Cheatsheet

gh-ost operates by connecting to potentially multiple servers, as well as imposing itself as a replica in order to streamline binary log events directly from one of those servers. There are various operation modes, which depend on your setup, configuration, and where you want to run the migration.

a. Connect to replica, migrate on master

This is the mode gh-ost expects by default. gh-ost will investigate the replica, crawl up to find the topology's master, and will hook onto it as well. Migration will:

Read and write row-data on master
Read binary logs events on the replica, apply the changes onto the master
Investigates table format, columns & keys, count rows on the replica
Read internal changelog events (such as heartbeat) from the replica
Cut-over (switch tables) on the master

If your master works with SBR, this is the mode to work with. The replica must be configured with binary logs enabled (log_bin, log_slave_updates) and should have binlog_format=ROW (gh-ost can apply the latter for you).

However even with RBR we suggest this is the least master-intrusive operation mode.

gh-ost \
--max-load=Threads_running=25 \
--critical-load=Threads_running=1000 \
--chunk-size=1000 \
--throttle-control-replicas="myreplica.1.com,myreplica.2.com" \
--max-lag-millis=1500 \
--user="gh-ost" \
--password="123456" \
--host=replica.with.rbr.com \
--database="my_schema" \
--table="my_table" \
--verbose \
--alter="engine=innodb" \
--switch-to-rbr \
--allow-master-master \
--cut-over=default \
--exact-rowcount \
--concurrent-rowcount \
--default-retries=120 \
--panic-flag-file=/tmp/ghost.panic.flag \
--postpone-cut-over-flag-file=/tmp/ghost.postpone.flag \
[--execute]

With --execute, migration actually copies data and flips tables. Without it this is a noop run.

b. Connect to master

If you don't have replicas, or do not wish to use them, you are still able to operate directly on the master. gh-ost will do all operations directly on the master. You may still ask it to be considerate of replication lag.

Your master must produce binary logs in RBR format.
You must approve this mode via --allow-on-master.

gh-ost \
--max-load=Threads_running=25 \
--critical-load=Threads_running=1000 \
--chunk-size=1000 \
--throttle-control-replicas="myreplica.1.com,myreplica.2.com" \
--max-lag-millis=1500 \
--user="gh-ost" \
--password="123456" \
--host=master.with.rbr.com \
--allow-on-master \
--database="my_schema" \
--table="my_table" \
--verbose \
--alter="engine=innodb" \
--switch-to-rbr \
--allow-master-master \
--cut-over=default \
--exact-rowcount \
--concurrent-rowcount \
--default-retries=120 \
--panic-flag-file=/tmp/ghost.panic.flag \
--postpone-cut-over-flag-file=/tmp/ghost.postpone.flag \
[--execute]

c. Migrate/test on replica

This will perform a migration on the replica. gh-ost will briefly connect to the master but will thereafter perform all operations on the replica without modifying anything on the master. Throughout the operation, gh-ost will throttle such that the replica is up to date.

--migrate-on-replica indicates to gh-ost that it must migrate the table directly on the replica. It will perform the cut-over phase even while replication is running.
--test-on-replica indicates the migration is for purpose of testing only. Before cut-over takes place, replication is stopped. Tables are swapped and then swapped back: your original table returns to its original place. Both tables are left with replication stopped. You may examine the two and compare data.

Test on replica cheatsheet:

gh-ost \
  --user="gh-ost" \
  --password="123456" \
  --host=replica.with.rbr.com \
  --test-on-replica \
  --database="my_schema" \
  --table="my_table" \
  --verbose \
  --alter="engine=innodb" \
  --initially-drop-ghost-table \
  --initially-drop-old-table \
  --max-load=Threads_running=30 \
  --switch-to-rbr \
  --chunk-size=500 \
  --cut-over=default \
  --exact-rowcount \
  --concurrent-rowcount \
  --serve-socket-file=/tmp/gh-ost.test.sock \
  --panic-flag-file=/tmp/gh-ost.panic.flag \
  --execute

cnf file

You may use a cnf file in the following format:

[client]
user=gh-ost
password=123456

You may then remove --user=gh-ost --password=123456 and specify --conf=/path/to/config/file.cnf

Special configurations

Master-master

Master-master setups are supported, but at this time only active-passive. An active-active setup, where both masters write to the migrated table, is not supported at this stage. gh-ost requires you to acknowledge master-master via:

gh-ost --allow-master-master

gh-ost will pick one of the masters to work on. You may additionally force gh-ost to pick a particular master of your choice:

gh-ost --allow-master-master --assume-master-host=a.specific.master.com

Tungsten

Topologies using tungsten replicator are peculiar in that the participating servers are not actually aware they are replicating. The tungsten replicator looks just like another app issuing queries on those hosts. gh-ost is unable to identify that a server participates in a tungsten topology.

If you choose to migrate directly on master (see above), there's nothing special you need to do.

If you choose to migrate via replica, then you need to make sure Tungsten is configured with log-slave-updates parameter (note this is different from MySQL's own log-slave-updates parameter), otherwise changes will not be in the replica's binlog, causing data to be corrupted after table swap. You must also supply the identity of the master, and indicate this is a tungsten setup, as follows:

gh-ost --tungsten --assume-master-host=the.topology.master.com

Also note that --switch-to-rbr does not work for a Tungsten setup as the replication process is external, so you need to make sure binlog_format is set to ROW before Tungsten Replicator connects to the server and starts applying events from the master.

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