15.5.2. Configuring MySQL for ZFS Replication

Configuring MySQL on the source file system is a case of creating the data on the file system that you intend to replicate. The configuration file in the example below has been updated to use /scratchpool/mysql-data as the data directory, and now you can initialize the tables:

root-shell> mysql_install_db --defaults-file=/etc/mysql/5.5/my.cnf --user=mysql

To synchronize the initial information, perform a new snapshot and then send an incremental snapshot to the slave using zfs send:

root-shell> zfs snapshot scratchpool@snap2root-shell> zfs send -i scratchpool@snap1 scratchpool@snap2|ssh id@host pfexec zfs recv slavepool

Doublecheck that the slave has the data by looking at the MySQL data directory on the slavepool:

root-shell> ls -al /slavepool/mysql-data/

Now you can start up MySQL, create some data, and then replicate the changes using zfs send/ zfs recv to the slave to synchronize the changes.

The rate at which you perform the synchronization depends on your application and environment. The limitation is the speed required to perform the snapshot and then to send the changes over the network.

To automate the process, create a script that performs the snapshot, send, and receive operation, and use cron to synchronize the changes at set times or intervals.