | Execution Time      |
+----------------------+----------+--------------------+---------------------+---------------------+
| local:///tmp/backup/ | 10315858 | 431434047157698561 | 2022-02-25 19:57:59 | 2022-02-25 19:57:59 |
+----------------------+----------+--------------------+---------------------+---------------------+
1 row in set (2.11 sec)

After the BACKUP command is executed, TiDB returns metadata about the backup data. Pay attention to BackupTS, because data generated before it is backed up. In this document, we use BackupTS as the end of data check and the start of incremental migration scanning by TiCDC.

Restore data.

Run the RESTORE command in the downstream cluster to restore data:

mysql> RESTORE DATABASE * FROM 's3://backup?access-key=minio&secret-access-key=miniostorage&endpoint=http://${HOST_IP}:6060&force-path-style=true';

+----------------------+----------+--------------------+---------------------+---------------------+
| Destination          | Size     | BackupTS           | Queue Time          | Execution Time      |
+----------------------+----------+--------------------+---------------------+---------------------+
| local:///tmp/backup/ | 10315858 | 431434141450371074 | 2022-02-25 20:03:59 | 2022-02-25 20:03:59 |
+----------------------+----------+--------------------+---------------------+---------------------+
1 row in set (41.85 sec)

(Optional) Validate data.

Use sync-diff-inspector to check data consistency between upstream and downstream at a certain time. The preceding BACKUP output shows that the upstream cluster finishes backup at 431434047157698561. The preceding RESTORE output shows that the downstream finishes restoration at 431434141450371074.

sync_diff_inspector -C ./config.yaml

For details about how to configure the sync-diff-inspector, see Configuration file description. In this document, the configuration is as follows:

# Diff Configuration.
######################### Global config #########################
check-thread-count = 4
export-fix-sql = true
check-struct-only = false

######################### Datasource config #########################
[data-sources]
[data-sources.upstream]
        host = "172.16.6.123" # Replace it with the IP address of your upstream cluster
        port = 4000
        user = "root"
        password = ""
        snapshot = "431434047157698561" # Set snapshot to the actual backup time
[data-sources.downstream]
        host = "172.16.6.124" # Replace the value with the IP address of your downstream cluster
        port = 4000
        user = "root"
        password = ""
        snapshot = "431434141450371074" # Set snapshot to the actual restore time

######################### Task config #########################
[task]
        output-dir = "./output"
        source-instances = ["upstream"]
        target-instance = "downstream"
        target-check-tables = ["*.*"]

Step 3. Migrate incremental data

Deploy TiCDC.
After finishing full data migration, deploy and configure a TiCDC to replicate incremental data. In production environments, deploy TiCDC as instructed in Deploy TiCDC. In this document, a TiCDC node has been started upon the creation of the test clusters. Therefore, we skip the step of deploying TiCDC and proceed with changefeed configuration.
Create a changefeed.
Create a changefeed configuration file changefeed.toml.
```
[consistent]
# Consistency level, eventual means enabling consistent replication
level = "eventual"
# Use S3 to store redo logs. Other options are local and nfs.
storage = "s3://redo?access-key=minio&secret-access-key=miniostorage&endpoint=http://172.16.6.125:6060&force-path-style=true"
```
In the upstream cluster, run the following command to create a changefeed from the upstream to the downstream clusters:
```
tiup cdc cli changefeed create --server=http://172.16.6.122:8300 --sink-uri="mysql://root:@172.16.6.125:4000" --changefeed-id="primary-to-secondary" --start-ts="431434047157698561"
```
In this command, the parameters are as follows:
- --server: IP address of any node in the TiCDC cluster
- --sink-uri: URI of the downstream cluster
- --start-ts: start timestamp of the changefeed, must be the backup time (or BackupTS mentioned in Step 2. Migrate full data)
For more information about the changefeed configurations, see TiCDC Changefeed Configurations.
Enable GC.
In incremental migration using TiCDC, GC only removes history data that is replicated. Therefore, after creating a changefeed, you need to run the following command to enable GC. For details, see What is the complete behavior of TiCDC garbage collection (GC) safepoint?.
To enable GC, run the following command:
```
MySQL [test]> SET GLOBAL tidb_gc_enable=TRUE;
```
```
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
```
To verify that the change takes effect, query the value of tidb_gc_enable:
```
MySQL [test]> SELECT @@global.tidb_gc_enable;
```
```
+-------------------------+
| @@global.tidb_gc_enable |
+-------------------------+
|                       1 |
+-------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
```

Step 4. Simulate a disaster in the upstream cluster

Create a disastrous event in the upstream cluster while it is running. For example, you can terminate the tiup playground process by pressing Ctrl+C.

Step 5. Use redo log to ensure data consistency

Normally, TiCDC concurrently writes transactions to downstream to increase throughout. When a changefeed is interrupted unexpectedly, the downstream may not have the latest data as it is in the upstream. To address inconsistency, run the following command to ensure that the downstream data is consistent with the upstream data.

tiup cdc redo apply --storage "s3://redo?access-key=minio&secret-access-key=miniostorage&endpoint=http://172.16.6.123:6060&force-path-style=true" --tmp-dir /tmp/redo --sink-uri "mysql://root:@172.16.6.124:4000"

--storage: Location and credential of the redo log in S3
--tmp-dir: Cache directory of the redo log downloaded from S3
--sink-uri: URI of the downstream cluster

Step 6. Recover the primary cluster and its services

After the previous step, the downstream (secondary) cluster has data that is consistent with the upstream (primary) cluster at a specific time. You need to set up new primary and secondary clusters to ensure data reliability.

Deploy a new TiDB cluster on Node A as the new primary cluster.

tiup --tag upstream playground v5.4.0 --host 0.0.0.0 --db 1 --pd 1 --kv 1 --tiflash 0 --ticdc 1

Use BR to back up and restore data fully from the secondary cluster to the primary cluster.

# Back up full data of the secondary cluster
tiup br --pd http://172.16.6.124:2379 backup full --storage ./backup
# Restore full data of the secondary cluster
tiup br --pd http://172.16.6.123:2379 restore full --storage ./backup

Create a new changefeed to back up data from the primary cluster to the secondary cluster.

# Create a changefeed
tiup cdc cli changefeed create --server=http://172.16.6.122:8300 --sink-uri="mysql://root:@172.16.6.125:4000" --changefeed-id="primary-to-secondary"