Accelerate the backup process

Copy with the --parallel and --compress-threads options

When making a local or streaming backup with xbstream binary, multiple files can be copied at the same time when using the --parallel option. This option specifies the number of threads created by xtrabackup to copy data files.

To take advantage of this option either the multiple tablespaces option must be enabled (innodb_file_per_table) or the shared tablespace must be stored in multiple ibdata files with the innodb_data_file_path option. Having multiple files for the database (or splitting one into many) doesn’t have a measurable impact on performance.

As this feature is implemented at the file level, concurrent file transfer can sometimes increase I/O throughput when doing a backup on highly fragmented data files, due to the overlap of a greater number of random read requests. You should consider tuning the filesystem also to obtain the maximum performance (e.g. checking fragmentation).

If the data is stored on a single file, this option has no effect.

To use this feature, simply add the option to a local backup, for example:

xtrabackup --backup --parallel=4 --target-dir=/path/to/backup

By using the xbstream in streaming backups, you can additionally speed up the compression process with the --compress-threads option. This option specifies the number of threads created by xtrabackup for parallel data compression. The default value for this option is 1.

To use this feature, simply add the option to a local backup, for example:

xtrabackup --backup --stream=xbstream --compress --compress-threads=4 --target-dir=./ > backup.xbstream

Before applying logs, compressed files will need to be uncompressed.

The --rsync option

Version changes

Percona XtraBackup 9.7.2-2 deprecates the --rsync option. A future release will remove the option. Use --lock-ddl=REDUCED instead.

Note

You cannot use --rsync with the --stream option. If you pass both options, Percona XtraBackup reports the following error and does not start the backup:

--rsync doesn't work with --stream