Single-master replication with Amazon Aurora MySQL

The Aurora MySQL replication features are key to the high availability and performance of your cluster. Aurora makes it easy to create or resize clusters with up to 15 Aurora Replicas.

All the replicas work from the same underlying data. If some database instances go offline, others remain available to continue processing queries or to take over as the writer if needed. Aurora automatically spreads your read-only connections across multiple database instances, helping an Aurora cluster to support query-intensive workloads.

Following, you can find information about how Aurora MySQL replication works and how to fine-tune replication settings for best availability and performance.

Note

Following, you can learn about replication features for Aurora clusters using single-master replication. This kind of cluster is the default for Aurora. For information about Aurora multi-master clusters, see Working with Aurora multi-master clusters.

Topics

• Using Aurora Replicas
• Replication options for Amazon Aurora MySQL
• Performance considerations for Amazon Aurora MySQL replication
• Zero-downtime restart (ZDR) for Amazon Aurora MySQL
• Monitoring Amazon Aurora MySQL replication
• Replicating Amazon Aurora MySQL DB clusters across AWS Regions
• Replication between Aurora and MySQL or between Aurora and another Aurora DB cluster (binary log replication)
• Using GTID-based replication for Amazon Aurora MySQL

Using Aurora Replicas

Aurora Replicas are independent endpoints in an Aurora DB cluster, best used for scaling read operations and increasing availability. Up to 15 Aurora Replicas can be distributed across the Availability Zones that a DB cluster spans within an AWS Region. Although the DB cluster volume is made up of multiple copies of the data for the DB cluster, the data in the cluster volume is represented as a single, logical volume to the primary instance and to Aurora Replicas in the DB cluster. For more information about Aurora Replicas, see Aurora Replicas.

Aurora Replicas work well for read scaling because they are fully dedicated to read operations on your cluster volume. Write operations are managed by the primary instance. Because the cluster volume is shared among all instances in your Aurora MySQL DB cluster, no additional work is required to replicate a copy of the data for each Aurora Replica. In contrast, MySQL read replicas must replay, on a single thread, all write operations from the source DB instance to their local data store. This limitation can affect the ability of MySQL read replicas to support large volumes of read traffic.

With Aurora MySQL, when an Aurora Replica is deleted, its instance endpoint is removed immediately, and the Aurora Replica is removed from the reader endpoint. If there are statements running on the Aurora Replica that is being deleted, there is a three minute grace period. Existing statements can finish gracefully during the grace period. When the grace period ends, the Aurora Replica is shut down and deleted.

Important

Aurora Replicas for Aurora MySQL always use the REPEATABLE READ default transaction isolation level for operations on InnoDB tables. You can use the SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL command to change the transaction level only for the primary instance of an Aurora MySQL DB cluster. This restriction avoids user-level locks on Aurora Replicas, and allows Aurora Replicas to scale to support thousands of active user connections while still keeping replica lag to a minimum.

Note

DDL statements that run on the primary instance might interrupt database connections on the associated Aurora Replicas. If an Aurora Replica connection is actively using a database object, such as a table, and that object is modified on the primary instance using a DDL statement, the Aurora Replica connection is interrupted.

Note

The China (Ningxia) Region does not support cross-Region read replicas.

Replication options for Amazon Aurora MySQL

You can set up replication between any of the following options:

• Two Aurora MySQL DB clusters in different AWS Regions, by creating a cross-Region read replica of an Aurora MySQL DB cluster.

  For more information, see Replicating Amazon Aurora MySQL DB clusters across AWS Regions.

• Two Aurora MySQL DB clusters in the same AWS Region, by using MySQL binary log (binlog) replication.

  For more information, see Replication between Aurora and MySQL or between Aurora and another Aurora DB cluster (binary log replication).

• An RDS for MySQL DB instance as the source and an Aurora MySQL DB cluster, by creating an Aurora read replica of an RDS for MySQL DB instance.

  You can use this approach to bring existing and ongoing data changes into Aurora MySQL during migration to Aurora. For more information, see Migrating data from a MySQL DB instance to an Amazon Aurora MySQL DB cluster by using a DB snapshot.

  You can also use this approach to increase the scalability of read queries for your data. You do so by querying the data using one or more DB instances within a read-only Aurora MySQL cluster. For more information, see Using Amazon Aurora to scale reads for your MySQL database.

• An Aurora MySQL DB cluster in one AWS Region and up to five Aurora read-only Aurora MySQL DB clusters in different Regions, by creating an Aurora global database.

  You can use an Aurora global database to support applications with a world-wide footprint. The primary Aurora MySQL DB cluster has a Writer instance and up to 15 Aurora Replicas. The read-only secondary Aurora MySQL DB clusters can each be made up of as many as 16 Aurora Replicas. For more information, see Using Amazon Aurora global databases.

Note

Rebooting the primary instance of an Amazon Aurora DB cluster also automatically reboots the Aurora Replicas for that DB cluster, to re-establish an entry point that guarantees read/write consistency across the DB cluster.

Performance considerations for Amazon Aurora MySQL replication

The following features help you to fine-tune the performance of Aurora MySQL replication.

Starting in Aurora MySQL 1.17.4, the replica log compression feature automatically reduces network bandwidth for replication messages. Because each message is transmitted to all Aurora Replicas, the benefits are greater for larger clusters. This feature involves some CPU overhead on the writer node to perform the compression. Thus, the feature is only available on the 8xlarge and 16xlarge instance classes, which have high CPU capacity. It is enabled by default on these instance classes. You can control this feature by turning off the aurora_enable_replica_log_compression parameter. For example, you might turn off replica log compression for larger instance classes if your writer node is near its maximum CPU capacity.

Starting in Aurora MySQL 1.17.4, the binlog filtering feature automatically reduces network bandwidth for replication messages. Because the Aurora Replicas don't use the binlog information that is included in the replication messages, that data is omitted from the messages sent to those nodes. You control this feature by changing the aurora_enable_repl_bin_log_filtering parameter. This parameter is on by default. Because this optimization is intended to be transparent, you might turn off this setting only during diagnosis or troubleshooting for issues related to replication. For example, you can do so to match the behavior of an older Aurora MySQL cluster where this feature was not available.

Zero-downtime restart (ZDR) for Amazon Aurora MySQL

The zero-downtime restart (ZDR) feature can preserve some or all of the active connections to DB instances during certain kinds of restarts. ZDR applies to restarts that Aurora performs automatically to resolve error conditions, for example when a replica begins to lag too far behind the source.

Important

The ZDR mechanism operates on a best-effort basis. The Aurora MySQL versions, instance classes, error conditions, compatible SQL operations, and other factors that determine where ZDR applies are subject to change at any time.

In Aurora MySQL 1.* versions where ZDR is available, you turn on this feature by turning on the aurora_enable_zdr parameter in the cluster parameter group. ZDR for Aurora MySQL 2.* requires version 2.10 and higher. ZDR is available in all minor versions of Aurora MySQL 3.*. In Aurora MySQL version 2 and 3, the ZDR mechanism is turned on by default and Aurora doesn't use the aurora_enable_zdr parameter.

Aurora reports on the Events page activities related to zero-downtime restart. Aurora records an event when it attempts a restart using the ZDR mechanism. This event states why Aurora performs the restart. Then Aurora records another event when the restart finishes. This final event reports how long the process took, and how many connections were preserved or dropped during the restart. You can consult the database error log to see more details about what happened during the restart.

Although connections remain intact following a successful ZDR operation, some variables and features are reinitialized. The following kinds of information aren't preserved through a restart caused by zero-downtime restart:

• Global variables. Aurora restores session variables, but it doesn't restore global variables after the restart.

• Status variables. In particular, the uptime value reported by the engine status is reset.

• LAST_INSERT_ID.

• In-memory auto_increment state for tables. The in-memory auto-increment state is reinitialized. For more information about auto-increment values, see MySQL Reference Manual.

• Diagnostic information from INFORMATION_SCHEMA and PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA tables. This diagnostic information also appears in the output of commands such as SHOW PROFILE and SHOW PROFILES.

The following table shows the versions, instance roles, instance classes, and other circumstances that determine whether Aurora can use the ZDR mechanism when restarting DB instances in your cluster.

Aurora MySQL version	Does ZDR apply to the writer?	Does ZDR apply to readers?	Notes
Aurora MySQL version 1.*, 1.17.3 and lower	No	No	ZDR isn't available for these versions.
Aurora MySQL version 1.*, 1.17.4 and higher	No	Yes	In these Aurora MySQL versions, the following conditions apply to the ZDR mechanism: Aurora doesn't use the ZDR mechanism if binary logging is turned on for the DB instance. Aurora rolls back any transactions that are in progress on active connections. Your application must retry the transactions. Aurora cancels any connections that use TLS/SSL, temporary tables, table locks, or user locks.
Aurora MySQL version 2.*, before 2.10.0	No	No	ZDR isn't available for these versions. The aurora_enable_zdr parameter isn't available in the default cluster parameter group for Aurora MySQL version 2.
Aurora MySQL version 2.*, 2.10.0 and higher	Yes	Yes	The ZDR mechanism is always enabled. In these Aurora MySQL versions, the following conditions apply to the ZDR mechanism: Aurora rolls back any transactions that are in progress on active connections. Your application must retry the transactions. Aurora cancels any connections that use TLS/SSL, temporary tables, table locks, or user locks.
Aurora MySQL version 3.*	Yes	Yes	The ZDR mechanism is always enabled. The same conditions apply as in Aurora MySQL version 2.10. ZDR applies to all instance classes.

Monitoring Amazon Aurora MySQL replication

Read scaling and high availability depend on minimal lag time. You can monitor how far an Aurora Replica is lagging behind the primary instance of your Aurora MySQL DB cluster by monitoring the Amazon CloudWatch AuroraReplicaLag metric. The AuroraReplicaLag metric is recorded in each Aurora Replica.

The primary DB instance also records the AuroraReplicaLagMaximum and AuroraReplicaLag Amazon CloudWatch metrics. The AuroraReplicaLagMaximum metric records the maximum amount of lag between the primary DB instance and each Aurora Replica in the DB cluster. The AuroraReplicaLag metric records the minimum amount of lag between the primary DB instance and each Aurora Replica in the DB cluster.

If you need the most current value for Aurora Replica lag, you can check the AuroraReplicaLag metric in Amazon CloudWatch. The Aurora Replica lag is also recorded on each Aurora Replica of your Aurora MySQL DB cluster in the information_schema.replica_host_status table. For more information on this table, see information_schema.replica_host_status.

For more information on monitoring RDS instances and CloudWatch metrics, see Monitoring metrics in an Amazon Aurora cluster.