Migrate a Large MySQL Database Without Downtime
A hot backup with replication can be safer than mysqldump when a large production database must keep accepting writes during migration.
Omar Alalwi Article
The task was to move a MySQL database larger than 20 GB and establish new replication while production continued accepting writes, with no maintenance window. Copying took more than an hour, so a logical dump followed by an attempt to catch up was not dependable in this case.
We used Percona XtraBackup to take a consistent hot backup of the InnoDB data, prepared it on the new server, and configured replication from the correct log position. The method allows transactions to continue while the backup collects the data files and recovery information needed to reach a consistent state.
This is a sensitive operation, not a recipe to run directly in production. Rehearse it on a comparable copy, verify version compatibility, storage, and log permissions, and keep an independent backup and rollback plan. Afterward, compare the data and monitor replication lag before moving any live traffic.
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