The innobackupex Option Reference¶

This page documents all the command-line options for the innobackupex.

Options¶

–apply-log¶

Prepare a backup in BACKUP-DIR by applying the transaction log file named xtrabackup_logfile located in the same directory. Also, create new transaction logs. The InnoDB configuration is read from the file backup-my.cnf created by innobackupex when the backup was made. innobackupex --apply-log uses InnoDB configuration from backup-my.cnf by default, or from --defaults-file, if specified. InnoDB configuration in this context means server variables that affect data format, i.e. innodb_page_size, innodb_log_block_size, etc. Location-related variables, like innodb_log_group_home_dir or innodb_data_file_path are always ignored by --apply-log, so preparing a backup always works with data files from the backup directory, rather than any external ones.

–backup-locks¶

This option controls if backup locks should be used instead of FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK on the backup stage. The option has no effect when backup locks are not supported by the server. This option is enabled by default, disable with --no-backup-locks.

–no-backup-locks¶

Explicity disables the option –-backup-locks which is enabled by default.

–close-files¶

Do not keep files opened. This option is passed directly to xtrabackup. When xtrabackup opens tablespace it normally doesn’t close its file handle in order to handle the DDL operations correctly. However, if the number of tablespaces is really huge and can not fit into any limit, there is an option to close file handles once they are no longer accessed. Percona XtraBackup can produce inconsistent backups with this option enabled. Use at your own risk.

–compress¶

This option instructs xtrabackup to compress backup copies of InnoDB data files. It is passed directly to the xtrabackup child process. See the xtrabackup documentation for details.

–compress-threads=¶

This option specifies the number of worker threads that will be used for parallel compression. It is passed directly to the xtrabackup child process. See the xtrabackup documentation for details.

–compress-chunk-size=¶

This option specifies the size of the internal working buffer for each compression thread, measured in bytes. It is passed directly to the xtrabackup child process. The default value is 64K. See the xtrabackup documentation for details.

–copy-back¶

Copy all the files in a previously made backup from the backup directory to their original locations. Percona XtraBackup innobackupex --copy-back option will not copy over existing files unless innobackupex --force-non-empty-directories option is specified.

–databases=LIST¶

This option specifies the list of databases that innobackupex should back up. The option accepts a string argument or path to file that contains the list of databases to back up. The list is of the form “databasename1[.table_name1] databasename2[.table_name2] …”. If this option is not specified, all databases containing MyISAM and InnoDB tables will be backed up. Please make sure that –databases contains all of the InnoDB databases and tables, so that all of the innodb.frm files are also backed up. In case the list is very long, this can be specified in a file, and the full path of the file can be specified instead of the list. (See option –tables-file.)

–decompress¶

Decompresses all files with the .qp extension in a backup previously made with the innobackupex --compress option. The innobackupex --parallel option will allow multiple files to be decrypted and/or decompressed simultaneously. In order to decompress, the qpress utility MUST be installed and accessible within the path. Percona XtraBackup doesn’t automatically remove the compressed files. In order to clean up the backup directory users should remove the \*.qp files manually.

–decrypt=ENCRYPTION-ALGORITHM¶

Decrypts all files with the .xbcrypt extension in a backup previously made with –encrypt option. The innobackupex --parallel option will allow multiple files to be decrypted and/or decompressed simultaneously.

–defaults-file=[MY.CNF]¶

This option accepts a string argument that specifies what file to read the default MySQL options from. Must be given as the first option on the command-line.

–defaults-extra-file=[MY.CNF]¶

This option specifies what extra file to read the default MySQL options from before the standard defaults-file. Must be given as the first option on the command-line.

–defaults-group=GROUP-NAME¶

This option accepts a string argument that specifies the group which should be read from the configuration file. This is needed if you use mysqld_multi. This can also be used to indicate groups other than mysqld and xtrabackup.

–encrypt=ENCRYPTION_ALGORITHM¶

This option instructs xtrabackup to encrypt backup copies of InnoDB data files using the algorithm specified in the ENCRYPTION_ALGORITHM. It is passed directly to the xtrabackup child process. See the xtrabackup documentation for more details.

Currently, the following algorithms are supported: AES128, AES192 and AES256.

–encrypt-key=ENCRYPTION_KEY¶

This option instructs xtrabackup to use the given proper length encryption key as the ENCRYPTION_KEY when using the –encrypt option. It is passed directly to the xtrabackup child process. See the xtrabackup documentation for more details.

It is not recommended to use this option where there is uncontrolled access to the machine as the command line and thus the key can be viewed as part of the process info.

–encrypt-key-file=ENCRYPTION_KEY_FILE¶

This option instructs xtrabackup to use the encryption key stored in the given ENCRYPTION_KEY_FILE when using the –encrypt option. It is passed directly to the xtrabackup child process. See the xtrabackup documentation for more details.

The file must be a simple binary (or text) file that contains exactly the key to be used.

–encrypt-threads=¶

This option specifies the number of worker threads that will be used for parallel encryption. It is passed directly to the xtrabackup child process. See the xtrabackup documentation for more details.

–encrypt-chunk-size=¶

This option specifies the size of the internal working buffer for each encryption thread, measured in bytes. It is passed directly to the xtrabackup child process. See the xtrabackup documentation for more details.

–export¶

This option is passed directly to xtrabackup --export option. It enables exporting individual tables for import into another server. See the xtrabackup documentation for details.

–extra-lsndir=DIRECTORY¶

This option accepts a string argument that specifies the directory in which to save an extra copy of the xtrabackup_checkpoints file. It is passed directly to xtrabackup’s innobackupex --extra-lsndir option. See the xtrabackup documentation for details.

–force-non-empty-directories¶

When specified, it makes innobackupex --copy-back option or innobackupex --move-back option transfer files to non-empty directories. No existing files will be overwritten. If –copy-back or –move-back has to copy a file from the backup directory which already exists in the destination directory, it will still fail with an error.

–galera-info¶

This options creates the xtrabackup_galera_info file which contains the local node state at the time of the backup. Option should be used when performing the backup of Percona-XtraDB-Cluster. Has no effect when backup locks are used to create the backup.

–help¶

This option displays a help screen and exits.

–history=NAME¶

This option enables the tracking of backup history in the PERCONA_SCHEMA.xtrabackup_history table. An optional history series name may be specified that will be placed with the history record for the current backup being taken.

–host=HOST¶

This option accepts a string argument that specifies the host to use when connecting to the database server with TCP/IP. It is passed to the mysql child process without alteration. See mysql --help for details.

–ibbackup=IBBACKUP-BINARY¶

This option specifies which xtrabackup binary should be used. The option accepts a string argument. IBBACKUP-BINARY should be the command used to run Percona XtraBackup. The option can be useful if the xtrabackup binary is not in your search path or working directory. If this option is not specified, innobackupex attempts to determine the binary to use automatically.

–include=REGEXP¶

This option is a regular expression to be matched against table names in databasename.tablename format. It is passed directly to xtrabackup’s xtrabackup --tables option. See the xtrabackup documentation for details.

–incremental¶

This option tells xtrabackup to create an incremental backup, rather than a full one. It is passed to the xtrabackup child process. When this option is specified, either innobackupex --incremental-lsn or innobackupex --incremental-basedir can also be given. If neither option is given, option innobackupex --incremental-basedir is passed to xtrabackup by default, set to the first timestamped backup directory in the backup base directory.

–incremental-basedir=DIRECTORY¶

This option accepts a string argument that specifies the directory containing the full backup that is the base dataset for the incremental backup. It is used with the innobackupex --incremental option.

–incremental-dir=DIRECTORY¶

This option accepts a string argument that specifies the directory where the incremental backup will be combined with the full backup to make a new full backup. It is used with the innobackupex --incremental option.

–incremental-history-name=NAME¶

This option specifies the name of the backup series stored in the PERCONA_SCHEMA.xtrabackup_history history record to base an incremental backup on. Percona Xtrabackup will search the history table looking for the most recent (highest innodb_to_lsn), successful backup in the series and take the to_lsn value to use as the starting lsn for the incremental backup. This will be mutually exclusive with innobackupex --incremental-history-uuid, innobackupex --incremental-basedir and innobackupex --incremental-lsn. If no valid lsn can be found (no series by that name, no successful backups by that name) xtrabackup will return with an error. It is used with the innobackupex --incremental option.

–incremental-history-uuid=UUID¶

This option specifies the UUID of the specific history record stored in the PERCONA_SCHEMA.xtrabackup_history to base an incremental backup on. innobackupex --incremental-history-name, innobackupex --incremental-basedir\ and innobackupex --incremental-lsn. If no valid lsn can be found (no success record with that uuid) xtrabackup will return with an error. It is used with the innobackupex --incremental option.

–incremental-lsn=LSN¶

This option accepts a string argument that specifies the log sequence number (LSN) to use for the incremental backup. It is used with the innobackupex --incremental option. It is used instead of specifying innobackupex --incremental-basedir. For databases created by MySQL and Percona Server 5.0-series versions, specify the as two 32-bit integers in high:low format. For databases created in 5.1 and later, specify the LSN as a single 64-bit integer.

–kill-long-queries-timeout=SECONDS¶

This option specifies the number of seconds innobackupex waits between starting FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK and killing those queries that block it. Default is 0 seconds, which means innobackupex will not attempt to kill any queries. In order to use this option xtrabackup user should have PROCESS and SUPER privileges. Where supported (Percona Server 5.6+) xtrabackup will automatically use Backup Locks as a lightweight alternative to FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK to copy non-InnoDB data to avoid blocking DML queries that modify InnoDB tables.

–kill-long-query-type=all|select¶

This option specifies which types of queries should be killed to unblock the global lock. Default is “all”.

–ftwrl-wait-timeout=SECONDS¶

This option specifies time in seconds that innobackupex should wait for queries that would block FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK before running it. If there are still such queries when the timeout expires, innobackupex terminates with an error. Default is 0, in which case innobackupex does not wait for queries to complete and starts FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK immediately. Where supported (Percona Server 5.6+) xtrabackup will automatically use Backup Locks as a lightweight alternative to FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK to copy non-InnoDB data to avoid blocking DML queries that modify InnoDB tables.

–ftwrl-wait-threshold=SECONDS¶

This option specifies the query run time threshold which is used by innobackupex to detect long-running queries with a non-zero value of innobackupex –ftwrl-wait-timeout. FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK is not started until such long-running queries exist. This option has no effect if –ftwrl-wait-timeout is 0. Default value is 60 seconds. Where supported (Percona Server 5.6+) xtrabackup will automatically use Backup Locks as a lightweight alternative to FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK to copy non-InnoDB data to avoid blocking DML queries that modify InnoDB tables.

–ftwrl-wait-query-type=all|update¶

This option specifies which types of queries are allowed to complete before innobackupex will issue the global lock. Default is all.

–log-copy-interval=¶

This option specifies time interval between checks done by log copying thread in milliseconds.

–move-back¶

Move all the files in a previously made backup from the backup directory to their original locations. As this option removes backup files, it must be used with caution.

–no-lock¶

Use this option to disable table lock with FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK. Use it only if ALL your tables are InnoDB and you DO NOT CARE about the binary log position of the backup. This option shouldn’t be used if there are any DDL statements being executed or if any updates are happening on non-InnoDB tables (this includes the system MyISAM tables in the mysql database), otherwise it could lead to an inconsistent backup. Where supported (Percona Server 5.6+) xtrabackup will automatically use Backup Locks as a lightweight alternative to FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK to copy non-InnoDB data to avoid blocking DML queries that modify InnoDB tables. If you are considering to use innobackupex --no-lock because your backups are failing to acquire the lock, this could be because of incoming replication events preventing the lock from succeeding. Please try using innobackupex --safe-slave-backup to momentarily stop the replication replica thread, this may help the backup to succeed and you then don’t need to resort to using this option. xtrabackup_binlog_info is not created when –no-lock option is used (because SHOW MASTER STATUS may be inconsistent), but under certain conditions xtrabackup_binlog_pos_innodb can be used instead to get consistent binlog coordinates as described in Working with Binary Logs.

–no-timestamp¶

This option prevents creation of a time-stamped subdirectory of the BACKUP-ROOT-DIR given on the command line. When it is specified, the backup is done in BACKUP-ROOT-DIR instead.

–no-version-check¶

This option disables the version check. If you do not pass this option, the automatic version check is enabled implicitly when xtrabackup runs in the --backup mode. To disable the version check, explicitly pass the --no-version-check option when invoking xtrabackup. When the automatic version check is enabled,|program| performs a version check against the server on the backup stage after creating a server connection.

xtrabackup sends the following information to the server:

MySQL flavour and version
Operating system name
Percona Toolkit version
Perl version

Each piece of information has a unique identifier which is an MD5 hash value that Percona Toolkit uses to obtain statistics about how it is used. This value is a random UUID; no client information is either collected or stored.

–parallel=NUMBER-OF-THREADS¶

This option accepts an integer argument that specifies the number of threads the xtrabackup child process should use to back up files concurrently. Note that this option works on file level, that is, if you have several .ibd files, they will be copied in parallel. If your tables are stored together in a single tablespace file, it will have no effect. This option will allow multiple files to be decrypted and/or decompressed simultaneously. In order to decompress, the qpress utility MUST be installed and accessable within the path. This process will remove the original compressed/encrypted files and leave the results in the same location. It is passed directly to xtrabackup’s xtrabackup --parallel option. See the xtrabackup documentation for details

–password=PASSWORD¶

This option accepts a string argument specifying the password to use when connecting to the database. It is passed to the mysql child process without alteration. See mysql --help for details.

–port=PORT¶

This option accepts a string argument that specifies the port to use when connecting to the database server with TCP/IP. It is passed to the mysql child process. It is passed to the mysql child process without alteration. See mysql --help for details.

–rebuild-indexes¶

This option only has effect when used together with the --apply-log <innobackupex --apply-log> option and is passed directly to xtrabackup. When used, makes xtrabackup rebuild all secondary indexes after applying the log. This option is normally used to prepare compact backups. See the xtrabackup documentation for more information.

–rebuild-threads=NUMBER-OF-THREADS¶

This option only has effect when used together with the innobackupex --apply-log and innobackupex --rebuild-indexes option and is passed directly to xtrabackup. When used, xtrabackup processes tablespaces in parallel with the specified number of threads when rebuilding indexes. See the xtrabackup documentation for more information.

–redo-only¶

This option should be used when preparing the base full backup and when merging all incrementals except the last one. It is passed directly to xtrabackup’s xtrabackup --apply-log-only option. This forces xtrabackup to skip the “rollback” phase and do a “redo” only. This is necessary if the backup will have incremental changes applied to it later. See the xtrabackup documentation for details.

–rsync¶

Uses the rsync utility to optimize local file transfers. When this option is specified, innobackupex uses rsync to copy all non-InnoDB files instead of spawning a separate cp for each file, which can be much faster for servers with a large number of databases or tables. This option cannot be used together with innobackupex --stream.

–safe-slave-backup¶

When specified, innobackupex will stop the replica SQL thread just before running FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK and wait to start backup until Slave_open_temp_tables in SHOW STATUS is zero. If there are no open temporary tables, the backup will take place, otherwise the SQL thread will be started and stopped until there are no open temporary tables. The backup will fail if Slave_open_temp_tables does not become zero after innobackupex --safe-slave-backup-timeout seconds. The replica SQL thread will be restarted when the backup finishes.

–safe-slave-backup-timeout=SECONDS¶

How many seconds innobackupex --safe-slave-backup should wait for Slave_open_temp_tables to become zero. Defaults to 300 seconds.

–slave-info¶

This option is useful when backing up a replication replica server. It prints the binary log position and name of the source server. It also writes this information to the xtrabackup_slave_info file as a CHANGE MASTER command. A new replica for this source can be set up by starting a replica server on this backup and issuing a CHANGE MASTER command with the binary log position saved in the xtrabackup_slave_info file.

–socket¶

This option accepts a string argument that specifies the socket to use when connecting to the local database server with a UNIX domain socket. It is passed to the mysql child process without alteration. See mysql --help for details.

–stream=STREAMNAME¶

This option accepts a string argument that specifies the format in which to do the streamed backup. The backup will be done to STDOUT in the specified format. Currently, supported formats are tar and xbstream. Uses xbstream, which is available in Percona XtraBackup distributions. If you specify a path after this option, it will be interpreted as the value of tmpdir

–tables-file=FILE¶

This option accepts a string argument that specifies the file in which there are a list of names of the form database.table, one per line. The option is passed directly to xtrabackup ‘s innobackupex --tables-file option.

–throttle=¶

This option limits the number of chunks copied per second. The chunk size is 10 MB. To limit the bandwidth to 10 MB/s, set the option to 1: --throttle=1.

–tmpdir=DIRECTORY¶

This option accepts a string argument that specifies the location where a temporary file will be stored. It may be used when innobackupex --stream is specified. For these options, the transaction log will first be stored to a temporary file, before streaming or copying to a remote host. This option specifies the location where that temporary file will be stored. If the option is not specified, the default is to use the value of tmpdir read from the server configuration. innobackupex is passing the tmpdir value specified in my.cnf as the --target-dir option to the xtrabackup binary. Both [mysqld] and [xtrabackup] groups are read from my.cnf. If there is tmpdir in both, then the value being used depends on the order of those group in my.cnf.

–use-memory=¶

This option accepts a string argument that specifies the amount of memory in bytes for xtrabackup to use for crash recovery while preparing a backup. Multiples are supported providing the unit (e.g. 1MB, 1M, 1GB, 1G). It is used only with the option innobackupex --apply-log. It is passed directly to xtrabackup’s xtrabackup --use-memory option. See the xtrabackup documentation for details.

–user=USER¶

This option accepts a string argument that specifies the user (i.e., the MySQL username used when connecting to the server) to login as, if that’s not the current user. It is passed to the mysql child process without alteration. See mysql --help for details.

–version¶

This option displays the innobackupex version and copyright notice and then exits.

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Last update: 2022-11-10