Running Percona XtraBackup in a Docker container¶

Note

The following instructions runs Percona XtraBackup 2.4 in a Docker container. The instructions to run Percona XtraBackup 8.0 by the same method are available in the Percona XtraBackup 8.0 installation documentation.

Docker allows you to run applications in a lightweight unit called a container.

You can run Percona XtraBackup in a Docker container without installing the product. All required libraries are available in the container. Being a lightweight execution environment, Docker containers enable creating configurations where each program runs in a separate container. You may run Percona Server for MySQL in one container and Percona XtraBackup in another. Docker images offer a range of options.

Create a Docker container based on a Docker image. Docker images for Percona XtraBackup are hosted publicly on Docker Hub at percona/percona-xtrabackup.

$ sudo docker create ... percona/percona-xtrabackup --name xtrabackup ...

Scope of this section¶

This section demonstrates how to backup data on a Percona Server for MySQL running in another Docker container.

Installing Docker¶

Your operating system may already provide a package for docker. However, the versions of Docker provided by your operating system are likely to be outdated.

Use the installation instructions for your operating system available from the Docker site to set up the latest version of docker.

Note

Docker Documentation: * How to use Docker * Installing * Getting started

Connecting to a Percona Server for MySQL container¶

Percona XtraBackup works in combination with a database server. When running a Docker container for Percona XtraBackup, you can make backups for a database server either installed on the host machine or running in a separate Docker container.

To set up a database server on a host machine or in Docker container, follow the documentation of the supported product that you intend to use with Percona XtraBackup.

Creating a Docker container from Percona XtraBackup image¶

You can create a Docker container based on Percona XtraBackup image with either docker create or docker run command. docker create creates a Docker container and makes it available for starting later.

Docker downloads the Percona XtraBackup image from the Docker Hub. If it is not the first time you use the selected image, Docker uses the image available locally.

$ sudo docker create --name percona-xtrabackup-2.4 --volumes-from percona-server-mysql-5.7 \
percona/percona-xtrabackup:2.4  \
xtrabackup --backup --datadir=/var/lib/mysql/ --target-dir=/backup \
--user=root --password=mysql

With --name you give a meaningful name to your new Docker container so that you could easily locate it among your other containers.

The --volumes-from referring to percona-server-mysql indicates that you indend to use the same data as the percona-server-mysql container.

Run the container with exactly the same parameters that were used when the container was created:

$ sudo docker start -ai percona-xtrabackup-2.4

This command starts the percona-xtrabackup container, attaches to its input/output streams, and opens an interactive shell.

The docker run is a shortcut command that creates a Docker container and then immediately runs it.

$ sudo docker run --name percona-xtrabackup-2.4 --volumes-from percona-server-mysql-5.7 \
percona/percona-xtrabackup:2.4
xtrabackup --backup --data-dir=/var/lib/mysql --target-dir=/backup --user=root --password=mysql

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Last update: 2022-11-29