One question that surfaces regularly in the Percona forums:
Does every node in a Percona XtraDB Cluster (PXC) need to
have XtraBackup installed? It's a fair question, especially
when managing a mixed environment or trying to minimize the
software footprint on certain nodes. Here is what the actual
mechanics and testing confirm.
The Short Answer (But Read On)
It depends on what you want that node to do. The
nuance matters quite a bit here, so it is worth walking through
how State Snapshot Transfer (SST) works in PXC and why
XtraBackup's presence — or absence — on a given node is
significant.
A Quick Refresher on SST in PXC
When a new node joins a Percona XtraDB Cluster, or when an
existing node has been down long enough that Incremental State
Transfer (IST) is no longer possible, the cluster performs a
State Snapshot Transfer (SST). This is
essentially a full data …
[Read more]